Happy New Year! (You can thank me later for not saying "jazzy.") Lots going on, so here goes:Here Comes Duocracy!Duocracy, my soon-to-be-released duo album with my good friend pianist Ben Stolorow, is being pressed as we speak! (You can read a lot more about the album here: Ian Carey, Ben Stolorow, and Duocracy.) Ben and I are currently gearing up for our two CD release shows:

• East Bay: Friday, February 21 at The Jazzschool in Berkeley
• North Bay: Friday, March 7 at Old St. Hilary's in Tiburon

If you're not going to be able to make either of those, we're also playing a private preview show in Richmond on the afternoon of January 20 (MLK Day)--email me (ian [AT] iancareyjazz.com) if you're interested in attending.Winter CircusLater this month, I'm happy to be involved in a rare off-season performance with the great Circus Bella, featuring outstanding original music by accordionist/keyboardist/guitarist/composer/"Nice Guy" Rob Reich, with the Circus Bella All-Star Band (with Rob, Greg Stephens on trombone, Ralph Carney on a potpurri of woodwinds & sundries, Michael Pinkham on drums, & me on trumpet). We'll be doing two shows on Saturday, January 26 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco. Last chance to see us before summertime!New to Me: Arranger EditionYou may remember I have a periodic series of posts about standout albums which, while not necessarily new to the world, are new to me. As I'm about to get to work on a new, extended composition for my Quintet+1 (funded by a generous grant from the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music's Musical Grant Program—you should apply too!), which will be premiered this fall, I've been spending a lot of time seeking out new-to-me recordings by great arrangers and composers in order to help get my creative wheels turning. Here are a few:Clare Fischer Orchestra: Extension (1963) Ever run into one of those records where you know almost immediately it's going to be one of your all-time favorites? This one, which I picked up at a record store in San Rafael (along with some other finds including albums by Martial Solal & Don Cherry) was one of those records. Fischer, a burning pianist, has been featured in "New to Me" before, but this was my first time checking out his larger ensemble work. I remember Mike Mossman talking up Fischer's charts in an arranging class, and I can see why--tons of counterpoint, dense but beautiful harmonic language--all delivered without the use of trumpets, which serves the dual purpose of letting his phenomenal woodwind writing shine (lots of flute/clarinet lead) while keeping it away from that stereotypical "big band" sound that is so hard to avoid (no matter how hip the writing). Plus it swings, with some nice blowing by Fischer and the Warne-esque Jerry Coker. It's even got a Passacaglia, which is one of my favorite musical forms! Highly recommended. (P.S. Marc Myers did a great write-up about this album when it was reissued--check it out.) Buy here.Nathan Clevenger: Observatory (2013) Nathan & I run in a lot of the same circles (this album features my longtime collabo-friends Kasey Knudsen, Jon Arkin & Evan Francis, for example) and the frequency at which he can find opportunities to perform music like this with a band this size is nothing short of amazing. (With any luck we may have a double-bill in the future.) A great balance of inspiring blowing & thorny writing, tunes with surprising arcs (see "Sleepwalker's Anecdote"), and more bass clarinet than you can shake a stick at. I don't think it's too presumptuous to say I think Charles Mingus would like this record. Buy here. Speaking of Mingus:Charles Mingus: Mingus Moves (1973) This is one I somehow never got around to hearing until recently. Not everything here is my cup of tea (the singers and trumpet player, for example) but "Canon" is classic, and Sy Johnson's chart on "Wee" makes the trip worthwhile. Plus prime George Adams & Don Pullen, and of course the great Dannie Richmond & the man himself. Buy here.Michael McGinnis+9: Road*Trip (2013) I played with Mike a few times when I lived in NYC and we had a lot of friends in common. This album features a great new recording of Bill Smith's Third-Stream masterpiece Concerto for Clarinet & Jazz Combo--which is worth the price of admission by itself--but definitely stick around for McGinnis's extremely interesting title suite, which brings the Third Stream vibe into the present. The first movement is a personal favorite. Buy here.Andy Clausen: The Wishbone Suite (2012) Man, has this guy got compositional chops to burn. In addition to having no problem "putting the notes on the paper," Clausen brings an impressive amount of variety, with pieces ranging from hypercomposed and intricate to sections of open freeish blowing (I think)--I especially love the frequent lack of obvious lines where the improvisation begins and ends, which loosens up some very in-depth writing (something I've been working on in my own music). The interesting instrumentation (trombone, clarinet, piano, accordion, percussion) adds an extra layer of cohesion. Buy here.

Hi folks, I'm happy to announce an upcoming show for my new-ish trio Takoyaki 3, which I like to think of as the streamlined, street-food-style version of my quintet. It features the talents of my friends Adam Shulman on organ and Bryan Bowman on drums. The book consists of a sizable chunk of original tunes by the three of us, plus select chestnuts from the jazz (BAM!) tradition and even some American Popular What-Have-Yous.We'll be playing at the beautiful Yoshi's Lounge in San Francisco as part of their local talent series. So come on down for some delicious sushi & sake and support live music (by which I mean me)!What: Ian Carey's Takoyaki 3Who: Adam Shulman, organ; Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhorn; Bryan Bowman, drumsWhere: Yoshi's Lounge, 1330 Fillmore St., San FranciscoWhen: Sunday, March 4, 6:30-11pmHow Much: Free!

Ah, summertime by the Bay--the cold, the rain, the rock-hard peaches. Hope you're all making the most of it. I wanted to drop a line to let you know about some exciting shows coming up in the next month--many of them free!As you may know, and as my wife likes to say, "Ian ran off and joined the circus!" Specifically, I'm playing with the Circus Bella All-Star Band, which accompanies the local independent circus of the same name as they go about their Death-Defying feats of Derring-Do. The band is led by composer/accordionist extraordinaire Rob Reich, and features a fine cast of Bay Area perennials (including the amazing multi-instrumentalist wizard Ralph Carney). The music is an eclectic (I know, but in this case it's true) mix of early jazz, brass band, Balkan, Gypsy, and indie rock influences, chock full of improvisation and surprises.You can catch Circus Bella (& yours truly) at the following dates & places during their 2011 Circus in the Parks series, beginning THIS WEEK! (All free, unless otherwise noted.)

• Thurs 6/30, 5:30pm: Outside Revolution Cafe, West Oakland (preview show)
• Fri 7/1, 12pm: Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco
• Sat 7/2, 12pm & 2pm: Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco
• Sat 7/9, 2pm: Pickleweed Park & Community Center, San Rafael
• Sun 7/10, 12:30pm: SF Sunday Streets, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
• Fri, 7/15, 6pm: Studio One Art Center, Oakland
• Sun 7/24, 12pm: Dimond Park, Oakland
• Sun 7/24, 8pm: CD RELEASE SHOW--SEE BELOW
• Sun 7/31, 2pm: Napa Valley Opera House, Napa ($15)

The band has also recorded a fine new album (click here to sample or purchase) featuring an expanded version of the group, and will be having a CD release show on July 24th (Happy Birthday to me!) at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage at 8pm. There may even be assorted juggling and other unexpected circusness!Finally, with the assistance of my lawyers, I will close by saying, Come one, Come all, one of you should come, all of you should come, to the Greatest Show on Earth! to a very good show on this planet!

Hi listeners—I wanted to give you a heads-up about a show coming up in a few weeks which I'm excited about—the IC Quintet is returning to Coda (the site of our CD release party and one of our favorite new venues), right in San Francisco's Inner Mission/Duboce neighborhood. (The food and wine are excellent, the Hammond B3 is the real deal, the music is happening, and the stage banter is... well, it is what it is. I'm working on it!)We'll be playing music from our new CD, Contextualizin' ("a digital masters' seminar" —All About Jazz), and 2006's Sink/Swim ("Catchy and original" —Lewis Porter), plus several new original compositions and arrangements of tunes by American heavyweights like Charles Ives, Wayne Shorter, and Neil Young. (That'd be an interesting trio of dinner guests.)So come on by if you can, and please share this with people who like jazz (or could just stand to get out of the house and away from "Jersey Shore" for a few precious hours). Here are the details:WHAT: The Ian Carey QuintetWHO: Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhorn; Evan Francis, alto saxophone & flute; Adam Shulman, piano and Hammond B3; Fred Randolph, bass; and Jon Arkin, drumsWHEN: Wednesday, October 13, 7-11pmWHERE: Coda Live Music Supper Club, 1710 Mission St., San Francisco; tel: (415) 551-2632HOW MUCH: Just $7Thanks!

Last week, in response to several pieces of news about large-scale, institution-centered jazz philanthropy, I wrote a post thinking about the possibility that jazz might be better served in the long run by steering money toward smaller venues and less established "stars" (Jazz stars! LOL.) Since then, people far and wide have weighed in on the issue, which is good, and exactly what I was hoping would happen.

One response was from Patrick Jarenwattananon of NPR's A Blog Supreme, who mentioned one big reason why Big Jazz is ahead in the funding game right now:

Big, central institutions, by their nature, have massive potential for outreach. They can spend money on making money, whether by hiring publicity people, financial officers or big-name performers. ... In contrast, Mom and Pop's Bar sometimes doesn't even have the wherewithal to put up a serviceable Web site with updated show listings. If you were a potential investor, sponsor or major giver, wouldn't you want to donate to a place with accountability, a proven track record and highly visible accomplishments?

No argument here (just yesterday I came across a website for a venue which didn't include the address). The small-club, unfamiliar-name approach has a lot less high-visibility appeal than Sonny Rollins at the Citibank Jazz Palace or whatever. (More about this in a moment.)

Over on Facebook, several musicians weighed in--one idea which got me thinking came from vocaphonist Lorin Benedict:

Actually, I think this idea of distributing $ to a large number of smaller gigs COULD work. And the model already exists: The Stone, [John] Zorn's NYC venue which is curated by a different musician every month. Zorn and his cohorts choose the curators, of course, so you could argue that they are stacking the deck to favor the music of their friends... fine. But with a big donor, you could make, say, 10 different Stones in NYC alone. One run by Wynton, one run by Connie Crothers, one run by Randy Brecker, one run by Afrika Bambataa... the point would be to get a host of EXTREMELY DIFFERENT and nearly unrelated people to decide who curates their own little venue each month. ... See, the thing that's great about The Stone is that Zorn has it set up (through donations and the like) so that the musicians always walk away with ALL the $ from each gig. Which could be a nice bunch of change if they pack the place, or could be NADA, like when Bleeding Vector [Lorin's band] played there :) Either way, Zorn and co. are cool with it, because they weren't expecting to make any money anyway. Now, this is a little different than your model of guaranteed $200 gigs, but it does address the problem of venues: The Stone is a hole-in-the-wall ... but that's good enough, really. The bands could then choose to charge what they want each night, and if they pack the place, fine, if not, fine. ... In all of the above, I am assuming that the real problem is venues rather than simply $ for gigs. One could argue that giving $ directly to musicians is better, but I like the above because it has a "natural selection" quality-control built in to it. And the heads of the places, if chosen well, could pick curators who would effectively cover the entire scene ... keeping in mind that each one would designate a different curator each month. Each place would be some little dive that would be completely paid for, so you'd never have to worry about packing the place. But if the musicians did enough legwork, they could make real money by charging a goodly amount and packing it.

Lorin and I talked about this some more last night at Kaleidoscope, a casual performance space which, interestingly enough, would be perfectly suited to the sort of thing described above. I think he's really on to something, although it's a different approach than the paid gig idea, which bassist Noah Schenker brought up in his comment:

Lorin, you're talking about some kinds of funded concert spaces, which would be cool. Also seriously lacking is the restaurant, bar, lounge type venues where musicians can really practice, work on standards, maybe have a meal and bring home a meaningful paycheck--and how about a decent piano while we're at it. These places now expect musicians to play for tips. Not really sure what can be done, but the "free" market ain't doin' it.

More from bassist Kurt Kotheimer:

I think both those ideas are great (smaller venues/musicians as curators) and the Stone is a perfect example of this kind of thing in action. There is one other aspect to this that I was thinking about. Think of the small venues that already exist... Q: What is the problem with these venues? A: They are empty. ... Imagine what a small fraction the promotional money and 'Seal of Approval' of a large organization like SFJAZZ would do to bring people out to 21 Grand, Blue6, the Rev, etc. Even without supporting new venues and directly paying musicians they could at the very least support what is already happening in community. ... From the little bit I have played there, this seems to be how it works in Europe. I have played at total dives for like 5 people there but the flyer for the gig has all these sponsors on it. Some of them local businesses, some of them large corporate sponsors. And because of this you can play a small gig and still have travel expenses covered and make a modest amount of money. Crazy, huh?

So, a few thoughts on this--I think the Stone model is a good one, as a way of avoiding stylistic cliques (although who chooses the choosers?), but I do think the idea of giving the bands a minimum (say, the aforementioned $200) could encourage the participation of people (like Noah, above) who might otherwise have to take a less artistically rewarding gig because it pays. Since we're still talking hypothetically, let's keep the minimum for now.  (And you could get an entire year of $200 gigs every night for $73,000, which is less than one two-hundredth the amount SFJAZZ just raised.)

Next post, I'll get into the nuts & bolts of how I might do it if I ran the universe. Stay tuned, and please feel free to join in the conversation in the comments (even if you want to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about).Is it just me, or is this seeming less and less crazy?

This morning, NPR's A Blog Supreme featured a story about a wealthy music lover who has donated $2.5 million to Drake University's jazz program, to be used for a professorship and a new facility. Confronted by that number, I started to wonder if there might be ways to spend that money which would actually benefit the music and musicians more–like subsidizing 12,500 gigs at $200, for example.

It was with those numbers ringing in my head that I saw the even more staggering news that SFJAZZ has secured a $20 million donation for a permanent center in the City. (Think about it! $20 million! I wonder whether every single jazz album sale in the past 10 years even made that much money.)

First of all, genuine congratulations to SFJAZZ on the jazz center–that really is incredible, especially in this economy, in this country, in this culture. But again, as a thought experiment here–that money would pay for ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND $200 gigs. Just imagine for a second what kind of a rejuvenation any jazz scene could get from even a smidgen of that.

Why am I harping on the $200 gig?

Because having a gig–at a club, a bar, a cafe, restaurant or whatever–has been the backbone of jazz music for a century. Having a place to play–work through your stuff, learn the ropes and try out new things, interact with other musicians and the audience–is how musicians have honed their craft and the music has grown, evolved, and flourished since the days of Buddy Bolden.

Perhaps even more importantly, it's also the primary place where audiences have gotten to know jazz–been exposed to it, responded to it, thought about it, and for some percentage, become long-term listeners, without having to pony up a lot of dough or put on a suit. And in the Bay Area, the number of places to do that–especially if you're not a big name–gets smaller every year.

Although the number of healthy jazz venues has steadily decreased since the 70s, the past few years have seen an especially ugly series of closures, with Jazz at Pearl's, the Octavia Lounge, and Anna's Jazz Island disappearing in short order. While Yoshi's and SFJAZZ continue to be successful, it is largely through single shows or short runs of non-local acts. (At a cost of significantly more than a one-drink minimum, too.) Side note: I think that's great! I enjoy going to those shows, too. But it's very different than having a vital scene of regular working bands.

(And for some perspective on that $200–I'm talking about for the whole band. Doesn't seem like much, but I can count the number of jazz gigs I've had that paid that much on my two brass-stained hands. For example: when the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, San Francisco's long-running Monday night big band, was laid off from its last regular gig, I'm pretty sure it was earning less than $200 per night. For a 19-piece band.)

Now, I'm under no illusions that the "good old days" of jazz could or should come back–tastes change, and just because people liked a certain kind of music in the past doesn't mean their kids or grandkids will like it, or the music that evolved from it, today (and to clarify, I'm not just talking about straightahead jazz–it's scary out there for pretty much anything not involving turntables).

But just imagine for a second what kind of an amazing scene could come about if next time, our hypothetical rich jazz patron decided to skip the giant hall, and invest in some GIGS.

BUT SERIOUSLY – OK, that was fun, but let's face it–this idea is, putting it charitably (get it?), impractical. Who decides which bands and venues would get supported? What about the places (and there are many) which wouldn't want jazz even if it was free? What about the huge backlash from audiences whose patience with jazz runs out after only, say, 50,000 gigs? These are real concerns. I'm just saying that maybe the next wave of jazz philanthropy might consider whether some intelligently-infused cash might look at ways to get the music back into the nightlife that was its 100-year workshop.

UPDATE: The president of Drake University (!) responds over at A Blog Supreme.

Part two here...