Hi folks, I'm happy to announce that this Friday, March 14, TAKOYAKI 3 (the streamlined, street-food-style version of my Quintet+1) will be playing in Berkeley at the Birdland Jazzista Social Club. BJSC is a labor of love from Michael Parayno, which features live music and barbecue for just a $10 donation (B.Y.O.B.). We'll be playing music from Roads & Codes and Contextualizin' (and maybe even one or two from Duocracy!), plus some unusual standards and classics by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and Neil Young. Here are the details:What: TAKOYAKI 3Who: Adam Shulman, organ; Ian Carey, trumpet; Bryan Bowman, drumsWhen: Friday, March 13, 7-10pmWhere: Birdland Jazzista Social Club, 1731 Sacramento Street, BerkeleyHow Much: $10 donation (includes barbecue), B.Y.O.BHope to see you there!

Hi folks, I have a bunch of interesting stuff to throw at you at once. First, I'm doing two shows next week with two different bands, both guaranteed to be interesting!Next Thursday, May 30, Takoyaki 3 (the streamlined, street-food-style version of my Quintet+1) will be returning to the lounge at Yoshi's in San Francisco as part of their Local Talent Series.  We'll be doing underplayed jazz classics, originals, and even a standard or two!WHAT: Ian Carey's Takoyaki 3WHO: Ian Carey, trumpet; Adam Shulman, organ; Jon Arkin, drumsWHEN: Thursday, May 30, 6:30-9:30pmWHERE: Yoshi's Lounge, San FranciscoHOW MUCH: Free!A few days later, the Quintet+1 will be making its first appearance since our CD release show, at the intimate San Francisco house concert venue Chez Hanny.  We'll be performing music from Roads & Codes ("★★★★½ - a highly skilled band of improvisers, harmonically pleasing compositions... it all works" --Downbeat), including compositions by me, Stravinsky, Charles Ives, and Neil Young, as well as new arrangements of music from previous albums and the premiere of a brand new original piece. This will also be the debut with the band of the great Bay Area woodwind wizard Sheldon Brown. Seating is limited, so best reserve early!WHAT: Ian Carey Quintet+1WHO: Ian Carey, trumpet; Adam Shulman, piano; Jon Arkin, drums; Kasey Knudsen, alto saxophone; Sheldon Brown, tenor saxophone & flute; Fred Randolph, bassWHEN: Sunday, June 2, 4pmWHERE: Chez Hanny, San FranciscoHOW MUCH: $20 suggested donation (see link above for ticketing/reservation info)In other news, reviews for Roads & Codes are still trickling in, including this very poetic one from Jazz Weekly:

Ian Carey leads a small band in which he plays trumpet, flugelhorn and handles most of the writing with a lithe as cirrus cloud team ... The melding of the three horns, especially when Francis is on the flute, create a lovely graciousness  of sound that feels like a breeze teasing linen drapes, as on the mellifluous “Wheels.” A pastel haze floats above the plain on “Rain Tune” while Neil Young’s “Dead Man’ features Carey’s lonely and gasping trumpet.  Some firm and forte bop is displayed on the driving “Count Up” which has some pungent stick work by Arking, while Charles Ives’ “West London” is delivered with a porcelain fragility. Nice and fresh music here that sparkles like morning dew on citrus trees.

Mellifluous indeed! It has been very interesting to see the wide varieties of effects the record has had on people.Finally, I'm happy to announce that the great local organization San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music has chosen me as one of the fortunate beneficiaries of their 2013 Musical Grant Program. I'll be writing a new multi-part "Suite for Quintet+1," to be premiered at the Jazzschool in Berkeley in fall 2014. Time to get crackin'!

Hi folks, I'm continuing to be happy with the good press and airplay Roads & Codes has been getting--it's in the top 100 in the U.S. jazz charts, and the top ten in Canada, which is more than I expected for an album with no standards and multiple tracks over ten minutes.Meanwhile, here are two quick audio cuts for you--first, I had a nice chat yesterday with Nicholas Mokover at KZSC (UC Santa Cruz). We talked for about ten minutes about my background, and the old NYC vs. Bay Area question. The entire interview is here:Ian Carey Interview, KZSC (3/12/13)Second, here's another cut from our Takoyaki 3 show last month in Berkeley--this is our version of the classic Ornette Coleman anthem "Lonely Woman" (originally on The Shape of Jazz to Come). Check out the looping effects at the end of the track--that's something I've been experimenting with more & more since originally attempting it to recreate the effects we used on our version of the theme from "Dead Man" (which you can hear a streaming version of here).Takoyaki 3: Lonely Woman(Ian Carey, trumpet/effects; Adam Shulman, organ, Jon Arkin, drums)

Hello folks, thanks to everyone who made it out to our Takoyaki 3 show last week--if you missed it, we've got two more later this month, at Rose Pistola (3/24) and Yoshi's Lounge (3/27). See the end of this post for a free track from the show!It's been really gratifying to see more positive press for Roads & Codes coming in--the most exciting being my first appearance in Downbeat Magazine, where James Hale featured the album in a set of reviews of trumpeters from around the world, and gave it 4 and 1/2 stars:

Bay Area veteran Ian Carey knows it can take creative packaging to get great music noticed these days. Roads & Codes showcases both the trumpeter's sideline as an illustrator and his primary gig as the leader of a highly skilled band of improvisers. Carey takes advantage of their chops by writing to their strengths--a lesson gleaned from his mentor Maria Schneider--and mixes his own harmonically pleasing compositions with pieces by Neil Young, Igor Stravinsky and Charles Ives. While the combination of graphic art and arty covers might sound contrived, it all works.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Andy Gilbert previewed our release show by talking about the album:

Berkeley trumpeter Ian Carey isn't letting the CD slip into obsolescence without a fight. A graphic designer by day, he supplied the slyly self-mocking manga-inspired illustrations that give the package a look as smart and arresting as the music it contains. Exploring an array of evocative material... and Carey's striking originals--the band features saxophonists Kasey Knudsen and Evan Francis (a former Bay Area standout back briefly from New York).

The great blogger Marc "Jazzwax" Myers featured the album as one of his "CD Discoveries of the Week," saying

Carey plays a seductive trumpet and flugelhorn. On Roads & Codes, the sextet records mostly Carey originals, which are solid, artful and always smartly paced, enabling you to hear and feel their lyricism. Dig "6th Ave. Local," "Count Up," and "Andante," for example. Neil Young's theme to "Dead Man" is a fabulous wild card, since the film is one of my favorite Westerns. Proof that the trumpet and flugelhorn don't have to be overheated blowtorches to be effective.

At eMusic, Dave Sumner added the album to his weekly jazz picks, calling the band

... a sextet that plays bigger than its head count. Expansive sections buffeted by sweeping melodies that bloom into something more than their origins. Interesting cover of Neil Young’s “Theme from Dead Man,” which I’m noticing several jazz musicians adopting as one of the New Standards. The song “Wheels” might be the strongest album track… a waltz with a light touch and the noble elegance inherent to that song form.

Who else is doing "Dead Man," dammit? Nothing new under the sun, I guess. Meanwhile, on the WYCE Music Journal, Rebecca Ruth reviewed the album:

Trumpeter Ian Carey leads the San Francisco quintet on its third release of mostly original compositions of contemporary instrumental jazz. The choice in covers here is interesting. They include Neil Young's theme from a 1995 Jim Jarmusch film, "Dead Man" and Igor Stravinsky's Suite No.1 for Small Orchestra , re-titled "Andante" for this disc. Two original songs stand out, however. The John Coltrane-inspired "Count Up" is a nice bop piece, as well as "Nemuri Kyoshiro", which was inspired by samurai films. One can't review Roads & Codes, however, without mentioning the cover art. Besides being a trumpeter and composer, Ian Carey is an accomplished graphic artist and designer. Motivated by his love of graphic novels, he has designed the cover... besides telling the story of this record, each musician and song sports its own illustration, upping the cool factor.

The jazz blog marlbank gave the album 3 stars and had this to say:

Heavily influenced by Dave Douglas but with a slightly airier sound, trumpeter Carey did the whole of this album in a day with his band in a San Francisco studio, and it benefits from the real time method at work.... Inspired by Jim Jarmusch, and Charles Ives as well as [Kenny] Wheeler, there’s nothing stuck in the mud about this young player and his band.

Interesting how different people can hear totally different influences in my playing--hadn't thought about the Dave Douglas connection in a while but it's true I listened to him a lot in my 20s (when I used to see him at Connecticut Muffin!).Over at KZSU (Stanford), Forrest Bryant wrote this kind capsule review:

Excellent, very thoughtful set from a Bay Area trumpeter leading a simpatico sextet. The ensemble passages are richly layered, the solos flowing and yearning. There’s an overall feeling of calmness, but spiced with a few vigorous surges and a lot of motion just under the surface. Really fine work from these local musicians.

It isn't really a review, but Memory Select: Avant-Jazz Radio wrote an interesting meditation on the challenges as a programmer of being inundated by so many good new albums, and talks about Roads & Codes' cover art and my attempt to grab peoples' attention visually as well as musically:

Bay Area jazz fans know Carey as a trumpeter and bandleader, assuming they know him at all. But he’s also a graphic designer. So, in toying with drawings to go with Roads and Codes, he developed the idea of making the cover a self-referential story about how to connect good music with an audience. And Carey’s music is good. It’s got a cozy modern-jazz sound with a lot of tricks under the surface; it’s stuff that would get airplay on a station like KCSM. But how does one get the music into their ears?

... that's something I thought of this week as I emailed radio stations to confirm they'd received the album, and got lots of responses along the lines of, "I'll see if I can find it among the hundreds on my desk."Finally, the great Ted Gioia sent the following very kind tweet last week: "Today's listening: Roads & Codes, a new CD from jazz trumpeter Ian Carey. A very underrated player, and a talent to watch."OK, enough reviews! For those of you who stuck around, here's a live version of my tune from the album "Count Up," as performed by Takoyaki 3 (with Adam Shulman on organ, and Jon Arkin on drums) at last week's show:Ian Carey's Takoyaki 3 - Count Up (Live)

First off, thank you to everyone who came out to our CD release show last week--it was really successful and the band had a great time. (Video to come!) Also: I still have signed limited edition prints of the album art for sale (priced to move at $50-90!), so if you're interested in potentially picking one up, leave your email in the comments.But if you weren't able to make it (or if you were & you just want more), I'm going to be playing this week in Berkeley with Takoyaki 3, the 3-piece streamlined, street-food-style version of our quintet. The group features Adam Shulman on organ and Jon Arkin on drums, each of whom played on our new album, Roads & Codes ("Stellar band... smart and arresting." --San Francisco Chronicle)We'll be playing music from the new record, plus selections from our previous two albums, originals by Adam, and some forgotten gems by great jazz composers including Herbie Nichols, Lennie Tristano, and Ornette Coleman.The venue is a brand new gallery, school & performance space (with a beautiful piano!) called Garden Gate Creativity Center, now in its first month of performances. Wine & refreshments will be served.WHAT: Ian Carey's TAKOYAKI 3WHO: Adam Shulman, organ & piano; Jon Arkin, drums; Ian Carey, trumpet & flugelhornWHEN: Thursday, February 28, 8pmWHERE: Garden Gate Creativity Center, 2911 Claremont Ave. (@ Ashby), BerkeleyTICKETS: $10-20 sliding scale donation (advance tix available here.)Thanks, and hope to see you there!

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!