Hi Folks,I wanted to let you know about three shows I have coming up this week (all as a sideman for a change!) as well as a very gratifying radio appearance.First, I'll be playing with the phenomenal pianist & composer Satoko Fujii and her 12-piece Orchestra Oakland this Wednesday at Duende. Fujii has had an illustrious career performing with luminaries including Paul Bley, Mark Dresser, and Myra Melford. The band will also include a who's-who of local creative musicians including Aaron Bennett, Larry Ochs, Jordan Glenn, Jon Raskin, and many others. This will be my first time playing Duende (I've seen some great shows there) and I'm looking forward to it.WHAT: Satoko Fujii Orchestra OaklandWHEN: Weds., June 18, 9pmWHERE: Duende, 468 19th St., OaklandHOW MUCH: $15Next up is a rare band-only appearance by The Circus Bella All-Star Band--we spend all summer backing up the circus troupe but it'll be nice to have a chance to just rock out on Rob Reich's great original compositions. With Reich, accordion & guitar, Ralph Carney, reeds & toys, Greg Stephens, trombone, Michael Pinkham, drums, & me. Also appearing will be Beat Circus (from Boston) & dancer Rose Harden.WHAT: Beat Circus / Circus Bella All-Star Band / Rose HardenWHEN: Thurs., June 19, 8:30pWHERE: Amnesia, 853 Valencia St., San FranciscoHOW MUCH: $7-10Saturday, I'll be joining pianist Betty Shaw, drummer Ron Marabuto and bassist Adam Gay for some midday jazz & pizza at the Cheese Board in Berkeley.WHAT: Betty Shaw QuartetWHEN: Saturday, June 21, 11:45a-2:45pWHERE: The Cheese Board, 1512 Shattuck Ave, BerkeleyHOW MUCH: Free!Finally, I'm very flattered that composer, saxophonist, author and historian extraordinaire Bill Kirchner has decided to devote an episode of his great radio show "Jazz from the Archives" to my music. His description: "Carey (b. 1974) is a San Francisco-based trumpeter/composer/arranger of uncommon resourcefulness. His writing for two-horn quintet and three-horn sextet is much more than the theme/solos/theme format usually heard from those instrumentations. We'll hear selections from three CDs by Carey and other longtime Bay Area colleagues." The show is broadcast on WBGO on the East Coast, but you can tune in online at WBGO.org.WHAT: Jazz from the Archives: Ian Carey: Contextualizin'WHEN: Sunday, June 22, 8pm (Pacific)WHERE: WBGO.orgThanks!

Attention Everyone!This Friday, I'm very excited to be bringing my Quintet+1 (with pianist Adam Shulman, bassist Fred Randolph, drummer Jon Arkin, alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, and multi-woodwindist Sheldon Brown) back to that great spot in downtown Oakland, The Sound Room (site of our really enjoyable CD release show for Roads & Codes last year--see some footage here). We've had some great rehearsals and the band is sounding fantastic, especially on the new music. (We'll also be hitting new arrangements of some of our "greatest hits.")That would be exciting in itself--since I really love playing with them and it's not easy to book a six-piece band these days--BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: you'll also get to hear ANOTHER OUTSTANDING SEXTET, the Nathan Clevenger Group ("a sound that stands out from the crowd" - Andrew Gilbert, KQED).Nathan is an outstanding composer/guitarist and his music has been consistently inspiring to me since I first encountered it, not least because we've had a habit of hiring some of the same great musicians. (He also writes for bass clarinet like nobody's business, which inspired me to ask Sheldon to add that big axe to my music as well--come on out to hear the results!)So please don't miss this opportunity to hear TWO six-piece composer-led bands playing new, original music. Each group will be performing one long set--Nathan's group will go first, with my group following around 9:30.WHAT: New Music for Sextets: Ian Carey Quintet+1 & Nathan Clevenger GroupWHEN: Friday, May 23, 8pmWHERE: The Sound Room, 2147 Broadway, OaklandTICKETS: $13 adv., $15 doorHope to see you!

Musical Folks:I wanted to give you an advance heads-up about a very exciting show I've got coming up next month--I'm happy to announce that my Quintet+1 (with pianist Adam Shulman, bassist Fred Randolph, drummer Jon Arkin, alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, and multi-woodwindist Sheldon Brown) will be giving its first performance of 2014 by returning to that great spot in downtown Oakland, The Sound Room (site of our really enjoyable CD release show for Roads & Codes last year--see some footage here).Even better, we'll be sharing the bill with one of my favorite local ensembles, the Nathan Clevenger Group. Nathan is an outstanding composer/guitarist and his music has been consistently inspiring to me since I first encountered it, not least because we've had a habit of hiring some of the same great musicians. (See a tune from the Group's most recent amazing performance here.)Each group will be performing one long set of new original music and selections from our recent albums. (Nathan's group will go first, with my group following around 9:30.)WHAT: New Music for Sextets: Ian Carey Quintet+1 & Nathan Clevenger GroupWHEN: Friday, May 23, 8pmWHERE: The Sound Room, 2147 Broadway, OaklandTICKETS: $13 adv., $15 doorMore details to come, I hope to see you all for what promises to be an exciting show!

First of all, thanks to everyone who made it out to my TAKOYAKI 3 show last week at Birdland Jazzista--we had a great time, the venue was fun and the incomparable Lorin Benedict even joined us for a couple of tunes.Here's a track from Bryan Bowman's surprisingly clear recording (given how tricky the acoustics were)--it's my newish arrangement of the standard "All or Nothing at All":Ian Carey's TAKOYAKI 3: All or Nothing at All(w/ Adam Shulman, organ; Ian Carey, trumpet; Bryan Bowman, drums)Also, Takoyaki 3 has another show coming up later this month--we'll be returning to Rose Pistola in North Beach on Sunday, March 30. The group will once again feature Adam Shulman on organ, Jon Arkin on drums, and myself on trumpet & flugelhorn, and we'll be playing original music from Roads & Codes, (& possibly even Duocracy!) as well as select standards and underappreciated classics by jazz composers like Herbie Nichols, Ornette Coleman, and Lennie Tristano.WHAT: Ian Carey's Takoyaki 3WHERE: Rose Pistola, 532 Columbus Ave., San FranciscoWHEN: Sunday, March 30, 8-10:30pmHOW MUCH: No cover!Hope to see you there!

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!

Duocracy has only been out a few days (pick up a copy here!), but we're already seeing some nice reviews coming in, which is really gratifying. Here are some of the first batch!From a thoughtful review from Stephen Graham on the great site marlbank (check out the site for two versions which inspired our rendition of "Goodbye"):

More traditionally minded on the surface at least than Roads and Codes, last year’s Ian Carey Quintet + 1 outing, Duocracy opens with ‘Little White Lies,’ the Walter Donaldson song from 1930 that Paul McCartney has mentioned was a childhood favourite of John Lennon’s. Trumpeter Carey, who’s in his late thirties and is from New York state, teams here with NYC-born pianist Ben Stolorow a few years his junior who debuted in 2008 with I’ll Be Over Here and whose input gives the album its deceptively early jazz feel. Carey has width and expressive resource in his approach, Stolorow too, and while Roads and Codes found Carey more in Dave Douglas-land here the trumpet stylings are far more mainstream, for instance the sound of Ruby Braff springs to mind a bit, and I suppose Stolorow could be compared to the late Dave McKenna in that his style borders on stride but never quite goes the full furlong as that would be just too retro. ... Ultimately whatever the way in to the song, and the same applies for the album as a whole, while Stolorow and Carey play their own particular blend of goodbye, jazz fans may well prefer a firm hello to this appealing duo. (3 1/2 stars)

From the website Bop-n-Jazz:

Face it, a duo format is almost as "naked" as a performer can get so any apprehensions from the artists are more than understandable ... yet there is unique chemistry that allows Carey and pianist Ben Stolorow to form a dynamic duo of sorts that slays the more pop oriented tunes from the classic days of jazz. Ben moves well away from the more traditional role of accompanist to achieve that "duocracy" of equal lyrical footing... There is an understated eloquence that takes hold throughout the release. Melody is back, changes are done with finesse and not a self-indulgent pretentiousness that may find one artist attempting to out perform the other. While the tunes are familiar and some bordering on eclectic, the original composition "Comin' Along" is an abstract showstopper formed around the Benny Golson standard "Along Came Betty." Rodgers and Hart's "You Took Advantage of Me" is the perfect vehicle for the harmonic gifts of pianist Stolorow. The Mancini tune " Two For The Road" is a master class for trumpet players that are looking to work on a more expressive tone, Carey simply nails it. (5 stars)

From Bruce Collier in the independent weekly The Beachcomber:

San Francisco jazzmen Carey (trumpet) and Stolorow (piano) did some gigging together last year in the Bay Area and decided to make it legit, the result being Duocracy. The album offers 10 tracks, including American Songbook standards and showpieces like “Cherokee.” Carey’s tone and approach are in the hard-bop style, somewhere between Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown in their bouncier moods. Stolorow skillfully backs him up, and there’s a meeting of the minds on every song. When two fine players are having fun, it’s good to listen in.

Always interesting to read which influences different listeners hear in one's playing! From Chris Spector in the Midwest Record:

After years of striving and making albums everyone raves about, this duo that has worked a lot together but never recorded together decided to take a tip from us and go after hours. Just the two of them smoking it up hotel piano bar style on a set card of warhorses carries the day quite nicely and you can tell they enjoy recording with the pressure off. In fact, these Bay area staples sound like they were kicking it out in the bar at this swank hotel on the rehabbed Berkeley waterfront with the sun going down in the background and the glasses clinking. First class throughout, loaded with the joy of playing for the fun of it. Infectious--in a good way!

And finally from Lee Hildebrand in our own East Bay Express:

The duo of Richmond trumpeter Ian Carey and Albany pianist Ben Stolorow is the most adventurous and exciting trumpet-pianist pairing since cornetist Ruby Braff and pianist-organist Dick Hyman played together a quarter century ago. But whereas Braff and Hyman’s music was rooted in the pre-bop mainstream, these two East Bay musicians draw stylistically on a somewhat later era. They have a terrific new CD titled Duocracy on which their approach to melody, harmony, and rhythm suggests Thelonious Monk as they playfully explore “Cherokee,” “Little White Lies,” “You Took Advantage of Me,” “All the Things You Are,” and other popular standards, plus Gigi Gryce’s “Social Call,” Monk’s “Four in One,” and a tune of their own.

Meanwhile, I was a guest on KCSM's great Desert Island Jazz show last week, and had a great time talking about some of my all-time favorite music with host Alisa Clancy and producer Michael Burman. My playlist can be found here--it was incredibly challenging to winnow my list down to 8 tracks, but I feel good about who made the final cut. I also recommend taking some time to check out their full list of past guests and picks (who range from local heroes to international legends), which is fascinating. You can listen to my episode here:[embed]http://iancareyjazz.com/audio/Ian_Carey_Desert_Island_Jazz.mp3[/embed]Finally, don't forget that Ben & I have one more CD release show next Friday (March 7)--our North Bay version--at Old St. Hilary's in Tiburon. If you weren't able to make it to the Jazzschool (uh, make that California Jazz Conservatory!), please consider heading to beautiful Marin County next week to hear us!