Hi folks, hope everything's well and good, and the gigs are as plentiful as copies of "The Da Vinci Code" in a thrift store. Things have been light in that area for me since the unfortunate closing of Coda--though of course the hunt is on for greener pastures on which to do our jazz grazing--but I've been hard at work on writing new music for the group, hitting local jam sessions, plus some good old-fashioned woodshedding. I've also got an exciting recording session coming up with Rob Reich and his fabulous Circus Bella All-Star Band (which could use some support--please chip in a few bucks if you can).In the meantime, some good news--Cadence Magazine, a great in-depth independent quarterly which has been keeping the jazz journalism flame burning since 1976, reviewed my album Contextualizin' in its new issue, and had some really gratifying things to say. Here's the whole review--if you like it, I encourage you to support the magazine and subscribe.

Trumpeter Ian Carey interprets his own compositions (with one exception) on his second album, Contextualizin’, with straightforward melodic lyricism—deceptively straightforward, in fact. The modesty he presents in the liner notes he wrote coyly invites protest. Carey wonders in written form how he would ever be able to make his performances stand out among all of the Jazz trumpeters who exhibit blazing technique in an exclamatory voice. Well, Carey’s voice is declarative in a “discursive” (Steve Lacy’s word) way that draws in the listener with warmth and wordless narrative logic. Carey’s stories suggest one-on-one familiarity, as if he were imparting new information to a friend. As for influences, Carey makes plain that he has an affinity for the cooler trumpeters like Miles Davis or Tom Harrell, instead of those who fearsomely brandish technique for exhilarating effect. In fact, the first track on Contextualizin’ is named “Tom/Tom” after Harrell and trumpeter Tom Peron who likewise value linear improvisational movement throughout a performance while staying mostly in the middle range of the instrument. Carey’s composition is engaging, with prodding anticipations of the beat and vertiginous intervals involving harmonic interplay with saxophonist Francis. Carey realizes that listeners can be drawn into a performance, as well as being startled to pay attention to it. Without so much as merely raising his voice, so to speak, Carey continues through all eight of his compositions to establish moods, varied according to the thematic material at hand, and “discursively” explores them. “Questions,” which follows “Tom/Tom,” involves minor-key suggestions of mysterious forces as the quintet remains subdued and almost hushed until the soloists smolder without the occurrence of actual explosion despite Carey’s intensification of feeling and Francis’ darting and sweeping outlines over the modal basis. Keyboardist Shulman changes the background texture on some of the tracks by switching to Fender Rhodes, even as the horns remain at the forefront of improvisational activity. Although Carey has studied and performed in widely separated cities in the United States, including New York, Reno and Binghamton, his recording career commenced after he moved to San Francisco in 2001. Contextualizin’ is one more result—an opportunity to showcase “discursively” not only Carey’s distinctive style, but also his varied compositional talent. Like most other Jazz musicians, Carey plays standards too. On this album, that standard is “Just Friends,” which in beboppish fashion, Carey’s group transforms into another song based on the same chord structure. The quintet performs “Just Friends” contrapuntally somewhat like Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond’s work on Two of a Mind, except for Shulman’s pointillistic adherence to the melody. Carey’s burnished, technically precise cadenza at the beginning of “Disinvited” suggests infinite possibilities for continuation but few hints of the stop-and-start, teasing melody to follow, subject to the whimsical modification by each of the musicians. Carey intentionally apostrophized the title of his album to invite comfort with his music which attracts listeners to its content. Even so, Carey doesn’t sacrifice technique or depth of thought for his intimations of informality.   --Bill Donaldson

Over at Mostly Music, bassist Ronan Guilfoyle has some really insightful thoughts about the joys and challenges of the New York jazz scene, its impact on players there, and the repercussions on the US jazz scene as a whole of having such an overwhelming percentage of the country's best musicians in one place. Since I agree with pretty much all of it, I'm going to just present a big excerpt:

On the one hand there’s an extraordinary concentration of great musicians in a very small area, making for a hothouse creative atmosphere and an abundance of players on every instrument who play on a very high level... On the minus side it has to be said there are just far too many musicians in New York for it to make any sense on an economic level. ... The abundance and availability of musicians and the lack of places to play drives the price musicians can charge for NY gigs down to below subsistence levels. ... A lot of the New York musicians I know work in (often menial) day jobs that have nothing to do with music, and the reality for them is that they’re not going to get out of that situation anytime soon.

Been there, done that. It's the biggest reason I left after 8 years--it was painful to be surrounded by so much creativity and yet be so burnt out by a demoralizing but necessary day job that I had very little time or energy left for the music. But that's not the only problem:

As a jazz scene New York reminds me of one of those huge edge of town malls that arrives in an area and sucks all the economic life out of the high streets of any town within 50 miles of it. Nearly the entire US scene is based there, and this ‘gotta go to New York’ mentality means that it’s almost impossible for a regional scene to hold on to its good players. They in turn all arrive in New York where they have to scuffle and jostle for financial crumbs. ... Let’s imagine that say 30 players of every instrument were to leave NY tomorrow and go back to their home cities and expend their energy there and develop their own scenes there, how much healthier would both those regional scenes be and how much better economically would the New York scene be for giving the musicians there a little more economic room to breathe?

I think this does happen to an extent--here in the Bay Area, for example, there are players coming and going from New York all the time, largely for the reasons he mentions above: going there to learn and test their mettle, coming back to have more time for music and feel like a human being again. But as much as I like it here, and know there are great players, how are we supposed to keep good musicians in town when all the clubs are closed and DJs have most of the gigs? Jam sessions are fun (here, I mean--New York, not so much) but they don't pay, not even for the house band.I also think he has a point about a higher level of musicians creating a better scene--I firmly believe that having bad jazz played in public is bad for jazz (since any given performance a passerby witnesses is likely to be his only exposure to jazz that year, and if it's bad, that person will be lost as a potential fan). Of course, you have to play bad jazz before you can play good jazz, and I wouldn't suggest developing players not be out there working through their shit--just that if there isn't plenty of good stuff to show people the music's potential (because most of the best players have already left for NYC, for example), then locals won't be inclined to go to jazz shows and the scene will wither.Anyway, lots of food for thought. Anyone agree/disagree? Ideas to rectify this other than (as Guilfoyle jokes) "forced repatriation"?

Hi folks, I've been MIA lately but it seemed like a good time to catch you up on music-related news--good, bad, and who knows.First the bad--you'll notice the Quintet's show scheduled for mid-January has been canceled, due to the unfortunate fact of the venue, Coda, following too many clubs to mention into nonexistence. This hits me, and the scene in general, particularly hard, as Coda was the perfect venue for jazz and related musics--the place looked great, treated the musicians well, paid decently, and took an interest in promotion, so of course it couldn't last in the Bay Area. I was asked recently in an interview to name my favorite venue, and I said, "I used to like Pearl's, until it closed. Then I liked Octavia Lounge, and it closed. And Anna's Jazz Island, closed. My favorite venue is any venue that's open." So we can tack another on to that sad list.  (Note the title of the Times article: "Death of Jazz Club Underscores a Changing Scene"--I wish that this represented changing. Seems like the same old same old to me.) Oh well--the hunt for places to play continues.On a more positive note, my album Contextualizin' has been featured on several "Best of 2010" lists recently--the first from The Jazz Page ("Another solid band out of the Chicago area"--close enough, maybe this'll get us a gig there?--"Ian and the Quintet have a nice sound that can appeal to music lovers across the jazz spectrum and beyond"), and the second from Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Jazz Station (I also made the trumpet and flugelhorn lists, with some very heavy company, and Adam Shulman was recognized in the electric piano category). Both give me the warm fuzzies, especially since the record was released so early in the year and has been off the jazz blogosphere's radar for a while. (This would be a good time to put in a word of thanks to Terri Hinte, whose tireless work getting the CD to the right ears has been a huge part of its success.)Another recent plus--my wife and I took an incredible 2-week trip to Japan this month, which was life-altering in at least a few ways. One revelation--I knew the Japanese were into jazz, but I had no idea how ubiquitous it would be. You hear it in cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, everywhere--and not just the Kind of Blue or Coltrane/Johnny Hartman they occasionally deign to play at Starbucks--I'm talking about some burning shit to accompany your yakisoba or stationery shopping experience. There are also a ton of jazz venues, at least compared to the Bay Area. I was fortunate to make it to a jam session at Intro in Tokyo, which runs every Saturday from 5pm to 5am (!)--that's no exaggeration, either--the trains don't run between midnight and 5, so why not jam while you're stranded? (I left at 3:30am, and the other musicians were surprised I wasn't staying for the whole thing.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and plenty of great players over there. I hope to go back as soon as possible. (I should mention that The Ian Carey Quintet would happily sell its own grandmother for some gigs in Japan. Just an FYI.)Finally, a quick update on what's next for me musically--I'm about to start a few months of heavy shedding (that's "woodshedding" or practicing, not shedding fur, although there might be some of that, too). On the agenda is writing new material for the group, hustling up some shows, working on my Okinawan sanshin and reminding the trumpet who's boss. (I'm joking. The trumpet is always the boss.) Stay tuned for updates, and fresh installments of "New to Me," which I hope to make a regular feature. And Happy New Year!

It's that time of year when people start cranking out Top 10 lists like fruitcake, so I thought I'd toss my cake in the ring and do one myself.But since I usually come across new albums via used record stores and word of mouth, I decided my list would be not necessarily the best albums which came out in '10, but the best albums that showed up on my radar for the first time this year (hence "New to Me"). Some of them are actually new! (But most aren't.) Hopefully some of them will be new to you, too.So now, in no particular order, here are ten albums which made my year:David Smith Quintet - Anticipation (2010)Action-packed second album from the NYC trumpeter, who I really admire for both his ideas and his sound, which I can only describe as unabashedly "trumpety." (They manage to do a version of "Satellite" in 7 and sound pretty relaxed.)Sonny Rollins/Don Cherry Quartet - Stuttgart/Copenhagen/Tokyo/Paris 1963Picked up these 4 discs in one fell swoop after realizing I'd never really heard them, and that was a crime. They vary in sound quality, amount of filler material from other shows, etc., but all in all a good snapshot of a strange and wonderful band in what must've been an amazing time to be alive and playing jazz. If I had to pick one, I'd say Copenhagen is most interesting--Oleo! (Hearing Sonny and Ornette on his birthday bootleg reminded me of these a little.)Gary Peacock - Shift in the Wind (1980)Picked this up in a record store in outer Portland called Vinyl Resting Place (!) and proceeded to let it gather dust for a couple of years before throwing it on this spring. Great tunes (some nice ones from pianist Art Lande), well-thought-out mix of changes and free blowing, and a good chance to hear Peacock shining in a non-Jarrett trio.Donny McCaslin - Recommended Tools (2008)Great tenor trio album from one of my recent favorite improvisers. Saw him play many of these tunes live at SFJAZZ in June, which was even better.Keith Jarrett - Death and the Flower (1974)I've obsessed my way through pretty much every phase of KJ's career over the years, but for whatever reason the American Quartet was the last one I got around to. But after a reminder last year from Do The Math I finally picked up the Impulse box, threw it on the iPod, and went for a long run in the Oakland hills while listening to Death and... from start to finish. (The 22-min title track can be tempting to skip. Don't.) By the time it was over I'd found God, as much as possible for a cynical atheist. (BTW, try listening to a bunch of American Quartet, then put on the first track of Standards, Vol. 1, and you get a little sense of what it must've felt like to "come home" to those tunes.)Charlie Haden/Egberto Gismonti/Jan Garbarek - Folk Songs (1979)I've heard this band described as too new-agey, but I think it's way too intense for that. (And Gismonti is a serious badass.) Magico, the follow-up, is great, too. Arve Henriksen - Cartography (2010) & Chiaroscuro (2004)Tuneful ambient collages from this Norwegian trumpeter and sound artist. He managed to find a totally new sound in those old tubes somehow, and I'm hooked.Mathias Eick - The Door (2008)A subtle pack of grooving, well crafted straight-8ths tunes and good playing all around. Felt a little stereotypically ECM-y at first listen, but this record really grew on me.The Holly Martins - no. no. yes. no. (2010)Superhappening voice/alto/guitar timebending swinging power trio. FYI: Lorin Benedict is the new standard for scat singing. (Disclosure: friends of mine.)Kirk Knuffke - Amnesia Brown (2010)Another new-to-me trumpeter with a great, personal sound and ideas out the wazoo. I learned about this set of free-infused miniatures from Doug Ramsay, who hasn't steered me wrong yet.Honorable mentions go to: John McNeil & Bill McHenry's Chill Morn He Climb Jenny (brand new, but already getting in some serious listening on this one), every Steve Lacy album I own (I isolated all his solos and listened to the playlist on shuffle pretty much every day); and--why not--my own album Contextualizin', which came out in February. (I know, pretty shameless, but it really was the soundtrack of my year, and this may be the only Top 10 list it gets mentioned on.) UPDATE: I forgot to mention my friend Sunna Gunnlaugs' great album The Dream! Planning on listening to that more next year.By the way, there are definitely albums which are getting a lot of love this year (Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, The Ideal Bread, etc.) which I just didn't get around to checking out. (More suggestions? Throw 'em in the comments.) With any luck I'll get to them next year, and remain pleasantly behind the curve!

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!

Hi listeners--I'm really happy to announce a show for the Quintet coming up this Saturday at one of my favorite local venues, The Jazzschool, where Susan Muscarella and a small army of players and instructors have been teaching and presenting great music in the East Bay for over a decade. The performance space is a nice room in downtown Berkeley just steps (and stairs) from Shattuck Avenue, with a cafe for your coffee and vino needs (plus Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" helpfully spelled out in donor plaques on the wall--feel free to start singing it if you get bored).We'll be playing music from our new CD, Contextualizin' ("a digital masters' seminar" −All About Jazz), and 2006's Sink/Swim ("An exciting set of music with a heavy-hitting lineup of musicians" −Greg Bridges, KCSM), plus several brand-new original compositions (no quotes yet but you could be the first!) and new arrangements of music by American greats Charles Ives and Neil Young.Please come out if you can, and tell your friends, enemies, and enemies' friends. 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: Saturday, September 4, 8pmWHERE: The Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., Berkeley; t: (510) 845-5373HOW MUCH: $15 ($5 for Jazzschool students)UPDATE: We're a staff pick this weekend in the East Bay Express! "Album titles might not be a window to the soul, but they can certainly reveal something about intellect. In that sense, Ian Carey's 2010 album, Contextualizin', seems apropos. It's a well-crafted work by an incredibly thinking musician. Carey seems intent on using his trumpet to tell stories and create landscapes, but he's also good on building on other people's ideas. His version of "Just Friends" is about the most inventive you'll find on disc... Bolstered by a talented band -- drummer Jon Arkin, saxophonist Evan Frances, bassist Fred Randolph, and pianist Adam Shulman -- Carey performs Saturday, Sept. 4, at The Jazzschool."