CM Trio at Ross's Dockside

Here's a few pics of the Trio playing at Ross's in Sea Bright. Once again, I want to say how great a time it was. The place has a great vibe and I think we fit it really well. I also want to especially thank Junior Pauls for sitting in on guitar and doing a helluva job.

Joey P. and I have been playing and rehearsing for a few months now. Joe also gigs with Paul every Thursday and Friday night at Cask 591, but, because of a family emergency I had leading up to the gig, we were never able to all get together for a rehearsal. So, most of the gig was the 3 of us flipping through charts and calling songs out as we went.

It was very seat of your pants, and I was really nervous about doing a set where I wouldn't know how a song was going to end until we got there and where I was unfamiliar with some of the keys the songs were in. Fortunately, I had two great professionals backing me up, and I even surprised myself with my abilities. All in all, it was a great start to this new direction I'm heading in musically, and I couldn't be more excited.

Hopefully, I'll have some more gigs at Ross's, as well as a few other places, to announce soon. As of right now, my next scheduled gig is at DeVino's Bar and Bistro on Rte 35 in Hazlet on Friday April 18th. That will be with Nick Esposito on guitar. The following Saturday, the 26th, I'll be playing with both Nick and Joe.

Drawing Jazz

I've been a little backed up lately. I think I stacked my plate with a bit too much and then burned myself out a little the last week. I'm back on track now, and will have some more updates on that Roethlisberger painting, as well as the other two tracks from that recording session up this week. In the meantime, here's a little fun somethin' for you.

As some of you that have been reading this blog know, I've been having fun messing around with markers lately. I finally picked up a new set and was eager to try them out. So, Friday night I went over to Cask 591 here in Long Branch where the Junior Pauls Duo plays every Thursday and Friday night, with my man Joe Peterson on bass. I haven't done too much drawing or sketching of any live stuff lately, and I've had an itch lately to bring the sketch pad out and capture some musicians in action. I had to say it was fun trying to capture these guys playing in less than 40 minutes, and the markers are a lot of fun to play with. Hopefully, I'll have a lot more stuff like this in near future.

New Music - "Fly Me To The Moon"

You can hear the first song from my new 3 song demo, "Fly Me To The Moon", over at my MySpace page. Nick Esposito's on guitar and Joe Peterson handled bass duties.

Not having a whole lot of money to shell out on studio time, we decided to spend a few hours recording here in my living room. All the tracks were done live with no overdubbing, and were all pretty much done in only a take or two. For what it is, and it is meant to be nothing more than a quick sample to book gigs, I think it turned out well. Given the chance, I'd like to go back and perfect my vocals, but there's a nice freewheeling energy to the whole thing that I think works nicely.

Check it out and feel free to leave any comments you'd like.

I'll have the others finished and up next week.