Recently, had the pleasure of guest soloing with the Iwate University Wind Ensemble. We did a charity concert to raise money for one of the junior high schools on the coast devastated by the March 11 tsunami.

On May 18, I played for the Tsunami Benefit Charity Concert in Morioka, Japan at the Morioka theater with a large group of musicians from Iwate prefecture. It was a great night of music and the event raised a good amount of money to help some of the March 11 tsunami survivors. I was in Morioka on March and experienced the earthquake. About 10 days later, I went to the coast to visit many of the cities and towns that were destroyed by the tsunami. Here is a gallery of photos I took while on the coast for a few days. PHOTOS

Tonight, I had the pleasure of doing a short radio interview with Hoki Miller on Tokyo’s InterFM 76.1. We did the recording at Hoki’s new club in Roppongi called Tropic of Cancer. The club is named after her former husband’s (Henry Miller) book “Tropic of Cancer.”

When I came to Japan, I was doing a lot of reading. “Tropic of Cancer” was one of the books I read and it really changed my life in many ways. Or maybe I should say, “Rocked my world!” Just before that time, I was into William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. But, when I read Miller’s book it really struck a nerve. I was amazed at his creativity and how free he was with his thinking process. His ability to link ideas together was something I was looking for in my musical improvisations and compositions. I think after reading “Tropic of Cancer”, I started doing a lot more “free improvisations” in my “live” playing.

Last year, I was working every week at a place in Akasaka. We were trading sets with a solo pianist/singer. It was a few months before we actually met and talked. I was shocked when I found out she had been married to Henry Miller for about 10 years.

Miller is without a doubt at the top of my list of favorite writers. Today was truly a highlight for me to talk and play a couple of songs with Hoki Miller.

Tropic of Cancer (Roppongi, Tokyo) has an extremely warm feeling…nice vibe. She has tons of great photos of Miller and a lot of his art work hanging throughout. For Henry Miller fans, it’s a must see when you come to Tokyo.

Hi Everybody!
Japanese hip-hop group Rip Slyme released a new music video called SCAR. I got called in July to do the video recording at the last minute. My trumpet friend from the Tokyo Big Band, Louis Valle did the recording session. He had a tour or something and couldn’t do the video. So, people have been asking me. No, that’s not me actually playing. It’s Louis. I’m just in the video. It was a fun experience. I had to quickly learn his solo note for note because in the shooting they had cameras really close to my face and fingers. I really would like to perform live with some hip-hop people. Hopefully someday soon I can.
Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3pkoj1tgiM

Really looking forward to playing with the guys on Thursday night. We’ll be playing some tunes by Strayhorn, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver and Benny Golson. Joining me for the gig will be James Mahone (tenor), Kenichi Shimazu (piano), Jeff Curry (bass) and Mike Reznikoff (drums). I’ve never played at Apple Jump before. Stopped by there recently and thought the room had a nice vibe. It’s pretty close to the west exit of Ikebukuro station.

I had a great time in Nagano, Japan last weekend at the Sugiyama Brass Camp. I was there to do a workshop on improvisation but, I had an opportunity to meet  lot of nice people (about 70 students), eat a lot of delicious Nagano food and enjoy the mountains. I was amazed to see people coming to the camp from all over Japan. Players of all ages and levels of ability together enjoying playing brass instruments, practicing and ensemble playing. The mountain area near Ueda station looks exactly like the Canaan Valley area near my hometown in West Virginia.

It was a lot of fun doing the improvisation workshop. A little difficult delivering that kind of message to 70 people of all levels at the same time. Hopefully, I was able to give everybody a little something that they can use in the coming weeks and months.
If anyone has any questions, they can ask me on this blog or just send me an email. It will be interesting to see the growth of some of the students over the next year.

Found a great plug-in called WPtouch yesterday! Basically, WPtouch is a mobile theme for WordPress blogs/websites. Although the design really is nothing like what I see when I view my site on a pc, it’s really a fast-loading, sleek design. As far as I know, it works well when viewing from iPhone, Palm, Android and Blackberry phones.

From my “brain chow” blog…..

While reading Derek Sivers’ blog yesterday, I was amazed at his presentation on leadership. Recently, he gave a talk at the TED 2010 Conference and received a standing ovation for his presentation.

His comments reminded me of a book, “The Tao of Leadership”, that I started reading back in the 1980′s when I was living in Washington, D.C.  I say, started reading, because it’s one of those books you never actually completely finish. A book I can read over and over. This is one of those books that I like to read at least 1-2 times a year. As my life changes, my perspective about the book is always in flux.

Many years ago, I read a reveiw of “The Tao of Leadership” by Dr. John Hanley (Lifespring). Hanley stated that the taoist style of leadership (explained in the book) is to “lead from the back of the room.”

I was contacted today about doing an interview for JapanUp magazine. After doing a little reading about the magazine, I’ve found that it’s a free magazine in the Los Angeles area that keeps people (who have an interest in Japan) informed about the latest trends, in food, culture, and entertainment.

A friend of mine just sent me a few photos from Randy Brecker’s gig in Shibuya recently. I went by to sit-in on a tune with a true “master.” It was a great three days listening to Randy and talking a lot about music and life.

A friend of mine just sent me a few photos from Randy Brecker’s gig in Shibuya recently. I went by to sit-in on a tune with a true “master.” It was a great three days listening to Randy and talking a lot about music and life.
A friend of mine just sent me a few photos from Randy Brecker’s gig in Shibuya recently. I went by to sit-in on a tune with a true “master.” It was a great three days listening to Randy and talking a lot about music and life.