Release Weekend Fun

I hope everyone had a great week! I’m still basking in the relative glory of a successful CD release party at Caffe Vivaldi in NYC, and a subsequent “Upstate CD Release” at Quinn’s in Beacon NY.  The trio had an excellent turnout at both performances, and John and Dave were their usual awesome musician selves.  It was a first for me to play both the piano and saxophone on a set of my own music, and although it was somewhat exhausting, it was completely worth it and a whole lot of fun.  We performed the songs on “Seas & Trees” as they appear on the album, and it provided for a very cohesive set of music.  I’ll be posting videos from the eveningon my YouTube channel sometime this weekend.

At Quinn’s we had two sets to stretch out, so the first set the trio played some ultra-free interpretations of some standards, as well as a couple of newer originals. We played “Seas & Trees” for the second set and my old friend and fellow alto saxophonist Mike Dopazo sat in a couple of tunes.  It had been years since we had played together and it was cool to hear him again, burning as ever! Quinn’s is an excellent place to play upstate and they have some very awesome Japanese fusion cuisine – I had this curry dish with pork that was super good.

So the big question (at least for me) is what is next? I’m hoping to book some shows with the band in the upcoming months, more than likely January/February at this point.  A US Northeast Tour would be cool.  Also I’m hoping to get the new CD into the hands of some reviewers and hopefully reach a wider audience for my music.  There’s plenty left to do with this DIY album release experience, but so far so good!