We did two concerts; one in Reykjavik at Risið and one in Akureyri at Keitilshús. Both went incredibly well and it was clear that we had found a very special musical connection. Continue reading »
I was thrilled that French bassist Nicolas Moreaux would call me to fill-in for Karl Jannuska with his band for a couple of nights in Valencia to play the music from his new album, "Beatnick." We connected when he came to Iceland in January on a gig with Agnar Már Magnússon and Ásgeir Ásgeirsson. I was even more blown away to hear that he actually owned (and listened to) a copy of my CD 'Found Music' and wanted to play some of those tunes.
And so, of course I went, but it almost didn't happen. To begin with, I had to apply for a grant from LoftBrú (AirBridge) which made the whole thing even conceivable. (Thank goodness for LoftBrú! It's definitely the best thing to happen to Icelandic musicians since the Sugarcubes went global.) And then the volcano went off. That threw the whole trip into jeopardy. Continue reading »
Most of you know that I'm married to the great Icelandic pianist/composer Sunna Gunnlaugs. You might also know that I play on all of her albums and even contribute compositions to them sometimes. What you probably don't know, however, is that for the first time I've received co-producer credit for the upcoming release 'The Dream' which is because I was more involved in this project than any of the previous albums. Therefor, I feel more invested in this one and thoroughly excited about it's release… and you can too.
There are many aspects of this album which set it apart from the others and none the least is the fact that the listeners have the opportunity to be a participant in the release, but more about that later. Listen to some select tracks while you read:
What makes this album so unique musically is that it both maintains Sunna's overall melodic concept while embarking in two directions at once. Continue reading »
May 3 – 6 at Cafe Cultura, Reykjavik, Iceland
with Óskar Guðjónsson – saxophone
Andrés Þór Gunnlaugsson – guitar and lapsteel
Sunna Gunnlaugs – piano and Wurlitzer
Róbert Þórhallsson – electric and acoustic bass
The first night will be Bebop (tunes by the likes of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk), the remaining 3 nights will be original music.
In January, I applied for the Múlinn concert series here in Reykjavik for the first time with own band. On the application I wrote that I would be performing new material along with that of my 1st CD "Found Music," which was not an entirely true statement. I knew it was high time for me to write some new music and decided to set a date, not too far in the future, in order to light a fire under myself. The part about "Found Music" was simply a safety net in case I couldn't pull off a whole night's worth of new music. Continue reading »
45 years ago this past Wednesday John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio and made musical history. Who knows if Coltrane knew then the enormity of what they were about to do, but it was obviously a deeply felt and most sincere work of art. That sincerity was incredibly well received and A Love Supreme's influence was felt throughout the jazz world and beyond.
In fact, it was felt all the way up here in Iceland! ASA Trio, the collective organ trio of which I'm a third, decided to perform the suite on it's most recent concert at Cafe Cultura (as part of the Múlinn concert series), and it went quite well. You can download our version absolutely free here. I was personally very hesitant to take on the piece, but Andrés Thor, the guitarist, convinced me.
You see, playing "A Love Supreme" is not like playing a standard Continue reading »
Let me preface this, my first post in the "Espresso" category, by saying that I'm really not an expert on espresso. Although, some in my family might like to convince you otherwise, I'm just a guy who spent an unusual amount of time obsessing over how to extract the best espresso from his Saeco Espresso Classico machine. That's all.
It's interesting how often the subject of caffeine content comes up in conversation. When I tell people that I typically drink two (sometimes three) espressos in a day, their reaction is usually something like "Oh, I couldn't handle all that caffeine." Whereas, if I said I drank 2-3 cups of coffee a day that would seem normal to most coffee drinkers. Continue reading »
From time to time, I operate in the non-jazz word (or as I like to call it, "the darkside" ;-). While I was in NY this was very rare for me. I did some touring with guitarist Tim Reynolds' trio, TR3 which, although he sang and they were pretty much rock tunes, was still kind of related to jazz in that there were long, open vamps where I had a lot of room for expression. I also played in singer/songwriter Howard Fishman's band for a while and play on his CD, 'Do What I Want' which is more sonically related to jazz with more brushes, although less exploratory than TR3. Then there was Pyeng Threadgill's r&b-infused, groovy folk music, and Amy Kohn's pop-cabaret-classical-jazz-not-quite-sure-what-you'd-call-it. Although some of these projects were ongoing, while in NY I played jazz 99% of the time.
Truth be told, my previous site was sort of set up like a blog, in the sense that I could write things from time to time. I called it the "News" section. However, there was no space for interaction. No web-2.0-ness at all. I had become bored with it and only updated it out of guilt.
I'm expecting that I'll be much, much more current with this version. It's still really a work in progress. Things aren't totally working properly, as it's only the 2nd Wordpress theme I've made… and I just had to launch it on the day my computer went into the shop (brilliant!), so I'm writing this from the wifey's Powerbook. Continue reading »
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I was thrilled that French bassist 
." We connected when he came to Iceland in January on a gig with 
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