My wife recently emailed me a link to a blog post by Natalie Christie, The Tiny Soprano. Christie’s post is about learning and mastery and resonated with me as a musician. In this post was a link to a TED talk by Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, author and leadership expert. It is […]
Jason
I had heard about the documentary Playing for Change – Peace Through Music for some time, but only had the opportunity to watch it this past weekend. I’d been feeling sick and not sleeping well for a few days, and was pretty down on Sunday afternoon, when I found myself alone in the house on […]
Thanks to my friend Kai, who is a frequent commenter on this blog, copies of the Jason Parker Quartet CD “No More, No Less” have been left all around Munich, Germany! Kai agreed to be my accomplice in the 100 CD’s Project, and he and his wife Grace spent their Saturday placing my CD’s around […]
This week I had two gigs that reminded me how fortunate I am to play with the folks I do. The first was Thursday night, when Clave Nagila played at Egan’s Ballard Jam House in Seattle. This is a project I started to blend Latin-jazz with the Jewish melodies I grew up singing at synagogue. […]
My 100 CD’s Project takes a big leap into unknown territory thanks to my new friend SPC Garret. He read about the project and volunteered to be my accomplice at Camp Taji near Baghdad. Garret is going to place some JPQ CD’s around his FOB (Forward Operating Base) at the gym, and the MWR (Morale, […]
Yesterday, by a vote of 409-0, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 894, a bill “Honoring the 50th anniversary of the recording of the album “Kind of Blue” and reaffirming jazz as a national treasure.” The bill goes on to affirm that the House: (1) honors the 50th anniversary of `Kind of Blue’ and […]
Back in October I wrote a blog post featuring 10 Jazz Musicians You Should Follow On Twitter. I promised that it would be the start of an “ongoing, if irregular, series”. So far it’s been more irregular than ongoing! Today I officially make the series ongoing, but with a twist. Instead of focusing on jazz […]
All Jason Parker Quartet albums, including our newly released “No More, No Less”, have been on sale all week. Everyone who is on my mailing list got notice of the sale on Monday and have been taking advantage of it all week. Thanks to all who have grabbed copies so far. Today is the last […]
The year-end lists are flooding in, and the jazz blogosphere is replete with best-of’s. I thought I would put my own spin on it and put the spotlight on the amazing jazz talent we have right here in the Emerald City. So I spent the better part of my birthday researching and compiling this list. […]
This past Saturday my band Water Babies played a double-bill at a The Comet Tavern with our friend, saxophonist Lee Redfield. Lee’s band plays pop covers in a jazz style, funkier soul-jazz tunes and some more free, modal kinds of explorations. Water Babies plays what we call “Spontaneous Funk”, which is all improvised funk music. […]
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