Smooth Jazz for Scholars 2012 date/lineup December 25, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal.add a comment
Two days ago, I visited keyboardist Jay Rowe’s website to see if there was info on the 2012 Smooth Jazz for Scholars, the tenth overall. There was:
I am pleased to announce that next year’s Smooth Jazz For Scholars show featuring Paul Taylor, Nick Colionne, Chieli Minucci, Nelson Rangell and Shilts will be held May 5, 2012 at the Parsons Complex [auditorium] located at 70 West River Street Milford, CT. 06460. Tickets are now on sale for $40 each and the first 200 tickets sold will be reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased by sending a check or money order payable to Smooth Jazz For Scholars Inc. to P.O. Box 3723 Milford, CT. 06460.
This will be my sixth year in attendance.
Here is how the 2011 show went.
5/7 UPDATE: This year’s recap is up.
Steve Cole at Houndstooth recap; Fall Foliage November 13, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel, Weather.add a comment
Updated at the end with feedback from Steve.
Last night, saxophonist Steve Cole performed at Houndstooth Pub, a few blocks north of Penn Station. For me, Houndstooth has become the new IMAC. December 4 will mark one year since my first show there.
I didn’t have a ride to the Wantagh LIRR station. So, I walked there in the late afternoon around sunset. (The days are short this time of year.) Along the way, I took pictures of noteworthy foliage.
This is a tree on Briard Street:
The corner of Briard and Island Road:
Stephen Lane:
Ella Road:
Beech Street:
Across from Wantagh Elementary School:
South of Bunker Avenue:
Then, I put the camera away and didn’t take it out of my travel bag until 8PM at Houndstooth.
Ed Tankus of Blue Plate Radio welcomed the sold-out crowd, introduced Steve Cole, and then Steve introduced himself:
Steve played tenor sax:
He was joined by Carl Carter on bass:
JJ Sansaverino on guitar:
Steve Williams on drums:
And Bill Heller on the keyboard:
When I walked down the stairs, I saw a Kurzweil PC3x keyboard and knew Bill would be in the band. It was a pleasant surprise.
SET LIST
SET 1
1. Off Broadway (NY LA, 2003)
2. So Into You (Between Us, 2000)
3. Just A Natural Thang (True, 2006)
4. Undun (The Guess Who cover) (Moonlight, 2011)
5. Angel (Sarah McLachlan cover) (Moonlight, 2011)
6. Got It Goin’ On (Between Us, 2000)
SET 2
7. Thursday (Spin, 2005)
8. Curtis (True, 2006)
9. When I Think of You (Stay Awhile, 1998)
10. Sugar (Stanley Turrentine cover)
11. Our Love (Stay Awhile, 1998)
“Undun” intro:
“Got It Goin’ On” featured solos from Bill…
…and Carl:
JJ had a guitar solo on “Thursday”:
“Curtis” had a long and interesting backstory, which Steve told before playing it:
Steve invited up his friend Dave Hiltebrand to stand in on bass for “Sugar”:
Dave’s bass solo:
Steve Williams’ drum solo:
End of “Sugar”:
The last song of the night was “Our Love”:
The last note:
This night is history.
Steve Cole is very entertaining, funny, wild, sensitive, and soulful. We saw all sides last night. Thanks to Steve, Steve Williams, Carl, JJ, Bill, Dave, and Steve Butler of Mighty Music Corp. It was a fun few hours.
11/14 UPDATE: This album began with foliage pics on my walk to the train station. I took a few more this afternoon in my front and back yards:
11/15 UPDATE: I linked to this recap on my Facebook wall and tagged Steve in the link description. Today, he left a comment:
Thanks for the kind words Mike! I’m so glad you came, and had a great night….
CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri on WCWP October 22, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, TV.add a comment
UPDATE: Pictures from the WCWP 50th Anniversary Celebration
Early this morning at 1:00, CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri aired on WCWP-FM. It’s part of the 50th anniversary of Homecoming Weekend which started last night at 7:00 and ends late tomorrow night.
I recorded my show a few weeks ago. And it’s a good thing I did because I’m coming off a cold and my voice isn’t quite at 100% yet. (I took my last of five antibiotics a half hour before writing this post.)
Below are the audio and video version of the aircheck recorded from the board a few weeks ago. The legal ID that played between hours of my show was recorded from the stream and added to the aircheck file. The video was recorded from my camcorder and mixed with the aircheck audio in Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0.
CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri – 10/22/11 Aircheck
And this is the complete playlist with written notes (click to view larger):
The “separate page” was a scan of the liner notes for “Anything’s Possible” and “One for Shorty.” I originally credited everyone on those tracks, but had to edit them out for time.
This evening, I’ll be at the Top of the Commons at C.W. Post for the WCWP 50th Anniversary Celebration. I hope to have pictures for a later post.
10/23 UPDATE: Rather than upload pictures to the blog, I’ve made my Facebook album of pics from last night public. Click here to see them.
Matt Marshak with Oli Silk & Joey Sommerville recap October 2, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel, Weather.add a comment
Click here for my previous Matt Marshak show recap.
I was at the Houndstooth Pub last night to see Matt Marshak with Oli Silk and Joey Sommerville perform. Thinking the show was at 7:00, I left for the Wantagh LIRR station at 5:00 for the 5:18 train to Penn Station. Before I left the house, it still felt warm and barely humid outside, but on the platform at the train station, it felt cool and dry. It’s a good thing I brought a jacket. I also brought an umbrella, which came in handy for the four-block walk to Houndstooth. For the second day in a row, small bands of rain developed and moved their way north-northwest. The tri-state area was on the northeast side of an upper-level low pressure system centered over Pennsylvania. That’s still the case as I type. When I got to Houndstooth at 6:25, I was informed that the show was at 8:00 rather than 7:00. So, I had to wait in the entrance for close to ten minutes until the lower level, where the show was, was opened up.
Once the doors opened, the seats at the tables and bar (where I sat) gradually filled up. There were few empty seats left by show time. After an introduction from Eulis Cathey of WBGO (whose show I put on for a few minutes while writing the early part of this post), it was time to begin.
Matt Marshak played guitar:
Oli Silk on the keyboard:
Joey Sommerville on trumpet:
Kenny Harris on bass:
And Carl “C-Man” Anderson on drums:
I was there for the first set before they took a break. Here’s what they played:
(NOTE: Joey came to the stage after the song 2, did not play on song 7.)
1. On the Rocks
2. S.O.S.O.S.! (Oli Silk)
3. Swag (Joey Sommerville)
4. Teddy P – Kenny Harris, vocals
5. A Silent Knowing
6. Moonshadows (Joey Sommerville)
7. Get Out Claws (Oli Silk)
8. Like You Mean It (Joey Sommerville) – Joey S., vocals
9. I Will Be With You – Kenny Harris, bass solo; Carl Anderson, drum solo/vocals
(singing): “Swing yo’ hips (4x) like you mean it!”
Joey took to the audience midway through “Like You Mean It”:
“I Will Be With You” had two major solos. First from Kenny Harris…
…and then Carl Anderson:
The C-Man got a standing ovation:
The last note of the set:
You couldn’t ask for a better night: a packed house and outstanding music from outstanding players.
10/4 UPDATE: Check out Katherine Gilraine’s recap.
WCWP Homecoming Weekend Radio Show! October 1, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.1 comment so far
I was back at WCWP (on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University) yesterday afternoon to record a radio show – CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri – that will air during the station’s 50th Anniversary Edition of Homecoming Weekend. You can hear it Saturday, October 22, from 1AM to 3AM Eastern; Friday, October 21, from 10PM to midnight Pacific. If you’re outside the signal range, head to the WCWP website and click on “88.1 WCWP” to hear the stream.
16 hours later, I’ll be at the 50th Anniversary Celebration dinner at the Top of the Commons. It should be an exciting event, as will the rest of the weekend. WCWP has been on the air for 50 years, and I’m glad to have contributed to one-fifth of that. Wednesday, October 5, marks the 10th anniversary of my first radio show – the maiden voyage (as I called it) of The Mike Chimeri Show.
Chieli Minucci & Special EFX concert recap 2 September 17, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal.add a comment
Friday was day two of the annual Long Beach Jazz Festival. Fall was in the air outside one week early. The festival’s main venue is the Long Beach Public Library‘s auditorium. The second of two shows in the auditorium that night featured Chieli Minucci & Special EFX, whom I last saw a year ago at Sounds of Brazil.
The auditorium was packed to the gills. And a few of the people I saw two nights earlier at the Dharma All Stars gig were present.
Chieli Minucci was on electric guitar…
…and acoustic guitar:
Jay Rowe on keyboards:
Jerry Brooks on bass:
And Lionel Cordew on drums:
SET LIST
1. Courageous Cats
Originally heard on: “Jewels,” 1995 (Chieli solo album)
2. Greenway North
Originally heard on: “Modern Manners,” 1985
3. Ascension
Originally heard on: “Sweet Surrender,” 2007
4. Nature Boy
Originally heard on: “Confidential,” 1989
Chieli played solo guitar on this.
5A. My Girl Sunday
Originally heard on: “Sweet On You,” 2000 (Chieli solo album)
5B. Miami
Originally heard on: “Masterpiece,” 1999
6. Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers
Originally heard on: “Renaissance,” 1996 (Chieli solo album)
7. New Bop
Originally heard on: “Sweet Surrender,” 2007
8. Kickin’ It Hard
Originally heard on: “Night Grooves,” 2003 (Chieli solo album)
Jay’s “Courageous Cats” keyboard solo:
Chieli switched to acoustic guitar for “Nature Boy” and “My Girl Sunday”:
“My Girl Sunday” began with solo improv by Jay:
Lionel’s “New Bop” drum solo:
The last note of “Kickin’ It Hard”:
The band left to a standing ovation:
Their next stop is Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, next Friday for a jazz festival there.
Dharma All Stars recap 7 September 15, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Comedy, Jazz, Music, Personal, TV.1 comment so far
Last night, I went to see John Favicchia‘s band, the Dharma All Stars, at The Brokerage, a comedy club in Bellmore, just a short trip from my house.
The players were the same as the last time I saw them 13 months ago. Chieli Minucci was on guitar:
Bill Harris on the tenor sax…
…and alto sax:
Nick Lazarev on bass:
Misha Tsiganov on the keyboard:
And John Fav on drums:
I was there for the first set. Here’s what was played:
1. Horizons
2. Coincidence
3. Sing a Song of Songs (Kenny Garrett cover)
4. Bodybeat (Special EFX cover)
5. Kukuc
Bill switched to alto sax for “Bodybeat”:
Bill switched back to tenor on “Kukuc”:
The Dharma All Stars will return to the Brokerage on Wednesday, October 12, at 8PM.
My 9/11 experience September 10, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Football, Hockey, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, TV.1 comment so far
The following is an excerpt from a written summary of a 9/11 portfolio I made at the end of the Fall 2001 semester (December 16) at C.W. Post for my Broadcasting 1 course, edited for brevity and accuracy:
It was 9:10 a.m. on September 11. I just wanted to see what Regis [Philbin] and Kelly [Ripa] were talking about [on Live with Regis and Kelly]. So, I put on Channel 7 (WABC), and [saw] John DelGiorno in NewsCopter 7 showing smoke rising from both towers of the World Trade Center. I had no idea how it had happened, but after flipping from station to station, and seeing the various replays, I knew. At the time, it was considered that two planes accidentally crashed into the two towers, especially after the first plane hit, and that perhaps these were [small planes]. But, of course, they were two Boeing 767s; one was American Airlines Flight 11, and the next was United Airlines Flight 175. As more time passed, we got a better idea that this was a terrorist attack of some sort. It was made clear when it was reported that two planes had been hijacked and disappeared from radar, and especially clear when at [9:37], there was a fire at the Pentagon, which turned out to be from American Flight 77. As all this was going on, I tried to go about my regular activities and get ready for my day at C.W. Post. At [9:58], I was in my parents’ bedroom, standing, towel in hand about to shower, watching Channel 4 (WNBC) and listening to Howard Stern, which my parents had on. We were looking live at the two burning towers, and then, as I looked away for a second [at 9:59], I turned back as my dad made a shocking remark. “The building just collapsed,” he said in horror. “Oh, my God.” And I indeed saw the South Tower collapsing in on itself. My heart sank as many stories as the tower; it was the most chilling thing I had seen since United 175 crash[ed] into that same tower. I continued to get ready, now further terrorized, and then at 10:29, as my mom and I were getting into our car to head up to campus, my dad came out the front door. I lowered my window, and he told us that the other tower had collapsed [one minute earlier]. I didn’t know what that looked like until I saw the replay on CNN at the Hillwood Cinema. As I watched the North Tower, with antennas and transmitters collapse, I let out a long, horrified groan. That is all I will say about how September 11 was for me. …
Addendum:
Classes were suspended in the afternoon and didn’t resume until Thursday. So, I needed a ride home in the mid-afternoon. I couldn’t get through to either of my parents for that ride. When I walked past Humanities Hall, I found my Human Values professor from two semesters prior, John Lutz. Dr. Lutz was gracious enough to give me the ride home I needed. We listened to 1010 WINS for much of what turned out to be a long ride. Traffic was heavy nearly the entire way home. Lutz is still teaching at C.W. Post, now as an assistant professor of English. If you happen to read this, Dr. Lutz, I can’t thank you enough for your help on that chaotic day ten years ago.
I was so overcome with emotion that I wasn’t in the mood to listen to any music (on CDs or MP3s on the computer) for up to week. Yet, I had a song in my head that I couldn’t repress. As the song looped, I kept visualizing either the two towers on fire after being hit or the image from NewsCopter 7–one that got replayed repeatedly–of United 175 flying diagonally into the South Tower. It was chilling, as I said in my summary. When I wasn’t watching the nonstop coverage on that day and the days ahead, I watched syndicated reruns of The Simpsons that I had been taping for a year. (I gave that up in 2006.) It was a theraputic escape from the insanity of real life.
I’ll conclude this post with a few pictures. These were taken on a return trip to Ground Zero while shooting my senior project: a documentary about Joe Falco, a now-retired FDNY firefighter who survived the collapse of the South Tower:
And the following links:
Rick Folbaum Recounts Horrors of Reporting From Ground Zero on 9/11; Reveals Chilling Video From the Scene
Remembering 9/11: Incredible Raw Video Shows Rick Leventhal Interviewing Survivors at Ground Zero as North Tower Collapses
Janice Dean’s look back
PHOTOS: 10 Years After Sept. 11 Attack, Amazing Before-and-After Photos of Ground Zero & World Trade Center Site
TV News Reflects on 9/11/01: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, NBC’s Anne Thompson
TV News Reflects on 9/11/01: Bloomberg TV’s Michael McKee, FNC’s Shepard Smith and Rick Leventhal
VIDEO: Flashback: 9/11 as it happened
AUDIO: Steve Somers’ 9/10/11 monologue on WFAN
H/T for six of the eight links to Johnny Dollar’s Friday and Saturday links pages.
Further addendum: I want to be fair and share this link passed along to me via e-mail by Liz Potter: My Fellow American
Ms. Potter contacted me after I brought up Joe Falco in my Bolder Fresher recap:
I went with my dad and we were joined later by family friend Joe Falco. Joe is a former FDNY firefighter who survived the collapse of the World Trade Center’s south tower on September 11, 2001. My college senior project was a documentary featuring his recollections and a return to Ground Zero where he retraced his steps.
Since it was a passing reference to 9/11, I politely declined linking. Now that I’ve made a direct reference with this post, it’s only fair that I link.
9/12 UPDATE: I have another video link: Fox Sports and the NFL’s 9/11 Remembrance. Just over three minutes in, there is a rousing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed by Jim Cornelison at Soldier Field. Here’s a little background on from his YouTube channel:
Irene, Five Days in Freeport September 8, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Comedy, DVD, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.4 comments
After 26 years of barely missing hurricanes, or at least direct hits, Long Island’s luck ran out last weekend.
On a Friday afternoon, September 27, 1985, Hurricane Gloria, a fast-moving Category 2, made landfall near Long Beach. 25 years and 11 months later, it was Irene’s turn. Though Hurricane Irene was barely a Category 1 when it made landfall on Coney Island last Sunday morning (immediately weakening to a tropical storm), it wasn’t moving as fast as Gloria and it came during high tide rather than low tide. The south shore of Long Island got pounded. Over 500,000 Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) customers, including myself, were without power at the height of the storm. Either giant limbs or uprooted trees fell on power lines or transformers caught fire. I lost power at 1:30 AM Sunday because of the latter. (Also, the sub-station in Plainedge that we were linked to was badly damaged.)
I prepared my bedroom for the worst by covering up some belongings, including CDs, and putting them on the floor:
I spent Saturday night and much of Sunday in the basement and on the main floor, only going to the top floor in the afternoon to take a [cold!] shower. While preparing my room on Saturday, I found a lucky rabbit’s foot. I kept it close by or in my shorts pocket.
I don’t know if the rabbit’s foot was the cause, but our house was spared. The only damage for us was smaller branches and twigs, and leaves falling around the house. I took these pictures Monday morning in the front and back yards under a partly-to-mostly sunny sky:
I put everything I had put on the floor back where they were before on Sunday night. This picture was also taken Monday morning:
More pics from Monday near my house:
I stayed home without power until Monday afternoon when a family friend in Freeport was nice enough to let me stay with them until power was restored at my house. Villages like Freeport that have their own utilities didn’t lose power for long. If only that were the case for LIPA customers. Some didn’t get it back until early this week. I got it back 3:30 PM Friday. The family friend was without FiOS (for reasons I won’t get into), so I was stuck with radio, wireless internet (on my laptop), and mobile web (on my cell phone). I also passed the time by going for walks, listening to music on my iPod, and playing video games. I hadn’t played Game Boy or Game Boy Advance games in ages until last week. I brought my camera on one of those walks and stopped by my late grandparents’ old house and Cow Meadow Park (swatting mosquitoes along the way):
Before getting to the old house and Cow Meadow, I saw a sad sight walking up the block where the friend lives. Curbs on both sides of the street had flood-damaged carpeting, couches, and appliances waiting to be picked up. I used to live in southwest Freeport. So, I know what it’s like to get flooding from the bay in the bottom floor of the house. I got that during the aforementioned Gloria, and Nor’easters in December 1992 and March 1993. Within months of those last two storms, I had moved to a part of Wantagh that’s a few miles inland.
Back at the friend’s house, she had the complete run of I Love Lucy on DVD. I got into that show years ago when it was on Nick at Nite. My love for it was rekindled. I watched the latter seasons while the friend had them on.
The ride home late Friday afternoon was great. I knew I’d be returning home to electricity and cable, albeit with an empty refrigerator. Before leaving, I thanked the family friend for putting up with me for five days. I returned the favor this Tuesday when I stayed at her house while she was at work to be present for a Cablevision technician to install their services–iO, Optimum Online, Optimum Voice–in place of Verizon’s–phone, FiOS internet, FiOS TV.
Three footnotes:
1. As I type this post, Hurricane Katia is about to turn northeast and move away from the U.S. East Coast. Good.
2. There were plenty of columns and blog posts in Irene’s aftermath that downplayed the storm and/or reprimanding the media for overhyping it. Many media did overhype it, but damage is damage. Downed trees are nothing compared to massive flo0ding, whether from storm surge or rivers overflowing from nonstop rain. Residents of New Jersey, Eastern New York State, and Vermont are among those that got the latter. And the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee in the last few days have only added to the flooding.
3. I stumbled upon a blog post that offers the Washington, D.C. area perspective. It’s written by freelance writer Kristine Meldrum Denholm: How I’ve dodged the demise of the east coast, part II: Goodnight, Irene. There was minimal damage in her neighborhood and she never lost power. Kristine is not alone. My neighbors two houses to the west of me never lost power, neither did my piano teacher in Freeport.
4. Yet another link: Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean summed up Irene at her blog last Monday.
9/27 UPDATE: It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will mark one month since Irene made landfall here. And as I noted at the top, Hurricane Gloria whizzed (compared to the slower Irene) through Long Island 26 years ago today. Since I wrote this post a few weeks ago, a few more Atlantic tropical cyclones have formed and none have directly impacted the U.S. (Knock on wood.) In checking the August archives at the website Johnny Dollar’s Place, I found an interview John Gibson did with Janice Dean on his Fox News Radio show. It took place on August 29, the day after landfall:
12/30 UPDATE: Irene was the #1 tri-state area news story in WCBS 880′s countdown of the top 11 stories of 2011:
… But Sunday morning, August 28, we knew the caution was called for.
Irene swept ashore in Brigantine, battered New Jersey, then crossed Coney Island at 9 a.m. on a path for New England.
Throughout its path, Irene caused widespread destruction, left millions without power and killed 56 people.
“We are now into day three of no electricity for hundreds of thousands of Long Islanders,” reported WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs. …
Even with all that Irene turned out not to have been a hurricane when it hit our area.
Okay, fine, it wasn’t a hurricane. It was Tropical Storm Irene. It might as well have been a category 1 hurricane because it moved slow enough to cause the same amount of damage.
You can read and listen to the rest here.
2011 in review December 31, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, TV.add a comment
The following is a WordPress post for my blog, edited by me with editorials (like this one) in italics.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to see the complete report (link removed).
Why did I remove the link? It drastically slowed down my browser (Firefox) and repeatedly crashed it. I’m finishing this post in Internet Explorer. Here’s the text I copied and pasted, saving in multiple drafts between crashes:
WordPress.com presents
The Mike Chimeri Blog
2011 in blogging
Happy New Year from WordPress.com!
To kick off the new year, we’d like to share with you data on your blog’s activity in 2011. You may start scrolling!
Crunchy numbers
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,300 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In 2011, there were 43 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 225 posts. There were 861 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1gb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.
The busiest day of the year was August 21st with 236 views. The most popular post that day was Bolder & Fresher Tour at Westbury recap.
How did they find you?
The top referring sites in 2011 were:
Some visitors came searching, mostly for joyce cooling, empty stage, wwe headquarters, ken navarro, and steve scales.
What is people’s fascination with a picture of an empty Parsons Complex auditorium stage that I put in my 2008 Smooth Jazz for Scholars recap?
Where did they come from?
Most visitors came from The United States. Canada & Italy were not far behind.
Here are the stats I screencapped before Firefox crashed one time too many:
People also visited from other continents, but I can’t risk crashing my browser again to see their stats.
Who were they?
Your most commented on post in 2011 was Bolder & Fresher Tour at Westbury recap
These were your 5 most active commenters:
Perhaps you could follow their blog or send them a thank you note?
Thank you, even if you disagreed with me. And thank you, Johnny Dollar, for linking to the recap. It was the only one online. Not even Newsday wrote about the show.
Attractions in 2011
These are the posts that got the most views in 2011.
Some of your most popular posts were written before 2011. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.
I don’t know why that FBN post continues to get attention. Cablevision added it in November 2009.
As always, thank you very much for visiting. Happy 2012!