SJFS 2012 recap May 7, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Film, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Video.add a comment
Jay Rowe‘s tenth annual Smooth Jazz for Scholars began with:
1. Hit the Bricks
Featured musicians: Foran High School Jazz Band
Jay came out at the end of the song. Hidden from view was Dave Anderson on bass, seen here one song later:
Rounding out Jay’s band was his Special EFX bandmate Lionel Cordew on drums:
And Steve Scales (left) on percussion:
It was an overcast evening outside the Parsons Complex Auditorium in Milford, Connecticut. But inside, the sun was shining. This year’s show featured guitarists Rohn (“Ron”) Lawrence, Nick Colionne, and Chieli Minucci; and saxophonists Paul “Shilts” Weimar, Paul Taylor, and Nelson Rangell.
After we “Hit the Bricks,” Kevin McCabe and keyboardist Jay Rowe introduced the rest of the show:
Then back to the music:
2. Rosemary’s Tune (Jay Rowe)
Originally heard on: “Live at Daniel Street,” 2011
Featured musician: Rohn Lawrence (guitar)
Video:
3. Lambeth Strut (Shilts)
Originally heard on: “Going Underground,” 2010
Featured musicians: Shilts (tenor saxophone), Nick Colionne (guitar)
4. Seeing Things Clearly (Shilts)
Originally heard on: “Going Underground,” 2010
Featured musician: Shilts
At the 2010 SJFS, someone in the audience requested “Rainy Night in Georgia” for Nick Colionne. Unfortunately, that wasn’t on the set list that night, but on this night, the audience got their wish:
5. Rainy Night in Georgia (Nick Colionne; Brook Benton cover)
Originally heard on: “It’s My Turn,” 1994; “Keepin’ It Cool,” 2006
Featured musician: Nick Colionne (vocals/guitar)
6. Pleasure Seeker (Paul Taylor)
Originally heard on: “Pleasure Seeker,” 1997
Featured musicians: Paul Taylor (soprano sax), Chieli Minucci (guitar)
7. Uptown East (Special EFX)
Originally heard on: “Slice of Life,” 1986
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci, Paul Taylor
8. Exotica (Paul Taylor)
Originally heard on: “On the Horn,” 1995
Featured musicians: Paul Taylor, Chieli Minucci
9. Mystical (Chieli Minucci & Special EFX)
Originally heard on: “Sweet Surrender,” 2007
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci, Shilts, Nelson Rangell (alto sax)
10. Good Evans (Shilts)
Originally heard on: “HeadBoppin,” 2006
Featured musician: Shilts
“Good Evans” began with solo piano from Jay:
With a little help from Steve Scales:
Then, Shilts and the rest of the band joined in:
11. Free as the Wind (Nelson Rangell; The Crusaders cover)
Originally heard on: “Soul to Souls,” 2006
Featured musician: Nelson Rangell
Nelson originally performed this song on tenor sax, but he went with soprano here:
Nelson also had a very involved solo:
Video:
12. The Warmth of the Sun (Jay Rowe; The Beach Boys cover)
Originally heard on: “Jay Walking,” 1997
Featured musicians: Foran High School Select Ensemble Chorus (Director: Theresa Voss), Nelson Rangell, Rohn Lawrence
In a move many didn’t see coming, at least not me…
Marion Meadows made a surprise appearance!
13. Suede (Marion Meadows)
Originally heard on: “Player’s Club,” 2004
Featured musicians: Marion Meadows, Rohn Lawrence
14. Funky Broadway (Wilson Pickett cover)
Featured musicians: Rohn Lawrence (vocals/guitar), Paul Taylor (alto sax), Shilts, Nelson Rangell
Paul switched to alto sax for the rest of the show:
15. The Night is Ours (Chieli Minucci & Special EFX)
Originally heard on: “Without You,” 2010
Featured musician: Chieli Minucci
Nelson Rangell introduced the next song this way:
This next tune that we’re gonna do for you is something that I wrote. And the title is not for the new movie that’s out, but it’ll do. This is called “A New Avenger.”
16. A New Avenger (Nelson Rangell)
Originally heard on: “Soul to Souls,” 2006
Featured musician: Nelson Rangell
“A New Avenger” featured solos by Lionel Cordew, Steve Scales, and Dave Anderson.
Lionel went first:
Steve was next:
And then, it was Dave’s turn:
Getting back to Nelson:
(NOTE: Pictures from the next two songs, and some from the finale, are screencaps, which I cropped, sharpened, and magnified in Adobe Photoshop 7.0.)
17. Sonora (Nelson Rangell; Hampton Hawes cover)
Originally heard on: “Destiny,” 1995 (alto sax); “My American Songbook, Vol. 1,” 2005 (whistling and piccolo)
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell, Chieli Minucci
It wouldn’t be a Nelson Rangell show without whistling:
Dave Anderson switched acoustic bass for this song:
Nelson switched to piccolo (below) after Chieli’s solo (above):
After a quick applause, Nelson whistled solo for about a minute before the band rejoined him.
He took a bow as he got another round of applause:
Video:
18. Prime Time (Paul Taylor)
Originally heard on: “Prime Time,” 2011
Featured musicians: Paul Taylor, Shilts, Nelson Rangell
19. Some Funky (Nick Colionne)
Originally heard on: “Feel the Heat,” 2011
Featured musicians: Nick Colionne, Rohn Lawrence
20 (Finale). Godfather J (Nick Colionne)
Originally heard on: “No Limits,” 2008
Featured musicians: Everyone (Nick – vocals)
“Godfather J” is a tribute to James Brown. Nick channeled the Godfather of Soul throughout the song.
Back on stage, Chieli played lying down for a while:
Kevin McCabe came out to drape Nick’s jacket on him:
Jay briefly left his keyboards to “play” Chieli’s guitar:
That’s it!
This was the wildest Smooth Jazz for Scholars I’ve ever attended! Who knows what next year’s show (or shows?) will bring? Here’s to ten more years, and many more after that!
Four years old April 15, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Personal.add a comment
It was four years ago today that I launched The Mike Chimeri Blog. It’s been a fun ride, even though laborious while crafting some posts. Next year is the big five-year anniversary. Until then, there are more posts ahead. Keep checking back to see them.
Briar Park April 3, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Travel.add a comment
Early in my recap of saxophonist Jessy J’s show at the Iridium in February, I said this:
The site I bought [my ticket] through, TicketWeb, listed my hometown, with the 11793 zip code, as Briar Park rather than Wantagh. I had never heard of that alternate name and a Google search was inconclusive. I reached out to my Facebook friends from Wantagh or North Wantagh through a status update, but none of them commented.
In the recap comment thread, Zach Pollack had an answer:
The area between the [Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway; NY 135] and Jerusalem [Avenue] up to the Southern State [Parkway] used to be called Briar Park. So, basically the “T” section and a little bit more. [I] hope this helps.
I told him it helped a lot. Via a screencap of Google Maps, this is North Wantagh’s “T” section:
My Grover Washington, Jr. collection February 1, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal.add a comment
From Grover’s AllMusic bio page
I was first exposed to the late Grover Washington, Jr. in 1996, the year I began listening to what was then CD 101.9 (now FM News 101.9) here in New York. “Mister Magic” was the first song I heard. Then, there were “Take Five (Take Another Five)” and “Soulful Strut.” In the early 200s, Before I wised up and bought physical CDs or digital MP3s (through iTunes or Amazon), I downloaded two of those songs through a free file-sharing program.
When my aunt moved to South Florida in 2003, she gave me a Grover compilation album. I only listened to two songs on it: “Let It Flow (For Dr. J),” a tribute to Grover’s love of Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers, and “East River Drive,” a tribute to the Manhattan parkway otherwise known as the FDR Drive.
A few years ago, with the help of my friend Matt Marron’s TWC Classics site, a tribute to The Weather Channel, I learned of many more Grover songs that were used in the Local Forecasts in the 1980s. They included “Winelight” and “Jet Stream.”
Finally, in December 2010, I took the big step and began my Grover Washington, Jr. collection of CDs. I bought:
- Winelight (1980)
- Come Morning (1981)
- The Best Is Yet To Come (1982)
- Inside Moves (1984)
- Time Out Of Mind (1989)
- Next Exit (1992)
- Soulful Strut (1996)
That was it until a few nights ago after reading an online interview with Bob James (h/t Fourplay website cross-post). Since I didn’t have Grover’s early albums in my collection yet, I didn’t think of this:
You were with CTI for a few years before your own project debuted. When did Creed Taylor interject and aid in the progression of things?
Well, I was working a lot with Creed at the time for CTI. But I was working primarily as an arranger and would play piano on other jazz artists’ records. After doing this for about two or three years, on a fairly stable basis, and being on the support staff for other artists like Grover Washington, finally Creed asked me if I wanted to do my own album. So of course I said yes. One ended up being my first [album] for CTI.
Bob appeared on Grover’s first five albums. Saturday night, I bought the last two of those five and a few after that:
- Mister Magic (1974)
- Feels So Good (1975) (Amazon MP3s)
- A Secret Place (1976) (Amazon MP3s)
- Reed Seed (1978)
- Paradise (1979)
- Strawberry Moon (1987)
Some of the early stuff is a little too fusion-y for me, but still great.
Grover Washington, Jr. died in December 1999 at the age of 56. His legacy lives on through his recordings, a generation of saxophonists inspired by him, and jazz fans like me.
LIU Post January 27, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Education, Internet, Personal.add a comment
The bus operator for Nassau County wasn’t the only thing to change on New Year’s Day. All campuses of Long Island University rebranded themselves, including C.W. Post. The C.W. was dropped and the university now goes by “LIU Post.”
The pre-rebrand press release has more:
…
On January 1, 2012, Long Island University—one of the largest and most comprehensive private universities in the nation—will rebrand itself as LIU. A bold and greatly simplified logo will be introduced. This effort represents a “double rebranding” for the University, because simultaneous with the launch, the names of LIU’s six campuses will receive shorter, more telegraphic designations, uniting them under the new LIU brand, making them more modern and memorable in a Facebook and Twitter world. For example: the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University will be referred to as LIU Post.
…
LIU Post is just another thing to get used to in 2012. Before long, it will roll off the tongue and the old habit of referring to “C.W. Post” will be broken.
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:
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.
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:
- 1 notitiae 1 comment Follow
- 2 smoothjazzdaily 1 comment Follow
- 3 Marc Gilman 1 comment
- 4 Grammie 1 comment
- 5 Bryon 1 comment
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.
- 1 Bolder & Fresher Tour at Westbury recap 8 comments August 2011
- 2 SJFS recap 14 comments April 2008
- 3 John Tesh Tilles Center concert recap 9 comments July 2009
- 4 I want my FBN…and some other channels, too. 1 comment April 2008
- 5 RnR concert recap 3 comments June 2008
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!
30,000 views! December 18, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Personal.add a comment
Overnight, The Mike Chimeri Blog reached 30,000 views. It’s all because of you, the viewer. Thank you very much.
Snowtober in Wantagh October 30, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, News, Personal, Photography, Politics, TV, Weather.add a comment
What was billed as “Snowtober” was “Rain-and-snowtober” or “Wintry mix-tober” in Wantagh for much of yesterday and last night. Just to the north and west (within Nassau County), more wet snow fell. The precipitation changed to all wet snow after 11PM.
What fell at my house only stuck to the cars in the driveway and to parts of the grass. Any cold surface accumulated snow.
Since it was the first snow we had in seven months, I took out my camera and took a few pictures. The first three pics are from around noon:
The last two were taken at 11:30, nearly twelve hours later:
A bigger concern for me was the strong gusty winds. The National Weather Service issued a High Wind Warning for Nassau and Suffolk until 6:00 this morning. This was, after all, a Nor’easter. So between that and wet snow accumulating on tree limbs, I feared downed trees, limbs, and power lines. I simultaneously flashed back to the Nor’easter of March 2010 and Irene of nine weeks ago. But the worrying was for nothing. The winds died down early this morning and the power never went out. That’s not to say it didn’t go out elsewhere on Long Island, but it wasn’t on the scale of either storms I flashed back to. I wish I could say the same for people north and west of the Island (2/11/13 UPDATE: The page I linked to in the previous sentence no longer exists).
11/3 UPDATE: Somehow, a link was made between this storm and climate change last night on NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: Everybody out East said the same thing about this freak snowstorm, “This kind of thing didn’t used to happen. This never happened before.” And while that is true, it may also be true that we’ll all have to start getting used to this kind of thing over the long haul.
I didn’t hear that. What I heard is what is noted later in Noel Sheppard’s NewsBusters post:
Yet October snows in the northeast though infrequent do occur. As AccuWeather reported Monday:
The last time that Central Park recorded measurable snow was on Oct. 21, 1952 when 0.5 of an inch fell. Prior to that, 0.8 of an inch fell on Oct. 30, 1925. […]
A record snowfall of 6.0 inches was set at Bangor, Maine, on Sunday. This broke the old record of 5.0 inches set back in 1963.
The point being that it does snow in this region in October.
…
One can only imagine what kind of storms hit this region during the Little Ice Age of the 16th through 19th centuries. But since Williams and Thompson weren’t alive, and snowfall records began in 1869, weather events earlier than that seem unimportant.
This of course is common for climate alarmists, so we shouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised.
In their view, whatever is happening today couldn’t possibly have happened before records starting being kept, and therefore all weather events outside “the norm” are considered extreme and therefore proof of climate change.
You think those still without power in Connecticut, New Jersey, and other affected areas care about that? Of course not. They just want their power back.
12/30 UPDATE: This storm was the #2 tri-state area news story in WCBS 880’s countdown of the top 11 stories of 2011:
Nineteen inches of snow in October? Even WCBS 880’s cautious chief meteorologist Craig Allen couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“There’s no way you can play this down based upon these weather maps. Almost everything is in agreement,” Allen reported.
And these flakes were falling on full foliage. All it took was a couple of inches of snow to start bringing branches down.
Hundred-year-old trees snapped like twigs. Mother Nature’s mischief night was the Halloween snowstorm of 2011.
Three million people lost electricity. …
You can read and listen to the rest here.
MikeChimeri.com 
My thoughts on Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants February 19, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Football, Internet, Media, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, TV, Video.add a comment
(Starting with the Giants’ first win against the Cowboys, I link to highlights from Dial Global Sports‘ coverage of each win.)
Two weeks have passed since the New York Giants of the National Football League won Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. So, I thought I’d take this time to share my thoughts on their win and their season.
I became a Giants fan in the early ’90s, but didn’t make an effort to watch the games until the 1997 season. I was too young to appreciate the Giants’ Super Bowl championship seasons of ’86 and ’90 and only saw it through retrospective clips and documentaries. I thought 2000 would be the year I would see them win a Super Bowl, which was held in Tampa that year. My dad and I were in the area the week of Super Bowl XXXV. We saw some NFL and media personalities at the Innisbrook Resort, where my grandparents lived, and went to the NFL Experience outside of Raymond James Stadium two days before the game. We watched the game back at Innisbrook, but it was very depressing. It left such a bad taste in my mouth I couldn’t watch highlights until after the 2007 season. Why? The Giants did the improbable, beating the undefeated New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII. I was finally old enough to see my Giants win a Super Bowl and appreciate it.
In the seasons after ’07, the Giants would get off to a hot start and then slack off in the second half. They symbolized that in one game, a collapse in a December 2010 game against the Eagles. It was devastating. They still could have made the playoffs by winning their last game of that season two weeks later, but the Packers had to lose. They didn’t, and Redskins fans made that known as they chanted for the Giants and visiting Giants’ fans: “Green Bay won! Green Bay won!” And the Pack went on to win Super Bowl XLV, but I was proud of them because they knocked out the Eagles in the Wild Card round.
The 2011 season started on a down note, a loss to the Redskins in the same venue where eight months earlier, the G-Men learned they had been eliminated from playoff contention. But then, three wins a row. After a loss to the Seahawks, they won three more. The first of those games, against the Bills, was a result I had to keep under wraps as the game was in progress. I was at the baptism (and post-baptism party) of a friend’s daughter and the brother-in-law was a Bills fan that DVR’d the game. The third of those games was a very satisfying win in New England against the Patriots. Unfortunately, past history repeated itself after that. The Giants lost four in a row to fall to 6-6. In the middle of that losing streak, I wrote the following status update on Facebook:
After the third loss in a row, a blowout loss to the Saints, I wrote:
Despite the losing streak, at 6-6, the Cowboys were not far behind at 7-5. The two teams played each other the following week at Cowboys Stadium. The Giants came from behind to win that game and led the NFC East on a tiebreaker. (Dial Global highlights.) But then they lost to the Redskins a second time, which led me to write this update:
The Giants’ next game, the second-to-last of the regular season, was a “road” game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium. The Giants usually beat the Jets in their regular season match-ups every four years, but I couldn’t see a Rex Ryan-coached Jets squad lose to the G-Men. So, thirteen hours before the game…
The opposite happened: the Giants trailed early, but stormed ahead and won 29-14. (Dial Global highlights.) The Eagles nearly shut out the Cowboys and won 20-7. The stage was set for a winner-take-all season finale between the Giants and the ‘Boys at MetLife Stadium. The result:
The Falcons blew out the Buccaneers in their last game of the regular season, so I expected the same against the Giants. Instead, it was a Giants win 24-2. An intentional grounding safety was the only Falcons score. (Dial Global highlights.)
There was no way the Giants could beat the 15-1 Packers at Lambeau Field, but they did 37-20. (Dial Global highlights.)
Then, history repeated itself again in the NFC Championship in these ways:
Joe Buck called this year’s NFC Championship for FOX TV. Before the game-winning kick by Tynes in overtime, Buck listed the snapper (Zak DeOssie), holder, and kicker. The kick was good. The Giants won 20-17 and were off to Super Bowl XLVI, a rematch with the Patriots. (Dial Global highlights.)
The next two weeks were tough because I feared a revenge-fueled blowout by the Pats, which came to me in a dream, sort of:
Four hours before Super Bowl XLVI:
I didn’t watch the game live until 9:30, when there were about four minutes left in regulation. (Dial Global highlights.) The Patriots led 17-15, but only for a few more minutes. Ahmad Bradshaw’s accidental touchdown put the Giants ahead 21-17. I breathed deeply and my extremities grew numb as I watched the Pats’ final drive. Then, at 9:53, seconds after Tom Brady’s incomplete Hail Mary pass, I swiveled my desk chair to the left and typed:
I was both relieved and excited. About $80 later, I was the proud owner (through online purchases) of the championship cap, locker room t-shirt, parade t-shirt, and DVD. There was also the matter the following day of getting the Monday newspapers, which I posed with in the guest bedroom:
Tuesday was the day of the Tickertape Parade along the Canyon of Heroes and the Victory Rally at MetLife Stadium:
The Super Bowl XLVI DVD doesn’t come out until March 6. I’ve watched the following to hold me over while I wait:
There you have it: the Giants’ 2011-12 championship season as I saw it. Thank you for reading. To paraphrase the team’s playoff catchphrase, I’m all out.