February 16 “Evening Jazz” postponed; will not be unpostponed this time February 15, 2010
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio, Weather.add a comment
I have postponed my show tomorrow night due to the snow and ice that will be in progress. This is what motivated me to unpostpone last Thursday’s show. I didn’t want to postpone consecutive shows.
See you Thursday at 7PM on WCWP.
2/16 UPDATE: I’ve been told there will be an automated jazz show tonight. So, listen and prepare to be surprised. I’m sure I will be.
February Blizzard/Shoveling/WCWP February 14, 2010
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio, Weather.add a comment
As I said in the postponed/unpostponed post, we were hit by a blizzard here on Long Island from late Tuesday night to early Thursday morning.
The most significant snow began falling Wednesday afternoon:
My dad shoveled the driveway just as the snow intensified:
I shoveled as much of the driveway as I could early Wednesday evening. Snow continued to fall:
My parents shoveled the driveway Thursday morning with my sister and I shoveling for an hour in the early afternoon. After I’d finished, I took these pictures:
At around 5PM, it was off to WCWP for Evening Jazz. I shot these pictures as I arrived:
During the second hour, I shot a couple of self-timed pictures by mounting my camera on a mic stand:
More snow is expected Monday night into Tuesday. I hope it isn’t much. Honestly, I’m ready for Spring.
February 11 “Evening Jazz” postponed; then unpostponed February 10, 2010
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio, Weather.add a comment
2/11 UPDATE: I have unpostponed tonight’s show. See you tonight.
Due to the blizzard conditions today and tonight, I have made the difficult decision to postpone tomorrow night’s “Evening Jazz.” The playlist I originally made for tomorrow will be used next Thursday.
Tomorrow will be a day of shoveling for me. I’ll be back with you on Tuesday night at 7:00 Eastern on 88.1 FM WCWP. Fred Camin is slated for Monday night.
2/11 UPDATE: I shoveled for about an hour early last night. Today, my parents shoveled what fell after I finished. Then, my sister and I shoveled a bit more. I’ll have a recap and pictures in a later post.
Evening Jazz on Tuesdays and Thursdays! January 5, 2010
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
Starting tonight, you can hear me host “Evening Jazz” on 88.1 FM WCWP. I’m hosting Tuesdays and, for now, Thursdays from 7PM to 9PM Eastern.
The show runs Monday through Thursday. Mondays and Wednesdays are hosted by Fred Camin.
Listen and enjoy!
1/24 AM UPDATE: I promoted my “Evening Jazz” involvement in a thread at The Magic Island BBS.
Jackie Mason: No Holds Barred November 7, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Comedy, Music, Personal.add a comment
This Sunday, I’m going to see Jackie Mason perform at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts.
It might be a little late to write this, but the following was posted at his website:
The Tilles center in Long Island (Greenvale, NY) is offering a special, 2 for 1 discount code for the show on November 8, 2009. To recieve this special discount, enter the code: MANIA when you purchase your tickets. Order your tickets now. This discount and tickets for the show won’t last long! To order tickets on line, click here or call (516) 299-3100.
Also, there was this promotional video:
This is my first time back at Tilles since I saw John Tesh in July, and the second time I’ve seen Jackie perform.
I won’t be taking pictures, but I will update this post with a mini-review after I come back from “Jackie Mason: No Holds Barred.” It should be a good one!
11/9 UPDATE: I had a great time. It was hilarious, as usual. And on the way out, I was able to buy a DVD of the show I went to last year (linked above).
Michael Rothbard passes away November 1, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, News, Pets, Theatre.4 comments
11/4 UPDATE: Michael’s dog Cleo passed away today. IMAC’s statement is at the bottom of this post.
Early Friday evening, I had been alerted that Michael Rothbard, Executive Director of IMAC (Inter-Media Art Center) in Huntington, New York, had passed away in the morning. It was a shocking, sudden, and sad loss.
The following was posted on the IMAC website:
Executive Director and guiding light Michael Rothbard passes away
Oct 30 2009It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of IMAC Theater’s Executive Director and guiding light Michael Rothbard.
*Service Information*
Please join us for a celebration of the life of Michael Rothbard on:
Monday November 2nd, 2009
12:30pm
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington (UUFH)
109 Browns Rd.
Huntington NY 11743
(631) 427-9547
www.uufh.orgInternment will follow immediately at Huntington Rural Cemetery
555 New York Ave
Huntington, NY 11743-4215In lieu of flowers & gifts, Kathie [Bodily] wishes donations to be made:
The Michael Rothbard Young Musicians Scholarship
Checks & money-orders made payable to:
IMAC
32 Crescent Drive
Huntington, NY 11743If you would like to pay your condolences to Kathie & the family, please feel free to stop by:
Tuesday November 3rd 2-4pm, 7-9pm
Wednesday November 4th 2-4pm, 7-9pm
Thursday November 5th 2-4pm, 7-9pm
32 Crescent Drive, Huntington, NY 11743Michael Rothbard, co-founder of the Inter Media Art Center (IMAC) in 1974 with Kathie Bodily and a dynamic force in the cultural life of Long Island for the past 34 years, passed away suddenly this morning (Oct. 30th) at Huntington Hospital.
Born in Brooklyn in 1946, Michael was an independent video producer before pursuing his vision of establishing a space where artists in all media could create and showcase their work. This vision evolved from a small media access center in the basement of a home in Halesite to an abandoned movie theater on New York Avenue in Huntington Village that became the premiere concert venue on Long Island.
Before closing its doors this past June, IMAC had inspired many imitators, but none could reproduce the spirit that made IMAC so special. That spirit was Michael, whose enthusiasm, generosity, ingenuity and indomitable energy embraced IMAC’s crew, audience, performers and especially Kathie, his loving partner.
Michael is survived by his perfect mate, Kathie Bodily, Cleo, their Golden Retriever, his sister, Lynn Carr and his niece, Melody Carr.
I’ll miss Michael very much. I know everyone else that knew him feels the same way.
11/4 UPDATE, also posted on IMAC website:
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
(Will Rogers)
On November 4th, 2009 beloved dog of Michael Rothbard and Kathie Bodily, Cleo, joined Michael in the loving embrace of the cosmos. She lived a full life, in her last days surrounded by family and friends- a joy to the end. She will rest in peace with Michael…faithful companions on a journey together.
1/26/11 UPDATE: If anyone reading this post knows where Kathie can be contacted, please pass that information along in the comment thread below. Thank you.
John Tesh Tilles Center concert recap July 13, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel.6 comments
Last Saturday, I attended John Tesh: Music & Intelligence for Your Life, Live in Concert, at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at C.W. Post.
I left for the campus at 5:00, walking to the N73 (MTA Long Island Bus) bus stop bound for Hicksville. That bus arrived at the stop around 5:15 and at LIRR Hicksville Station 25 minutes later. I passed part of the time at the adjacent Dunkin’ Donuts. Then, it was off to N20 bus stop and on to C.W. Post.
I shot this picture of the Tilles Center north entrance and Atrium exterior as I arrived:
The concert was hosted by KJOY 98.3 (WKJY-FM) and sister station Love 96.1 (WLVG-FM), both of which air “The John Tesh Radio Show.”
As of today, both station’s websites still have a video from John promoting the concert.
The KJOY version:
The Love 96.1 version:
The south entrance, adjacent to the Abrams Communication Building home of WCWP 88.1 FM and myWCWP.
The KJOY van:
The view from my seat before the concert:
KJOY’s Bill Edwards, whose weekday radio show precedes John’s, welcomed us:
Next to welcome us, and by extension warm us up, was Gib Gerard, the Tesh.com web producer:
Gib also operated the graphics emanating from the monitor during the concert.
Gib and Betsy Chase, the Vice President of Programming and Executive Producer for the radio show, look for potential bidders for the robe John wore Friday night at the Garden City Hotel:
The winning bid was $450. The money will go to feed a child through World Vision.
The winning bidder later gave the robe back so it could be bid on again.
Betsy also does the “Did You Know?” tidbits for the radio show, as she demonstrated by saying “Did you know John Tesh is from Long Island and his birthday was Thursday?”
The audience erupted in cheers:
I think that’s a yes. 🙂 (I never put emoticons in my blog posts, but it was necessary here.)
Then, it was time to begin. I apologize for some of the washed out pictures.
John’s grand entrance:
SET 1
1. Barcelona
2. Garden City
Only John and Tim Landers, the music director and bass player, performed on this one:
3. Bastille Day
This began with a bass solo by Tim:
Chelsea Ward on vocals:
Gannin Arnold on guitar:
For the next song, John shared the story of the first time he met Breeze Lee, his daughter Prima’s hip-hop ballet instructor. Then, he invited Breeze on stage:
And Breeze was interpreting the beginning of…
4. Trading My Sorrows
John can sing, too:
Everybody had a hand on vocals throughout the show, except for Breeze and drummer Dave Hooper (he might have, but I couldn’t see him from my seat).
5. Draw Me Close
John tells the audience how the song “Roundball Rock,” NBC Sports’ NBA theme, came to be:
6. Roundball Rock
He stopped midway through and brought out an NBA regulation size basketball, signed by him and the band, for an audience member to dribble to the “Roundball Rock” beat:
A girl named Shannyn came on stage and hilarity ensued.
I won’t give details, but one of her responses to a question by John led him to say, “In the 20 years I’ve been doing that, that’s the best answer we’ve ever had!”
High five!
“How ’bout a hand for Shannyn?”
INTERMISSION
Gib dressed casual for the second set to illustrate how casual this set is:
SET 2
7. Open The Eyes of My Heart
8. Give Me Forever (I Do)
John wrote this with James Ingram and performed it at his wedding to Connie Sellecca.
9. I Can Only Imagine
10. The Breeze Lee Challenge
This is where John and the band individually challenge Breeze Lee with their instrumentation; or in Chelsea’s case, vocalization. In turn, Breeze challenges the band by interpreting what they play. It is left up to the audience to decide who whether the band member wins or Breeze wins.
We start with drummer Dave Hooper…
Next, Tim Landers…
Followed by Gannin Arnold…
Chelsea Ward…
After a few lines of “At Last,” she threw Breeze a kiss:
And then, it was John’s turn:
The big finish:
The audience erupted in wild cheers and applause.
Wow! I, Mike Chimeri, think it’s safe to say Breeze Lee was your big winner!
He gave a thank you wave to the audience:
After John recalled how he, Connie, and Prima got involved in volunteering, and recommend it to the audience, it was on to…
11. Rescue
I, too, recommend volunteering.
12 (Finale). Spanish Steps
Gannin had an extended guitar solo:
Breeze Lee returned…
…to interpret wild keyboard and organ solos by John:
Throwing in the modulation wheel:
Switching to the organ:
Doubling up on organ and keyboard:
And back to keyboard:
Dave Hooper soloed on drums:
Then, the final measure of the night:
The concert was quite an experience. Not only did I hear great music and singing, but I learned a thing or two along the way. Thank you very much to everyone involved, and thank you to Betsy Chase for helping me remember what I forgot or didn’t know. Appropriately enough, now I know, and you all know, too. Thanks for reading.
7/14, 1:25 AM UPDATE: My recap has been linked to on John’s concert calendar page and concert homepage.
John Tesh at Tilles Center tomorrow! July 10, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
John Tesh will be performing at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts tomorrow night at 7:30. It will be the first time I’ve ever seen John live in concert and my first trip to the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in three months. I was there for Long Island Radio & TV Day, which, coincidentally, was held at Tilles, but in the Lobby, Atrium, and Patrons Lounge.
I don’t think this will be anything like the jazz or rock concerts, cruises, or small gigs I’ve been to. I hope I like it. I’ll have a recap up within a week.
7/12, 12:15 AM UPDATE: The concert was pretty good.
7/13 UPDATE: Here’s the recap.
IMAC closing…for now? July 3, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Media, Music, Theatre.add a comment
An exterior shot of IMAC that I took in July 2006 following a David Benoit concert.
I’m late in posting this, but here goes. The IMAC (Inter-Media Art Center) is leaving its location of 26 years in Huntington, New York. IMAC’s future is unknown, but as a semi-regular there for four years, I hope very much that it is reborn at another address. We’ll see.
IMAC executive director Michael Rothbard released this statement:
IMAC leaves the Huntington Theater
First, Kathie, our staff, Cleo and I want to thank the many patrons who have enjoyed so many of their favorite artists at the IMAC Theater over the years.
An old, decaying building with too many flaws to continue to manage, exponentially raising costs and declining support have brought us to the conclusion that it is time to move out of the building that have been renting for 26 years and pursue a new mission.
IMAC has been a pioneering organization since its inception 36 years ago when we became one of the 13 original Media Art Centers. Our mission was to establish a professional video production facility to serve Artists, non-profit organizations and independent producers from Long Island in an attempt to facilitate a whole new range of television productions that never existed before.
In 1983, IMAC was the first on Long Island to turn an abandoned theater into a non-profit performing arts center whose mission was to present a wide range of music not normally found on Long Island. In the last few years, a number of townships have revitalized their abandoned theater “eye-sores” into successful venues and a number of universities are regularly presenting programming echoing the IMAC model. Now the music and artists that we first brought to Long Island can be found at many of the new venues and we feel we are not pioneering any longer.
IMAC has decided to broaden its mission and return to its pioneering roots in a number of ways. One of our new directions will involve using electronic media to better connect audiences with venues in ways that will help increase revenues to venues and connect patrons to venues in new and easy ways. Additionally, IMAC will be available for a wide variety of arts consulting projects.
Huntington has been revered as a cultural Mecca for well over two hundred years. It’s obvious that a world class town like Huntington, being the “Little Apple”, needs a world class theater. Toward that end IMAC and the Huntington Town Supervisor, Frank Petrone will explore the possibilities of bringing back a state of the art performing arts center to Huntington.
Please stay in touch. Visit our site from time to time to see what’s going on and feel free to email us at info@imactheater.org.
Musically yours,
Michael, Kathie, Cleo and the staff
Further reading:
Newsday: Influential music hall closes in Huntington
Newsday op-ed: IMAC’s closing marks the end of the mom-and-pop music hall era
Newsday column: What’s next for Inter-Media Art Center’s founders?
Long Island Press: Exit Stage Left
Times Beacon Record: Curtain down on a quarter century
Michael Jackson: 1950-2009; covers played on my shows June 26, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
Michael Jackson, a music icon (a term that everyone seems to be using), died Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 50. In my opinion, he had his problems in other areas, but he was a great musician. He will be missed.
The first songs I remember hearing as a young boy were “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” Of course, I was able to hear many more after that. Among them, “Bad,” “Black or White,” and the duet with his sister Janet, “Scream.”
Through jazz, I discovered other songs of his. In 1988, David Benoit covered “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” on his “Every Step of the Way” album. In 1989, the late Miles Davis covered “Human Nature” on “You’re Under Arrest.” 19 years later, in 2008, Benoit would also cover “Human Nature” along with “Never Can Say Goodbye.” I also heard “Never Can Say Goodbye” covered by Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour on “A Twist of Motown” in 2003.
A few times in my six years (to date) in radio, I played two Michael Jackson covers and one Jackson 5 cover. Thanks to my overall playlist files in Microsoft Word, I can share the songs and the artists who covered them and what shows I played the songs on:
Miles Davis, “Human Nature” (You’re Under Arrest, 1989):
- 11/16/01, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 4/26/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 9/27/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 11/15/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 12/31/03, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 11/4/04, The Instrumental Invasion (WGBB)
Chuck Loeb, “Rock With You” (Listen, 1999)
- 9/27/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 1/30/03, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- 12/30/04, The Instrumental Invasion (WGBB)
- 6/17/07, Block 1 (6PM-9PM, 12AM-3AM, 6AM-9AM, 12PM-3PM), MCJN: Mike Chimeri Jazz Net (my Live365 Internet Radio station, May 22 to July 7, 2007)
- 7/5/07, Block 1, MCJN: Mike Chimeri Jazz Net (Live365 Internet Radio)
Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour, “Never Can Say Goodbye” (A Twist of Motown, 2003):
- 2/25/04, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
- Evergreen Show #5 (pre-recorded 3/3/04), The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
MP3: Airchecks from shows featuring Michael Jackson covers
Outside of radio, I heard “I Want You Back” (the Jackson 5) and “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” (the Jacksons) covered at previous Smooth Jazz for Scholars concerts. The latter was in 2007 and the former in 2007 and 2009.
MikeChimeri.com 