ON THE INSIDE

How I Lost 70 Pounds

2011-12-10T16:14:00.001-05:00

Back on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, in a blog post I titled "Crunch Time", I mentioned how my weight had ballooned to 270lbs and that I wanted to do something about that. Unfortunately, my good intentions were out-weighed (no pun intended) by the rigors of life as a full time musician and of being a home owner.

Time went on and then something happened.

One day in October of 2010 I was putting on a pair of slacks to wear for a gig I had later that day. They felt sort of tight. I happened to glance in the mirror (I was in profile) and I truly was appalled at what I saw. I quickly pulled out the scale and took my slacks off. I stepped on the scale and saw the needle go all the way to 280lbs!

I realized then that I was closer to being 300 lbs than I was to even being 250lbs (still overweight for my height of 6'3"). I was instantly depressed. I thought about how athletic I was in high school and college, and also about the nearly 30 medals, 2 MVPs and 1 MIP that I had won as a track star.

My depression lasted all of about 30 seconds, because I realized then that this was it. The only direction my weight gain would go would be backwards rather than forward. I'm proud to say that since the first week of October, 2010, and as of the morning of writing this blog post, I have officially lost 70lbs! I'm only 5lbs heavier than I was when I was a competing athlete in college.

Ok, enough with the background and set up, here is what I did.

STEP ONE: Figure Out Goals and Game Plan (Time Frame = 2 Days)

I already knew that one of the main reasons that some people fail at weight loss is because they don't have a game plan. I also knew that another important reason that some people fail at weight loss is because they don't set logical, realistic goals.

I decided that, in order to be successful, I needed some time to figure out a game plan and a goal that was realistic for me. I took two days from my schedule and cleared them out of as much as I reasonably could so that I would have NO DISTRACTIONS.

After much research and honest consideration, I figured that a realistic goal for me, considering my age, time I had available, current weight class, etc., was to try and get down to somewhere between 215-220lbs. This is because I didn't think my body, age, and demanding lifestyle as a musician would allow me to get down to my dream weight of 205lbs (my college weight as an athlete). I also thought that it would be realistic to give myself a year and not fall for the 5 and 6 month plans I was coming across online. People seeking weight loss often make the mistake of trying to loose too much too fast. Ultimately, they end up gaining it all back and then some!

My overall strategy was to make small changes over the course of time that would allow me to ease into an eventual and complete change in my eating and rest habits.

STEP TWO: Set the Plan in Action (Time Frame = 12 Months)

I mentioned 12 months as the time frame for this step, but in reality you can really break it down into "phases".

(PHASE I: Oct - Dec, 2010) - During the first phase of my weight loss plan I decided to completely cut out drinking soda. At the time, I was drinking up to 2 or 3 litters of soda a day. Soda was MY water! Also, since I had begun to tour a lot (which meant doing a whole lot of driving by myself), I was drinking Coca Cola for the caffeine to help keep me awake on the road. This is because I don't drink coffee.

The other thing that I did at first was to cut down my portions a bit. I still would eat ANYTHING I wanted to, just less of it. Instead of 2 slices of pizza, I would only have 1. Instead of having 2 plates full of food for dinner, I would only have 1, etc.

One other thing that I did was to stop eating past 7pm in the evening. Because of late night performances and the general demands of my schedule as a full time musician, I was often eating big meals after midnight and then going to bed about an hour or two after that. In other words, I never had the chance to burn it off.

By the way, I think it's important to mention that I substituted drinking soda with drinking seltzer water. I had come to discover that it wasn't necessarily the sweetness of the soda that I was hooked on, but the fizzle of it!

After about 2 months and loosing about 25lbs I hit my first plateau or road block. As hard as I tried I just could not break the 255lb barrier. This is when I decided that I needed to go into another phase of action...PHASE II!

(PHASE II: Dec, 2010 - Feb, 2011) - I cut out ALL fast food, with the exception of Subway, Quizno and Chipotle's. I stayed with these places because they all offered filling meals that contained less fat than comparably priced meals from McDonald's, Burger King, etc. Also, the former establishments' foods were generally less caloric than the latters'. To put it succinctly, I started watching both my calorie intake and my fat intake.

This worked! I got past the 255lb barrier and proceeded to loose about another 20lbs.

By the time I went on my February 2011 Tour I had managed to get down to about 237lbs, which is when I hit another barrier (plateau). This was a VERY tough barrier to get through. It was at this point that I realized I had to adjust and enter...

(PHASE III: Feb - June, 2011) - I pondered and pondered what my problem could be. I then realized that it was two fold. One issue was that I wasn't doing any exercising what so ever up until this point. Frankly, my schedule in both my business and personal life had become too dense. My house was in foreclosure, my wife was out of work for a total of 2 years by this point, and I was gigging and touring on the road like a mad man to try and pick up the slack. I was hoping that yet another dietary change would be enough.

Finally, I figured out that I was taking in too many carbs. I was still eating a lot of pastas and white bread. I made the switch to whole wheat and rye breads, and then cut my pasta intake by a good 80%. That did the trick! It took longer than it had for the previous phases, but by June, 2011 I had gotten my weight down to the 225lb mark. And then, you guessed it, I hit another plateau!

(PHASE IV: June - Sept, 2011) - Progress was slowing way down for me by this point. I was beginning to think that it was not feasible for me to get any lighter than I already had. It would take a lifetime search for something completely unrelated to my weight loss, and a medical scare, to get me to the next level.

In July, two things of great significance happened. The first thing was that I managed to track down my biological father and 7 half siblings that I didn't know I had. The second thing was that I began encountering spells where I would almost pass out on stage during performances.

How these two completely different things tie in together is that, when I met my second oldest brother (Kenny, who lives in New York City) for the first time, I told him about nearly passing out during several performances and how I thought it may be tied in with either my diet, or that perhaps I was encountering a blood sugar imbalance...maybe even becoming a diabetic. He then told me (and this would become useful to me again later) that the men on my father's side needed to eat frequently...five or even six times a day.

I thought about it and realized that I basically needed to speed up my metabolism. One way to do that is to eat more frequently, and also smaller (fist sized) portions at each meal. My father further advised me to take my regular 3 meals a day and simply divide them in half. This was good for another 5lbs of weight loss!

By the way, I hope you are starting to see a few patterns here. One of the patterns being that, as you get closer to what your target weight is (or perhaps should be), it becomes increasingly difficult to lose any kind of weight...certainly at the amounts that were previously possible.

(PHASE V: Oct - Dec, 2011) - An interesting thing happened to me exactly one year after I had first started trying to lose weight. I was packing up my car to go to a gig when I suddenly noticed that the large speakers that I use as part of my sound system seemed unusually heavy to me. I couldn't understand why this seemed to be the case, as I had actually had plenty of rest the night before, and was not hungry or dehydrated.

It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.

All of this time I had been focused on weight loss, but I never considered doing any weight training to minimize the loss of muscle mass I would experience from losing so much weight from dieting alone.

DUUUUUUUuuuuuuuhhhh!

I promptly set about creating a weight training routine for myself. I realized that by increasing my muscle mass, not only would I not lose anymore of my strength, but the added muscle would also help me to burn fat and keep my metabolism up. This was good for another 5lbs of weight loss over the course of about a month. My weight by the week before the Thanksgiving holiday was 215lbs.

(PHASE VI where I'm at now) - Fortunately, Thanksgiving did not add anything to me that I couldn't get rid of within 3 days of going back to my usual routine. But by now, I had decided to change my goals.

I realized that I had managed to get to my target weight range, but I felt I could actually make it to my "dream weight". Not only that, my confidence has allowed me to come up with the goal of reducing my overall body fat to around 8-10% (beach body/underwear model body) by Summer, 2012. This will take a lot of work! I think I look good now, but I'm just now curious to see what I'm capable of.

My oldest brother, Luis (he lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida), has lent me a hand by providing me with a book on weight lifting and nutrition. What he and I both like about the book is that it is all based off of several studies that have been done in the last decade. In other words, there is some science to back up what they have to offer you in terms of work outs, nutrition, etc.! The book is called "The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises". There is a similar book for women.

So anyway, following the advice in the book, I have managed to loose another 5lbs in about 2 weeks.

IN CLOSING - I think if anything is to be taken from this marathon of a blog post that I have done, it is:

1 - Set realistic goals

2 - Come up with a sensible game plan to reach those goals

3 - Plateaus will happen. Use those times to evaluate and adjust your tactics.

4 - Give yourself a realistic time frame to work with. (I first gave myself a year and am adding another 6 months to achieve my new goal).

5- It's cliche but it will take discipline, sacrifice, hard work, and time!

So, I sincerely hope that this post will help someone out there. Just remember, if a 38 year old, self employed, full time musician (who is constantly gigging and touring on the road), father of an energetic daughter, and former home owner (who had to deal with doing his own house repairs, landscaping, etc.) can loose 70lbs, so can you! : )

Written by Shenole Latimer

My Theory About How To Achieve a Successful Career in Music

2011-09-29T21:49:00.008-04:00

So, here's the big question...is it possible to make a living as a musician?

Without hesitation, my answer is a flat out yes. I have been a full time musician now since 1998 and I have managed to make a middle class living with it. But, this has not come without a price.

First of all, there is the fact that I have next to no social life at all. The reason? I spend so much time either researching opportunities for performances, or actually performing that, when I finally do have some rare free time, all I want to do is either sleep or spend a little time with my family.

Secondly, there are the rigors that my body must constantly go through. There are many late nights and, with a young daughter to raise, very early mornings. This means that I the average amount of nightly sleep I'm able to get is far below what most people experience (I average about 4 hours to 5 hours of sleep a night). I have little down time because I must constantly be doing things to keep the ball rolling. Not to mention, some of the harsh environmental conditions I have been submitted to...ie, doing high energy outdoor shows in blazing 100 degree weather, with little time to hydrate or even eat because of the lack of time available to set up. The list goes on and on.

Before I go any further, I would like to make PERFECTLY CLEAR that I am NOT complaining. I am simply trying to enlighten those who do not understand what it takes to do this for a living. I lovingly call these folks "civilians".

Now, I would like to get to the point of this blog post, which is to share my thoughts as to what I feel it now takes to have a successful career in music, especially in this new millennium and digital age that we are in. I feel that there are several ingredients or "conditions" that must exist. They are as follows:

You must start young - This is true for ANY musical genre. And, it is gravely important in regards to achieving a highly proficient level on your instrument of choice. This is because if you want to be purely a performer, you are going to spend so much time looking for opportunities that you will find time for practicing rapidly being eaten away.

You must be able to put a team of people around you - In other words, you will need to think in terms of being a small business and find a way to acquire someone to eventually take care of the researching of venues and performance opportunities, someone to handle certain aspects of your marketing, someone to do the actual phone calls to get you booked, etc.

I know a ton of musicians who read this will probably roll their eyes, but they CANNOT deny the simple fact that, as long as you must do EVERYTHING yourself, there will always be a ceiling as to how much money you can ever earn. It's simple math...the more time you must use up trying to handle the "back office" end of things, the less time is left for the actual performance end of things. The less you perform, the less money you can earn through performing or selling merchandise during that performance.

By the way, how do you compensate this team of people I'm suggesting you have? Well, that is somewhere where one must use the creativity that we are born with as artists, because that money isn't going to be there in the beginning.

You must become well established and reach a certain level of success by your late 20's - This is another thing that I think a lot of musicians are going to roll their eyes at me about, but I will hold fast in my opinion. The reason I state this is because, as one gets older, and certainly by their mid to late 20's, one will have more financial responsibilities. That's just a fact of life. There is no one out there that can tell me that their level of expenditures has not changed and gotten to be more expensive between the ages of 16 and 26.

So, when I say you must reach a certain level of success, I mean that you must reach a point in your career where you can pay ALL of your bills and still have something left over after you have done so. If you can't do that, then it is time to look at doing something else with your life before you reach your 30's and start to have to worry about even more complicated things like a significant other, or kids, or a house....you get the point.

You must master time management - I think this one is obvious! Even if you can find other people to take care of some of the other things that you must do, as I mentioned in #2, there are still so many things left to do that you will still have to take care of yourself.

You must master technology - If you are a musician (or any type of artist) and you don't have a BETTER than average command/knowledge of the internet, computers, social networking, etc. you might as well pack it all in now.

You must have some sort of game plan - I don't care how many different ways you can say this, but it is simply a fact that if you don't know where you want your destination to be, you can't possibly find a route there!

You must have a drive that is so strong that it borderlines on fanaticism - This is such an important ingredient! Music and the arts in general are so challenging to make a living at and be successful that I feel that you actually need to be a little bit "crazy" to do it. There are so many factors that are constantly working against you, and you will face so much rejection, and so many people telling you that this or that can't be done (most notably, even some of your closest relatives), that you honestly must have the absolute strongest of convictions to stay the course.

So, certainly I think most of the musicians who read this will think I'm full of it or don't know what I'm talking about. But, as I was careful to mention at the top of all of this, this is MY theory or opinion.

Of course, any of this could be completely offset if one were to get super lucky, be discovered or signed to some sort of big record deal. However, these are simply not likely scenarios. The overwhelming majority of musicians and artists out there are "D.I.Y." (Do It Yourself).

So why am I writing all of this?

I'm not doing this to vent my frustrations...I'm not frustrated! I'm doing this because (A) I think "civilians" need to have a better understanding of those of us out there who are serious about what we are doing as artists and that we are not all flakes, as is commonly perceived, and (B) if a young person should happen to stumble upon this blog, and actually take the time to read all of this, I want them to know the honest truth about what being a musician really means...especially if you want to actually make a living at it.

This is not for everybody and it most certainly is not a game. And even if it were a game, this would be chess, not checkers!

by Shenole Latimer

A Little News Update: Vlog Post 26

2011-09-05T17:28:00.001-04:00

Possible Crossroads?

2011-08-08T21:56:00.008-04:00

I personally believe that there comes a time, at least once in everyone’s life, when there is a special convergence of forces that can dictate the rest of how that person’s life will progress… a crossroads, if you will. I believe I may have reached such a point in my life.

I’ll start with things concerning music.

To date, I have completed several extremely successful tours with my program “What’s All That Jazz About?”. Without exception, every single venue has asked me to make a return. But, what pleases me the most are the connections I’ve made. One connection I am particularly happy to have made is with a musician that I met in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by the name of Daniel Z, who would very much like to become a partner of mine in expanding my programming.

The timing of meeting Daniel is interesting, as I had just been complaining about my lack of help in my endeavors. I had also begun to think about expanding my programming to encompass more venues along the east coast. Plans have also begun towards my first sortie into the west coast.

Then there are some physical matters that have been of recent concern.

My hands are starting to show the signs of too many hours on the computer in an unnatural position. I have continued numbness in the last three digits of each hand, making it more difficult to type and, most unnervingly, making it more difficult to play my saxophone. But this isn’t where my physical concerns end. I have also been experiencing light-headedness, shortness of breath, and some weakness on a few of my recent performances when it has been the hottest and I have had to perform outdoors. Interestingly enough, I usually feel better after eating some food.

Could this be a sign of diabetes, high blood pressure, or even heart disease? One thing I know is that my body is clearly trying to tell me that it is nearing its limits pertaining to the type of daily abuse it must endure in order to maintain self-employment as a fulltime musician.

Now I shall move into an occurrence that is more of a personal nature.

When I was about two months old, my mother and father decided to separate from each other. Absolutely all contact was lost with my father and I was subsequently raised by my mother and grandmother. Later, my stepfather George Clark stepped into the picture. Unfortunately, my stepfather passed away on August 6, 2010. In any case, growing up, I had always had a curiosity about my biological father. I wanted to know who he was, how I may be similar or dissimilar to him, and whether or not I may have any half-brothers and sisters.

Just recently, in what seemingly would only be nearly impossible feat, I managed to find my biological father! Not only that, but I have also found out that I have seven half-brothers and sisters. I have met all of my siblings except my youngest brother, who was on a trip to Bolivia with his mother, and two of my sisters who live in Canada and that the rest of my family had lost touch with within the past few years. And, of course, I have had the opportunity to meet my father face to face.

One of the things that I find so striking is that none of the males on my father’s side of the family, not counting my youngest brother because he is only 6 years old, are shorter than six feet, three inches tall. Another thing that I find interesting is how similar my father, my two oldest brothers, and I are to each other. That is to say, that all four of us have the spirit of an entrepreneur, are intelligent, are very computer and internet savvy, and are readily comfortable talking to and approaching people.

So what is the point of all of this?

All of these things have occurred within an incredibly short amount of time, making me feel like there is both a convergence of forces taking place in my life, and that I am at an important crossroads of sorts. I have this strong sensation that the decisions I make at this juncture can have a massive impact on the rest of my life. There are other factors and occurrences that I have omitted for the sake of saving time and space within this blog entry, but suffice it to say that there are too many things, that potentially carry great significance to me, that are happening all at once or in near synchronicity.

My situation reminds me of the “choose your own adventure” books that were popular when I was a young teenager. Do I step into one doorway of the unknown or the other? The thing is, this time I can’t cheat and look ahead at what awaits me.

By Shenole Latimer

New Life for "Shenole Latimer.Com"!

2011-06-01T23:27:00.008-04:00

Since October of 2010, I've been saying that I was working on an updated version of my website and that it would be launched "soon".

Well, 8 months later I'm finally on the threshold of the relaunch of www.shenolelatimer.com . To find out more, check out the video for some details and I'll see you at the relaunch!

By Shenole Latimer

Back on Track!

2011-03-31T07:02:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago marks FIVE YEARS since I had completed recording my last album and this coming October will mark FIVE YEARS since my last album was commercially released! Last year I had geared up to do my sophomore album as a band leader, only to have to put the project on hold.

What has been the hold up?

Life!

My original intent with this upcoming album was to call it "A Day in the Life of...", but with all of these delays, I feel like calling it "A Decade in the Life of..."! So anyway, at long last things are back on track, Tierra Records is happy, I'm happy, and the guys in my quartet are all ready to get going.

The music for this project will once again be a little more ecclectic than most jazz recordings. This time, it isn't because I'm trying to show off my versatility as a musician. Actually, the ecclectic collection of selections comes from the fact that (A) this album will be comprised by all original compositions of mine and (B) I did not try to force any of the songwriting to make it all sound like the same style of jazz or what have you. I simply wrote each song the way I heard it inside my head.

I don't know what that says about what's going on inside my head!

The actual recording date has not quite been set yet, but I can say that the recording will take place in October, 2011. In fact, I can narrow things down a little more for you and say that there is a 99% probability that the recording will take place sometime during the week of October 23rd. I just haven't decided on which day yet (we will be tracking the album all in one marathon recording session over the course of a 12 hour day).

Once the tracking is done, it will probably take anywhere between 2 and 4 months to mix the album, about another 2 or 3 weeks for it to be mastered and shipped to manufacturing, and finally about another 2 or 3 weeks for it to be available for ordering and download. So, with all of that said, the actual release will most likely be sometime within the first half of 2012. Who knows, maybe the release date will end up being on the anniversary of the recording date of my previous album...making it SIX YEARS since I recorded "Front and Center". There are a lot of variables in play, but the main thing is to get the tracking done.

By the way, the line up will be Art Hirahara on piano, Thomson Kneeland on bass, Kyle Struve holding down the drums, and of course me on saxophones. There might be a track with some guitar on it, and possibly one with mandolin, but I haven't made a final decision on those tracks yet.

In any case, all I can say is that I'm just real happy that things are back on track and that it looks like I will finally have a chance to follow through with this project!

Stay tuned for more news about "A Day in the Life of..."!

by Shenole Latimer

February, 2011 Tour: Reflecting Back

2011-03-06T10:23:00.022-05:00

Well it is now March and I've been home from my first tour of the year for 2 weeks. Actually, that isn't entirely acurate because I've really only been home for 1 full week. As soon as I came home from my tour, I had to hit the road again for a few days because of some performances I had in New Jersey and also in Buffalo, New York.

In any case, now that I've had a quick second to breath, I figured now wouldn't be a bad time to reflect upon the tour and how I think things went. It's true that, every single time I go out on the road, I learn something new. This tour would be no exception!

I guess the first thing I should do is mention that, as a whole, this tour had to have been my most successful to date. Not only was I very well received in all of the new regions I visited, I managed to meet some wonderful people and make a number of great connections in new markets for me. I even had the chance to do a few things that weren't planned, like getting on stage and singing with Jefferson Starship during their concert at the Magic City Casino in Miami, meeting Bonnie Tyler and spending some time with her and her husband in their tour bus, and even seeing old friends that I haven't seen in years.

It certainly was my most ambitious to date, with 26 bookings in 17 cities located over a total of 5 states in the southeastern portion of the United States. However, beyond my blanket statement of, "everything went great", here are some things I learned, observed, etc.:

What To Pack? - This is something I agonize over everytime I have to hit the road. It doesn't have so much to do with what clothes I should bring, but more so with how much equipment should I take along. I'm slowing learning where the areas are that I can compromise with in regards to bringing certain items.

The main thing is, I need to have a good understanding of the venues involved. That enables me to figure out what is the maximum and minimum audio requirements I'll need. This tour was probably the best I've done in that department, but I do see room for improvement and will undoubtedly be able to take even less gear next time around.

Eating Habbits - I have actually got eating down to a science! I've been watching what I eat anyway, because I'm trying to loose weight. In october I reached the heaviest I have ever been in my life...275lbs! Since October and watching my diet, I have lost about 40lbs, but would like to loose about another 30lbs. My goal for my 6'3" frame is to reach the 205lbs.

That said, I mostly ate chicken and turkey instead of beef, rice, a variety of vegitables, and drank mostly water. If I did have fast food, it was either Panera Bread, Chipotle, or Boston Market. The time I had to get away from this a bit was when I was in the deep South...the pan handle of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Pretty much the only choices I had regarding food was either deep fried or came in the form of "all-yo-can-eat" buffets.

Lastly, it seems that the $25/day food allowance that I set for my tour budget is the magic number. I was able to eat just fine and actually ended up spending less than $25 a day on a number of occasions.

Rest Habbits - This tour was the most well rested, over all, I have been on a tour...ever! That's not to say that I wasn't particularly tired on a few occasions, but I managed to schedule my appearances in a way that allowed me to have more time to get from city to city. The result was that I was often in a location I needed to be in the day before the engagement I had, which allowed me to sleep in more.

Also, this is the first tour where I decided to follow a "6 hour rule". In other words, any day that I needed to drive more than 6 hours would not have an engagemnt booked for it. This worked very well for me and I plan on implimenting this rule on all future tours.

Regarding bedtime, I imposed a curfew of 11pm on myself for evenings where I had to do "significant" driving the next day (2 hours of driving or more), and a curfew of Midnight for evenings where my appearances for the next day were all within a "regional" driving distance (less than 2 hours of driving).

Help with Merchandise - This is a problem that has plagued me since day one of any of my performances, let alone my tours. More often than not, I don't have someone to sell my CDs for me while I talk to fans and people who have questions for me after a show or educational presentation.

I can't even count how many times I am surrounded by folks who want to ask me a question or just have a comment after an appearance. And, while I'm being talked to, I see several people with money in their hands, who are waiting to buy a CD, turn around and give up because the wait got to be too much. Turning people away while they are talking to me, so that I can take care of some CD sales, is far more easier said than done.

The only REAL solution is to have somebody sell my CDs while I'm talking to folks. The problem is, I don't make enough money to hire somebody and have them tag along with me during a tour. There's the volunteer route, but there's issues with that as well. This is a little something that I will certainly have to sit down and spend some time on to resolve, because I'm missing out on a large number of CD sales opportunities.
A Place for Everything - An important lesson that I learned during the tour I had in April of 2010 was to always have a specific place that I keep things so that it's easier to know if I'm missing something or not. I learned this the hard way when I lost both my cell phone and my wallet during that tour. Fortunately, I was able to back-track and figure out where I left my cell phone, but I never was able to recover my wallet.

This time around, I had very specific places that I always kept things like my Flip video camera, digital audio recorder, etc. However, I still managed to leave my Ipod behind on a gig. But, because I had place a little extra wiggle room in my budgeting for the tour, just incase any emergencies came up, I had plenty of money to replace the lost Ipod with a new one and then I simply reloaded it with everything from my back-up Itunes library.
Family - As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I personally believe that the hardest thing about being a musician is spending long stretches of time away from home. With this past February 2011 tour being the longest time I've been on the road to date, I think I have found the limit for the amount of time that I feel I can stand to be away from my wife and, in particular, my 2 year old daughter.

I doubt that I will book any future tours that will go past 3 weeks away from home...unless of course there is some real SERIOUS money to be made.

So, to round things up, touring has so far proven to be a great part of my developement as an artist, because going on the road has a special way of sharpening your skills that you simply can't achieve at home or in a practice room. Also, expanding into new areas seems to be the next phase for me anyway, since I have pretty much covered all of the bases in the New York metro area.

But, more to the point, this particular tour was a hugely rewarding experience that provided me with another platform to gain new fans, meet some wonderful people, and broaden my network. Not to mention, I was able to learn some important lessons and gain valuable insight that I can put to use with my future tours.

And so, onward to my April, 2011 Tour!

by Shenole Latimer

The Hardest Thing

2011-01-30T23:00:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since my last post. This is mostly because I've been so busy with performances, booking appearances for 2011, upgrading my website, and a laundry list of other things that would be too long and boring to go on and on about.

But here I sit, in my hotel room in Columbia, South Carolina, at the beginning of my first tour of 2011, and I've been giving deeper thought to a question that someone asked me earlier today.

"What's the hardest thing about being a musician," was a question that a gentleman asked me, who has a son thinking about majoring in music in college. Of course, I explained that the level of competition is extremely intense and that it isn't enough to be really good at your instrument. I also mentioned the thick skin needed for the numerous rejections one receives over the course of time. However, now that I think of it, none of those things are the hardest thing about being a musician...at least for me.

To me, the hardest thing about being a musician is leaving my family and loved ones for weeks at a time when traveling for tours.

Touring isn't the partying night after night that MTV, VH1, and the movies like to portray it as. Just like everything else about being a musician, it's A LOT OF WORK! In order for a tour to be profitable, you need to cram in as many performances within a given time span that you can. In the case of the tour I'm on at this very moment, I will be doing 26 engagements, in about 17 cities, in 5 states, over the span of 3 weeks.

Yes, going on a tour is exciting, but if you were to ask me if I'd rather go on tour or stay home and spend time with my wife and daughter, then that is a complete no brainer...stay home, of course! There are things that help bridge the distance...Skype, for example. I always look forward to calling my family on Skype because then we can both hear and SEE each other. But it's still not the same as actually being there.

When you're traveling far from home and leaving family behind, there are the added stresses of wondering if everything is alright back home, did you forget to take care of anything important before you left, etc.

In any case, I guess I should wrap up this blog post. I'm looking to go to bed early. It's just that I found it funny that, as much as I was excited to be able to go on this tour (or any of the other tours I've been on for that matter), I'm just as excited, if not more so, to get back home to play with my daughter and spend time with my wife.

By Shenole Latimer

February, 2011 Tour All Booked Up!

2010-12-10T09:40:00.003-05:00

After nearly 5 months of careful planning and more phone calls than I can count, I have (as of 12/9/10) completed the booking phase for my February, 2011 Lecture/Performance Tour.

I'll be visiting a total of 5 states (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi) and stopping at a total of 25 locations residing in 21 cities. Here are the final confirmed stops:

* January 31, 2011 - Columbia, SC
* February 1, 2011 - Columbia, SC
* February 2, 2011 - Beufort, SC
* February 2, 2011 - Summerville, SC
* February 3, 2011 - Savannah, GA (afternoon)
* February 3, 2011 - Savannah, GA (evening)
* February 4, 2011 - Jacksonville, FL
* February 5, 2011 - Pembroke Pines, FL
* February 6, 2011 - Delray Beach, FL
* February 7, 2011 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
* February 7, 2011 - Coral Springs, FL
* February 8, 2011 - Coconut Creek, FL
* February 8, 2011 - Tamarac, FL
* February 9, 2011 - Tampa, FL (afternoon)
* February 9, 2011 - Tampa, FL (evening)
* February 10, 2011 - Brandon, FL
* February 10, 2011 - Valrico, FL
* February 11, 2011 - Tavares, FL
* February 13, 2011 - Mobile, AL
* February 14, 2011 - Flowood, MS
* February 16, 2011 - Hinesville, GA
* February 16, 2011 - Savannah, GA
* February 17, 2011 - Lyman, SC
* February 17, 2011 - Woodruff, SC
* February 18, 2011 - Spartanburg, SC

Check the events listing on the following websites for more information:
http://www.shenolelatimer.com
http://shenole.fanbridge.com/tourdates/

And now, it's time to tie up the bookings for my April, 2011 tour...stay tuned for more information regarding that one!

By Shenole Latimer

Announcing My New Video Blog!

2010-10-31T21:58:00.010-04:00

Back in April, 2010, while I was on tour up and down the east coast, my cell phone received a software update that enabled it to record video and upload it onto YouTube or Facebook. I suddenly found myself with a way to chronicle my experiences as a musician, and as a regular guy with a wife and a daughter, so that I could share some behind the scenes stuff with my fans.

I began recording short video blogs, or vlogs as they are often referred to, and posting them onto my YouTube channel. Though my friends at YouTube, and the fans on my email mailing list, knew about the video posts fairly quickly, I didn't realize until just a few days ago that I have never made an official announcement that I now have a video blog...so now I am.

Ladies and gentlemen, fans and friends, I now have a video blog!!!! You can visit my video blog by clicking the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/ricimusic#g/c/A09CC7C3DEF974CC

by Shenole Latimer

Winter Tour Planned for February, 2011

2010-10-31T20:49:00.004-04:00

If you live on the east coast, you surely remember the monster snow storms we had during the winter of 2010.

Originally, I had a really good number of bookings for the winter...unusual for that time of year, but a welcome sight on my calendar none the less! However, what ended up happening is that almost half of my appearances were canceled due to severe weather. Not a good scenario!

This coming year I have decided to do something to help fight off any further cancellations during the winter months...go on tour down in the south, where snow is not a concern.

Really, the decision to tour in February comes from two different contributing factors. The first one I already stated in regards to avoiding cancellations due to severe winter weather in the northeast. But, the second factor has to do with the success I encountered with my lecture tour this past April, 2010. That tour showed me that I don't have to rely on a booking agent to book tours for me. Also, even with loosing my wallet, my business debit card and $400 or so in cash, plus missing out on two of my bookings because of the time I lost looking for my wallet and filing a police report, I still managed to come home in a profitable enough fashion to have made the trip worth while.

With all of that said, here are the confirmed dates and locations that I'll be stopping at so far during my February, 2011 tour:

January 31, 2011 - Columbia, SC
February 1, 2011 - Columbia, SC
February 2, 2011 - Summerville, SC
February 3, 2011 - Hinesville, GA
February 3, 2011 - Savannah, GA
February 4, 2011 - Jacksonville, FL
February 5, 2011 - Pembroke Pines, FL
February 6, 2011 - Delray Beach, FL
February 7, 2011 - Coral Springs, FL
February 8, 2011 - Coconut Creek, FL
February 8, 2011 - Tamarac, FL
February 11, 2011 - Tavares, FL
February 13, 2011 - Mobile, AL
February 14, 2011 - Flowood, MS
February 16, 2011 - Savannah, GA
February 17, 2011 - Lyman, SC
February 17, 2011 - Woodruff, SC
February 18, 2011 - Spartanburg, SC

There are several more locations that I'm waiting to have confirmation for. When it's all said and done, I may be looking at as many as an additional 6 bookings. Not bad for someone who doesn't have a booking agent!

Then there is the tour I have already begun to book for myself for April, 2011, which will have me traveling to some of the locations I visited this past April, along with visiting some new ones. But, we'll save that for another blog post! : )

by Shenole Latimer

A Couple of Artist Friends I Look Up To!

2010-09-10T21:38:00.014-04:00

I just received a phone call from a good friend of mine in Ohio. She's a spoken word artist who's stage name is "NeoSouljah".

I first met Neo in 2008 during an event held for an internet radio program out of Philadelphia known as Spotlight on Jazz and Poetry. Neo and I were among several other artists that the host of the show, Clayton "Big Trigger" Corley, chose to showcase. We became friends and kept in touch, with the desire to do some work on each others' future albums at some point.

Long story short, Neo beat me to the punch and had me featured on one of the tracks of her newest album that has just been released.

This is where the phone call comes in...

NeoSouljah wanted to let me know that a major music software company called Propellerhead, that endorses the producer of her new album (her producer's name is Mike Loyd and he is credited with mixing many of the albums that came from the Death Row Records label), has decided to feature the track that I recorded on for her on their website!

But that wasn't all.

Neo conferenced in Mike Loyd and proceeded to tell us that the Fox network has a heavy interest in using that same track that I recorded on as the theme song for a new TV series that they will be airing soon.

After hearing all of that, if I would have smiled any bigger, my head would have exploded!

And then there is the text message I got a couple of days ago from another friend of mine. Her name is Jill Washington Burrus and she lives in North Carolina. Jill and I met and dated together between 1991 and 1992. Jill is an artist and has shown herself to be a very talented painter, with a very recognizable style that she can call her own.

In any case, Jill was texting me to let me know that she had just secured a building that will become her very own art gallery!

Both the news from Neo's phone call and Jill's text message were truly exciting to me. But, you may be asking yourself, "what does that have anything to do with the title of this blog. And, why should I care?"

Well, lets put it this way...these women are getting it DONE!

It's so inspiring to see other artists, especially ones that I know well, work their way through some really rough times, only to finally gain an important triumph. All of us artists gain strength from such stories, because it provides us with the hope we must always keep in our back pocket that the incredible trouble we go through to live the life that we do, and produce the art that we do, is worth it all at the end.

In a broader sense, the reason that you should care is because these women should serve as a reminder that we ALL need to find a source of inspiration and hope during the challenging times that most of us are finding ourselves in these days. And, we all need to remember that, no matter how difficult things may get at times, there is always a way to triumph as long as we are willing to work hard enough and find new ways to be resourceful.

I'm so proud to have these two incredible artists as friends and I marvel at how good they are at their respective mediums. I would encourage anyone who reads this blog entry to at least check out their work, even if you don't end up purchasing anything. Here's where you can find them:

NeoSouljah - New CD release is located at Amazon.com and iTunes (just put her name into the search engine of either website).

Jill Washington Burrus - her website is at www.thecreativelounge.org and the address to her new brick and mortar art gallery is 300 S. Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC

Written by Shenole Latimer

In Memoriam: George E. Clark (1937 - 2010)

2010-08-22T22:20:00.010-04:00

This past August 6, 2010, I lost my step dad to bone cancer. He put up a valiant 5 year fight and, though he eventually lost his fight, my family and I have taken comfort in knowing that he is in a much better place. The following is the eulogy I wrote for his funeral.

This eulogy could have very easily taken the form that most eulogies take. That is to say, with the life of the dearly departed narrated within the parameters of a chronologically arranged format. However, such an arrangement of words and form seem too ordinary for a man who meant so much to those who knew and loved him.

That having been stated, it would not be fair to save mention of such important life events as his award winning college football career, his first marriage that saw him partner with his childhood sweet heart Barbara Preston, the birth of his daughter Linda Fay Clark, his honorable and courageous service within the ranks of the United States Army during the Korean War, or even his second marriage (several years after the passing of his first wife) to a new life partner Emma Lee Latimer. This last marriage would see George welcoming Emma’s son, Shenole Maurice Latimer, under his wing. These are all immensely important things that cannot, and should not, be forgotten.

But, perhaps what is more important is to remember George Edward Clark for the incredible and rare kind of man that he was. George personified the qualities that many people seek to add to themselves, but are not always able to acquire…qualities such as strength, dependability, and courage.

Perhaps it was his being a product of The Great Depression (George was born on October 13, 1937), or the fact that his early childhood and formative years were spent with World War II as a backdrop, that would provide George with the strength to adapt to changes and challenges that would frustrate or defeat many other men. No matter how formidable a challenge was, George would always find a way on top, while still managing to further enriching both his life and the lives of others.

George was given the name “Edward” as his middle name by his parents George and Margarite Clark. But, for those who knew him best, and for those who were privileged enough to meet his acquaintance, it would seem that “Dependable” would be a better fit. Whether it was the kind of dependability sought by employers, or the special kind of dependability he lovingly exhibited to family and friends, George ALWAYS delivered and NEVER faltered.

Unfortunately, the space limitations within these pages will not allow for a more thorough recital of George Edward Clark’s remarkable character. However, this eulogy would not be complete without venturing forth into at least a brief description of the trait that would ultimately define his character…his incredible courage.

Volumes could be written about the many examples of courage George showcased. One obvious example can be taken from the courage it took to rebuild his life after the tragic loss of his first wife. His courageous commitment to the United States Army, during a time of war, could surely serve as a clear example. One could also point to his involvement in the Huntington branch of the NAACP, and his fight for the rights of others (even if the issue at hand was politically unpopular), as one of his most understated examples of courage.

However, without a doubt, the greatest display of courage that this war veteran would exhibit came from a brutal battle, with an insidious biological foe, that would cost him 9 inches of his physical stature, 50% of his body mass, and eventually his life. That ghastly enemy was cancer. And, although he did lose this final fight, he NEVER lost his pride, NEVER complained, and remained DEFIANT until the end.

George Edward Clark…a rare kind of man indeed.

New Jazz Concert Series!

2010-08-02T22:56:00.004-04:00

In the time that has passed by since my last blog entry, I’ve spent the majority of my time trying to help my wife get her accounting firm off of the ground. Fortunately, her company is showing signs of life, but we are still a ways off from her equaling the salary she was making from her previous employment.

However, though I haven’t had the time to dedicate towards my own bookings, I have actually managed to work on at least one project that I was involved with prior to my switching gears to give my wife a hand. The project is a jazz concert series that will be taking place during the month of September at the Levitas Center for the Arts in Southampton, New York.

Back in March, I was approached by the director of the Southampton Cultural Center and asked to become the director for a jazz concert series that, at the time, was just a concept. It was stated that it would be up to me to initiate the process of booking the acts and looking into the logistics of putting together such an event. Needless to say, I jumped on the opportunity and set about putting together a diverse roster of very strong performers.

First on my list was signing on Gail Storm. Having her brand of vocal jazz was simply a no-brainer for this sort of series. Another no-brainer was having friend and colleague Matt Marshak on the bill. Matt is a great guitarist who performs in the “smooth jazz” style of jazz.

Since I had already given a performance at the Levitas Center with my quartet this past Spring, for this series I wanted to showcase my newest creation… a fusion of classical and jazz styles performed in a duet format, with myself on saxophone and my good friend Al Quinn on piano. I have dubbed this ensemble “2-Improv”.

Rounding out the roster is pianist Sean Fitzpatrick, who will be performing in a modern jazz style with his trio, Al Quinn (the other half of ‘2-Improv”) and his hard-bop quintet, and the funk/soul infused jazz quartet led by Ahmad Ali.

I’m truly excited about this concert series!

I think the thing I’m most excited about is that, from top to bottom, the lineup of ensembles is stacked with incredible musicians that I have either had the chance to perform with, or have heard a lot about. All of us have headlined a number of shows on our own, and now we will be the pioneers for a brand new concert series on Long Island that will feature some serious jazz. And, the Levitas Center for the Arts is such a nice venue to boot!

The design of the center is that of a recital hall. But, adding to the charm and classiness of the hall is the art gallery located in the front of the building before you enter the performance space. The art gallery is well known within the art community for the incredible works of art that are often displayed there.

As I’m writing this blog, all of the ticket info is being finalized, so I hope to be able to provide all of those details within the next few days. It’s just that I’m so excited about this concert series that I couldn’t wait to blab my mouth off about it!

Keep an eye out for further details about the concert series to appear on my website, the Southampton Cultural Center’s website, and of course right here on my blog.

by Shenole Latimer

Life's Curve Balls

2010-06-11T22:22:00.009-04:00

It's been some time since my last post. In fact, I haven't posted anything since returning from my tour this past April. I've been absent for a combination of reasons.

The first thing that kept me occupied was all of the preparation I was trying to do in gearing up for my recording project. Besides trying to take care of any last minute logistical challenges, I was also working frantically to finish a couple of songs I had left to complete for the recording session.

But then, something happened...

I stated months ago that my wife had been laid off of her job back in January of 2009. Unfortunately, our mounting bills forced me to utilize the money I had put aside for my share of the recording costs (Tierra Records would have been flipping for part of the bill too), so that we could try and catch up with at least some of our bills. Needless to say that my follow up album has been put on hold.

After realizing that my album was not going to get recorded within the time frame I had originally planned, and seeing my wife struggling with trying to start her fledgling accounting firm, I decided to sacrifice the time I normally dedicate during the day towards finding and contacting new venues to book myself in, to helping my wife build her business and find clients.

To me, the logic for this move was simple. I have nearly 15 years of experience being self employed and marketing myself, were as my wife has no experience in this realm what so ever. She has always worked a "9 to 5" job. However, she has experienced multiple lay-offs and has grown quite weary of working for any other companies where she doesn't have direct control over her position and situation (those of you who know me well probably think that sounds familiar!).

In short, I came to the conclusion that I could be more helpful to her with what she is trying to do with her career than she can be towards me and my career. Almost all of the skills I have acquired up until this point can be utilized in more "conventional" businesses than the music and entertainment industry. Meanwhile, none of the skills that she has acquired over the years working in a cubicle can help me get more gigs or achieve more notoriety for what I do.

So, for the moment I'm putting a freeze on actively pursuing any more performances for the time being, until Renee's accounting firm takes off more. However, that doesn't mean that I will be disappearing from the scene completely. I will still accept performances that I am offered from people contacting me. Also, at this point I have appearances already booked that go into January of 2011.

And there you have it...life has thrown me one if it's curve balls and I had to respond.

With all of that said, if you would like to see some of my handy work for my wife's company, I invite you to visit her website at http://www.rdlaccounting.com/. I designed the website for her, and am also acting as a marketing agent and technical advisor. Feel free to drop me a line or leave me a comment to let me know what you think of her website.

Shenole Latimer

Lessons for the Road

2010-04-25T20:15:00.005-04:00

Well, I've been home for almost a week now from my "What's All That Jazz About?" east coast tour and, besides coming back in desperate need of some rest, I have also come back with some lessons from the road. The thing is, what I learned may seem like common sense but it's amazing how even experienced people can take certain things for granted ,or even just get so wrapped up in other things that the obvious becomes not so obvious.

However, before I go into any real details, I would like to first state that the tour was a big success for me. I managed to turn some new people on to me and what I do, I significantly increased my mailing list, I have laid down solid ground work for doing more in the markets I visited, and I've groomed a number of good connections that are willing to become references for me when I begin putting together tours for the north east and also the west coast.

Regarding the lessons I have learned...let me start with a video I took using the camera on my phone. Most of the lessons I learned stem from one particular incident that I mentioned in the video:

So, loosing my wallet was the root for a few of the lessons I learned. Here we go:

Lesson #1) - Do not wear attire that has no pockets!

For the first couple of days I stayed at the home of some older cousins I have in Virginia. Their son is the only male cousin in my entire family that is close to my age. On day two, he stopped by to take me out to lunch. In my excitement to hang out with him, I threw on a pair of shorts that didn't have any pockets because they were they closest thing to me. I figured I'd just hold the wallet. From there you can figure out the rest.

Dumb? Yep! Have I done it previously? Yep! Will I ever do it again? Nope!

Lesson #2) - Keep your cash in more than one place when traveling.

Now, this is something that I actually tend to do. But, for whatever reason, this particular time every cent I had on me was in my wallet...a little over $300 in cash. This was really for tolls and an emergency, because all of my fuel, food, and hotel expenses were coming out of my business debit card so I could keep track of everything in an easy fashion for income tax purposes.

In any case, had I had some of the money in a compartment in my rented car, some of it on my person (in a pocket!), and some of it in my wallet, I would not have lost the entire amount.

Lesson #3) - If you are a traveling musician, and especially if you're traveling alone, be sure to have some kind of support structure back home in case of an emergency.

For me, this is easy. My wife and my mother are the two people that I rely on most when I'm traveling by myself. They both always receive my itinerary so that they know where I'll be and when, they both keep copies of things link my social security card, photo copies of my driver's license, etc. Also, I have my wife's name on my business checking account. That way, should I ever loose my debit card or any credit cards while on the road, she can withdraw money for me from my music business account and wire it to me via credit union or Walmart moneygram. Walmart moneygrams arrive much faster than credit union.

So, when I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to find my wallet, I had my mother fax me a photo copy of my driver's license, my wife sent me a Walmart moneygram, and I immediately filed a police report so that, if I were to get pulled over for any reason, they could identify me by the case report number. In this way, I at least had some kind of means of proving my identity and I also had the cash I would need to get fuel, food, hotel rooms, and so on.

Lesson #4) - It doesn't matter how quickly you think you can make it somewhere, leave EXTRA early!

This is another thing that I normally do. It's a good thing too, because on the leg of the tour where I had to travel from Greenville, South Carolina, to Maryville, Tennessee, I encountered a road closing on interstate 40 because of a huge rock slide that had covered the highway. There were two detours offered. Both would eventually get me to the Knoxville region (Maryville is a suburb of Knoxville) so I choose the one that I figured was the shortest. After a little more than a half hour of driving, I came up to another road closing. They crew there told me that they had just closed the road an hour previous because of another rock slide! They told me that from there I would have no easy route to get to Knoxville, so I would have to turn around. I turned around and went back to the spot of the original rockslide that I had to detour at.

This time, instead of following the second detour sign, I let my temper get the better of me and I decided to use my GPS to find myself a faster route around the rock slide and to my destination. The only problem was that after following the GPS for about 30 minutes I ended up on a dirt road that was obviously going to take me straight to the front door of somebody's ranch! Once again I turned around.

Finally, I decided to follow the second detour that was listed at the original rock slide. It did indeed take me to my destination, but it did so by bringing me an hour and 45 minutes out of my way, where as if I could have stayed on interstate 40 I could have been there in only about 30 minutes or so! All said and done, I had added nearly 4 hours to my trip! However, because I left super early that day, I actually arrived at the venue with about 30 minutes to spare. I was somehow able to get set up very quickly (and this particular venue required that I used every piece of equipment I had brought with me from home) and I started the program only 5 minutes late!

So anyway, those are the 4 most valuable lessons that I learned while on this particular tour and I hope some other musicians, and maybe even some regular folks out there, may be able to benefit from them. In closing, here are the two other videos that I shot during the tour:

The Concept

2010-03-30T09:22:00.006-04:00

I've sat, and I've thought, and I've pondered, and I've mused...what could be the concept behind my next album? And, how would that concept help me come up with a name for the album? After much deliberation, I decided to look back at my last album, "Front and Center", for some ideas.

Back in 2006, while I was recording "Front and Center", the whole idea was to basically introduce myself to the listeners. Additionally, I wanted to show my versatility as a musician, which is why there were such a variety of subgenres of jazz that was present. This time around, though it seems versatility may still play a role judging by the tunes I have composed so far, I decided that there are a few things that I want.

First, I want all of the tunes to be original compositions...no standards this time. Second, I don't want to have to resort to using 2 different guys for each position in the rhythm section. Last time around, schedules were so scattered for the guys in my quartet that I could only use one of them (drummer Kyle Struve), and that was for only two or three of the nine tunes on the album. For this project, I really want to use the guys that I play with on a regular basis from my quartet. Especially considering that, by the time we record, we would have performed the tunes in live situations a few times. And third, I want the album to be centered around a concept that everyone can relate to. It's because of this last reason that I have decided to name the album "A Day in the Life of...". I leave a space after the word "of", because I want the listener to fill in the blank with the name of someone they know that the style, personality, and titles of the tunes remind them of.

Each song title on the album will have something to do with everyday life that we all experience, whether it's running around and trying to get everything done, or just the relief you may feel when you realize it's time for lunch. For example, the three tunes that I have composed so far are called "12:00 Strut", "Runnin'", and "Quiet". "Quiet" is interesting because it sounds more like a classical music piece than anything from the jazz idiom. I even had to compose a full score for it, rather than a lead sheet, which is how I usually write the charts for my tunes.

As May 26th (D-Day for the recording) gets ever closer, I'm getting more an more excited. And, for that matter, so are the cats involved! In fact ,the recording engineer for the project (John Zych) and I visited the recital hall of the Staller Center on the campus of Stony Brook University in New York to figure out some of the logistics regarding how we will be setting things up. During that visit, John said that he has been looking forward to this session for months and can't wait to do it. That sure felt good to hear!

by Shenole Latimer

Musicians Shouldn't Get Paid

2010-03-12T07:22:00.017-05:00

There's a phrase I hear a lot of. And, I've been hearing it long before the economy tanked. It goes something like this: "I love how you guys sound! I'm an organizer for (just fill in the blank here) and I would like to hire you to give a performance there. We don't have much money though."

Bingo! There it is! The "we don't have much money" statement.

Now, that is all well and good. People are always going to try and get your services for free or next to nothing. Also, there are certainly times when that statement may be legit. However, I recently heard this statement when I was a sideman for an artist, who I will not name. A woman came up saying that she was the event coordinator for a yacht club, that I will also not name, and she said the very same words that are in the first paragraph of this post.

OK, here's the thing. First of all, I grew up near this yacht club and have seen a number of the events that they have. They are pretty lavish. Secondly, I knew people, during different periods of time, that have worked there. Every last one of them, including someone who has worked there within the last 4 months, have each told me how much money flies around there...and not just from the clients. With all of that, and the fact that it is a YACHT club, I'm I expected to think that I (or I should say the artist that I was the sideman for) can't ask for at least my normal performance fee?

Yeah...I could swallow that one, just like I could a 10 pound horse pill!

Look...non-musicians...people who would hire a musician or a band for their services...do you expect to have a plumber, who charges say $300 for a job, come to your house and do the job, but accept that you will only pay them $50 because you like how they clear up your plumbing but you don't want to pay their rate? How about taking your car to the shop. A lot of shops charge about $90 per hour for labor. Do you realistically think that you're going to bring your car to a shop...any shop...and have them agree to only charge you $15 because you tell them that your car isn't running correctly, you like how they fix cars, but you don't have much money. What would happen is that shop would send you on your way and ask you not to come back.

Musicians...you cats that play instruments or sing for a living...WAKE UP! Has it ever occurred to you that people don't take yourself seriously because you don't take you seriously? Before you bristle your feathers over that, what I mean is that you don't present yourself in a business-like fashion. The truth of the matter is, one of the problems for us is that too many of us have too casual a manner about ourselves when we are conducting business. Some of us forget that the person on stage is the entertainer and the person that steps off that stage is a business person. We have to wear different hats and be able to switch them, at times, instantaneously.

If you're not going to get serious when you conduct your business, at least come up with a pricing plan to cover different situations, so that you're not stuck looking like a deer in headlights when someone asks you what you charge. All of the serious musicians I know, including myself, have a pricing "menu" for all sorts of different performance situations and configurations. Every now and then someone will come up to me and ask me what I charge for a situation I have not thought of. You know what I tell them? I say that I'll have to call them back because it is a situation I haven't done before and I need to sit down and consider a fair way to do it.

One more thing, musician type people. If someone offers you a price that is well below your normal asking price, or even ask that you perform for free, there is a magical word that you can use that will stop you from playing a 2 - 4 hour gig that you end up regreting, hauling all of your gear, and listening to unhappy bandmates who are underpaid. This incredible word is "No". You have to remember that the people hiring you have absolutely no clue that you've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on your gear, many hundreds or even thousands of hours practicing and honing your skill, sacrificed valuable time with family and friends, etc. But, YOU know and that is my point!

With all of that said, by no means does that mean I don't work with people regarding rates. But, I won't be giving the farm away. I have done this long enough now (I've been playing music in a public fashion for about 15 years and full-time for over 10 years now) that I know the minute someone says that it doesn't pay but it's good exposure, or that they don't have much money, that the gig will most likely not be worth my time. In my 15 total years of doing this thing called music, what I have learned is that those kinds of gigs almost always end up being much more stressful than most of the gigs I have that pay better. Every once in a while there are some "exposure gigs" that are good, but you have to really weigh those and give them a lot of consideration before you do them.

Well, I guess I've said what's on my mind. I'll tell you one thing, though. If a band is just playing terribly and stinking up the place, and they are not conducting themselves in a professional manner, those are the times that musicians shouldn't get paid!

written by Shenole Latimer

Look...DON'T TOUCH (The Musician's Universal Plea)

2010-03-04T09:17:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had an experience that has put me on a personal crusade to educate people about musicians and their equipment.

Now first of all, if you are a fan of mine, I hope that you will not take offense to this statement, but people simply don't have a single clue as to how expensive our equipment is and why nobody, other than the musician who owns it, should ever bother trying to touch ANY OF IT! So, with that said, here's what happened a couple of weeks ago.

I was in the auditorium of a library and was setting my gear up because I had one of my educational presentations that I do. It was still at least 30 minutes before the program was suppose to start, and I was pretty much finished setting up, when two ladies walked in. We then struck up a conversation. Eventually, the conversation went more towards just one of the ladies, while the other walked away. Something told me to look in the direction of the woman who had walked away. And, it's a good thing that I did! I was horrified to see the second woman proceed to grab my alto saxophone by the neck in order to pick it up off of the sax stand that I had it placed on. I immediately started yelling, "no, no, no!"

I arrived just in time to grab my sax from her before she could fully lift it up. By the time I reached my sax, I was actually fuming mad because I had just spent $500 getting extensive and much needed work done on it. At the same time, I was trying to stay polite and in control of my overall reaction. The lady then told me that she only wanted to look at it and that she knew what she was doing because her father had been a musician. Her comment almost made me loose it because, if she had indeed grown up around a PROFESSIONAL musician, surely one of the first things she should have learned was DON'T TOUCH. Besides, he may have dabbled with music, but was he a FULL-TIME, PROFESSIONAL musician like me? As I always say, "just because you can screw in a light bulb, it doesn't make you an electrician. "

More to the point of things, it was MY equipment that she was handling and I simply DO NOT LIKE people touching my stuff without my permission.

Still trying to keep my composure, I went on to explain that my sax was not a cheap beginner's model and that I depended on it for my livelihood. I then politely clued her in that she didn't actually know as much as she thought she did, because she was about to pick the sax up in the worse manner that you could possibly pick a saxophone up by. The neck is a separate piece from the body of the sax and can be very easily separated, even after applying the screw for the clamp that holds it in place. In other words, she would have picked the sax up by the neck, the body of the sax would have detached and fallen on the ground, and I would have been looking at anywhere between $500 - $1,500 worth of damage. Experience has taught me that, once an instrument falls to the ground, it NEVER plays quite the same ever again, no matter how much money you dump into getting it repaired.

The end result is that I managed to get her to understand the situation.

As for the public at large, people simply have no idea the worth of musician's instruments. Between the 5 saxophones that I own ( 2 altos, 2 sopranos, and a rare C melody sax), I'm looking at around $23,000. And that's just my saxophones! If you add up all of the equipment that I own for the purposes of making my living in music, the grand total is just under $41,000. Believe it or not, that isn't even on the more expensive end of things regarding what some professional musicians have spent on their gear. Todd Coolman, the esteemed bassist who was my first jazz instructor at Stony Brook University and is currently the head of the SUNY (State University of New York) at Purchase Jazz Program once confided in me that his prized bass, which is the one he uses on important gigs and recording sessions, is worth about $85,000. He uses a different bass that is worth (I think I remember him saying) about $12,000 for most of his other gigs.

Anyway, the point of all of this isn't to just give you a tally of how much we spend on our instruments and gear. The simple fact is that you should NEVER handle a musician's gear, period. It isn't even your stuff to handle in the first place! Look...DON'T TOUCH!

written by Shenole Latimer

2010 Album Project - Getting in Shape!

2010-01-31T22:36:00.020-05:00

Earlier today, I gave a lecture about jazz history. There was something that I said during the hour long presentation that really stuck with me. My statement went something like this:

"Jazz suffers today because it is so difficult to maintain a set line up for a band. The result is that you end up with a bunch pick-up bands that are put together for a specific gig based on who may be available because they don't have a better paying gig. This means that songs, within many jazz groups, rarely have the chance to grow and develop, as is the case when you have a line up that has played together for an extended length of time, and so have developed a familiarity with each other and also a heightened ability to interact with each other during improvisations."

Now that's some mouthful!

Anyway, I feel fortunate to have maintained the same line up within my quartet for the past few years, with the exception being my good friend and pianist Kenny MacKenzie, who moved to Florida towards the latter part of 2009. I now have been utilizing the considerable services of Art Hirahara at the piano end of things. This was a logical move for me because Art has played a lot with Kyle Struve (drums) and Thomson Kneeland (bass), who are both part of my regular line up, which means that the rhythm section will remain tight, even as I continue to grow a familiarity with Art's playing style. And, every jazz musician knows that it all starts with a strong rhythm section!

But, more to the point of my statement about feeling fortunate to have maintained the same line up, I think this will aid me in my desire to bring up the level of interaction within the new selections being composed for my upcoming album. There's something to be said about the music of a band that has had time to work together and create a "sound" for themselves.

I'm not knocking my first album "Front and Center". It's just that it was hard to create a "sound" for that album when I was dealing with 2 different bassists, 2 different piano players, 2 different drummers, and all of them performing in different line up combinations based on their availability. How was anybody suppose to interact! And then, on top of all of that, all of those guys were actually sight reading the charts during the recording sessions. This is because it proved impossible to schedule rehearsals, due to conflicting schedules. It's nothing short of a testament to the skill level of the musicians that I was working with that the end product sounded as incredible as it did!

That said, I think with this next album things will be quite different. First of all, as I've mentioned before, I'm going to have the actual line up of my quartet on this one, including the amazing Kenny MacKenzie. Also, in order to gain a familiarity with my new compositions, and to get in shape for the recording, we will be performing the new tunes during concerts that we have and also during small, one hour "pick-up" gigs that we have at a few libraries. The live performance of these tunes in front of an audience will give us the opportunity to air things out and get the tunes sounding their best BEFORE we ever hit the studio to record them.

Our first big opportunity to debut some of the new material will come on February 26, 2010, when we give a concert performance at the Levitas Center for the Arts in Southampton, New York. In case you read this blog post in time and would like to check us out, you can find out more online and obtain tickets for the show by clicking HERE. You can also call (631) 287-4377.

So, short of going into "lock-down" with my quartet a week or two before the recording of the new album, I can't think of any better way to get in shape with the new tunes. If you have a chance to attend my quartet's February 26th performance, or any of the other ones we have before the recording date on May 23rd, I'd love to hear any feedback you have regarding the new tunes!

Written by Shenole Latimer

Jam Sessions

2010-01-27T08:43:00.007-05:00

Over the past few days, I've been pondering the importance of jam sessions and how they serve a variety of functions. I think what brought this on was a college musician who invited me down to their weekly Wednesday night jam session. I tried to explain that I didn't have a lot of free time these days and certainly not the time to play without getting paid. His facial expressions made me realize that he took it the wrong way. I believe he thought I said that because I felt like I was too good to be hanging with him and the cats he plays with.

Jam sessions are indeed important to any music scene and all genres. They are a barometer of the health of a region's music scene and serve as a sort of "convention" for musicians to network with other musicians, which in turn means possibly getting future gigs. The only problem is that, unless you are with the house band, you are not getting paid for the night...and even some house bands don't get paid! This aside, I can certainly see the logic that not getting paid for one gig (jam session) could lead to several paid gigs with other musicians and bands. But, this still doesn't solve the problem I have with lack of free time.

Yes, I am a musician. But, I am also a father, a husband, and a homeowner. This places a very high importance that any excursion outside of my home, musically speaking, must result in me bringing home money...period. What gets lost by some younger artists is that, as an artist, you are self employed. And, the older you get, the more financial responsibilities you have. Thus, time is very valuable. My wife can testify to the fact that when I'm home I'm still at work. Even the very blogs that I post are actually work. How, you ask? Well, one of the primary goals for any artist is to increase their presence...especially their web presence now-a-days, as people are not going out as much as they used to for the performing arts. Posting blogs is a very efficient way of increasing your web presence, because they are a priority target for search engines.

Then there is the marketing aspect. Anyone who has studied modern marketing knows that today's western society has gone into a much more "personal"mode of thinking. In other words, people are looking more and more for very specific things that cater to their needs or wants. This is all thanks to the internet, which makes it incredibly easy for people to find things within their particular interests. Also, people have a greater interest in what is going on with the lives of others, including any artist that they may want to invest both time and treasure in. They want to have a greater (if not personal) connection with an artist and get to know about that artist's personality. Blogging is an incredibly efficient way of doing all of this. Not just because of the search engines, but because of the fact that blogs can be syndicated into feeds, which can turn the blog into a form of viral marketing.

That was a whole lot of words just for me to say that I can reach a whole lot more people just through my blog alone, than I can by playing in some venue every week in a situation where: A) most people coming down aren't fans anyway, but are other musicians, B) most listeners, who aren't musicians, are more interested in what's happening on the television screen above the bar, and C) I'm in a situation where I have to spend money on gas to get there, most likely buy a couple of drinks or pay a cover (or both), possibly pay for parking (particularly if it's in New York City), while not getting paid. All of this in turn means that, not only would I not be coming home with very, very badly needed cash, but I wouldn't even be breaking even! I would be coming home in the negatives...and how many gigs am I GUARANTEED from making it to a jam session? How many gigs would I get in a "timely" fashion to compensate for the money spent? Not at all a situation to find yourself in when you have a mortgage, an out of work wife to try and support, and a toddler who needs food and diapers.

Of course, I realize that I can't effectively do everything that must be done to grow my career from my computer desk. I think it's much like trying to conduct a war by exclusively utilizing air power...at some point you will need boots on the ground!

So, what is my final verdict on the importance of jam sessions? Like I said earlier, they ARE important and help to ensure the health of a music scene. However, I think that once a musician reaches a certain phase in their life, they have to really choose when it is a good time to go to a jam session and would it be a fruitful outing in terms of new phone numbers obtained, new ideas and information exchanged, potential gigs, etc.

For me, I already know or have access to so many musicians (be it from cats I met at jam sessions when I was younger with far fewer responsibilities, or the musicians that they themselves know and play with), that I have no need to go to a jam session for phone numbers. I don't have any problems finding gigs or creating them for myself, so there isn't too much of a need to go to a jam session to try and land a gig with someone else (unless there is someone in particular that I would like to play with, who doesn't know who I am). This just leaves the exchange of information and new ideas. I get a lot of information from my daily research sessions on the internet, though I'll be the first to admit that it isn't quite the same as receiving information first hand and in person from the person who has it to give.

So, you want to hit a jam session? By all means do it! It's an important part of every musician's growth. Just make sure to get plenty of jam sessions in before you get married, own a house, and find yourself being a parent!

Written by Shenole Latimer

2010 Album Project - Inspired!

2010-01-16T15:42:00.009-05:00

I don't know what it's been...the financial hardship my wife and I have been facing for the past year, some new genres of music I have been exposed to that I didn't used to listen to, a special alignment taking place within the universe, or all of the above, but I'm finding myself with no shortage of ideas for songs to write. In fact, I've been feeling so inspired that I actually have a different kind of problem: Are these songs lacking a "homogeneous" sound that will keep them from making sense together on the playlist of a CD?

What do I mean by a homogeneous sound? Well, when you purchase the album of your favorite band, you pretty much have some idea of what the overall sound of that album will be, even though you may not have heard the songs yet. You know that "X" band has a guitar player that plays a certain way, a vocalist that has a particular sounding voice, and songs that have a certain style to their compositions. The problem with the tunes that I have been in the process of committing to paper (there are currently four), is that, although the musicians will all be the same and they all have a playing style and sound familiar to most of my fans, the compositions are all very different in style.

For example, on one tune I'm hearing a light hearted blues structure, with a slight funk twang to the swing feel, over a more modern and hip sounding set of chord changes. Meanwhile, on another tune, I'm hearing a more "epic" sort of sound with orchestral backgrounds, an electric guitar, and a driving rock beat...sort of like the sound towards the end of "Kashmir" off of Led Zepplin's "Physical Graffiti" album. Yeah, I know...go figure!

Well, now that I've probably scared off anybody who may have had an interest in adding this album to their jazz or music collection, let me temper all that I just said by saying that I am actively trying to pull in the reigns a bit on my creativity! I certainly don't want an album that sounds like some sort of "hodge-podge" of music.

At any rate, I guess the good news is that I'm feeling very creative and inspired!

Written by Shenole Latimer

April, 2010 Tour Plans Almost Complete

2010-01-12T20:28:00.010-05:00

After four months of constant phone calls, carefully making travel and hotel arrangements, and all that other fun stuff, my east coast tour is almost entirely put together. I'm currently just trying to squeeze in three more stops, but here is how the tour is looking so far:

April 6 - Vienna, VA
April 7 - Reston, VA
April 8 @ 12pm - Myrtle Beach, SC
April 8 @ 6:30pm - Conway, SC
April 9 - Jacksonville, FL
April 11 - Day Off for Rest
April 12 - Maryville, TN
April 14 & 15 - Norfolk, VA
April 16 - Day Off for Rest
April 17 - Cape May, NJ
April 18 - Montclair, NJ
April 19 @ 2pm - Ocean Pines, MD
April 19 @ 6:30pm - Snow Hill, MD
April 20 - Princess Anne, MD
April 21 @ 4pm & 7pm Dumont, NJ

The three locations that may be added within the next couple of weeks are:

April 5 - Washington, DC
April 10 - Atlanta, GA
April 13 - Durham, NC

With all the driving that I'm going to be doing, and with the relatively packed schedule, I felt it was important to include at least a couple of days where I could get some rest and also do some of the things that people don't generally associate with touring. Things like laundry, for example!

I'm thinking about making a separate section in my blog just for this particular tour, though I don't know how much free time I will really have to make entries. My past experience with touring and road trips have taught me that, when you reach the end of the day, all you really want to do is go to sleep! Another idea may be to just have a series of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter status reports...a sort of "Tour Tweet" or "Update from on the Road". One way or another, I do think I should find some kind of way to document the tour so that all of my fans can get an inside look at things, and so that I can reference it later for any lessons learned.

So anyway, now that the tour is only a few months away, I need to start compiling my list of media contacts so that I can be ready to send out press releases and also schedule interviews on radio and in periodicals. Fortunately, I have had some help from a very trusted and hard working student of mine. He's been busy getting together a bunch of media outlets for me to pursue.

All in all, things are really coming together and I think that this tour is going to be quite successful. In fact, I'm already in the process of planning tours for the North East and the West Coast!

Written by Shenole Latimer

2010 Album Project - Preproduction

2010-01-08T18:17:00.011-05:00

A few nights ago on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, I met with Henning Stumm of Tierra Records and John Zych of Earth Tone Music Productions to have a preproduction meeting regarding the recording of my next CD project.

It was really an exciting meeting for all parties because it has been quite a bit of time since the release of my debut album "Front and Center", and both Tierra Records and Earth Tone Music Productions (the studio where I recorded my first album) had been anxiously awaiting the announcement of when I would be setting the wheels in motion for the next album project.

The thing is, it was actually in my contract with Tierra Records that I was suppose to record my second album no later than 2008, two years after the release of my first album. But with the birth of my daughter and then some outside issues that came up, I simply didn't have the time to write any new material. Realizing this, Tierra Records generously gave me an extension on the deadline for me to begin my sophomore effort with them. Needless to say, with nearly four years having gone by since the release of my debut, I've been more than anxious to get things going myself!

That now brings us back to the meeting that the three of us had at Earth Tone Music Productions.

Much of the meeting concerned some technical and logistical issues that we will face because of how we plan to record this album. By that I mean, instead of doing the actual tracking (recording) at the Earth Tone Music Productions studio in Brooklyn, we will be moving the studio to a different location all together. Essentially, instead of bringing Moses to the mountain, we will be bringing the mountain to Moses! The reason for this is a bit involved.

My first album was recorded without the benefit of having a real piano at our disposal. Nobody has ever really noticed this because John Zyche and Henning Stumm (who came on board the project during mixdown) did such a wonderful job at disguising the sound of the keyboard we used to make it sound as close to a real acoustic piano as possible. However, this time around things are a lot different. This time I will actually have all of the guys in my quartet available for the recording. That includes the incredible pianist Kenny MacKenzie, who couldn't make the sessions for the first album. Since Kenny is going so far as to fly up all the way from Florida to make this session, I wanted to do the right thing and have a real piano for him to play on. Plus, there just isn't anything like having a real piano. I really want to get a little bit more of an authentic "jazz sound" to this new album, without making it sound too different in character from the first one.

So anyway, back to why we are making the studio mobile.

Because John Zych doesn't have a real acoustic piano at his new location in Brooklyn, and because I don't want to do the project with any other engineer, I need to find a location that has a baby grand piano that we could use. I have come up with at least one place that will more than likely make their facilities available to me, but I don't want to publicly mention it yet until I know for sure that I have it...don't want to jinx the project before it even really gets off the ground!

In short, a whole nest of wires, microphones, computers, and a bunch of other stuff will need to be moved to this location in a very quick and efficient manner, because we will only have a maximum of 12 hours to complete the tracking of the entire album! Setting up the mobile studio in the new location alone could take upwards of 2 or 3 hours, and that's not even considering the 2 hours it will probably take to get the recording levels right. I'm praying that we will have access to the potential location before the actual start time of the recording so that we can at least set the studio up before the guys in my quartet arrive for the session.

That is just a hint of some of the technical challenges that are ahead of us in seeing this project through!

All in all, the meeting was definitely productive and we managed to iron out a lot of things. This includes the actual date for the recording, which will be May 23rd. Until then, and the eventual release of the album, you will be with me every step of the way through the posts I will be continuing to put up on this blog!

Written by Shenole Latimer

You Don't Know Unless You...

2009-12-23T08:50:00.004-05:00

...ask. Be inquisitive. Always be curious to find out the how and why. These are things that were instilled upon me when I was in school to be a scientist (marine biologist). That is, of course, until I decided late in my sophomore year of college to study music instead.

Now, I find myself falling back to that analytical mode of thought in regards to figuring out what my next move should be with my music career. Up until now, I have done well for myself in regards to figuring out my goals and then moving towards them. Every 2 or 3 years I have come up with new goals and game plans, while also evaluating my current status at the time and then what tactics had worked or failed up until that point.

So far, I have accomplished every goal I had set for myself in previous planning sessions, except for performing at the Inter Media Arts Center (IMAC) in Huntington, New York. That goal will never happen now with both the closing of the IMAC and the death of Michael Rothbard, the patron of the arts that ran the concert hall. But, based upon the ground work I have managed to lay down in 2009, the large number of bookings I already have for 2010, and the types of contacts I've been recently having access to, I feel as though I'm in a very delicate point where my decisions will weigh much more heavily on the future than they ever have up until now.

There was a blog I posted back in October that I think was the genesis of my thinking at this very moment. The thoughts I had in that blog dealt with whether or not I had been looking enough into the careers of past and current jazz musicians, as well as my own, to see if there is anything I'm doing wrong or could do better to try and boast myself up to the next tier in the jazz scene and the music scene in general. My answer has come back to me that I am in deed doing something wrong. I'm not seeking enough advice from my peers or from certain contacts I have access to within the industry. These are the folks who can help me figure out what I need to do to get to where I want to be, based on where my career stands now.

I will not mention names, but there have been other artists that I've performed with that were, or currently are, in a similar "critical phase" of their career where making certain decisions could mean elevating their careers or just maintaining the status-quo. I can remember thinking to myself that they needed to seek some advice, or at least listen to the advice that they were given by their peers and qualified people who understood where their careers were at. Now, I'm thinking that I should heed those thoughts I had.

One of the important things that we (those artists and myself) all have in common is that we are all used to having to do absolutely everything ourselves and find it difficult to give up control or even delegate tasks to others. The thing I DO NOT want to have in common is career stagnation. This isn't necessarily a knock against those artists or where they are in their careers now or then. I'm simply stating that they all could probably have advanced much faster and further if they had seeked advice rather than try to figure it all out themselves.

So, in sum, I believe that one of the major mistakes I'm making is not seeking enough help or advice. I work so hard at what I do that sometimes it becomes very easy to make incorrect judgements or come up with the wrong game plan because of a distorted view of a situation. Forget not seeing the forest for the trees. If you have your nose buried too close to the ground, you won't even see the trees for the grass.

As for what my next move should be, I guess I won't know for sure until I ask some trusted and knowledgeable contacts that I have for their advice and thoughts.

New Limited Edition CD

2009-12-04T08:37:00.006-05:00

You may remember that, a couple of months ago, I mentioned that I had recorded some tracks with blues/jazz artist Gail Storm. Well, we are finally releasing those tracks in the form of a limited edition CD!

Gail and I originally were recording the songs so that we could construct a demo that could be used to get us more duet gigs. However, things were sounding so good that we decided to move beyond just having it as a demo.

Because this isn't an "official" album release, we thought we'd make it special by not only making a limited quantity available, but by also autographing and hand packaging the CDs. I designed the cover artwork and both Gail and I put our autographs on the actual CD itself.

"Duets" features Gail and I performing selections by Nora Jones, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and other well loved performers and composers. If you'd like to obtain a copy or listen to samples of the tracks, just visit the following link:

Gail Storm & Shenole Latimer Limited Edition CD - "Duets"

Fan Feedback Paving the Way!

2009-12-03T19:11:00.014-05:00

Those close to me know that I'm always tinkering with stuff and trying to come up with new things to do. Lately, I've been trying to come up with some new things for all of the wonderful people who take the time to read my blog rantings, come to my performances, and purchase my music...you know...I'm talking about you fan folks out there!

As usual, I have been paying close attention to the feedback I get from my email newsletters, comments made to me in person, so on and so forth. And let me tell you, there have been some really good ideas thrown at me. In fact, I liked them so much that I'm actually going to incorporate ALL of them!

Here are just three of the suggestions and things you can expect to see implemented within the first few weeks of 2010:

Create a Tool Bar - I'm currently testing out my very own tool bar that my fans can download and attach to their web browser. The "Shenole Latimer Tool Bar" will have feeds for my news updates, performance calendar/alerts, google powered search engine, and some other goodies. The information is brought to the tool bar in real time. So, as soon as I post a performance or a news item, you will receive the information on the tool bar, without cluttering up your email inbox.

Provide RSS Feeds - Both the tool bar and RSS feed ideas were ones suggested to me as an alternative option for fans who may want to keep up with what I'm doing, but not be on my email list because they already receive so much email from other sources. Or, because they don't always have time to visit my website, blog, facebook, myspace, etc.

An RSS feed, for those who don't know, is just a way to subscribe to and receive content that you like to read, without needing to spend the time visiting those particular websites that they come from. Instead, the RSS feed (stands for Real Simple Syndication) sends you any new postings.

Interactive Map on My Website - This is a fun one! Someone had commented to me that they thought it would be cool if I had a map showing where all of my appearances are so that fans can get a sense of all the different places I travel to.

So, I have set about marking off all of my 2010 performances and appearances on a dedicated google map that will be posting on the events page of my website in the beginning of January, 2010. The map will be interactive in that you can zoom in and out on any location, click on a marker to find out a little bit about that particular appearance, and even get directions directly to any location that you select.

I think I will have it on satellite view so that you can have fun seeing what each location actually looks like.

In addition to implementing these ideas and suggestions, I would also like to perform a number of tweaks on my website. Mostly, these tweaks have to do with the inconsistency with how my website appears on different web browsers. In other words, people who use AOL see it differently than the people who use Internet Explorer older than 7.0, who in turn see it differently than the people who use Firefox, and so on.

Things are simply not as easy when it comes to website design as they were even just 2 or 3 years ago. With the introduction of all the new web browser releases designed to take advantage of the potential of Web 2.0, it's becoming much more difficult (or at least I'm finding it that way) to come up with "universally accepted" website designs.

Well, time to bring this blog post to a close. Thanks for all of your feedback and suggestions. Keep them coming!

Important Changes for My Email List

2009-11-02T10:05:00.015-05:00

As of December, 2009, because of the wonderful feedback I consistantly get from the incredible fans that I have on my email list, I will be changing the way I send out my email blasts. There will be 2 types of emails that fans will receive from me in the future:

My monthly "Email Blast" that will stay in a newsletter format that lets fans know what is new with me in general.

An email called "Shenole Appearing Near You" that will go out to fans who live within a 2 mile radius from the zip code of where I'll be performing or making an appearance (10 mile radius for special events such as big concerts).

However, in order for this new system to work, I need to ask a favor of fans who are either on the email list now, or plan to sign up in the future. It's important for everyone to supply me with their zip code and their first name, along with their email address. You can very easily do that by visiting the following link:

http://shenole.fanbridge.com/

I'm hoping that I'm not causing an inconvenience to my fans. The good news is that, by fans doing this little 10 - 20 second chore, I'll be able to better serve everyone and save my valuable fans from getting performance notifications for any of my appearances that will not be in their immediate area.

Those Who Don't Know Their History...

2009-10-27T09:17:00.003-04:00

There's a saying that I know we all have heard before. It states that, "those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it". I think that's something that we can all agree on...it's a very logical statement.

Now, here's something that may not seem so logical. There are people who believe in a "universal collective consciousness" that helps to guide our actions in a way that is perhaps more subliminal than obvious. Take from that what you will.

So what am I getting at? Damned if I know! But, I have been experiencing something very interesting in the past few weeks, and that is this reoccurring theme of "those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it". It's been everywhere...TV shows, people's actions, books I've read, the news, you name it! But, where I really took notice and felt a strong reaction to it was during a program on PBS that I was watching about Marvin Gaye. And, here's the weird thing. I have absolutely no recollection of what was said in that program, and yet I felt a VERY strong connection to whatever it was that was said. Someone go figure that one out!

And then, just yesterday, I was listening to a podcast that I had downloaded a couple of weeks ago but hadn't had a chance to listen to. And then something was said that hit me real hard again. Without going into details about the subject matter or what have you, it was basically said that all of these young people, or "new guard", were entering into a scene and working harder than they needed to, because they were taking the same routes that had already been travelled in the past by their predecessors, which had already been proven to be unsuccessful. But, because they hadn't done the research needed to know their history, their concern for the "here and now" was causing them to make the same old mistakes.

That's when I had an epiphany of sorts.

Have I done enough research concerning musicians (jazz musicians in particular) to keep from making some of the same mistakes that have doomed them to either fail, or not ultimately reach a sustainable level in their career? In other words, are there any mistakes that I'm repeating because I have over looked them from just being too focused on the present and future? And, let me get a little weird here, is the "universal collective consciousness" trying to tell me something?

Well, my mother always did teach me to listen to my "inner voice", so I have decided to take a real close look at my overall career strategy to see what flaws there may be, what evidence I'm not taking a close enough look at, and whether or not I'm not heeding any reoccurring themes regarding tactics that just aren't working or showing results. I'm also going to take a look at some artists that I may have personally known, or read about, to see if there are any similarities between what they did to cause them to fail and what I'm currently doing in my overall strategy.

Once I've taken adequate time to look over and absorb the information that I come across, I'll try to remember to post my findings in a sort of "Part II" to this post.

Time for New Wheels?

2009-10-20T10:38:00.006-04:00

When I was younger, I HATED big cars. I thought they were clunky, awkward, and just plain ugly. When SUVs came onto the market, I didn't like them too much either. But, at least they seemed more "logical" to me.

These days, I find myself actually wanting either a big car, SUV, or...gasp...a van! The simple fact of the matter is that my wife and I need the room. Even though we only have one kid, it just amazes me how much stuff we end up bringing with us on an outing. Then there's what I do for a living and the equipment I have to haul around.

It's funny, because I'm a saxophonist. In theory, all I should ever really need to bring to a gig is my sax, sax stand, a mic, and a mic stand. And, it's even arguable if I need to bring the mic and mic stand. But, the problem is that I'm also a band leader and that changes the game all together!

So anyway, there is a third factor that figures into my wanting to get a bigger vehicle for the family and for my gigging purposes. I just can't move and fit into small cars the way I used to. My knees have been giving me problems since around my late twenties. And, now it's getting more and more difficult for me to have to get down into a small car and stuff my 6'3" frame into cars that are really designed for people up to 6'. Trust me, those 3 extra inches REALLY make a difference!

I guess when Renee and I can finally hack our way through this financial jungle-like entanglement that we're in, our first order of business will be to get a hold of some wheels that will fit our needs better. It will be nice to actually be able to see out of my back window when I have to bring extra gear to a gig. Not to mention, it sure will be a good thing when we won't have to worry about what to sacrifice bringing during a family outing. But, the nicest thing for me will be the ability to drive for more than 20 minutes without my knees feeling like someone is hitting them with a hammer!

Future Plans

2009-10-04T09:06:00.016-04:00

We are in October, and though it may seem like 2010 is still a few months away, experience has taught me that a few months can seem like a few days when you've been very busy. Fortunately, I can say that I've been very busy...so I guess that means that New Years Eve must be next week!

Anyway, I've already begun planning for 2010. Even this early on, it looks to be THE busiest year for me yet! That's saying a lot after the year I've had in 2009. I already have more gigs booked in the first quarter of next year than I actually performed during the first 4 1/2 months of this year. And, that's without having received any sideman gigs yet or a gig or two that I have been fortunate to have in the past couple of years that I can usually count on having.

Then there's the tour I'm planning for myself!

I'm in the middle of booking out a "lecture" tour for myself, where I'll be giving my presentation entitled "What's All That Jazz About?", which is the program that I have enjoyed a lot of success with in the library systems of the NY, NJ, and CT tri-state region. But now, after 6 years or so of circulating withing the same library systems, I've all but run out of libraries to give the presentation to. In fact, I've had up to 5 repeat appearances at a number of libraries over the past 6 years!

People tell me that I should do it in the schools, and I agree. But the thing is that with the amount of time it takes to just book the libraries, it's a more than daunting task to add schools to that. One thing is for certain. If I do want to have longevity with my career, I will eventually have to start courting a younger fan base. The truth of the matter is that I'm at least a generation younger than the overwhelming majority of my fans. And, in some cases, I'm 2 generations behind! This basically means, without trying to sound grim, that I will likely out live most of my fans unless I start getting some young people interested in what I do. I'll probably start that phase in 2011.

Went on a tangent there!

Getting back to the tour, I'll be on the road for 2 weeks and plan to hit stops from NJ down to Jacksonville, Florida. I've already got something like 7 bookings, and would like to add another 10 or more before the end of this month. The magic number is 16 to make this all worth while. But 18 or even 20 would be the icing, AND the cherry, AND the ice cream on the cake!

On another front, I've been giving a lot of thought towards releasing my second CD sometime next year...most likely in the Fall. I just need some spare time so I can get back to writing some new tunes! Time is a resource that I seem to have even less of than money, and money is REAL TIGHT these days! But, it has been 3 years at this point since my debut release and I'm starting to get questions from people about my next one...which is a good thing! It shows me that there is interest and a point for me to record another one.

Then there is my desire to do another big concert event on Long Island. It's been 2 years since my last one. I was suppose to have a September, 2008 appearance at the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts, but the show had to be cancelled when my two corporate sponsors backed out. This ended up being a warning sign of sorts, because just 3 weeks later there was the big announcement all over the news about the "sudden" and drastic drop in our economy. I quoted the word "sudden" because the warnings signs had apparently been there for years, but many decided to ignore them.

In short, 2010 looks to be an incredibly busy year for me, and potentially my career best to date. Hopefully, all of the hard work I've been putting in these past couple of years will finally start rewarding my pockets a little more. With a family to support, I need all of my efforts to bare fruit and not be empty trips from the orchard. Fortunately for me, I've had a pretty clear game plan from the start and I haven't had many empty trips at all. I guess that's why I've lasted this long and have been seeing an increase in demand for me and what I have to offer, rather than a decrease.

Keeping Busy

2009-10-01T21:38:00.007-04:00

I have to start this post by saying that I am definitely blessed! And yes, I don't mean fortunate, I mean blessed...blessed that I'm such a hard worker at what I do that I have miraculously managed to stay incredibly busy, even with this downturn of the economy. That's not to say my wife and I are on easy street, but we certainly could be much worse off than we are.

One thing that I haven't shared too much on this blog is the fact that my wife was laid off of her job back in January of this year. When that happened, we lost about 47% of our household income literally overnight! As it were, we already were living with pretty tight belts, but her lay-off hurt.

One reason it was such a terrible hit for us was because we were still trying to recover from her last layoff, which had taken place about 16 months prior. That one stretched our resources and this one pretty much killed everything else off.

Another reason that it really hit us hard was because both layoffs were completely unexpected...no warning what so ever! I have to jump in by saying that maybe there are a few things, being self employed, that I don't have readily available to me, but I have NEVER been laid off or fired. And, I ALWAYS know the state of my business and can foresee months down the road if I may encounter a problem that I may have to find a way around or prepare for.

So, anyway, the third reason that this particular layoff has been more challenging is because now we have an extra mouth to feed! By the way, that is actually part of the "blessed" feeling I have!

But getting back to the first thing I wrote in the blog posting, which was feeling blessed that I'm such a hard worker at what I do, I know of so many other musicians who aren't working anywhere near as much as I am. I have really managed to put my bookings into afterburner this year, and next year is already looking to be even more busy.

I have really worked hard at getting my name out there, marketing myself, cultivating new relationships, and so on. Yes, I have new bags under my eyes, but the pay off has been a busier performance schedule than I have ever had at any point of my 10 or 12 years as a full time musician. In fact I can actually remember a time when I used to wish I was this active. Back then, I can remember having the number of gigs in a span of 4 months that I now have in just 1 month's time.

What that means is, though I have not entirely made up the 47% of income that our household lost when my wife got laid off, we have managed to stay in this house for a longer span of time than either some of my friends or even some members of my family had thought we'd be able to achieve.

So why am I making my wife's and my financial woes so public? Well, it boils down to one simple thing. INSPIRATION!

I'm aware of other musicians and artists who read my blog and follow me online in other formats. I've been made aware; via emails, chatroom comments, Facebook messages, and so on, that I'm looked up to by some others in the arts community because I am one of the few full time artists that can say that they are a homeowner and lives some semblance of a "normal" life, (wife, kid, etc.). I have been told by some artist friends that if I can't pull out of this, they don't know what hope that they have for their own futures because I work so hard.

Well, that is exactly my point. I work so hard because I know that there is hope as long as I work so hard. I'm not, and never have been, one who waits for that hope to arrive. My motto has ALWAYS, from day 1, been "if you can't FIND a gig, then MAKE a gig"!

So, I say to my fellow artists who may read this blog, that if I can last for 9 months plugging up holes in a ship that's far from shore, with two other people depending on me and all of the responsibilities that come with trying to support a family by just my income as a full time musician, then YOU should be able to do likewise or even better if you are a musician or artist that doesn't have anybody depending on you, or any home ownership responsibilities.

These times are the ones that will let us know if we REALLY want to try and make a living at what we do. These are the times that will show if we REALLY have what it takes to make it in such a competitive and saturated field.

Don't give up and don't lay down....just work hard and KEEP BUSY!!!!!

Concerts: Why Bother!

2009-08-31T18:37:00.012-04:00

Ever since this past May, when I performed with singer/songwriter Jack Lacitra at the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, NY, I've had the bug in my ear about self producing another concert for my jazz quartet. At this point it has been nearly 2 years since I have done that!

If I were to only consider the amount of time it takes to put a concert together, or the amount of money that is needed up front to rent the venue, get the insurance, and otherwise set the wheels in motion, my attitude would be "who needs it". However, there are benefits to self producing concerts and it has always fit into my long term plans and goals.

Since day one, I have known that the only way to ever really get to the sorts of performances that I can really make a good living off of was to be taken on by one or more booking agents. That meant several things:

I had to STOP performing with my quartet in restaurants or other venues where we would not be the focus (NO MORE BACKGROUND MUSIC!!!!).
I had to sharpen my ability to interact with my audience and provide them with an EXPERIENCE and not just good music.
I had to increase my fan base and my reach.
I needed to find some way to prove my worth to booking agents so that they wouldn't feel that signing me on would be too much of a risk to make it worth their while.

In regards to the last thing I listed (proving my worth), I figured that money talks. So, the best way I could prove my worth is to show the ticket sales receipts and the other proof that people are willing to pay to see me in a concert setting. Well, at this juncture I have proven this several times over...so where are the booking agents? Unfortunately for me, part of the problem is the genre of music that I have chosen to specialize in...jazz.

Since jazz accounts for such a small percentage of the concert going public, the only jazz musicians that the booking agents are interested in are the ones who are already big names, who already have booking agents...there's no interest in emerging artists that are showing they can draw a ticket buying audience.

If it wasn't for the fact that self producing concerts take up so much time, energy, and financial resources up front, I'd say "SCREW THE BOOKING AGENTS" because I have always done pretty well with my concerts, financially. I'm not driving a luxury car, but I have certainly managed to make it at least worth my while to pursue such a coarse of action. I also see that it is a viable way to go.

However, time is no longer on my side. At only 36 years old, I'm already starting to feel some of the wear and tear of being a full time musician for nearly 15 years and burning the candle from both ends, combined with being a new father, trying to look after my now aging parents, and always looking for ways to try and be available more for my wife. The past year or two I have been feeling tired constantly.

Doing this for a living has proven to be exhausting work, and it has only been my drive to: A) prove all of the people WRONG that told me or continue to tell me that this can't be done for a living, and B) to be successful in general at whatever I do, that has kept me going. That and the broom I have hidden behind me to prop me up and make it look like I'm still standing up.

Despite my venting, I remain convinced that doing more self produced concerts, where I can continue to prove that people (from different regions) are willing to buy tickets to see me and my group perform, is probably the best path to follow. The problem or challenge is to find a way that doesn't leave me so exhausted during the process of putting the events together and promoting them, that I'm too tired to actually perform in the first place.

Practice Log - 8/17/09 | Part I

2009-08-17T07:25:00.000-04:00

Warm Up:

harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min
harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min

Practice Log - 8/16/09 | Part II

2009-08-16T22:06:00.003-04:00

I didn't get to work on technical stuff today. But, one thing I did get to work on is "ear training" of sorts and general musicianship.

Today I had a duet performance with blues/jazz artist Gail Storm. We played 3 sets together, with the overwhelming majority of the tunes being ones that neither her nor I have ever done before. It was a great exercise in listening and making sure to do what's needed, musical, and appropriate for each tune specifically, and the gig in general. The tunes that we did that I had zero familiarity with encompassed about 2 hours worth of material.

So, even though I don't normally consider a gig as a practice session, I will consider this one to be a practice session simply because it was really a good work out for my ears, understanding of music harmony and theory, and general musicianship.

Practice Log - 8/16/09 | Part I

2009-08-16T09:00:00.003-04:00

I have realized that I've been rather naughty by not posting my practice routine in a bit. No excuses other than I've been too lazy to bring my laptop down to my practice room with me and then bring it back upstairs to my home office and internet connection.

So anyway, here's what I've done for this morning:

Warm Up:

harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min
harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min

Getting Together In Style!

2009-08-12T04:47:00.004-04:00

It may only be once a year, but when I get together with a couple of my cousins and my uncle, we do it in style!

I've mentioned several times in the past that I come from a musical family...actually, the arts in general run strong in my family. Well, above this paragraph you see a photo (courtesy of a fan named Lynda Maniscalco) of my family band known as "The Latimer Experience", which is made up of (from left to right): My cousin Andre Latimer, my uncle Isham Latimer, my other cousin Emile Latimer, my two friends Glenn Palermo and Bill Titus on bass and guitar respectively, and of course me.

Yesterday we completed the last of two performances that I had booked for us this year. It's always such a kick for me to see how the audience reacts to what we have to offer, which is essentially 2 sets of purely improvisational music based on African and Latin drum rhythms, and perhaps 1 or 2 jazz standards thrown into the mix. What a great time we had! There is only one negative thing.

We had always wanted to get a good recording done of us while we are all still around and able to play. This is particularly important to me as the youngest member of "The Latimer Experience", because my cousin Emile is approaching his mid 70's and is starting to experience problems and pain with his hands. So, I had brought my digital recorder with the hopes that we might actually be able to create a live CD. We were in top form! However, the recorder didn't catch the performance! I forgot a stand for it and had to tape it to a column. Unfortunately, I taped it too tight and accidentally press the "stop recording button", which turned the device off. Talk about disappointments! I was disgusted when I saw no data on my memory card.

At any rate, hopefully we will be able to all get together again next year. And this time, they'll be no slip ups!

Catching Lightning in a Bottle

2009-08-07T18:41:00.005-04:00

For the past year and a half, I have had the pleasure of being a regular part of the line-up for blues and jazz performer Gail Storm. Whether it's with her heavy hitting quartet with monster blues guitarist Joe Vicino, or a more intimate setting with just the two of us performing for a smaller crowd, I have enjoyed EVERY minute of my time on stage with her.

During our time together we have noticed a few things.

We have become very locked in to each other's playing styles
People seem to really enjoy not only the music we play, but our interactions on stage
Every single performance that we have done, particularly when we have the full band together, has reached our audiences in a very positive way...very much like what I see happens with my own quartet!

With those things in mind, about 2 months ago, we decided to record a 6 song CD together that we would make available for fans during our performances together. Well, we have completed the CD and I have to say that I really think we caught lightning in a bottle on this one! We simply did some of the songs that were favorites of her fans, but were also very strong songs for us. There's no cover design yet, or anything like that. In fact, we might not even professionally mass produce it, but I really think that people will enjoy it...hopefully as much as we enjoyed recording it!

One for the Road

2009-07-22T10:57:00.006-04:00

For the past 4 years, I have enjoyed an extremely talented and well aquainted line up with my jazz quartet. People know my group to consist of Kenny MacKenzie on piano, Thomson Kneeland on bass, and Kyle Struve on drums. But now all of that is going to change.

Today will be a very special performance that I have to do because it will be the last one with Kenny MacKenzie being part of the quartet. In just a few days, Kenny will be moving to Florida. This was very sad news for me as I have always thought of Kenny as an indespensible incredient in the make up of the quartet...whether it be in terms of our sound, the band's chemistry, or what have you. There's no doubt in my mind that Kenny is the most musically gifted piano player I've ever had a chance to play with. His playing really reaches listeners. Not to mention, he is an incredible composer and just simply a real nice guy!

I won't be saying goodbye to Kenny though because we will still be in touch via Facebook, email, and we have even talked about possibly doing some gigs together in Florida. And then, there is my plan to fly Kenny up to do my next CD with me and the rest of the guys.

Thomson Kneeland, the bassist for my quartet, has given me a few players that I can contact to take over the piano duties. I am familiar with almost all of them and they are all great players. But somehow I don't think it will be quite the same with Kenny not on the bandstand with us. In any case, the show must go on, and I'm feeling too much momentum lately to stop now!

So, I guess that's it for this post. I'm excited about the gig today and will be sure to enjoy every minute of it. HERE'S TO KENNY MACKENZIE and one for the road!

The African Challenge

2009-07-02T23:01:00.004-04:00

I'm excited about a new project that I've been asked to perform in. This project consists of African music and the group will be a quartet with a guitarist (bandleader), bassist, drummer, and of course myself on saxophones.

The music, though simple in concept, has proven to be rather challenging for me because it is so different than what I'm used to playing, or even how I'm used to conceptualizing music. That having been said, I like that it is challenging me because that is how we get better at doing things. There isn't a way to rise to a challenge if we haven't had one placed before us!

Right now we are in rehearsals, but the band leader plans on having us do several "small" performances as a tune-up for a big concert performance at the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, New York. That will be followed up by a master class and performance at Amherst College in Massachusetts sometime in February of 2010.

The chemistry within the group is very good...no egos, which is always a good thing! I really think that this will prove to be both an interesting and rewarding experience. And, at the very least, it should help me be able to better perform with my cousin Emile Latimer (percussionist), who's playing style is that of West Africa.

Just one question remains in my mind though. What is the bandleader going to call the band?

My Next CD

2009-06-11T19:32:00.007-04:00

I've been starting to get questions from people asking me when I plan to put out my next CD effort.

Good question!

I've been thinking that myself, actually. In the back of my mind I had the idea of hitting the studio this Fall and trying to put out the release by next Summer. That is still a possibility, but what is more likely is getting into the studio during the early part of 2010 for a Fall release.

There are several factors that have held me from releasing a new album over the past couple of years. One thing has been my schedule. I have had such a dense schedule the past couple of years (thank goodness) that I simply haven't had the proper time to plan anything out, or to write new music for that matter. The second factor, and perhaps the most significant, is that I became a father last Summer. Anybody who is a parent knows that you can't get a whole lot of work done when you have a baby around.

All that in mind, there are a few reasons present as to why I can't start on the album right away (this Fall). Probably the biggest reason is MONEY.

Even though I'm signed to a record label (Tierra Records of Dortmund, Germany), I still have costs to have to cover from out of my own pocket. Simply put, the label I'm signed to is a small independent label and their budget isn't such that they can simply throw me 15 or 20 thousand dollars to do an album and properly promote it. Most of their help comes on the distribution end and in helping me with sales overseas.

Another hurdle, which is somewhat related to money, is the fact that I need to write some more songs. How does this relate to money? Well, on my first album I have several cover tunes (jazz standards) that I recorded to help give listeners some tunes that they may be familiar with so that purchasing my album wouldn't be such a risk for them.

What many listeners don't realize is that by doing so I had to pay a good amount of money in licensing to be allowed to record and sell those cover songs...nearly $2,000 extra on top of the other costs involved with recording and manufacturing the CD. Bare in mind, that I was discovered by Tierra Records AFTER I had already completed the album. So, all of the expenses were completely out of my own pocket.

My next album will be all original compositions to both help me get MY voice out, and to help me cut costs.

I have been stirring some song ideas around, but I'm taking my time. I really want this to be put together right and for the songs to be right for what I think my next move should be musically. At the same time, I realize that it's been awhile since I put out my debut album and I don't want it to be too much longer before the next one is released.

So, with that I think I will end this post. But, one thing is certain. I would definitely like to have a new album out by sometime in 2010.

Online Communities

2009-06-01T02:24:00.005-04:00

I've been keeping pretty busy lately and haven't been able to get away to leave a post in a spell. My initial, unspoken goal of putting up a blog post at least 3 or 4 times a week has evaporated! The fact of the matter is that there are just so many lines of communication that I have open, it's getting tough to keep track of all of them.

As of this moment, in addition to trying to keep this blog up to date, I'm also trying to keep my website current, I have a monthly email blast to construct on an ongoing basis, and I'm on all of the "big 3" social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. Not to mention I have a Youtube account that is painfully neglected. Most of my attempts to stay on top of all of these different sights are thwarted by my normal, day to day activities of being a dad, trying to keep our house from falling on top of us (or just plain trying keep the house at all!), so on and so on.

One thing I have to say about all these social networking sites is that they have been great in getting me in contact with friends and relatives who I have not seen in a very long time. In fact, an old childhood friend of mine recently contacted me who I don't believe I've seen since perhaps 2nd or 3rd grade! I also get to talk to a few of my close friends that I don't get to see in person very much because of my performance schedule, or our respective family lives.

My venturing into the social networking scene was somewhat calculated. I first joined Myspace a couple of years ago as a marketing experiment. I learned a few things from that experience, but mostly that it is an over saturated media to try and get your voice heard as a musician. It seems that everybody and their grandmother is trying to promote their band on Myspace, making the whole experience a little overbearing.

Facebook was my next move. Oddly enough, I didn't join because I wanted to market myself. My first objective was to find a lost family member that I had evidence showing that he may be a Facebook member. My second objective, and less important to me at the time, was to try and find a booking agent that I had been told about.

The result was that the person who I thought was a long lost family member wasn't who I thought he was (the search continues), and the booking agent turned out to not actually be a member of Facebook. However, the booking agent's name was very similar to the name of an old friend and former girlfriend of mine and caused her name to come up in the search results. It lead me to the discovery of someone I had not seen in something like 15 years or so. In fact, my wife and I just recently had dinner with her and her husband. We all had a great time and she and my wife really hit it off!

So anyway, I guess online communities are cool and all because you can keep in touch with people that you may not be able to keep in touch with through other more "traditional" means, but it sure is a handful juggling your attention between them!

I'm Feeling That Itch Again!

2009-05-14T18:08:00.009-04:00

After being the sideman for a few other groups who had big concert productions this year, and having the opportunity to play a couple of gigs with my own guys, I must say that I think I'm starting to get "the itch".

It's not the sort of itch that can be cured by using any kind of lotion. The only way to get rid of this itch is to put together a concert production for my quartet and monitor the ticket sales.

The last major concert production I had for my quartet was in 2007. I had the opportunity to put together a production at a 1,200 seat concert hall known as the Patchogue Theatre in 2008, but that fell through because of a lack of sponsors and the start of the economic down turn. Since that time, I've had my quartet in some high quality performances, but it's just not the same as having a box office dedicated to the sale of tickets to concert goers who want to see you as the headliner for a real live concert hall.

One thing I have to keep in mind though is timing. There are a bunch of factors that I must consider before setting the wheels in motion, and one of them is the fact that I would really like to have a new product (ie. album) available by that time because my debut album is now almost 3 years old and there's nothing new to offer my fans and listeners. I think I will have to concentrate on that first. But then, that means that I need to start writing some songs! I haven't written any new songs in 4 years!

As for which venue I will pick, it probably makes more sense during these tough economic times to go smaller with the concert venue. The expense of the Patchogue Theatre, even with them offering me a break, was high in comparison to the amount I could probably expect from ticket sales from concert attendance. I would prefer to go with a venue that seats any where between 150 - 300 seats, because I'm confident that I could fill that many seats...at least here on Long Island. The best candidate is the Boulton Center, which is a venue I'm already familiar with from having performed there as a sideman for "Jack's Waterfall" 3 or 4 times. Also, the people who run that concert hall are familiar with me and have already shown an interest in having my quartet there.

I'll have to sit down and figure all this out, but I really need to scratch this itch!

The Latimer Legacy

2009-05-04T13:24:00.004-04:00

I come from a family that has strong ties to the arts. Aside from my cousins who have performed and recorded with some major names in music, and of course me carrying that musical torch, there is also my uncle who is a painter, and my aunt who was an acrobat and dancer in her younger days.

And now I wonder, with my 10 month old daughter constantly around me and my musician and artist friends, will Alyssa have some kind of involvement in the arts as well?

The picture that you can see over in the above right hand corner is of me and Alyssa relaxing on a couch that was backstage at the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, New York. This was a couple of hours before I had to go onstage with "Jack's Waterfall", which is a band that I love to perform with when they need to have me in their line-up.

At this point I've had Alyssa backstage with me on a few occasions and she has even been present for some of my live performances and educational lectures. She knows it's me onstage too because she reaches her arms out at me and yells for me so I can come over and pick her up. Laughter and smiles come out from the audience and it makes me wonder what is going to become of her with all this public attention and adoration.

There are so many similarities between the two of us that it's almost scary. For example, I often mention on my blog how I always am on the go or am on some kind of schedule. Alyssa seems to need constant activity and to see new things as well. And, she already has a good sense of schedule because she seems to understand that her favorite TV programs come on at a certain time, and God forbid if we aren't near the television at THAT time! Also, it looks as though, just like me, she will skip the crawling phase all together and go straight to walking. Then there is the little fact that we both share the same birthday...though I guess it's more HER birthday now!

So anyway, I guess I need to wait about 20 or 30 years to see what she will end up doing with herself. I really don't care whether she gets involved with the arts or not, as long as she can at least develop a healthy appreciation for them. As for me, lately I've been wondering what my legacy or the Latimer legacy will be. I'm the youngest Latimer male left in my family, with the next one in line being at least 15 years my senior. Hopefully, the Latimer name will mean things like hard workers, trust worthy, dependable, serious, intelligent, and imaginative. And, hopefully, that will be a legacy that Alyssa finds herself both inheriting and continuing.

Self Evaluation

2009-04-29T08:51:00.003-04:00

Now that the tour is over with the Gail Storm Blues Band, I really need to concentrate on salvaging the practice routine I have tried to embark upon but have failed miserably at keeping consistent.

Thus far, I haven't achieved a single thing. Not a good admission considering that I'm a full time musician, and I am keeping my practice log in a public domain. But, if anything, I think it helps to illustrate the point that musicians lead very busy lives and the stereotype of partying all day and night can basically be thrown out of the window. The past couple of months have been so busy for me with gigs, prep for the tour I just came home from, household responsibilities, fatherhood, trying to book gigs for my quartet, learning music for other artists' projects, and what have you, that practice time to improve my diminished skills has been difficult if not nearly impossible to find.

So, in any case, I will jump back onto the wagon and try again...starting TODAY!

Swing Back Home

2009-04-26T09:50:00.004-04:00

What a trip/tour! The gigs I had down here with the Gail Storm Band was nothing short of killin'! Without fail, we brought down the house in every venue we have played at, and every last owner wants us back...and soon!

The past year with Gail has shown me that if anything, we have all the ingredients of being a very successful group because we apparently have that "something" that touches people. That is a rare thing for a band to have, and I don't think it's entirely the music in our case. I believe that "something" is the chemistry between us and how much fun we have playing together. It's something that everybody comments on.

So anyway, this will be a very short blog because we (my wife Renee and I) are only minutes away from needing to check out of this hotel before we get charged extra. We had a lot of fun down here. The south certainly swings! But now it's time to swing back home and hit the groove of our normal day to day situation. But one thing I know is that we'll be back!

On The Road

2009-04-25T17:27:00.005-04:00

I have forgotten how tiring it can be doing gigs on the road. The past few days I have been on the road with the Gail Storm Blues Band down in the south. My wife Renee was able to join me and we have turned it into a working vacation of sorts.

Right this moment I'm in our hotel room in Hendersonville, North Carolina getting ready for the gig the band has in Asheville. This area is gorgeous, as it's in the Blue Ridge Mountains! Unfortunately, with scheduling the way it is, Renee and I haven't had any time at all to check out what's around.

We had an interesting gig last night at the Brown Street Club in Greenville, South Carolina. We definitely turned the place out! The owner had never hired a band from New York before and judging by how much he, his staff, and venue patrons were raving about us, there's no doubt that he'll be having us back when we swing down here again in about 6 months or so.

Gail hired a local drummer name Kris Hyatt to play with us because her regular drummer Bernice couldn't make it down here. Kris was great and definitely represented Greenville well...he handled all of Gail's weird cues like he had been playing with her for a few years!

The only negative thing is that I don't think it was cool that the Brown Street Club didn't take care of dinner for us. I felt that was rude considering that every other place in or out of the state of New York that we have ever played at gives us a meal, and also because: A) they had people driving Ferraris coming into the place and B) the place was packed!

Tonight we will be at Tessa's Jazz and Blues Club in Asheville, North Carolina. After how well we performed last night, I'm really looking forward to tonight's performance. Which reminds me, I have to get going so that I can get ready for this gig!

Sleeping Angel

2009-04-17T11:57:00.006-04:00

It's real difficult trying to type with just one hand, but my other one is supporting a sleeping angel. My 9 month old daughter has decided that it"s nap time on daddy!

What a nice little moment!

I feel like telling her to get all the sleep she can, because us Latimers are ALWAYS on a schedule and ALWAYS on the run, and she'll wish that she could get some sleep when she's older. But for now, I think I'll just sit here alone with her, in silence, and just enjoy this moment.

Practice Log - 4/7/09 | Part II

2009-04-09T09:45:00.006-04:00

This entry is for the practice session that I did on 4/7/09 late at night. I went straight to bed afterwards and so didn't get to make the entry then.

Vocabulary:

Bebop Pivot Points in all 12 keys. Pivots on 5 and 4 in cycle of 4ths with 2 beat - 1 beat - o beat rest in between keys. 8th notes and then 16th notes with metronome @ 100pbm
15 min
worked on ii-V7-I's (all 12 keys) out of Aebersold volume 3. Did tritone substitutions and diminished relations over them as well.
20 min

Improv:

Took a simple song with ii-V7-I's in it ("Ladybird" from Aebersold volume 36) and applied what I did during my practice time with ii-V7-I's earlier.
40 min

Transcription:

started working on the head on alto sax solo on "Mel's Minor" by Dick Oats. Completed the head and the first chorus.
1hr

Practice Log - 4/7/09 | Part I

2009-04-07T14:58:00.011-04:00

This is, unfortunately, the first time I have actually had the time to practice in about a month. It took me this long to try and figure out a new daily schedule for myself because some things have shifted in my day to day operations.

Anyway, I'm praying that I have no further interuptions because I need to sharpen my playing back up and then exceed the level that I had achieved a few years ago.

Both my alto and soprano saxes are in terrible need of an overhaul. But, my soprano is in a little better shape, so I will use that to practice longtones and harmonics.

Warm Up:

harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
10 min
longtone exercise from "Top Tones" book, with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
10 min

Technique:

Major scales in thirds (up, down, up-down, down-up variations) 6 keys ( C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db). 16th notes with metronome @ 100bpm
15 min
Bebop Pivot Points in all 12 keys. Pivots on 5 and 4 in cycle of 4ths with 2 beat - 1 beat - o beat rest in between keys. 8th notes and then 16th notes with metronome @ 100pbm
15 min

"Crunch" Time

2009-04-07T07:06:00.006-04:00

Well, here I am up early in the morning and this time it isn't because I have stayed up all night and didn't bother going to bed, which is usually the case. Today is the day I try to start doing something about this extra weight that I've been carrying around for the past 6 or 7 years.

Given how dense my daily schedule normally is, and the fact that I have a 9 month old daughter who has apparently inherited my restlessness, it has been next to impossible to try and figure out how to set aside some time to get any exercise in. After nearly 2 months of trying, I have finally figured it out.

Currently, I weigh about 270 lbs. At 6'3" that is obviously too heavy for someone my height. The only good thing is that I actually don't look sloppy or even all THAT heavy (fat). I'm told by those around me that I look 15-20lbs lighter than my actual weight. I actually would agree with that.

In any case, my fantasy/ultimate goal would be to get in around my college weight when I had first started to lift weights and had gained 20lbs of muscle. At that time I was 205lbs. However, realistically I don't think my age, genetics, or my body will allow me to get down to that size ever again. My more "realistic" goal is to try and get down to somewhere between 210 - 215lbs. Again, trying to be realistic, I calculate that it will take at least a year to achieve that if I can average around 5lbs of weight lose a month.

My eating habits have been a bit better of late, but I still need to improve in this area as well. Fortunately, I have gotten used to whole wheat and rye bread from the last time I tried to loose some weight. I don't eat much in the way of deserts, so nothing here to cut. I do, however, have to watch what I drink - there is definitely too much soda and other sugar filled drinks in my diet.

I feel pretty motivate, but certainly have some reasons to do this:

my mother is diabetic and it runs in my family
I'm wearing pants with a size 42 waist and lately even those are starting to fit a little snug
I have bad knees and maybe this will help alleviate some of the stress on them
I want to be healthy so I can be around to see my daughter grow up
I want to look good on stage

So, with all that said, it's time for me to get to work!

Lets Hear it for Claritin D12!

2009-04-01T10:30:00.006-04:00

Yes, it's finally April! Yes, Spring is here! Yes, warm weather at last! Yes, thank goodness I can finally be joined with my allergies...not!

As a wind instrument player, it sure is frustrating to have to deal with allergies. It messes up absolutely everything: tone, breathing, projection, you name it!

When I was very young, I can remember my allergies were real bad and I learned to just sort of suffer through it. As I got older, a few things happened to help build my lungs up and make my allergies more tolerable. First, I started playing the sax. Then, when I was in 8th grade, I was recruited onto the track team.

My allergies didn't make those things easy at first, but I soon grew strong enough to be able to adapt and still perform well under even those debilitating conditions. Even now, my allergies can get so bad sometimes that I get winded just walking from my front door to my mailbox, which is a distance of only about 40 feet. However, there is one thing that is different for me now than it was when I was a kid...Claritin D12!

It's a wonder drug for me because now, not only can I play my instrument even when there is a lot of pollen out there, I can do other stuff I enjoy like (believe it or not) yard work, or just going to the park with my wife and my daughter. Jeez, did that just sound like a commercial or what! You hear that you folks at Claritin? I want my endorsement contract so that I can afford to go on tour! Yeah, lets hear it for Claritin D12!

Anyway, I just felt like writing all of that because, when I woke up this morning and I couldn't breathe, I immediately went for my Claritin and then felt inspired to write this little blog. Weird, I know, but isn't the point of the whole blog thing to let people in on your thoughts?

Musical Healing

2009-03-30T20:24:00.015-04:00

I really don't think that most people realize what someone must go through to try and make a living as a musician. My guess is that most people think all we do is party and get up at 1PM the next day, etc.

Nothing could be farther from the truth...at least regarding us SERIOUS musicians.

But amidst all the stress, sacrifice, and long hours, every now and then there is that special gig that reminds you of why you do it all. Well, this past weekend I had the incredibly rare fortune of having 2..yes count them...2 very special gigs that were back to back and were nothing short of magical for me.

The first gig took place this past Friday night on march 27th, 2009. I performed in a concert with the great blues artist Gail Storm at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center on Long Island, New York. What a concert that was! I always have fun playing with Gail, but this was on a whole other plain of reality!

The best part for me wasn't just how well we all played together and the fun the four of us had, but how so many people came up to me after the show and commented on how much they enjoyed our performance. That really made my night!

Then, the next night on Saturday, I had the pleasure of performing with rock n' soul artist Christina Gaudet at the Bitter End in New York City. Man, what a show!

Christina really pulled out all the stops and had her FULL 11 piece band. There is no question, based on the audience reaction and all the compliments I received afterwards that we rocked the house!

Those two gigs were something that I needed about now. Just a little reminder of why I go through all that I do. It's all about that incredible and inexplicable feeling that you get when a performance is beyond the norm and enters the realm of magical! It's receiving all the love, positive energy and adoration from an audience that is totally into you and what you're doing. And to think that I had the extreme fortune of experiencing that twice in one weekend! Usually, I think most of us musicians consider ourselves lucky if we experience that sort of thing even just once in a year!

Those two gigs were just what I REALLY needed about now...some musical healing!

What EVERY Musician Needs!

2009-03-19T12:24:00.007-04:00

I'm actually about to leave my house to go to a rehearsal in Brooklyn, but I just wanted to take a second and put up a post about a little device that I think every single musician should have...a GPS unit.

I've had the TomTom One second edition (pictured on the left) for about 2 years now and I can't sing enough praises about it! It's been a very helpful tool for me and I honestly can't see how I've been doing as much traveling as I have been for gigs without it.

By no means is this going to be a review or an endorsement for TomTom products, or whatever, but I do think that any serious musician who is on the road a lot should really consider having a GPS unit as important as having their instrument for the gig.

As a "gadget guy" I had been wanting a GPS for a longtime, but thought they were too pricey and really didn't want to spend the money on one since I could always just print up directions from yahoo or google maps.

Then something happened to change my mind.

I was on my way to a gig deep in upstate New York. I was just getting through a confusing section of the highway when I came across the part in my printed up directions that said, "turn onto local road"...we've all seen that one! The only problem was it was a really weird exit, traffic was bad with people driving fast, and there was no obvious indicator as to which turn was the correct one off of the exit because there was a succession of 3 or 4 turns and none of them had street signs or names!

I had no time to think and in the middle of trying to reread the directions I nearly got into an accident. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I began to think back to the times that I had encountered a similar problem. Realizing that buying a GPS unit would be cheaper than dealing with medical bills, I went to Staples the very next day and picked up my TomTom One.

It's been great! In over 2 years of VERY heavy usage, I can count only 6 or 7 times that it was either wrong or couldn't supply me with the exact address. But in all those cases, it still got me to within 5 minutes of where I was suppose to be. I always take a print out of the venue's address, phone number, and contact person anyway so that I can adjust if there is a problem with the directions from the GPS.

So anyway, that's my little rant about having a GPS. And like I said, it's what EVERY musician needs!

2009-03-18T14:26:00.003-04:00

I have a new respect for some of the great studio musicians out there - the cats who are involved with several projects and manages to kick butt in ALL OF THEM!

In short order, I have rehearsals with the Gail Storm Blues Band with all kinds of material to learn for a concert next week, rehearsals with the other sax player and then the full ensemble of the "rock and soul" artist Christina Guadet, material I need to have together for a private function, and then there's always the material in my quartet that I really need to work on. I'm still haunted by the mental lasp I had when we last performed "Always", one of my own compositions, and I forgot how to play the B section!

The fact of the matter is that it's a blessing to be this busy. There are plenty of cats out there that wish they had some extra things going on, so I'm certainly grateful.

Gail Storm's stuff is great and very musical - lots of dynamics, lots of using your ears, and not to mention playing with her, Joe Vicino the guitarist, and Bernice the drummer is a blast beyond a blast. We'll be performing at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center next week and I know we will bring the house down!

Christina Guadet's material is very fun to play and I have to be careful because my part is arranged and there is another sax player as well. Him and I need to be well in sinc with things because there are some timely hits and parts that don't repeat themselves too much. In short, it's a lot to have to memorize. We'll be at The Bitter End in Manhattan next week, a day after Gail's gig.

What I love about this is that I can try and achieve my goal of being able to play in any genre of music that I'm asked to play in, and sound like I belong in that genre and yet can still sound like it's me.

Michael Brecker was my hero when it came to that. He could play in any genre of music and sound like he belonged to it, but you could still tell it was Michael Brecker's playing from a mile away!

I think the endeavor of any musician should be to understand the "language" of the genre of music that he or she is asked or hired to perform in, but to still find a way to let their personality shine through.

This is a tough challenge to be sure, but one that I know I'm looking forward to meeting in my two gigs next week!

Coming Up for Air

2009-03-12T16:09:00.005-04:00

Man, I have been busy beyond believe of late! It's getting increasingly difficult to actually function because of how dense my schedule has become and how much I'm trying to juggle.

I have to admit that I'm feeling both mentally and physically drained. Much of my hustle has been in trying to get more gigs to compensate for the loss of my wife's job. But I've also been busy with trying to help my wife start her own business, which is causing me to take away from running my own. And then there's my website - I've been trying to get the redesign done since this past November, but I just can't get any time to myself.

And of course, in the backdrop of all of this are my attempts to get a more regular practice routine in and my campaign to loose some weight.

I don't think I'd mind being this busy if I had more money coming in to show for it, but that isn't the case.

Probably what I need at this point is a vacation so I can come up for some air!!!!

All in all, I think things will start to calm down some once I finish my website's redesign and my wife becomes more autonomous with her business. Since she is new to being self employed, she doesn't yet know how to market herself, etc.

Despite the fact that I have to spend a lot of time helping her out with her business that I should be spending on my own business, I'm glad that she is doing this. I have told her for years that the great thing about being self employed is that you can't fire yourself and you don't have to worry about coming in from your lunch break and suddenly being handed a pink slip because the company is "down-sizing" to save money!

In any case, I think I need to sit down and figure out a more rigid daily schedule so I can attempt to be more efficient (if that is even possible) and get more done with less.

Even When There's A Problem, There is No Problem

2009-03-08T09:10:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I did a gig at a jazz festival that takes place in the vineyards of the east end of Long Island.

I got up very early in the morning to pack my car up with the sound system and other gear. I even had plenty of time to practice a bit before I left. Check out the entry on my practice log. Anyway, I left a little later than I wanted to, but still in time to set up the sound system and be able to start the hit in time. Things were going good until...

...at 1:00pm, basically an hour before we were to start the performance (I was still driving to the gig) the bass player called. He was a cat that I called as a sub because my usual guy couldn't make the gig. At first I thought he was calling me to tell me that he was there or something. That wasn't the case. He was calling to tell me that he couldn't make the gig because his car got towed.

Of course this was not what I needed to hear an hour before the gig and when I still had to be worried about things like putting the sound system together, impatient event coordinators, etc. I immediately got off the phone with him and called a bassist who I thought would be around and really the only guy that I knew who stood a reasonable chance of making it there in enough time so that we would only have a 10 or 15 min late start.

Long story short, the bassist arrived just as I was finishing the head of the first tune. The whole gig was off balance for me, though. I had to readjust the set list on the fly, I ended up needing to play some standards that I hadn't played in a long time. I try to tell myself that it shouldn't matter and that I need to just be professional, but when your mental game is thrown off it's tough to recover!

So what is the point of all this? I think that I need to work on the mental aspect of my playing as well. Something I've long known about, but now I have to do something about before I end up having a train wreck on a more important gig (though, my philosophy is that EVERY gig is important). My mental policy is now, "even when there's a problem, there is NO problem".

I need to learn to shut out snags and just move on. Actually, from the natural process of maturity and getting older, I am much better at it now than I was in my early to mid twenties. But now I think I should really work on it because in the end the only thing that should ever really matter is what comes out of the bell of my horn.

Practice Log - 3/6/09 | Part I

2009-03-07T07:13:00.005-05:00

This entry is for the practice session I did late last night before I went to bed. The past few days I have been working on the tunes that I will have to perform later today.

Tunes:

Head and changes of "Surely" (an original composition by Kenny MacKenzie)
used Band-in-a-Box and also went over changes on the piano
1 hr
Head and changes of "Sing a Song of Song (by Kenny Garrett)
used Band-in-a-Box and did comparison with Kenny Garrett's CD recording

Practice Log - 3/5/09 | Part II

2009-03-06T09:13:00.005-05:00

This log entry is to make note of the practice session I had last night but forgot to note in this online practice log.

Tunes Continued:

Head and changes of "Hope" for a second time (one of my original tunes)
10 min
Head and changes of "Ro" (an original tune by my friend Nick Russo)
20 min

Misc:

Sight reading with metronome at 100 bpm
10 min

A New Personal Goal

2009-03-05T17:14:00.010-05:00

Right now, I'm sitting in my studio in between students and I just happened to look at myself in the mirror...holy cow...I have gained quite a bit of weight!

All the late night meals after gigs, general crappy eating and no exercise is definitely taking a toll on me. Gone are the days of my 6'3" 205lbs athletic frame from college, that's for sure.

It's looking to me like I'm going to have to add a little something to my list of to do and find some time to get a good exercise routine into my schedule. And, I'm going to have change the way I eat. I have really been eating like crap for about the last 10 months or so.

Realistically, I don't think my metabolism or my genetics will allow me to return to my college weight of 205lbs, but I do think that I can reach and look good at 215lbs - 220lbs. And even that will take a lot of work...probably a good full year's worth of hard work and sacrifice.

Well, no time like the present..right after I finish this Ginger Ale!

Just Kiddin'!

Practice Log - 3/5/09 | Part I

2009-03-05T13:27:00.004-05:00

Warm Up:

harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min
harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min

Technique:

Major scales in thirds (up, down, up-down, down-up variations)
6 keys ( C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db).
16th notes with metronome @ 100bpm
15 min
Bebop Pivot Points in all 12 keys
Pivots on 5 and 4
cycle of 4ths with 2 beat - 1 beat - o beat rest in between keys
8th notes and then 16th notes with metronome @ 100pbm
15 min

Tunes:

Head and changes of "Hope" (one of my original compositions)
10 min

Self Analysis 3/4/09

2009-03-04T13:29:00.005-05:00

Lately, I've noticed that I'm a little sloppy with my execution of certain things. Also, my sight reading has dropped quite a bit along with my endurance. Not to mention, my altissimo range seems a bit compromised.

I guess to put it another way, I'M A MESS! I recently told one of my students that I estimate that I'm only playing at about 65% of my previous peak level of roughly three and a half years ago, which pretty much coincides with when I bought my house. The past few years have seen the most erratic practice routine of my career and I have to reign it in now, before even more damage is done. Being a home owner, and now a father, takes up a lot of time, but I need to work out some time to practice on a more consistent basis again.

I think it's important to do a periodic self analysis like this.

At any rate, I've decided on starting a "Back to Basics" practice routine for myself. I will go over the things that are fundamental that I haven't touched in at least 7 years or so.

On the one hand I feel like I'm going backwards. But that's my ego talking. I know that in order to get back to the level I was at a couple of years ago, I need to get back to basics for a month or two - or how ever long it takes for me to get back to where I was at. From there I can then move on and try to surpass the level I feel I was at when I was at my previous peak.

My New Page

2009-03-04T09:36:00.007-05:00

I've been working double and even triple time trying to get my new website completed. I've been working on it since around November of last year and it's still not done!

Actually, it's not even that the new design is all that complicated. I'm still trying to keep the design relatively simple and free of too much Flash media because I know that there is still a large number of my fans who have computers that are "older" and might not be able to handle some of the new things that you can do with websites. It's just that time has not been an ally of mine...particularly since becoming a father. Not to mention the amount of work I must put in on a daily basis to keep my performance schedule busy enough to pay the bills.

However, I may finally be able to launch the new website within a week. I wanted to have it done before my March 7th performance at Long Island Winterfest, but I think a more realistic target would be a launch by sometime early next week.

I've got the "Fan" section of my website about 95% complete, with only a few loose ends to tie up. There are some nice features that I think will cause visitors to want to come back for more, but I still have to start the design work for the sections that will be dedicated to presenters/booking agents, members of the press, and students. One cool feature I'm going to have in the "Student" section will be a link to my practice log, which is a part of my blog, so that students or curious musicians can see what it is that I find myself needing to practice and how I organize my practice time.

It's been a lot of hard work, but I think I will have a website that I can be proud of when it's all said and done.

Fun Over the Airwaves

2009-03-03T09:39:00.005-05:00

I'm just returning from a radio interview I had for WLIU 88.3 FM out of Southampton, NY. It's the first radio interview I've done since this past August and it was sure fun! No doubt because of the liveliness of the hostess, Bonnie Grice, and the quick wit of the other guest...a good friend of mine and a true patron of jazz, Steve Bard.

I haven't spoken to either of them in nearly 2 years, but you would never know that from listening to the interview, which lasted for about 20 minutes and featured a couple of tracks from my CD Front and Center.

It was great to have a chance to crack a couple of jokes and talk about jazz with a couple of first class people who really care about the music.

The interview was scheduled by the organizers of an event I'm performing in called Long Island Winterfest. It's a great event because the people that come are true jazz fans and it helps out both us artists and the vineyards that the event is held in.

Anyway, the interview went very well and the 3 of us shared great chemistry. It certainly helped to put a better light on my day since I am now going on 36 hours with no sleep! I just could not sleep last night and I barely got 2 hours the night before...I'm exhausted! In fact, I think I'll be hitting the sack now and saving my practice time for when I'm a little more coherent.

My Own Voice

2009-03-01T22:50:00.007-05:00

I just got finished watching most of a DVD one of my students let me borrow that featured the great alto saxophonist Phil Woods during a master class at NYU.

He said many things that gave me pause to wonder and that stuck in my head. One thing was a comment he made to some cats from a small jazz combo - typical quartet setting (sax, piano, bass, and drums). What he said reminded me of what I heard Miles Davis say in an interview once. Phil told the young cats that it sounded like they were playing straight ahead bebop and that they were playing it safe and not taking any chances.

One thing he said in particular grabbed me: "I don't want you to please me, I want you to upset me!" As simple as that may sound on the surface, that is actually real steep.

Here Phil Woods is, a bebop player from the old guard, and even HE is saying that the music (jazz) must move forward! He also made comments about finding your "voice". That's a little something a lot of the young cats I meet should pay heed to.

Only 7 or 8 years ago, I can remember being depressed because I didn't sound like Michael Brecker or have that "classic alto sax tone" like Cannonball or Bird. But then people like Todd Coolman, Dan Faulk, Don Braden, Vincent Herring, Dick Oats, and others told me that there was nothing wrong with my playing style or my tone. They got me to understand that the goal in jazz and indeed any art is to find YOUR OWN VOICE. In their view, I was fortunate because I had found it so early.

Now, by no means does that mean that I don't ever have to practice again, that I don't have anything left I need to work on, or that I'm already as good as I possibly can be...I'm a long way from that for my own taste! But I can at least be comfortable in knowing that I'm getting across to listeners as ME and not as someone I wish I could sound like.

Practice Log 3/1/09 | Part I

2009-03-01T13:00:00.006-05:00

Warm Up:

harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min
harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
10 min
long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
5 min

So Much for "Happy Go Lucky"!

2009-02-28T21:17:00.007-05:00

I was just thinking about how incredibly busy I am and how little I get to see family and friends. It's to a point that when I'm finally home with more than an hour or two of free time, all I want to do is NOTHING...save for playing with my daughter or watching a movie with my wife Renee.

Many of my friends, who I consider my closest friends, I haven't seen or hung out with in a year or more. This isn't how I want things to be, but unfortunately it's how it has to be.

I'm basically self employed, which means I have many responsibilities. I don't have a staff of people (yet) to help me with everything I do. Nobody to call venues for me or book my gigs for me, nobody to take care of making copies or sending faxes of new music to players that I'll be performing with, nobody to help me sort through the 40 or 50 emails I get daily that isn't actually spam, nobody to take care of my promo stuff for me....and so on, and so on.

The most frustrating thing is when people don't seem to understand the amount of work it takes to do this thing called music for a living.

Anyway, because I spend so much time away from friends and family (even when I'm actually home), I have taken to calling non-musicians "civilians". Just as with the military how ordinary people can't ever have a true understanding of what it's like to be in a wartime environment or really come to grip with the traumas involved, so is it how we musicians will never be fully understood or have the amount of sacrifice and hard work that we must endure on a daily basis be truly looked at as something other than "happy go lucky".

My best friend is a cop. Our two schedules are very similar. Of course, I'm not risking my life everytime I "punch the clock" the way he is, but we both are none the more tired or in need of both family and self time.

Despite what I just wrote, I love what I do and can't really imagine doing anything else. And certainly, I have it MUCH better of than many people! How many people sacrifice so much for their occupation and can still say that they love what they do? I guess I just needed to vent is all!

All This Technomalogical Stuff!

2009-02-28T16:38:00.002-05:00

By no means am I a techno-phobe, but man I can't believe how involved this whole blog thing can be. And, for Christ's sake, I'm just getting started with this stuff.

Blogs have been around for like 10 years and all, but I guess I was always afraid to start one because:

with all the time it takes to manage my website, facebook, and myspace pages I didn't see how I would have time to do a blog
I thought blogs would go out of style by the time I could even really get started with mine
I should be practicing my saxophone instead of adding one more thing to my plate of things to maintain
I didn't think I could think of anything new to post on a regular basis (life events have since changed my mind!)

Well here I am on the bandwagon...a bit late I suppose, but I'm on! Oh and by the way, welcome to my first post for my new blog "ON THE INSIDE"!