Carlos Santana and Friends of the Coltrane Home October Benefit

Originally posted by Heidi Bayer for www.thecoltranedhome.org

The October 6, 2013 fundraising benefit will be a wonderful event held at En Brasserie in Manhattan and will feature musical guests, speakers including Dr.Cornel West and delicious food and drink. Please purchase tickets at the following link:  http://coltranehome.eventbrite.com. We look forward to seeing you there and thank you so much for your continued support of our mission.

The mission of the Friends of the Coltrane Home is the preservation of the home and the creation of a museum and cultural center. Planned is an historic restoration of the home including a selection of original furnishings and instruments, an extensive digital archive with listening stations, a meditation garden dedicated to Alice Coltrane and archival materials donated by Coltrane scholars and collectors. Pilot educational programs designed by jazz saxophonist Shenole Latimer begin this fall offsite and will continue at the Home when it opens to the public.

Transition Time

The past few months have been rather eventful for me.  I went on what is very likely the last tour I will ever go on, my wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by taking our first vacation in 10 years, and I turned the big "4" "0".  But the biggest pieces of news are that I am entering a semi retirement from performing, and also stepping in as....drum roll please...the Education Director for the East End Arts Council!

The chain of events that led to this development are most interesting and full of coincidences.  The major backdrop to all of this is that the situation with my hands (I have mentioned previously about having developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both of my hands) have been deteriorating.  Additionally. because I had spent so much time on the road during the first half of this year and didn't have time to book any gigs, the second half of my performance calendar was looking more bare than I would had preferred.  On top of all of this I was concerned with the delays with the "EOS" (Event One Stop) project that I have hinted about in previous posts.  EOS was my primary plan for transitioning beyond my performance career.

These conditions all had me pointing towards a very uncertain future.

About a week before I left for my June tour, I received an email from an acquaintance.  Her name is Pat Snyder and she's the Executive Director of the East End Arts Council.  She basically said that she wanted to meet with me and was interested in finding a way to have me more involved with the organization.  I was more than fine with that and indicated so in my return email. 

Then, three days later I received another email from Pat commenting that she wanted me to interview for the position of Education Director, which had just opened up.  Naturally, I agreed to do the interview but mentioned that it would have to wait until I return from my tour.  Once I did return from the tour, two interviews were scheduled.  About two weeks after my second interview, I received a phone call from Pat Snyder in which she informed me that the position was mine.  Talk about excited...and nervous!  It wasn't until that phone call that I realized that I hadn't had a day job in 15 years.  

I officially started in my new position on July 29th, 2013 and what a ride it has been so far!  I really enjoy my work and feel like it is the right thing for me to be doing at this stage of my life.  My responsibilities include running the organization's school of the arts, designing programs for East End Arts centered around education, and providing career development opportunities for artists of all disciplines.

As for performing, I'm not giving it up entirely, but it will no longer be a major focus for me.  I will not be going out of my way to book any appearances.  I will entertain any calls I get to perform or make an appearance somewhere, but the conditions must be right and it also must not conflict with anything that I may already have going on at East End Arts.

With regards to my hands and the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I have developed, I have an appointment to see a specialist in October.  From there, I will see what my next move should be.  But for now, if you should find yourself in Riverhead, New York, come down to 141 East Main Street for a visit and I will be happy to give you a tour of the grounds and our facilities!

by Shenole Latimer

East Coast Tour Kick-Off for Kids Program

That's right, it's time to hit the road again!  But, this isn't my usual 2 and a half week tour...try more like a month. And, with every appearance being a high energy kids program, don't be surprised if I return home another 10 or 15 pounds lighter!

Which kids program?  Well, here's the story.

Back in 2002, when I first started to do my program called "What's All That Jazz About?", or WATJA for short, I never imagined that it would become so popular, that I would find myself traveling the country to give it and that I would end up expanding it into both an adult program and a kids program.

Last year, I celebrated the 10th anniversary of the program by expanding it into the west coast of the United States.  This year, I find myself actually filling orders...for the kids version!  

The kids version of WATJA has exploded in popularity and now I'm getting calls from all over the country to  give the program.  Even with turning down offers, I still have enough bookings to warrant me taking to the road for three separate tours for 2013, which brings me to the announcement for the kick-off of my "What's All That Jazz About...for Kids, 2013 Tour".

The "WATJA...for Kids, 2013 Tour" marks the first time that I will be touring exclusively with the kids version of the program.  Usually there is a mix of requests for both the adult and kids version.  The tour opens on February 1, in Maywood, New Jersey and ends on February 23, in St. Louis, Missouri, with multiple stops taking place in Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana along the way.  

Because of the high energy nature of the program and the amount of driving that I will have to do for the tour,  I will be taking 5 days to travel home instead of the 2 and a half that it would normally take, so that I can get some rest and avoid getting too tired behind the wheel.

I'm excited that my programming has become so popular!  Hopefully, some of the educational programs that I'm currently designing may find similar success.

E.O.S.

More and more, it seems that people are looking for solutions on the internet that will allow them to do more of what they want or need to do, from one place, rather than from multiple.  

It's perfectly logical, really.

As our lives are becoming more complicated, and there are more things for us all to have to divert our attention to, it only makes sense that we would try and find efficiency, simplicity, and maybe even a more fun way of doing things.

Hmmm.

Efficiency...

Simplicity...

Fun...

Well, as it turns out, there's a little something that I've been working on that will bring efficiency, simplicity and fun to doing something that previously required visiting multiple sites and doing a bunch of Google searches.

It's something I'm excited about.

It's something that will change how certain things are done.

It's something some really smart folks and I developed that has the initials "E", "O", "S".

What is "EOS"?

Hold that thought!

Me and the John Coltrane Home

A few years ago, I was introduced to a gentleman named Steve Fulgoni by my long time saxophone tech Craig Lindsay.  In case you missed out on some of the past media surrounding Steve's name, he is the guy who basically saved the John Coltrane home, located in Dix Hills, New York, from being razed.

It's actually scary to me that the final residence of unquestionably one of the greatest jazz icons of the twentieth century would even be under consideration for demolition.  But, such was the case.

In any event, it was Steve's hope at the time to obtain a historic landmark status for the house and property, and then turn it into a museum (much like what was done to the Louis Armstrong House in Queens, New York) and make it the epicenter for educational jazz programming in the region.  Fulgoni had heard of my jazz programming and wanted to see if I could design something that could be used for the Coltrane Home Foundation to center their educational efforts on.

Though I came up with a draft or two, I was unable to continue my participation at the time, because my performance schedule suddenly became more dense then it had been in years.  Since that time, a board was formed and now efforts have been increased towards adding educational programming to both the Coltrane Home and to regional venues.  

In August of 2012, I was greeted after an appearance that I was doing for my program "What's All That Jazz About?" by Steve Fulgoni, whom I hadn't communicated with in two or three years at that point, and a gentleman who introduced himself as Ron Stein.  Long story short, they were looking to recruit me once again to design a program, or a series of programs, around the Coltrane Home Foundation.  This time, my schedule wasn't as much of a factor.  Not to mention, I had been searching for other projects to be a part of, as developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both of my hands had left my performance career in question.

As of right now, we are in the middle of refining a couple of programming ideas that I had submitted for consideration.  Whether or not I am capable of actually performing on the saxophone anymore (I have actually been seriously considering retiring from performing, effective October, 2013), I plan to continue my involvement with the Coltrane Home. 

After all, it isn't everyday that you're asked to  help develop a centerpiece program for a foundation with a mandate to preserve the home of a major icon of American cultural history!