SHAPES NEWS 2006
Well, 2006 has been a very hectic year and it started out with Roger attending the annual IAJE convention in New York this past January, followed by a week in London, a week in Cannes for the MIDEM convention with his manager, Steve Belkin of Open All Nite Entertainment who was with him in New York and London. After MIDEM, Steve headed back to L.A., but Roger headed up to Paris for a two week stay that was amazing! Watch out America, there's some BAAAAAAAAAAD dudes blowin' in Euorpe!!! Watch out for trumpeters Damon Brown from Great Britain and trumpeter Abram Williams, originally from New Orleans, but now living in London. These cats can really play!!! While in Paris, Roger also got to hang out with his friend, Francios Laçharme whom he met the previous year at MIDEM and who wears many hats from being the publisher of Jazzman Magazine to hosting a weekly radio show, heard all over France by an audience of nearly a 375,000 and wouldn't you know it, he chose Tollak's brilliant arrangement of '"Naima" to play for his audience and they loved it! He also spent time with his good friend, producer Serge Vivianne, with whom he’ll be doing some production work in London with after this tour ends. Like François, Roger met Serge at MIDEM and is now convinced that if you’re truly serious about breaking into the world scene, then attending MIDEM is a must do on that list of career “to do’s.”
Paris was followed by two months in Holland during February and March, where Roger subbed for Tollak Ollestad at the Academy for Pop Culture in Leeuwarden, Holland. It's a very progressive music and performing arts school that is loaded with young, talented artists. Roger had a GREAT time and really enjoyed working with the students and faculty, so who knows, maybe he'll be back in 2007. As a result of getting to know these nice people, they have generously offered the use of the school’s facilities and equipment for rehearsals and the tour, which is really great. Shapes thanks Janpier Brands as well as everyone at the school, students and faculty alike, for the very warm and friendly reception and the generousity and kindnesses that have been extended to the band. We are looking forward to playing our first performance of the tour at the school on Thursday, July 13th from 1-4pm. It's free to the public, too!!!
Living and working in Holland for two months was a life changing experience, from getting used to the cold winter weather to taking the train each day to the school instead of driving, which was GREAT!!! Roger met a lot of really great musicians and of course, the Dutch people couldn't be nicer if they tried. As a result of that experience, Roger was able to see the possibilities for the first ever Shapes tour overseas and thanks to the invaluable help of his new friends drummer Sietse Huisman www.sietsehuisman.nl who got us tons of gigs, provided his own drums for free for Dave Derge to use, got me a set of vibes from my new friends at Jan and Martijn at Vancore Percussion www.vancore.nl who loaned Roger a set of vibes…….for free!!!! He even got us a deal on a rental van!
Sietse will be married on July 12th and we wish him and Elske de Walle’ all the best in the years to come. Somehow, in the middle of selling a house, buying a house and getting ready to get married, Sietse still found time to help put this tour together along with Jimmy Glasmacher, whom you’ll hear about shortly. These people made all the difference in helping to make the tour a reality and quite frankly, it would NOT have happened without them, so again, Shapes thanks everyone involved in making this tour a reality, but especially Sietse and Jimmy!
Then there’s bassist Jimmy Glasmacher www.brasseriedeplantage.nl who hooked us up with two gigs, one of which was his that he gave up for us to have a place to play. He also got us television and radio coverage as well as even suggesting the venue, De Regentenkamer, which led to yet another gig for us. We are forever grateful to both of these talented, generous and fine musicians who showed us the true meaning of brotherhood among musicians.
Janpier Brands of the Academy for Pop Culture, Roger was able to put together a string of dates that includes gigs all over Holland, including a live radio interview, coverage by a Dutch/Indonesian television station, support from at least two Dutch jazz radio stations, reviews in two Dutch jazz magazines, possibly a third, due for release during the month of August, and that's just in Holland!!!
The band will arrive on July 11th and after a couple of days of rehearsal, they will hit the road and play all over the country, playing their last date in Holland on July 23rd at the Buckshot Cafe' in Groningen, which will be recorded live. Then on July 24th, they'll then drive down to the coast of Calais, France and cross the English Channel and then drive into London where they will be doing an 'in store' at Ray's Jazz Cafe' at Foyles' Bookstore on July 25th and finally, they will play the last gig of the tour at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, located in the heart of London's Soho theater district on July 26th, which will also be recorded. When Roger has time, he'll listen to the tracks from last August at the Baked Potato show as well as the tracks recording during this tour and may just have enough materal worth releasing as a Live On Tour CD, so look for more on this project in the coming months There may also be a VERY special radio appearence on the BBC3 on July 25th, but that's NOT final as of this date, so stay tuned...pardon the pun. Click on the live page button, located at the bottom of this page, for the full itinerary of the Big Picture Tour - Part Deux.
Now, they're going international and this is JUST the start.Roger is hard at work, putting together the itinerary for 2007 that already will include more European appearances and there's even some positive signs that Asia is not far from becoming part of the circuit of Shapes gigs and as far south as Indonesia and beyond. All of this in support of their second release on Burnin' Down The House Records, the double CD The Big Picture which was released March 8, 2005 and features such guest artists as long time producer and good friend, Jimmy Haslip on bass, Russell Ferrante on piano and keyboards and guitarist Robben Ford, all founding members of the acclaimed group, The Yellowjackets, who are currently celebrating their 25th year together and have a brand new CD/DVD out entitled simply, 25. Definitely pick up a copy as this is historic stuff. As with the Shapes CD's, you can find Yellowjackets CD's at Tower Records and other retailers.
We also were blessed with the musical genius of stellar musicians such as Seawind's Pauline Wilson who's vocal on "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" is a clinic on how to sing a ballad. Joining her on the alto sax solo is none other than Roger's long time friend, the absolutely brilliant Matt Catingub, with whom Roger recorded several criticaly acclaimed big band albums with back in the 1980's and 1990's. Rounding out the guest list roster are the fantastic valve trombone phenom, Mike Fahn, who will blow you away...guaranteed!!! In fact, none other than Leonard Feather thought so highly of Mike's playing that he listed him in the Encyclopedia of Jazz!!! We were also very fortunate to secure the services of the legendary former drummer for Cannonball Adderley, Roy McCurdy, on a very unique version of Coltrane's classic, 'Naima' and we were also very fortunate to see the return of Walfredo Reyes, Jr. on percussion, reprising his role from the first Shapes CD, The Last Farewell. And finally, as if we hadn't gotten enough cool guests, we even brought in our friends, The Jack Mack & The Heart Attack horns on "Lobster" which also features Robben Ford and has been getting quite a bit of airply on XM Satellite Radio.
Last January, 2005 was a hectic time for Roger and the band. They squeezed several performances and radio interviews into their schedule just before Roger and Matthew Von Doran left with their manager, Steve Belkin, to attend the MIDEM conference in Cannes, France. It turned out to be a great success and everyone agreed that it was well worth the time and the expense. So, they vowed to come back, hopefully with a few more French phrases under their belts. One can only say "avec fromage" so many times, especially when asking for directions!
After MIDEM, things only got more hectic with the 3/8/05 official
release of The Big Picture which subsequently went on to received
rave reviews in March 2005 issue of Jazz Times and April 2005 issue
of Jazziz as well as many more stellar reviews from All
About Jazz, EJazz and many others. Some other highlights of 2005 were that
Shapes charted at #31 on the Jazz Week Top 50 list as of 4/6/05
and was a featured band on 5/1/05 on XM Satellite's 'Beyond Jazz'
program.
As 2005 continued into the summer, Shapes went out on The Big
Picture tour of Southern California venues including Humphrey's in San
Diego where Roger also did an on air interview with hostess, Claudia
Russell of KSDS
FM 88.3 and later
that same week, Shapes recorded a
two hour live concert and interview
with program host Tony Palkovic of KSPC
FM 88.7. A few days later,
Shapes was recorded live by Tim Pinch of Inside
Jazz, at the Baked
Potato, with special guest percussionist,
Walfredo Reyes, Jr.
The recordings turned out so well,
that there just might be a live CD that comes out of that,so stay
tuned.
Shapes also did a couple of 'in store' performances at Tower
Records in Sherman Oaks and La Jolla during
the tour and then played up in Idyllwild during the Jazz In
The Pines festival weekend at their new
home away from home, Cafe'
Aroma. The final performance of the tour was a standing room
only performance at the Los
Angeles Music Academy on 9/28/05.
And just when they thought their CD, The Big Picture, had
run it's course at radio, they were
delighted to find out that as of 10/24/05, The Big
Picture was number one on Music Choice's
Smooth Jazz station for the second
week in a row. Featured songs
included 'Measure Once' by guitarist
Matthew Von Doran, 'Sotto
Voce,' by harmonica player, Tollak
Ollestad, as well as his custom arrangement of John Coltrane's
'Naima' and to round things off, the title track, 'The Big Picture,'
by guitarist, Michael Higgins.
Coming up next for Roger will be the annual IAJE convention,
held from 1/10/06 through 1/14/06
in New York City. Then on 1/15/06, Roger and his manager, Steve
Belkin of Open All Nite Entertainment will fly to London, England
where Roger will be knighted by the queen. Ok, so that's a dirty
lie. He and Steve will however be there for three and a half days
to do some business and a bit of sight seeing. From there, on 1/20/06,
they then will fly down to Nice, France and then drive into Cannes,
France to attend the MIDEM convention once again. Two primary goals for 2006
are to secure distribution for Shapes CD's throughout Europe, Asia
and South America as well as setting up live gigs at clubs, schools
and festivals so that Shapes can finally and truly be international.
On 1/25/06, Steve will fly back to L.A. to get to work on getting
Shapes to the next level and Roger will fly to Paris for a long
overdue vacation as well as to take care of business like thanking
François Lacharme, editor of Jazzman magazine, which is the French version of Downbeat. François
has also been very supportive of The Big Picture and has been playing
selections from it on his jazz
radio show that reaches an audience
of over 350,000 jazz fans throughout France!
Now, this trip would have been fine if it had ended there, but
as it turned out, Tollak Ollestad, now living in Holland, has been
teaching at academie voor popcultuur for the past year or
so and as fate would have it, just as Roger finishes up in France
after MIDEM, Tollak will be heading down to Italy to study Italian
and do some work with some Italian artists that he's been working
with over the past year. So, Roger will be stepping in and substitute
teaching for Tollak through the end of March and thus, taking a
long overdue break from life in L.A. Stay tuned for updates on
this trip.
SHAPES TOUR 2005
Shapes has recently completed their
first ever road trip or what we like
to call 'The Big Picture' tour throughout
Southern California. We started out
at Tower
Records in Sherman
Oaks on 8/13 and had a very nice
turn out. Kellen Yamanaka, of
KKJZ-FM 88.1 was
nice enough to come out and hang
with us, so that was an extra nice
bonus. We really appreciate the support
that KKJZ has given us and look forward
to doing more with the station. The
following day, 8/14, we played at Gardens
of The World in Agoura to a very nice crowd who were
able to sit outdoors on the lawn
and dig our sound while soaking up
some Southern California sun.
On Monday morning, 8/15, we loaded up the vans and headed south
to La Jolla to play another 'in store' set at the Tower Records
down there. A special thanks to our friends at Tower
Records and our
distributor Burnside Distribution Corp. for their help and assistance
with this tour. By the way, you can find the new Shapes CD, 'The
Big Picture,' in every Tower Records store from Nevada, Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas, Southern California and Hawaii and through
9/11, you can also find us in the listening posts at all 28 of
those stores under their 'Expose Yourself' program. The CD is
in the jazz section and it's on sale through 9/11 for the low
price of only $12.99 plus tax, which is a GREAT deal considering
that this is a double CD.
On Tuesday afternoon, 8/16, Roger did an interview on KSDS-FM
88.3 in San Diego with Claudia
Russell and that was really a lot of fun. Claudia and KSDS have
been big supporters of Shapes and have given us some really great
support and airplay. Thanks both to Claudia and everyone at KSDS!
We can't wait to come back to beautiful San Diego!
Later that same day, Shapes played Humphrey's
By The Bay at the Back Stage Lounge right
after Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin were kind enough to "open" for us. LOL Ok, so maybe
that's a bit of a stretch. Truth be told, I don't think that
Chick and Bobby know we exist, but it was nice for us to play
there and Humphrey's was a lot of fun with a great crowd, so
we hope to be back there very soon. Thanks to Mike Pritchard
for bringing us down to play.
We stayed in San Diego for two days and then on the morning
of 8/17 we drove back up the interstate
to play at one of our favorite
places, Spaghettini ,
in Seal Beach. It was a nice, relaxed
hang and the folks there treat us so nice that it's always a
pleasure to play there. We'll be back there on Sunday, September
18th, from 6:30-9:30pm, so stop by and say "hello" if
you're free that evening.
The next day, 8/18, was another "first" for Shapes.
We did a live, two hour recording
on KSPC-FM 88.7 with
our good friend, program host Tony Palkovic. This was really fun. We set up in a circle in the studio at the
station and Tony pulled double duty, setting up the mics and
playing engineer and interviewer. We recorded live and then Tony
interviewed each of us. This was a lot of fun and by the way,
our good friend and van driver/roadie/tour manager Alan Malunao
was also video taping the entire evening as he'd done throughout
the tour. Look for some fun footage to be on the website as soon
as Roger finds the time to edit everything, which will also be
part of an upcoming Shapes promotional DVD that's in production.
Tony's show aired for two hours from noon till 2pm on the day
of our next gig, 8/23, at The
Baked Potato , so that was really nice of Tony and great timing for
us. Later that night, our new friends at Inside Jazz, led by
Tim Pinch, recorded us live to two track. Man, that's scary when
you realize, as we also experienced with Tony, that there's no "fixing
it in the mix." Live, baby! Just like the old school cats
did it, long before Pro Tools. It was a lot of fun and portions
of our set at the Potato will be aired on line at www.insidejazz.com as well as on KSDS-FM 88.3 at a date TBA. So, stay tuned on when
you can catch Shapes, LIVE on the air...prerecorded, but still,
live. :)
We finished our tour up in the mountains at beautiful Idyllwild
and at what we hope will become
our new "home away from
home" when we're in the Inland Empire, Cafe'
Aroma.
The folks up there treated us so
nicely and the food is GREAT! It
was a fun weekend because it was
also the same weekend as the Jazz
In The Pines festival and hopefully, Shapes will be on one of
the main stages for the festival come 2006.
So, there you have it. We finally got on the road and while
this was just two weeks, it's only the beginning. We're working
on plans for northern California as well as Japan and Europe,
too. Thanks to all of our new friends who came to the gigs and
bought the CDs and the shirts and to our old friends, thank you
for your continued support. We really appreciate it and hope
to see all of you soon. Check out our live page for some new
September dates and drop us a line, here at the website. We read
all the mail and respond to everyone.
Thanks,
Shapes |
