The trio has been blessed this summer with an unusual plethora of playing opportunities.  One of the side effects of that is we are sounding pretty kick-ass as of late, which is a good thing as we plan our debut recording next month.  All the new material is starting to click and I think we’re starting to enter into a new chapter of ensemble playing that has come a long way since our jam session house band days.  We’re back at Cafe Metropol this Friday for what is probably our last public performance until the Asian American Music Festival in October.  If you haven’t seen us yet this is as good a time as any to check it out.

Gary Fukushima Trio @ Cafe Metropol

Friday, September 3 8:30-10:30pm

923 Third Street, Los Angeles CA 90013 www.cafemetropol.com

Gary Fukushima – piano, Miles Senzaki – drums, JP Maramba – bass

Tuesday was Jesslyn’s 1st birthday.  For her birthday I got her a flat screen TV.  We actually needed to get the TV because our old one will no longer fit in our living room once my birthday present arrives, in the form of a grand piano that will also be every other present we will be getting for me the rest of my life.  Pika and I are a week apart, and we’re feeling very celebratory.  The only thing that could make this week any better is if you come out to my birthday gig at the Blue Whale on Saturday and wish me a happy birthday. But please, no presents.   With the baby last year and the piano this year I’ve gotten the two best birthday presents I could ever hope for.

…yeah ok, the TV is nice too, but that belongs to Pika.

By the way, I’m also playing with saxophonist and good friend Tony White on Friday at the Left Coast Wine Bar.  Birthday wishes will be accepted there as well.

A few shows of note this week:

On Wednesday I’ll be at the Left Coast Wine Bar and Gallery with reedman Tony White.  Tony and I have been playing here for a number of months now and we’re developing a nice rapport and repertoire.  The LCWB&G has an upstairs loft with a nice piano and very soft couches, perfect for intimate wine drinking and snuggling, if you’re into that sort of thing.

On Saturday I’m at Cafe 322 with my longtime collaborator Roger Cairns, to celebrate the release of our new CD The Dream of Olwen, a project that features just the two of us, an all ballads album that includes some little-known gems along with a few pieces that are more familliar.  It was quite a challenge for me to prepare the arrangements and provide for Roger a capable accompaniment all by my lonesome, but the project was very rewarding and I learned a lot about myself in the process.  At 322 we’ll be doing a lot of those duo tracks as well as some of Roger’s regular fare with rhythm section and saxophone.

The weekend ends for me with another trio concert, on Sunday afternoon in the courtyard behind Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena, as part of the Pasadena Playhouse District Jazz Summer Concert Series.  The Playhouse District is in its 7th year of hosting this free concert series and I’m honored to be included on their roster of esteemed performers.  Once again, Miles and JP are my loyal sidekicks on this.  We’ll be doing music by Vernon Duke, Leonard Bernstein, Stevie Wonder, Gary Fukushima, and of course Fiona Apple.  I am also bringing out for the occasion one of my most prized posessions, a Wurlitzer 140B electric piano which is sounding all kinds of awesome after I had a miraculous epiphany on what was ailing my precious for so many years.

Anyway, another week of interesting music to be made.  Not a bad summer if I do say so myself.

Cafe Metrople is a 1937 film about a Paris nightclub of the same name.  The owner of the club in order to avoid being sent to jail for embezzlement cooks up an elaborate scheme to conscript an equally unscrupulous but much younger and handsomer gentleman to woo a rich American girl and get her money by impersonating a rich Russian prince.

Sound preposterous?  It’s as feasible as trying to fill a small room in downtown Los Angeles with avid fans of jazz piano trio music with three days notice, thanks to a last minute cancellation.  But if those crazy guys in Cafe Metropole the movie can pull off their improbable stunt than I have hope for a another miracle at Cafe Metropol of Los Angeles.  In the land of Hollywood you must believe in happy endings.

Gary Fukushima Trio @ Cafe Metropol
Friday, July 30 8:30pm
923 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90013
www.cafemetropol.com

Gary Fukushima piano,
JP Maramba bass,
Miles Senzaki drums

p.s. it’s already a miracle that all three of us were able to make this
date on such sort notice.  Come be a part of the magic!

www.garyfukushima.net

The Blue Whale is the rarest of creatures.  This creature is so rare you may only find a handful of them throughout the world, and if you come across one of them by accident consider yourself lucky.  Some of them are very old and bear the scars of years and wisdom.  They need a very particular set of conditions to survive and without those factors they might indeed find themselves washed out on a shore of lost hope.  Many other creatures try to emulate the Blue Whale but they cannot, being either too clueless or too inexperienced or too callous to fully understand what they need to do to survive and thrive.  The Blue Whale is full of hope and love.  The Blue Whale cares about beauty in the world. The Blue Whale is your friend.

The Blue Whale is the rarest of creatures, and in this case that creature can also be called A Great Jazz Club.

I did a not-as-poetic write-up on the Blue Whale on lajazzcollective.com, which you can check out here.

Official festival post here.

All About Jazz story here.

If you don’t want to click on any of those links then I hate you but in a nutshell it’s a two-night festival this weekend featuing four different groups each night.  I’m playing on Saturday night for the 11pm set with the band III, which features Walter Smith III on tenor sax, myself on piano, Dan Schnelle on drums, and Dave Robaire on bass.  Brian Swartz will play trumpet on a few tracks as well.  Walter is awesome, he tours the world, plays regularly with guys like Christian McBride, Terrence Blanchard, Jason Moran, et al. and his playing and writing is exceptional.  I’m actually a little scared…

But seriously, for $10 a night you get to listen so some of the most dynamic players in town.  There’s some really good piano and guitar and organ trios, a solo set that’s bound to be life-changing by keyboard wizard Adam Benjamin, and a nine-piece ensemble to close the festival.

It’s been awhile since the LAJC did a two-day event like this one, and to do it at the Blue Whale makes this perhaps the most anticipated festival since our first one.

On Friday, I’ll be joining the Tina Raymond Trio at First and Hope Supper Club in downtown Los Angeles.  Tina, an excellent young drummer, is from my alma mater CalArts, as are her two bandmates, bassist Emilio Terranova and guitarist Tim Fischer.  First and Hope is a brand new place with this classic looking back room, harkening back to fonder days.  Also, the food is amazing here.

Saturday I’ll be at Columbo’s in Eagle Rock with the Tony White Quintet. I live in Eagle Rock, and it’s cool to actually play at a place that you could walk to, although I don’t think I will.  If you haven’t been, Columbo’s is one of those old time Italian steakhouses where you can still see a lot of old Italians.  Apparently Eagle Rock was at one time home to a sizable Italian American community.  Tony is a soulful, spirited saxophonist, and he knows how to have a good time on stage, so it will be fun times indeed.

On Sunday the Tony White Quintet rolls on down the 110 Freeway to San Pedro and Rosalie and Alva’s Performance Gallery, a cool state of the art listening room with some incredible pianos to choose from, which is cool for me I guess.  This will be a fun show ’cause we have my musical brothers Miles Senzaki on drums and JP Maramba on bass, as well as old friend Yu Ooka on guitar.  It’s a family-friendly afternoon show, so if you live in the South Bay (this means you, cousins and Aunties and Uncles) it would be great to see you.

Click on any of the gig listings to the right for more info.

Last (and best), here’s your gratuitous baby pick of the week:

Jesslyn will be at the Sunday show.  I’m just sayin’…

The Blue Whale not only has great jazz, it also has really good food and drink.

GF3 makes its second appearance at this wonderful jazz club.  I’m excited for this gig, due to the fact that the Blue Whale recently got a brand new Yamaha grand piano, and because I’ve written a few new pieces that will be debuting on Saturday.

Gary Fukushima Trio @ The Blue Whale

123 Astronaut E S Onizuka St Ste 301 Los Angeles, CA 90012

www.bluewhalemusic.com

Saturday, June 5 9pm-12am

Gary Fukushima, piano

Miles Senzaki, drums

JP Maramba, bass

$10 cover

Validated parking in the underground garage on 2nd Street

Click here to hear the podcast.  We talk about the history of the Los Angeles Jazz Collective and about the creative jazz scene (or lack thereof) in LA, interspersed with lengthy excerpts of music from our sampler.  If you ever wanted a good overview on our little collective and what it is exactly, this is a good place to start.

It was almost a year ago when our publicist set up an interview with one of the best jazz podcasts on the internet these days.  The interviewer is Jason Crane, host of “The Jazz Session with Jason Crane”.  Jason has done stellar interviews with many excellent and notable artists such as Terrence Blanchard, Chris Potter, Jason Moran, John Hollenbeck, Darcy James Argue, Vijay Iyer, Peter Erskine, and so on.  Needless to say I was mildly terrified of going on a show that had featured so many heavyweights with the potential of making a complete ass of myself for all the jazz blogosphere to see.  Nonetheless we did the interview by phone, he was on the East Coast and I was sweating it out in my car before playing a casual gig near downtown LA.  Jason is an engaging personality and a good interviewer, and I thought it went pretty well (the interview, I mean).  He unfortunatly called me “Greg Fukushima” as we were wrapping up, but not to worry, he assured me he would fix that in post.

Many months passed and there were weekly podcasts of the Jazz Session, but not ours.  I began to have the sinking feeling that perhaps that interview wasn’t so hot after all.  I was pretty sure that I must have said something stupid and unsalvageable.  I thought about contacting Jason to see what was up, but a part of me was afraid of what I might hear as to why he hadn’t put out our interview.

Then on Monday, my fears were laid to rest.  Jason had finally released my interview, with on air apologies for forgetting about it and having it buried on his hard drive for all these months.  So I can breathe a sigh of relief, the interview wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t that memorable.

I guess I can live with that.

Brick Wahl in his excellent LA Weekly column Brick’s Picks states:  “We’d almost given up on the L.A. Jazz Collective, so seeing their Spring Jazz Fest on Vitello’s calendar this Sunday was a happy surprise.”  Don’t give up on us, Brick!  It certainly has been awhile since our last big event, so this one is long overdue.  I’ve posted the full roster below the jump for all of you to check out.  Or you can just click here.

I am playing with the Ryan Seward/Josh Welchez Group, set to go on at 6pm.  We’ve been rehearsing a lot for this show, and I must say the music is sounding pretty good.  This is kind of a coming out of sorts for Ryan, who lives way out in Rancho Cucomonga and doesn’t make it into town much, which is a shame cause he’s an awesome guitarist and a great composer.  We also have Walter Smith III playing with us on saxophone, and he’s just incredible and we’re lucky he’s not on the road with Terrence Blanchard right now so he could do the show.

We’ve got a full lineup of great artists, capped off at the end with the LA Jazz Quartet featuring Chuck Manning, Larry Koonse, and Darek Oles, and Brian Swartz’s band featuring Bob Mintzer.  It should be a great evening and the price is reasonable, $10 for students, $23 gets you in plus two drinks, $50 gets you in plus a real Italian-American dinner that Don Corleone would enjoy.

Please come by and enjoy some great music.

LAJC SPRING JAZZ FEST

VITELLO’S
4349 Tujunga Ave
Studio City, CA 91604
www.vitellosrestaurant.com

SUNDAY, APRIL 18th 5pm-10pm or later
$10 Students
$23 Admission w/ two drinks
$50 Admission w/ dinner and two drinks

5pm Brian Carmody Trio
Brian Carmody drums
Ben Cassorla guitar
Tim Archer bass

6pm Ryan Seward – Josh Welchez Group
Ryan Seward guitar
Josh Welchez trumpet
Walter Smith III saxophone
Gary Fukushima piano
Roger Shew bass
Tim Pleasant drums

7pm Sigmund Fudge
Jamie Rosenn guitar
Joe Bagg keys
Ryan McGillicuddy bass
Jason Harnell drums

8pm Los Angeles Jazz Quartet
Chuck Manning saxophone
Larry Koonse guitar
Darek Oles bass
Kendall Kay drums

9pm Brian Swartz and the Gnu Sextet
with special guest Bob Mintzer
Brian Swartz trumpet
Bob Mintzer saxophone
Martin Sullivan trombone
Andy Langham piano
Ryan McGillicuddy bass
Jens Kuross drums

www.lajazzcollective.com

On Thursday I’ll be back at the Foundry On Melrose with my good buddies Matt Cory on bass and Dan Schnelle on drums, 8:30-midnight. Usually lots of people looking to have a good time, and we can play pretty loud, actually we have to in order to stay relevant here.

Friday is a rather crazy day, with an early performance in the Valley as a featured soloist with the CalState Northridge NuVeau Art Ensemble, followed by a mad scramble to North Hollywood to play a late 10pm hit at The Oyster House with Tom Luer’s great quintet, featuring Tom on saxophone, Andy Synowiec on guitar, Dan Schnelle again on drums, and Ryan McGillicuddy on bass. Tom’s has a new CD coming out soon, with interesting covers of bands you actually have heard of, like Radiohead, Coldplay, and Pearl Jam to name a few. Yes, it’s still jazz.

Saturday I get to play at Cafe Metropol with my really good friend Kai Kurosawa in his trio which also features standout drummer Abe Lagrimas, Jr. Kai plays an unusual instrument that goes by the catchy name Bear Trax. It has twelve strings that cover as much range as a piano with the added advantage of looking like some Klingon Death Ray Gun with the Head Chopper attachment. If you don’t believe me, check out the promo pic that Kai made:

Kai writes some of the most original music I have had the good fortune to play.  Show starts promptly at 8pm. Kai is also setting up a live video shoot, so if you want to be on YouTube, now’s your chance…

Whew, I’m already tired just thinking about the next few days.