Had an early evening gig in Kalamazoo, but I”m at home for the turn of the clock at midnight, and glad not to be out and about. A winter storm is covering the roads with snow and ice, and driving–which wasn”t fun on the way home earlier–can only be getting more treacherous.

I”m keeping this post short. Ten minutes left of 2007; six hundred seconds till 2008.

Have a happy and blessed New Year!

–Storm

Christmas has come and gone, and some time has elapsed since my last post. I spent most of last week in Washington, D.C., visiting my friend Kathy. It was a great time–fun, relaxing, interesting, invigorating, and best of all, shared with someone close to me. Kathy teaches voice at Levine School of Music and has an extensive background as a vocalist and actress. She”s smart, talented, interesting, beautiful, classy, down to earth, wise, generous, tenderhearted, and overall, simply a flat-out wonderful person and dear friend. What a treat to get a taste of D.C. with her as my guide and companion! We took in a terrific production of Fiddler on the Roof, enjoyed dinner and a world-class Cuban jazz band at the Smithsonian, strolled through Annapolis, and spent plenty of time just chilling out, watching DVDs and talking. We both needed that down-time, time to simply be.

Around half a year ago, Kathy got into swing dancing, and it has really lit her fuse. If there”s one thing I love, it”s seeing another person discover something that makes her come alive, and dancing has done that for Kathy. I mean, the woman is into it. Besides being a whole lot of fun, dancing has provided Kathy with a safe, wholesome social outlet as a single woman. Being gregarious by nature, she meets plenty of people.

Recently, at the request of the host, Kathy sang “Santa Baby” at a dance party. A gentleman named Darrel, who plays keyboards for Chuck Berry, enjoyed her performance and invited her to sing at the blues club where he plays and where a lot of the folks in Kathy”s dance crowd like to do blues dancing. When Kathy mentioned I”d be visiting, Darrel said, “Tell him to bring his horn to the club.” So of course I did.

The thing about the blues is, it”s universal and crosses all genres. It”s the one thing all musicians who play in a popular vein understand. Jazz, country, folk, rock, R&B…it doesn”t matter what your bag is, blues is still blues. It may get dressed up in different stylistic and harmonic attire, but strip it down to the foundation and you”ve still got twelve bars, a I-IV-V chord progression, and the blues scale.

I had a blast sitting in with Darrel and his band, particularly since he played in jazz-friendly keys. We started off with “Night Train,” then kicked up the tempo with the next tune and kept things moving for the rest of the set. It”s so nice to be able to go to another city, sit in with a band, and immediately get on the same page with the other musicians. What a great feeling!

But the best part was when Darrel called Kathy to the microphone to sing “Santa Baby,” to the cheers of her dance crowd. Mind you, now, for all her flamboyance, Kathy is a modest lass–but she can do “sultry” in a way that left me envying old Saint Nick. What a shining star! And what was particularly nice was that, after knowing each other for a year, she and I finally got to make music together. For me, that was hands-down the highlight of the evening.

Playing music is a pleasure almost anytime. But when you can share the experience with a close friend, it becomes a form of communication, an added form of connection, a special link of mutual joy and satisfaction. It just doesn”t get much better than that.

The radar screen doesn’t lie, but I wish it did. That big swirl of blue and white over Michigan means business. And from what the National Weather Service here in Grand Rapids is saying, business is about to escalate to a fever pitch–or should I say, a blizzard pitch. We”re looking at the potential for a foot of snow and winds upwards of forty miles per hour, beginning soon and extending through tomorrow.

This is a huge winter storm system, affecting pretty much the whole Midwest. But southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northern Ohio appear to be the epicenter. Batten down the hatches, gang. Winter is arriving with frozen claws and icy fangs.

If you”ve read my post on Supercell Deficiency Sydrome, you know how I feel about winter. I am not a fan. In fact, my enthusiasm for snow is so minute as to escape detection by the world”s most powerful microscopes. But some storm chasers dote on winter storms. For this group of lunati–er, hardy and resourceful weather lovers–a good snowfall is Utopia; a blizzard, transcendence; a whiteout, bliss.

And then there is thundersnow. Now, that is something I must admit is pretty darn cool. (The preceding pun was not intended, merely allowed.) Not cool enough that I”ll go looking for it, though, which is what separates me from the serious thundersnow aficionado. If you”re a chaser who falls into the snow-freak category, you will drive miles to experience thundersnow. Come on, now, you know it”s true! I”ve read the posts in Stormtrack. There are a lot of you out there.

I can”t arouse myself to that level of devotion; I”m perfectly content to let snow come to me, with or without thunder. It never fails to do so, in quantities I”ve always found to be more than sufficient. Still, I do love it when the occasional rumble comes rolling through the wintry gray. That doesn”t happen often here in West Michigan, but I understand the phenomenon is not all that uncommon in Ohio, where the lake effect snow bands come whipping off of Lake Erie.

As I understand it, thundersnow requires cloud tops to reach a certain height, somewhere in the order of 25,000 or 30,000 feet. At that point, they”re capable of discharging lightning, just like a regular summer thunderstorm–except, of course, for the obvious difference in precipitation type.

This opens up new possibilities for entertainment in the winter wonderland. Let”s say, for instance, that you”re out in the meadow with your significant other, building a snowman and pretending he is Parson Brown. You give him a nice, pleasant smiley face, and you plug in two lumps of charcoal for his eyes and one lump for a cute little button nose, and you wrap a scarf around his neck, and you stick a top hat on his head, and you stick an umbrella in his hand, and suddenly WHOOOOOOOM!!! the whole freaking world ignites before your eyes, and the next thing you know, you”re sitting on your butt twenty feet from where you had been, and Parson Brown has been replaced by a smoking crater surrounded by melted snow. His cute button nose falls out of the sky and beans you on the noggin. You should never have put that umbrella in his hands–it might just as well have been a lightning rod. What were you thinking! You forgot all about thundersnow, didn”t you? Let that be a lesson.

Anyway, while I”m by no means crazy about winter weather in general, I like the idea of thundersnow. It is my one ray of joy, my bluebird of happiness between now and the spring storm season. But I still say, bring on March, when the serious convective weather begins to roll in. That”s when blizzard chasers rejoin the ranks of the rest of us storm chasers who have been hunkered down for the winter. When moisture from the Gulf of Mexico starts pumping back into the Great Plains, we”ll all be out there once again in search of tornadoes. Thank heaven, sanity will return.

They look pretty dramatic, those images of a large tornado approaching Indianapolis. The guy who posted them in Stormtrack wrote, “I have a large collection of webcam links…As major events happened around the country, I would search for webcams in the vicinity of it…One example is when the May 30, 2004 tornado went through the south side of Indianapolis. Using WTHR Channel 13”s traffic cams, I was able to catch the tornado on the still images they display. Three are from WTHR”s traffic cams and the fourth is from a skycam, looking southeast towards the tornado.”

I”ve seen a number of similar dramatic shots of tornadoes and severe weather captured by station cameras in various locations. I”ve also noticed more and more storm chasers posting links to camera locations as weather was rolling into a given area. “Gee,” I found myself thinking, “wouldn”t it be cool if some Stormtrack member created a database of webcam links across the U.S. that everyone could instantly access rather than having to hunt around for the right links?”

You know where this goes from here, right? When it”s your own idea, you”ve already found your volunteer. There is now a sticky thread on Stormtrack for a webcam database, marked “under construction.” I”ve got the list organized and the first few links pasted in. So it”s in its initial, rough stages. Where it goes from here will be interesting to see and will depend largely on the feedback and contributions of Stormtrack members. My idea from the start was that the list would be a community project. It may even wind up including mobile cams that some chasers take with them. Click on one of those and you”ll be right there on the chase, watching the weather unfold before your eyes. Okay, so it”s not the same thing as actually being there–but when you can”t be, it”s nice to have a way of still getting in on the action.

I”ve included all of the forty-eight contiguous states in the list. Some of those states may get scrapped along the way. The main interest will be centered around tornado alley, and I expect the most links will be found in states in that region. Kansas, yes. Oklahoma, fershur. Maine…mmm, not exactly a hotbed for storm chasing. But you never know. Every area has its own brand of weather, and since this project will be ongoing, there”s no telling what may turn up us it continues to grow and evolve.

Too many times I”ve experienced the frustration of sitting at home, staring at the radar on my computer at a severe weather outbreak unfolding three states away, gnawing my knuckles and thinking, “Man, I wish I was there!” A lot of other storm chasers know that feeling. Maybe this will help. When you”re stuck with chasing from the armchair, it”s nice to have live eyes out in the field.

Eleven months have elapsed since the passing of tenor sax giant Michael Brecker. The following is excerpted from the news section of the official Michael Brecker website:

JANUARY 13, 2007 – Following a two and a half year battle with MDS and then leukemia, Michael passed away. A memorial service occurred at a packed Town Hall in New York City on February 20th. Michael was lovingly remembered in words by Susan, Jessica, Sam and Randy Brecker, as well as Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Dave Liebman and Darryl Pitt. In addition, Joey Calderazzo, James Genus and Jeff “Tain” Watts performed with Randy. John Patitucci and Jack DeJohnette performed with Herbie–who also performed with Paul Simon. Pat performed a solo piece which he composed for Michael more than twenty-five years ago.

Few tenor sax players have been as widely emulated as Michael Brecker. His sound and his approach were instantly recognizable, and his mastery of his instrument was legendary.

I first became aware of Michael and his brother, trumpeter Randy Brecker, years ago in college, with the release of a Brecker Brothers album titled Heavy Metal Bebop. I caught up with Michael next through Chic Corea”s Three Quartets. That record opened my eyes to just how much music four world-class players could generate in an acoustical format. Michael”s quicksilver technique, intensity, and overall musicality amazed me then, and they have done so ever since. Mike had the ability to play consistently at a dazzlingly high level, spinning out fresh, jewel-like musical statements with clarity, precision, and soul.

Brecker debuted in New York at age twenty-one in the group Dreams with his older brother, Randy. He evolved into one of the most coveted side-men in the music industry, and eventually went on to produce ten of his own recordings. Mike”s early style derived from rock guitar as well as jazz, and developed over the years into his trademark inside-outside approach. His eclectic tastes led him into a sweeping array of musical associations. A brief sampler of different artists and groups he has worked with reads like a who”s who of both jazz and rock: Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Chic Corea, Chet Baker, Steely Dan, Pat Metheny, Lou Reed, George Benson, Dire Straits, McCoy Tyner, Joni Mitchell, Quincy Jones, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, Frank Sinatra, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, and Parliament-Funkadelic.

The music world lost a true luminary with Michael”s passing. Thankfully, Michael leaves us an exhaustive body of work to admire and learn from–and above all, to enjoy.

Thank you, Michael. You were gifted–and you were a gift.

Alpena, Michigan, has a good brewpub, the Fletcher Street Brewery. It also has the Northern Lights Arena, where I”ll be playing tonight with the Rhythm Section Jazz Band. I call that a fine combination: a fun gig followed by a beer worth drinking. As a dabbler in homebrewing, and having a best friend who is growing into a marvel at the craft, I love a good beer–the operative word being good.

At Pauly”s, one of my favorite beer stores located in Lowell, I marvel whenever I see people standing in line with a twelve-pack of Bud. Pauly”s has an incredible selection of craft brews. When I step inside, I instantly feel like a kid in a candy store. Stacy, Pauly”s wife and an avid homebrewer, has done a fantastic job of stocking their store with a huge array of truly beautiful ales, lagers, and lambics. Going there to buy mass-produced American Pilsner is like going to a Bass Pro Shop to purchase a twenty-dollar fishing pole. Sure, you can buy one there, but for a few more bucks you can do a whole lot better.

But I digress. What I want to point out is the progression from gig to brew. I can”t say for sure that I”ll make it to the Fletcher Street Brewery tonight–the gig ends late, and I”m feeling under the weather as it is–but I can just about guarantee that while I”m on the job, I won”t be drinking. On rare occasions, I may have a single draft if I come across something that piques my curiosity, but one is my limit. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I”m a bottled water or ginger ale man. I like to keep my faculties sharp so I can play my best. That”s my personal preference. From my perspective, professionalism involves showing up not only with my instrument, but also with a clear mind.

Not that I have a problem with fellow musicians who imbibe. I do have a problem with musicians who get drunk on the job. Most, however, are responsible people who play just fine and don”t go beyond the pale. My point isn”t to moralize, but to define a priority. The music comes first.

When I”m on the job, I”m there to play–and I love to play. There are few things I”d rather do. Everything else can wait. Fletcher Street Brewery will still be there tonight when I”m finished. I look forward to sampling their IPA!

I just ordered The Storms of 2007 DVD. Featuring contributions from some of today”s top storm chasers, this disc takes you for a dramatic ride through the intense 2007 severe weather season. You can count on top-quality production and incredible videography that will bring you face to face with some of the world”s most violent, beautiful, and fascinating weather.

But here”s the best part: one hundred percent of your twenty dollars goes to disaster relief.

According to the website, “The Storms of 2007 is the 4th addition to the popular Storms of 200X series. Starting in 2004, Greg Stumpf and Jim Ladue introduced a charity project to help people affected by severe weather. Storm chasers from across the United States pulled together to produce an exciting and award winning charity DVD.”

Among the storms featured in this video is the history-making May 4 Greensburg tornado. Striking after dark, this nearly two-mile-wide monster virtually obliterated the southwest Kansas town of Greensburg. Thankfully, due to today”s sophisticated warning system, the vigilance of chasers and spotters, and a sharp and gutsy Dodge City NWS forecaster who snapped the imperiled community to high alert with a timely “tornado emergency” broadcast text, the loss of life, while tragic, was remarkably low. Not many years ago, the toll could very conceivably have been in the hundreds.

The Greensburg tornado became the first tornado to receive an EF-5 rating under NOAA”s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admnistration) new Enhanced Fujita Scale, which replaced the familiar F Scale in February of this year. Greensburg was also a storm that demonstrated the storm chasing community at its best as chasers hot on the trail of the tornado shifted from chase mode to first-response emergency relief.

Storm chasers come from all walks of life. Many are meteorologists, met students, and media personnel. Others are volunteer firemen, physicians, and EMTs. Many more, such as me, are simply decent people who will do whatever we can to help. The dark side of our hobby brings out the best of what we have to contribute as people caring for other people. In the immediate aftermath of a tornado, caring may consist of clearing a road of debris, helping to direct traffic, providing emergency medical care, or simply getting the heck out of the way so relief work can proceed unimpeded.

nFarther down the road, caring may take the form of a charity DVD. Kudos to the producers and contributors who have offered the best of their time, expertise, and material to make The Storms of 2007 happen. I can”t wait to get my copy. And I”m blessed to have this means of making a difference in my own small way. I hope you”ll take advantage of it as well.

In the earlier stages of my development as a sax player, I used a voluminous amount of written material for my practice sessions. Scales, patterns, chord studies, solo transcriptions, high note exercises–they all came out of the books. I had a gazillion books, a regular saxophone library.

Today, while I still have a few books that I pull out from time to time, most of my library is now boxed away. The books have served their purpose, namely, to get the material off the page and into my head and my muscle memory. Those faculties are now developed to a point where I prefer to devise my own excercises and patterns, which I hash out in all twelve keys without the aid of paper. After all, that”s the goal, right? To internalize musical building blocks and ideas so well that they pour forth spontaneously and effortlessly. Developing the mind-body connection in a way that produces skilled musical craftsmanship and great music takes time and hard work. But the results…ah! Creativity. Freedom of expression. Growing ability to execute ideas fluidly and convincingly. Those are the payoff.

My practice sessions today are now mostly conducted using my head and my horn. The written–i.e. visual–resources have been a boon, though, and I still resort to them freely when I need to. There”s always something new to learn and someone I can learn it from. In particular, the Internet has opened up a world of information and study tools, and today”s saxophonist has access to everything from web-based lessons, to forums on various makes of horns and mouthpieces, to jazz theory, to vintage saxophones, and much, much more.

If you”re a sax player and are not aware of Sax on the Web, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It”s a virtual clearing house of sax-related information, with lessons and input from top pros as well as forums for student and working-class sax players. Also, take a look at the website of sax clinician and educator Tim Price. Besides free online exercises that will help you build your jazz technique, Tim also offers reasonably priced lessons by email, including a package deal of four lessons for $240.

The information and educational tools available to musicians these days are incredible. In the end, though, they can”t take the place of the ability to think and the willingness to work hard. There”s no getting around the woodshed. Practice with focus–and play with heart.

Whether you’re planning a wedding reception or private party, or looking for background music for your dinner club, a jazz combo is a great way to add a touch of sonic ambience. And the good news is, you don”t have to drain your budget in order to find something you”ll like.

How much band can you get for your buck? It depends. Seasoned musicians will typically command a higher price. Younger players may be less expensive; however, you”ll want to consider the potential trade-off in quality. There truly are some incredible young musicians, but as a general rule, you”ll get what you pay for.

However, no law says you”ve got to hire a full entourage. You may do just fine with a duo, such as a piano and vocalist or solo instrument. That can be a particularly effective solution if you”re concerned about the amount of space you”ve got to work with.

Of course, you”ll be sacrificing something in the way of sound. Add a bassist and the keyboard player will thank you. You”ll be freeing up his left hand, and you”ll love the added fullness and inventiveness that result. Plus, a trio is still small enough to offer economy of space.

If you”re dealing with a big event, though–a wedding reception, for example–you”ll probably want at least a quartet. Drums adds drive and energy that will take your listening experience up to the next level, and when it comes to setting a beat for dancing, a drummer is indispensable. Of course, in such circumstances, space isn”t likely to be a concern for you.

In a nutshell…

* Consider your needs, your options, your limitations, and the tradeoffs.

* Consult with the band leader. He or she may offer suggestions that fit your unique circumstances.

* Finally, at the risk of stating the obvious, plan well in advance and budget for what you’ll be delighted with, not what you can get by with. You’ll love the payoff as your guests compliment you over and over on the fantastic band!

It’s your wedding reception and it’s your money. So the band you hire should have no problem with playing your song. You know: the one you and your sweetheart pick for the first dance. The one that sets the tone for the dance floor. That, and any other song you particularly like.

Of course, you need to take a few steps to ensure that you get what you’re hoping for. Here is some sound advice from The Knot: “Explain what you’re thinking about in terms of musical selections….If there’s a song you really want to incorporate and [the band doesn't] know it, they should be willing to learn from sheet music you provide them. If they’re resistant to the idea, find out if it’s because they think it won’t work with the instrument (they are, after all, more in the know than you; ask them to come up with some doable alternatives of a similar style). Or if it”s a case of just because, this is the time to do the cha-cha out the door.”

Assuming you’ve decided to engage a jazz combo for the live music at your reception, let me expand on the above with a few pointers:

* Discuss with the band leader well in advance which tunes you’d particularly like to have. If the leader doesn’t have a certain tune in his or her selection, then the two of you can work out how you’ll obtain a lead sheet for the band. Alternatively, you can describe what you”re looking for and ask for suggestions.

* Be realistic about your expectations. Jazz bands can be quite flexible, but they”re still jazz bands, not variety bands. If it’s a ballad you’re looking for, such as “Tenderly” or “My Funny Valentine”; or if it”s a swing standard a la “Take the A Train” or “Just Friends,” then you”re in the sweet zone. On the other hand, “Free Bird” probably isn”t in the repertoire.

That’s a general rule of thumb. Each band has its own degree of flexibility.

* Exploit the versatility. Good jazz bands are uniquely adept at creatively reinterpreting tunes. So…”Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”: is it a ballad, a bossa, or a swing tune? Answer: It can be just about anything you want it to be. The band may make that choice spontaneously in performance, but you can capitalize on the possibilities. Maybe you”ve got a favorite tune that you”d like to hear done a bit differently. No problem. Just ask.