Saturday, November 25, 2017

Cheery in Theory

A fun name, loosely associated with invasive species, which can be very pretty until they start taking over your yard or your local nature preserve. Some of the musical motifs in the piece appear in shifting settings, from attractive to more tumultuous, but, spoiler alert, cheer wins out in the end. Recorded at a home concert.

Friday, November 24, 2017

SJE Helps Celebrate Women's Environmental Work


Music, artwork, nature and people gathered at the Duke Farms carriage house for the annual award ceremony and fundraiser hosted by Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ.


Our Sustainable Jazz trio, this time with Keith Lesnik on piano and Scott Hornick on bass.


Four women were honored for their gallant wildlife work, former governor Tom Kean spoke,

while murals above spoke of gallant days past.

A peregrine falcon made the trip from the Mercer County Wildlife Center, where it was nursed back to health from an injury that won't allow it to return to the wild.

The falcon's handler was still good-humored after two hours of posing for photos. She explained that the falcon's approach to hunting involves dive bombing a flying duck at 200 miles per hour. The duck, jarred by the blow, is killed instantly, falling to the ground, where it becomes the falcon's dinner. My trip to the grocery store started looking pretty tame by comparison.


It was a great pleasure to play for this spirited occasion, and hear about the dedicated environmental work that might otherwise go unsung.