Lunar Octet Performance at the Blue Llama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor

There's a great new jazz club in Ann Arbor, MI called the Blue Llama. When our group, in its 36th year of performing original jazz/latin music, played there for brunch a couple weeks back,  I knew from the moment I walked in the door that it would be a special experience. Beautifully designed for jazz and world music, it's the kind of space that makes you feel good just being there.

The place has an art deco feel, and the acoustics were designed by the same team that did Dizzy's Club in New York.

Here's conguero and composer Aron Kaufman, playing a solo on my composition, Mambossa. In the background is drummer Jon Krosnick, prime mover in getting our group playing again after a hiatus in the aughts, or however you describe a century's first decade, lost from history, or at least from conversation, for lack of a good name.

The ceiling lighting gives our pianist Keaton Royer multiple halos.

Bassist Jeff Dalton took out his acoustic bass for Jon Krosnick's gorgeous ballad, A Smile of Love.

A great gig in a great venue. Check out the Blue Llama if you're ever in Ann Arbor, and you can find our music at LunarOctet.com. Our new CD will be released early in 2020.

Thanks to Chuck Anderson for the photo that captured the whole band.

New CD With the Lunar Octet

An Ann Arbor-based band I've been in since the 1980s came out with a new recording this summer. The group began as a composers' workshop that soon began performing its all original repertoire at clubs and festivals in Michigan and elsewhere. The drummer, Jon Krosnick, a professor at Stanford, organized a tour for us in California two summers ago, and this past July we received a standing ovation for our debut performance of the CD at the Ark in Ann Arbor.

I've long played the role of musical director for the group, composing and arranging much of the material. More info about the band, and some past recordings to listen to, can be found at LunarOctet.com.

A California Tour

Love you, California. This past week, some of my compositions flew with me out to California and landed in the Portola Valley Vineyard, performed by a band I've been in for 35 years, the Lunar Octet. The group started as a composers' workshop and became a working band. Inspired by Aron Kaufman, Dan Ladizinski and other player/composers in the group, I began contributing tunes around 1984 and have been writing ever since. One thing learned: if the musicians love playing a tune, chances are the audience will love it as well.

The night before, our 9-piece group was packed onto the stage of a jazz club, the Cafe Pink House. If anyone asked why an Octet had 9 players, I explained that we're making up for all those times we only had 7. Here are the three percussionists in the band--congas, drums, and timbales--what I call "the joy factory."

Being a botanist, I took an interest in the trees framing the vineyard performance. There were redwoods in the background, and in the foreground, a massive stump where a bay tree with a tree house had stood. The tree's gone, but I bet there are a lot of kids who will carry memories all their lives of listening to music from up in a treehouse. Afterwards, the hosts treated us to a selection of wines grown at the vineyard. Incredible for an easterner, the summer weather is everyday the same, with cool nights and warm days, and never any rain. The trees must find water deep underground.

Our third performance was at Sol Treasures, a play on the words "soul" and "sol", the spanish word for sun. Their nonprofit came into being ten years ago, to teach music and art to kids after California stopped funding arts and music in the schools. California, we love you, but how could you? We received a standing ovation from people who treasure their kids and want them to learn art and music. That was a good feeling.