More portraits of the musicians:

Mike Fahn, valve trombone. Lives in Brooklyn, a heck of a serious musician who is well respected by his peers, he has had an active musical live in both LA and NY. He has been privileged to play with Michael and Randy Brecker, the John Patitucci Quintet, Deodato and Lenny White. Growing up in Huntington, LI, he was influenced most by pianists Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and the like. Advice for soloists: use Time and Space. His website: www.mikefahn.com

Eric Erhardt, tenor sax. Undergrad degree from Eastman School of Music, master’s from New England Conservatory, studied with Jerry Bregonzi also. Played Benny Goodman’s clarinet solo on Sing, Sing, Sing in the Broadway and touring production of “Fosse!” and played lead alto sax in Ken Peplowski’s Tribute to Benny Goodman tour in 2006. A very serious musician who spends the long bus rides composing new music using the old fashioned method – pencil and paper!

Vito Chiavuzzo, baritone sax. Wise beyond his ears, Vito hails from Edison NJ, studied at William Patterson with Gary Smulyan, and received his MMus (’06) from Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Dick Oatts. Attended the Mancini Institute in LA, and toured with The Fins, a blues band, at the Monterey Jazz Fest and in Europe. Has appeared at the Jazz Standard and BB King’s in NY, and has played with Slide Hampton, Frank Wess, Rufus Reid and Christian McBride.

A baseball kind of night…

Two nights ago, after a very good concert in a beautiful facility at Newport News, we hung out with a friend of Steve’s, Mr. Blake Cullen, former traveling secretary with the Chicago Cubs, former Administrator of the National League (2nd in command), voting member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and owner of the AHL hockey Norfolk Admirals. Cullen runs the “Jazz On Granby” concert series at the Ropert Theater in Norfolk, and has booked both Steve and his dad Mel at different times. Jim Newsom, a prominent local jazz guitarist who’s Tommy Newsome’s nephew, also did the hang. Baseball trivia and showbiz gossip were the primary topics of conversation. A good time was had by all…

Riding on the bus from Lumberton SC to Newport News VA. Still fairly mild temperatures, mostly sunny skies. God! We have had good luck weather-wise on this trip. Just seem to have missed any bad weather by a day or two either side.

In any case, we have good reason to believe that in Newport News we’ll be able to find a decent restaurant at last. Dying to have a nice meal cooked and served by professionals. It seems lately that every place we’ve eaten at has been in the sticks (but highly recommended by the locals), has offered very poorly cooked and prepared dishes served by the current crop of young restaurant workers who mostly love to talk with each other rather than pay any attention to their clients -- and that’s putting it benevolently.

Last Saturday Ron and I went out looking for a good place. The Outback Steakhouse had a waiting line of an hour, same at Ruby Tuesday. Even the hole-in-the-wall Mexican place had a wait. So finally we walked in to a Chinese take-out place and ate there! Oh well, at least the prices aren’t too bad, but it’s no wonder I have actually settled at times for the Walmart pre-packaged salads…

Turns out the hotel restaurant in Newport News offered good Italian food at moderate prices. Even Vito Chiavuzzo was pleased, and he's a hard sell on Italian food.

Along the way, last few days...

In Hamlet, NC – birthplace of John Coltrane – we visited the train depot and museum. None of the townfolks seemed to know whether there even WAS a municipal memorial to Trane -- just a lone poster of the great saxophonist and seminal jazz improvisor hung inside the depot. In Hamlet, they’re more into trains than Trane.

A couple of portraits of some of the musicians in our band.

Wendell Kelly, trombone. Father of a newborn baby while out on the road with us, he is a great professional, a dedicated educator and clinician, and a genuine fun guy to hang with. Has toured worldwide with Natalie Cole, Clint Black, Yanni (yes, Yanni), and famed mariachero and composer Juan Gabriel.



Winston Byrd, trumpet. Big man with a big sound. Originally from New Jersey but now living in Los Angeles, he had to turn down a spot in the Grammy orchestra to come on this tour with us. Honed his skills with the big bands of Illinois Jacquet, Count Basie (Frank Foster) and Duke Ellington (Mercer), and with T. S. Monk, Larry Coryell and others too numerous…



Gary Herbig, alto sax. Numerous TV and movie credits include the clarinet solo on “Cheers” as well as the The Simpsons and Home Improvement. He played with Elvis Presley. His two first jazz CD’s both made the Billboard Top Ten. His humorous comments, and frankly, well, corny jokes – many of which refer to his native Montana (he is Montana’s gift to the world of jazz) – keep us in stitches on the bus. I think that’s the right term.

We played a concert last night for about 400 folks at the local high school. Our music was fine, great tempos and energetic performance, but the audience just didn’t seem to respond like previous audiences had done: laughing at the right jokes, applauding the choice of songs and composers.

It got to the point where when Steve asks, “Who would you guess is the most successful American composer?” … there was dead silence from the crowd. You could hear the crickets... not one mention of Irving Berlin or Jerome Kern. (The right answer is Richard Rogers, by the way) Yet at the end of the show they gave us a rousing, standing ovation!

Go figure. They also invited us as a group to attend a reception afterwards where there was food, wine and of course, the very same crowd. They turned out to be extremely appreciative and quite nice folks, and we all had the chance to interact with them. Kind of an interesting evening.

Amusements on the road: TV, books, newspapers, conversation, jokes, laptop computer, e-mail, this blog, practicing (yup, practicing), cell phone calls back home, cell phone calls to the back of the bus, DVD’s, listening to and swapping CD's, walking, swimming, eating, sleeping, doing laundry.

A few random photos attached: the Dan River, Danville VA.


Nicole, Bob and Vito, loading the bus on a chilly morning.

Ace trombonist Mike Fahn, um… practicing backstage, er… wearing…?

We have been stuck in Columbia SC for four nights, due to a cancellation in Wise VA. Today we leave for Danville VA to resume our concert schedule. However, during the time we've been here, the only places to go to have been situated around what I can only describe as an endless mall, stretching as far as the eye can see. You start out walking and just when you think there's no more commercial area, then you see a whole line of new stores.

Definitely not pedestrian friendly however! Crossing streets with no crosswalks, no provision for timing for pedestrians to cross against sometimes 3-4 lanes of onrushing traffic. Whew! And me with sore knees!

America... the home of the brave (pedestrian) and the allmighty automobile! Image below of the exact area is taken from GoogleEarth. Our hotel is a small dot near the center of the pic, next to the two white roofed buildings.

Driving into Vero Beach, we did see some ominous clouds... remnants of the tornadoes that killed 21 in central Florida earlier in the day.



Celebrating the Colts win in Pete's room... lotsa pizza and beer.