My new place.

Hey everyone! It's been a quiet few months at this blog, but I can assure you it has been less than quiet for myself. New home, new workplace, a completely new lifestyle has taken its toll on my ability to remain grounded, but I'm here again and will do my best to take up where I had left off.

Some notable music stuff from the last few weeks:

Esperanza Spalding visited the Portland State Jazz department yesterday. A Blog Supreme had a write up of her last week. It's nice to see such a successful young Jazz artist come back to Portland. Portland's jazz scene is so classic, but it's struggles every year to stay relevant.

Oregon Music News brings an update of the next Portland Jazz Festival.

It was Art Blakey's birthday the other day. Here's a great video of his band when Wynton was playing with him. For such a great sound, he was really eating the mic back then.

Last but not least, cool video from David Haynes, displaying quite an ability on the "Maschine," an electric drum machine.

I've been pretty lax about becoming more involved in the local jazz scenes. My goal is to figure out the best spots in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia to listen to local jazz consistently. We'll see how it goes.

-Slide Funk