May-August 2016 recap

Rather than organizing recent highlights by months, as I have done before, this time around it makes more sense nest them under different categories. Here's what I've been up to this summer!

GIGS
Gigging as usual throughout the summer: most Tuesdays at the Root Note (with 3rd Relation), a new solo piano gig on select Wednesdays at the Mint, and lots of subbing gigs in La Crosse and Winona.

EGG SUITE
In June, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the printing of the Egg Suite. In July that campaign was deemed a success: I met my goal and was ecstatic to get a first batch printed. And in August I got the books mailed out to musicians worldwide (one even went to Sweden!).

To listen/watch/read about the suite, everything you could possibly want is HERE.

COMPOSITION
I really love the time I'm afforded in the summer, and I tried to make the best use of that time this summer. In the jazz realm, I wrote "Count Your Blessings" and "Tightrope," both of which we have been able to perform at 3rd Relation's Tuesday-night jazz jam. Now I'm switching gears and focusing on coming up with new motifs for this Fall's new edition of the "Dark La Crosse Radio Show."

WEBSITE CHANGES
I've been polishing up the site, trying to improve the overall look and functionality of it. In that process, I've added a couple pages:

+"Just For Fun"
+"Virtual Store" AND "Physical Store" (books are currently available; limited supply)
+"Other Blogs and Resources" (as I've had a bit of a blogging-dry-spell lately, I decided to share OTHERS' work, including my ever-industrious siblings!)

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Currently digging: This very cool multi-media, internet-meme-filled, electronic/jazz project from the brain of Adam Neely.

What's Next?
As mentioned, I'll be working on Dark La Crosse music. With that project, and also with Mop Dog, I'm hoping to clean up scores and assemble books containing all of that music — moreso for organization's sake than anything.

Another project I'd really like to do is record more of my jazz compositions. We've played several of them occasionally at the Root Note's jazz night, but I'd like to record something more concrete. My first step to that goal may be to just record the 'head' of each tune with MIDI sounds, as I did with "Tightrope." Stay tuned for those recordings!