The Talib Kweli Show got me thinking...

My brooklyn brother threw down big time to a mostly 'geezer' crowd last night at little field. I'm sure he was happy and he was proud to be participating w gil scott heron but i'm sure he's used to a more raucous party response. I thought he was a great host, awesome rapper and his message is positive and speaks to so many of us who are inspired and relieved by Obama's Presidency and angered by the foxpublicans attempts to stop progress. It was also entertaining as hell. The DJ's MC is Preservation and Talib referred to him as Pres which got me thinking about Lester Young. Pres was playing 45's and they were all kick ass tunes. My friend and I also enjoyed Little Field. A great new venue only 10mins walk from my house. They have friendly bartenders that poor generous cocktails. They could use a few couches and a new security cat. When we were leaving he was berating a member of the Black Writers Conference who was an official photographer of the event. I thought the sound was good but Talib was on the sound-mans case for keeping the music too low. And i would agree it wasn't loud enough - even for this old jazzman.

Going to see Gil Scott Heron with Talib Kwali and Gary Bartz at a new venue in brooklyn called http://www.littlefieldnyc.com/

I haven't officially announced the blog so do me the favor of signing up so it looks like i have a few 'followers'.

hee ha!

I have been somewhat destitute financially this month. Man, the entire music community i know has been destitute! It certainly was a crappy winter for work. This is in my opinion (hey this is my blog i can rant as much as i want right?) because of the GOP's effort to banish art and science from the globe if it doesn't line up with their 'ideology' of what America is about. That and 8 years of a maniac unilateral warmonger partisan president who is responsible for screwing up,well, pretty much the world.

So... I'm really looking forward to going to Siena next week. Before that I'm off to Minorca to play with Tommaso Cappellato, Paduan drummer and all around beautiful cat. He'll be part of my group that I'm instructing at Siena Jazz. This will be a great experience and a good opportunity for me to brush up on my italian. I'm pretty bad but to my credit, I'm a lot better than most of the English speaking musicians over there.

I really did run out of bread but I took advantage of the slow period to produce a new CD of my band Hellbent. Recorded live from a concert in Vancouver from a few years ago, it is my first independent release since Blake Tartare in 2004. I have 2 former Lizards on board - Steven Bernstein and Calvin Weston - and tubist Marcus Rojas. My next releases on my brand new label of love - hey that's not a bad name right? - are a reissue of Elevated and the Soundtrack to Vodka Rocks. Director John Rubino made this madcap political action film on his own and I hope he gets it out soon!

Well, it's a start...

I am way slow on this blogging thing. I intend to share my thoughts, anecdotes, post photos and discuss personal and political issues. My Dad had a blog 10 years ago - he was in his late 60's - but then again he was always on top of the net and really into the way folks can connect on the web. As of today I've been trying to figure out the basics in blogger.

Of course www.michaelblake.net will always be available for content and other matters related to my career. I will use this blog to expand on that and have fun.