Update from IAJE

Hi folks, I'm hoping this will be a quick and easy way to let you know what's going on my musical world. I was down in Long Beach, Calif. January 5-8, 2005 to attend the International Association of Jazz Educators conference. It was a wonderful experience, and I got lots of great feedback on my new CD, Jazzmerica, and sold quite a few too. On the radio, I was pleased by some of the diversity I heard--a hip-hop/R&B station seemed to be far less ghettoized than our Bay Area version, mixing more alternative rock styles in. And they played a cool singer/songwriter, John Legend. But wait, the point is not to describe LA radio--this conference was a confluence of jazz greats.

In my next post, I'll tell you about the Grammy-sponsored interview Kurt Elling conducted of Miss Nancy Wilson. What a wise woman, musically, spiritually and practically.