Jazz Stories - duets - Roseanna Vitro and Kenny Werner

February 8th - My old friend Kenny Werner and I headed back out to Charlestown Studios in Clinton, NJ. to finish our duo record.  We had a great time.  Kenny is playing fantastic and I was more comfortable and felt free to be creative and express stories that have meaning for me.  We covered some amazing music:  The Midnight Waltz (Cedar Walton),  Some Other Time,  The Circle Game (Joni's),  Sweet and Lovely.  I'm touching up tracks now and hope to have this finished very soon.

The Grammy's, Vitello's & Cathy Segal Garcia's Workshop -

 Bill Cunliffe receiving his Grammy!

I'm just coolin' my heels back home in Jersey recovering from a whirlwind five days in LA.  The infamous "Grammys" were sunday afternoon and night. There's always a conversation about the live broadcast and of course,  'who won' .  In my category, Kurt Elling finally won a Grammy for his Coltrane/Hartman Tribute. This was Kurt's ninth nomination, so it's nice that he finally got one of these coveted prizes for all of his hard work.  Bill Cunliffe, who played piano on my gig at Vitello's on Friday night (Jan.28th) won a Grammy also for a medley that he wrote on "West Side Story".  Major congratulations for Bill.  This was our first gig and it was really great to work with him.                                            

   Tom Warrington played bass at Vitello's.  Tom and I played together on my first gigs in New York in 1978.  It was cool to play with him again and dig how much he's progressed and appreciate his level of professionalism.  Tom printed up his music, listened to the mp3's of the new Randy Newman charts and was ready to go.  Man, did I appreciate that!  Paul Kreibech was on drums and he was very swinging and a quick study.  Steve Cardenas is teaching at Cal Arts this semester and was able to join us on guitar and he is an amazing musician - what a smokin' band I had for my first gig.  Thanks guys.

I'm waiting for pictures from Cathy Segal Garcia of my workshop on sunday afternoon in Granada Hills.  I'll post about that when Cathy sends the photos.  It was a great workshop with eight wonderful singers.