Best definition of jazz ever. I’m still laughing out loud.
Enjoy, Joseph

Today is the first International Jazz Day –  A global collaboration among the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Herbie Hancock and the Thelonious Monk Institute. Jazz day aims to deliver 24 hours of jazz around the world. beginning with a sunrise concert at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and closing at sunset with another all-star show at the U.N. General Assembly Hall. Both shows will feature the day’s mastermind, Herbie Hancock.

More: The Detroit News:

“The combination of inspiring live music, and an enjoyable learning experience is working!

I just facilitated our seventh “jazzinar” Viva Bossa Nova, and more people are telling me how much they love the experience! People say they enjoyed the live performance, and the intimate discussion with musicians. They really valued the playlists that helped them discover new music and they had great fun with the audience participation.

What we have not yet shared with you participants – The musicians also love the experience! They keep telling me what a pleasure it is to play for people who are so engaged. When everyone is joined in the same jazz conversation, we all become the music.

On Monday April 30 6:30 – 8:30 Pillar Institute will host the next Art Of Jazz program – Jazz Divasm featureing Lila Mori and The Jazz Trio plus FluteDaddy.

Come join us for Jazz Divas, enjoy, be inspired and jazz up your life!” , Joseph Liberti

Click Here For Jazz Divas Information and Registration

We have added a new feature – FluteDaddy’s List. A daily jazz selection for you. Here’s the first, find the rest in the tab menu.

Listen to Blossom tell you why she’s hip..and grin.

Favela

Favela composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim is titled O Moro nao Tem Vez in Portugese. A favela (Portuguese pronunciation: [faˈvɛlɐ]) is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. In the late 18th century, the first settlements were called bairros africanos (African neighbourhoods). This was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many freed black slaves moved in. The drumming of favela residents, with it’s African roots was made a part of Bossa Nova jazz. The three versions in this playlist present some interestingly different styles. A swedish recording with a surprisingly hip Portuguese vocal, A Getz/Jobim version and A take by jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. Enjoy.

What’s a Jazzinar?

Hello Dear Friends,

I am happy to tell you that The Art Of Jazz seminar series just concluded at Pillar Institute was a smash hit! People loved the combination of recorded media, live performance and audience interaction and asked for more. Dave Rich Director of Pillar asked me to expand the jazz curriculum with new jazz seminars (I call them jazzinars) We are releasing the first today and several more will soon follow.

The first new jazzinar, a 2.5 hour program called Viva Bossa Nova, uses the same format of recorded media to explore the history , composers and artists, audience interaction.  AND the program includes a live concert of gorgeous music by the Wayne Wilkinson trio plus yours truly on flute.  We’ll go beyond the few bossa tunes that are popular to explore some wonderful music you may have never heard.  Watch the short video below for a preview and click the link below to save a seat at a discount.

Click Here To Reserve Your Seat Now

Fremont Center For The Arts presents FluteDaddy and The Freebird Trio in a concert of avant garde jazz.

Adele Accepts Grammy Award

Earlier this month we debuted our new jazz trio, Freebird , at Lofty’s in Colorado Springs and we have never had so much fun! Freebird,  featuring Lee Gardner on bass, Dick Cunico on drums and FluteDaddy on flutes creates new music in real time. We use a jazz standard, pop tune or original composition as a canvas for improvisational dialogue between the instruments.

At our Lofty’s gig our rendition of Adele’s Rolling In The Deep was highly appreciated by everyone, but they didn’t see it coming.  The powerful melody came wrapped in a bit of chaos that expressed the emotions of “could have had it all.” Of course, it didn’t hurt to have presented an arrangement of a song that won a Grammy later that same week.  At the Fremont concert we will again do Rolling In The Deep as well as our favs and we’ll introduce several new arrangements of jazz originals.

Click here for Avant Garde Jazz Concert details.

What will we create?  We won’t really know ’til it happens but you can come on down to Canon City and be there when it does. If you can’t be there , please pass the info along. We’ll keep you in the loop on our next concerts.

Lofty’s 287 E. Fountain Blvd (at Weber) Presents:

Freebird: An evening of poetic jazz on Thursday February 9 7-9 PM

Freebird: A new group and a new sound

Freebird is our new group featuring FluteDaddy on flutes, Lee Gardner on bass and Dick Cunico on drums. We play what we call poetic jazz - imaginative, emotional, expressive. We begin with a familiar pop or jazz standard  arranged in a new beat, and we use that as a platform to enter into an free dialogue between the instruments. The music conversation can be like life – sometimes dull, sometimes thrilling. And in peak moments it is magical!

Dick and Lee each have prior experience playing with modern jazz and free jazz style groups – Dick in Los Angeles and Lee in New York. I started to explore this style recently after being intrigued by some music by Ornette Colman, Sam Rivers and similar others. As a listener, I was turned off by the frenetic, non-melodic sounds of some  groups and found some to be surprisingly  satisfying and artful.  We three were motivated to express ourselves in this style and at first we groped and fumbled until we started to trust, and as the relationship became intuitive, we started producing some compelling musical experiences.

Lofty’s was the IndyPick • Best Of 2011: Hangout for Bagel Sandwiches, Local Music, Lattes and Libations.

Follow Weber Street south to where it dead-ends in the historic Lowell School neighborhood, and you’ll find Lofty’s, a quaintly cool café/eatery that recently began offering well-chosen beer, wine and spirits. Opened by Rubbish co-founder Josh Kennard in the wake of the gallery’s late 2010 closing, Lofty’s captures the atmosphere of pre-Starbucks coffeehouses, where owners are on-site and, in the case of Kennard, culturally aware and conversational. In September, the venue celebrated its new liquor license and expanded hours (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) with 10 hours of live performances from some of our best local musicians. — Bill Forman, Independent

Start Your Listening Year With These New Releases

If you resolve to enjoy more music in 2012 here’s a  variety of interesting tunes and artists from new recordings released in 2011. Each a different style and delivery. Enjoy!

• The New Gary Burton Quartet – Common Ground –  My Funny Valentine
• Joseph Daley Earth Tones Ensemble – The Seven Deadly Sins Lechery-Lust
• Tim Horner – The Places We Feel Free – The Places We Feel Free
• Brad Mehldau, Live In Marciac – It’s All Right With Me
• Dr. Michael White – Adventures in New Orleans Jazz Part 1 – West African Strut

Thanks For A Great “Old Year”

And Best Wishes For A Jazzy New Year!

2011 Was one of the best of my life, full of music and folks like you. Thank you for supporting FluteDaddy jazz! I have loved playing for you.

Since Autumn, After the FAC jazz project shut down, I have taken some time out from performing to ready my old business to get along without me and clear space for more music in 2012. January begins with exciting projects underway.

Starting January 31,  I will facilitate The Art Of Jazz, a jazz education/appreciation seminar series using live and recorded music, at Pillar Institute. And this week is the first rehearsal for a unique music project with a new FluteDaddy trio. In 2012 you will hear a new voice from both flutes as I express a more personal and passionate solo style and play a broad range of new music from pop tunes to free jazz style. Life is exciting!

May the new year bring you health, happiness and the music of life!

Joseph Liberti