As I prepare for the first performance of Know Thyself since last November (August 14, New Haven Jazz Festival), I find myself reflecting on what it entails to present music that is deeply personal, something that this piece does on a level far beyond anything I have ever written. I’m proud of the music in…
Continue ReadingThis recipe is tasty and ridiculously easy. Its main purpose is to find a use for excessive sage. If sage is overrunning your herb garden, this is for you, or you can probably virtually any savory herb for which that’s the case. This is not a “go out to the gourmet store and spend 8 bucks for a little package of sage” kind of recipe.
Continue ReadingGiven my line of work, this is a particularly tough one to narrow down. If you look at my other top 10 lists, you’ll see that there are also lists for piano trio albums and for piano solos. This is for standout individual tracks and takes the whole performance (e.g. not just the piano) into account.
Continue ReadingThis is a really simple and very tasty “cream” soup that accomodates both wheat and dairy allergies.
Continue ReadingI’m not sure that Los Lobos are particularly cool, but I love ’em and am struck by how hard it was for me to narrow down to 10 fave tracks from among the dozens of excellent songs they’ve come up with.
Continue ReadingMay is EDS Awareness Month and here I discuss how one’s ability to “belong” is impacted by having a “rare disease.”
Continue ReadingHere is my list of great comping albums, from crisply swinging to dense and aggressive. To the uninitiated, comping is the rhythmic, improvised playing of chords to accompany a melody or solo.
Continue ReadingKate’s open studio happened yesterday (and quite successfully I must say, attempting to temper my husbandly pride) and among my jobs was being on hummus duty, not a bad job to have. If you want to cut to the chase of the recipe, feel free to skip the next paragraph. My relationship with hummus began…
Continue ReadingI love the drums, and especially on groove-based music it all comes back to that. I also love great songs, so you’ll find that my drummer choices tend to revolve more around groove and service to the song as a whole as opposed to impressive chops-displays for their own sake.
Continue ReadingKate expressed an interest in something with chocolate ganache, so after determining that the rhubarb in the garden was looking good, I came up with this. The “surprise” is that with the thick layer of chocolate, you can’t actually see the fruit layer until you cut into it.
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