NEWS
4/2/13
Some exciting gigs coming up this month! On 4/9 I'll be joining Origem at Lisner Auditorium for the Latin Jazz JAM featuring master percussionists Giovanni Hidalgo and Horacio (el Negro) Hernandez. And on 4/30 I'll be bringing my quartet to the beautiful Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club. This is a fantastic new venue for the DC area and like all new clubs, it needs your support! Visit my calendar page for links to more info and tickets. Lots of other new dates added with more on the way, so please check back often.
2/28/13
I'm excited to be playing with legendary guitarist Gene Bertoncini on March 9 in my old boyhood stomping grounds of Reston, VA. This gig will also feature bassist Mykle Lyons and drummer Harold Summey. Should be a blast! For more info and a flier, please visit my calendar page.
On March 4, the third installment of the Jazz Composer's Session will be hosted by the Forward Jazz Collective at HR-57 in DC. More info on the session and how to participate can be found at www.forwardjazz.org
1/30/13
I've just been added to the the schedule for the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival in Rockville with the Greg Hatza Organ Trio. This year's festival is a celebration of organ jazz and will feature Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joey DeFrancesco and a host of other great national and local talent. We'l be in the Atrium on Saturday 2/16 at 8pm. B3 or B square!
1/28/13
Thanks to Leland Nakamura for the new pic at left, taken during our stint at the Back Porch Cafe for the Rehoboth Jazz Fest last fall. Shiny head and horn!
1/1/13
I'm very pleased to be part of the newly formed Forward Jazz Collective, a group dedicated furthering this great art form through the creation and sharing of new, original jazz compositions. We will be hosting a Jazz Composer's Session the first Monday of every month at HR-57, where people are invited to bring lead sheets to their original tunes and sit in. For more info, check us out at www.forwardjazz.org
9/11/12
I'm excited to be a part of the Rehoboth Jazz Fest weekend for the third year in a row. As in previous years, I'll be bringing the organ trio with Greg Hatza and Leland Nakamura to the wonderful Back Porch Cafe. A few other nice gigs are popping up so, keep checking my calendar page for updates.
8/31/12
GWU is back in session, which means that the Friday afternoon jam sessions are in full swing! If you are in the DC area, stop by and sit in with or listen to the GW Jazz Faculty Group and students, every Friday of the semester from noon to 2 p.m. Directions to the GW Music Department are here.
I've added a new SCM Music Player to this page that plays continuously, so no more starts and stops as you switch pages!
5/31/12
Back in April, the Trio with Leland Nakamura and Steve Zerlin played at the Meet The Artist Series at Center Stage in Reston, VA, our first gig in many years. It was a blast and brought back many good memories of all the weekly sessions in the '90s at State of the Union, One Step Down and Bohemian Caverns. I hope to get us to record some new stuff over the summer… Stay tuned. Watch some of the performance on my video page.
5/23/12
For those of you heading out to the Delaware beaches this Memorial Day weekend, I'll be at the Back Porch Cafe this Friday the 25th with my organ trio featuring Greg Hatza and Leland Nakamura. The food is excellent, and the crowd is always great. Hope to see you there!
3/26/12
Lots of nice gigs are on the books for this spring and summer, including the Berks Jazz Festival with Greg Hatza, and the Marthas Vineyard Jazz Festival with Larry Brown. Many more local dates are being added, so please check my calendar page for updates.
I've now got a bunch performance videos up on my you tube channel, including some from a very recent gig at HR-57 here in DC, and an entire night's worth of clips from a Greg Hatza hit at the old New Haven Lounge in Baltimore. This is mostly warts-and-all stuff with no editing. I hope you enjoy it and feel inclined to subscribe to my channel!
Coming up in April is the 18th annual GW Jazz Fest which features the student jazz ensembles of the George Washington University where I've taught for the last 17 years. This year the groups will be performing at DC venues HR-57, Busboys and Poets, and Twins Jazz. There will be aditional events on campus and the Big Band will also partake in the annual Duke Ellington Birthday Concert in Ellington Park. More details to be posted here real soon.
*****
Jazz writer and critic Scott Yanow has written a fine review of Organic Matter. You can read it here. Also, Robert Sutton has posted a couple of nice reviews at allaboutjazz.com and jazzcorner.com.
I've recently been back into the studio with Origem, the amazing brazilian jazz outfit led by brothers Leo and Alejandro Lucini. This recording also features two great pianists: Federico Pena (Marcus Miller band) and Alex Brown (Paquito D' Rivera).
The Pierce, Putter and Rumble CD is finally being prepared for release. These are live recordings of free-improvised music with my GWU colleagues Jim Levy on piano and Steve Hilmy on electronics. Please go to my video page to see a clip of "l'impusion outré" recorded at the Electric Possible concert series.
Now available for free exclusively on this site is Live In Lima, recorded in August '08 at the Jazz Zone club in Lima, Peru. I had the wonderful opportunity to play with the amazing musicians heard here, visit breathtaking (literally) Cusco and the Sacred Valley, and experience firsthand the incredible food (Ceviche! Lomo saltado! Cuy!) and people of a remarkable culture. To see a photo album of this trip on my facebook page, click here.
I'm pleased to announce that Organic Matter won the Washington Area Music Award (Wammie) for "best jazz recording" of 2009. This CD features some truly great playing by Greg Hatza, Mike Pavone and Marty Morrison on eight of my original tunes. I'm very proud of this project and hope you'll check it out. Click here for more info.
Thanks again for stopping by. Please check back often for updates on performances, recordings, teaching and other activities. I hope you will feel free to contact me with any comments, suggestions, or just to say hello.
Cheers,
PF
