vega-6733

Featuring Brian McCarthy on sax, Chuck D'Aloia on guitar, Caleb Bronze on drums and Rob Morse on bass on the evening I visited. The quintet provided a pleasant evening of jazz for a large appreciative audience. Yes, jazz does live in places other than NY. Thank you to Ray and band for carrying the torch.

Mark has played a large role in assuring that the Capital District continues to have its own lively jazz scene.  The union has facilitated, sponsored many jazz shows in the area, putting the spotlight on many of the area's fine younger jazz musicians including Keith Pray, Brian Patneaude, Dylan Canterbury and Joe Barna.

Tenor Saxophonists Ralph Lalama and Jerry Weldon drove up from New York to play with a local trio led by Joe Barna on drums, featuring Dave Solazzo from Syracuse and Otto Gardner on bass for 2 sets of straight ahead jazz.

Jazz enthusiast Dave Perry and Maria Perry hosted the event at their bookstore, Flights of Fantasy. 

Local jazz artist Tony Avocato presented Mark with portraits of local jazz musicians as a gift.

This was truly an local jazz community event.

Thanks Mark for all that you have done and best wishes for the future!!!

The presentation of this material also spanned the gap between old and new. The material is either being sold as downloads or on a good old fashioned LP.

I had the great privilege of spending 3 evenings in the White Lake Music and Post in Albany, NY to document the Alan Evans produced recording sessions.  

My photos were used on the inside of the vinyl album jacket.The graphic design of Kiki Vassilakis  reflects a retro yet modern look paying tribute to the almost lost art of album design a la Blue Note and other great jazz/ rock labels of the past yet pointing to the future. By the way, Kiki is an outstanding photographer and drummer in her own right.

The production was by Soullive's Alan Evans.

Thanks to Bryan Brundige for allowing me to participate in this project.

By the way, the album can be digitally downloaded from Itunes or  a vinyl copy can be purchased from the band during a show or from their website:

http://www.thechroniclesband.com/spanning-the-gap-lp/.

If you live in eastern upstate NY, you may have seen me at a concert or a nightclub photographing the performances there. I have published the work regularly on two internet sites devoted to the arts in NY's Capital District, albanyjazz.com and nippertown.com for the last 5 years.  The work has also been featured in several Capital District art venues as well websites and CD art of various musicians. My other career is now allowing  me access to the lively music scenes of the Hudson Valley and  NYC. I have just recently began photographing the varied and lively jazz and world music scene down there.

One of the goals of this site is to expose the visitors of this site to the fine music played by musicians who have resided and played in the Capital District.

The first musician/composer I have chosen to feature is Yuko Kishimoto,

Yuko is a pianist/composer and was part of the Albany jazz scene from 2003 to 2011.  She performed in her band. Her compositions were also played by the Keith Pray Big Soul Ensemble, Michael Benedict Jazz Vibes, Joe Barna's Sketches of Influence, Nicole Peyrafitte and Hendrik Muerkens.

In 2011, Yuko released her debut CD, Songbook on Planet Arts, the label founded by Grammy Award winning producer Thom Bellino.

The title of the featured composition is , " All thats Nice". This composition was to be the theme song for an all woman jazz band that didn't materialize.

For my more information on Yuko, see www.yukokishimoto.com.

Well enough for now, if you have any comments positive or negative, please contact me at rudy@rudyluphotos.com.