The Red Oak Duo CD is officially available today on CD Baby!

Thanks to everyone who has made this tour so much fun. And we’ll see you for our final two shows at the Marine Room in Laguna Beach (Tues, Aug 2) and Blue Whale in Los Angeles (Wed, Aug 3)!

Hi Kids! Proud to present a new project:

RED OAK DUO // Adam Benjamin (Piano) // Storm Nilson (Guitar)

Storm is a close friend and wiffle-ball buddy, and we’ve been working on this album for over a year. You can find out more about him here. This album is really different than most of the things I’ve released and I’m excited for it to get out into the world. There will be links here, on my store page, and on facebook to preview and purchase the album on August 1st.

Here’s a streaming preview track of the song “Lost Hills”, one of Storm’s compositions:

All of the tracks will, of course, be available in multiple juicy file formats for affordable download as of August 1st.

And… our first tour begins this Friday! Here’s the basics:

Friday, July 22 — Portland, Oregon — TaborSpace

Monday, July 25 – Eugene, Oregon — Jazz Station

Wednesday, July 27 — Berkeley, California — Subterranean Art House

Friday, July 29 — Monterey, California — Franklin St. Studios

Sunday, July 31 — Bakersfield, California — Metro Galleries

Tuesday, August 2 — Laguna Beach, California — Marine Room

Wednesday, August 3 — Los Angeles, California — Blue Whale

Show details are on the SHOWS page.**

**Be assured — the SHOWS page, though it is not updated often, and does not reflect the vivacious rigor of my busy and ultra-successful performing career, is a total and correct resource for the Red Oak Duo CD release tour.

Lots of interesting stuff happening and apologies for such long blog-neglect. Below is a scenic photograph.

The past couple of months have been full of gigs and travel, most recently Boise, Idaho for the Gene Harris Jazz Festival, which was a neat community-supported event. Saw the blue turf, and Boise is a great town with great food (Fork) and a great record store (Record Exchange). Kneebody had a great time and enjoyed our first time playing with sub Mark Guiliana on drums.

Before that was a 10-day tour in Italy, Austria and France ending with a great night at the Duc des Lombardes in Paris, with the band sounding great, angry and peaceful. Below is a photograph of an Alp. This one was near Saalfelden-am-Steinernen-Meer. Or something.

Some recent record releases: Donny McCaslin’s new record Perpetual Motion is out now on Greenleaf Records, it was great fun to record that last fall with Donny, Dave Binney, Tim Lefevbre, Antonio Sanchez, Mark Guiliana, and Uri Caine. Matt Mayhall Trio (with myself and Sam Minaie) has a recent release called “Bleed” which is available on bandcamp. Dante Pascuzzo’s trio album  ”Lala” (with myself and Nate Wood) is available on bandcamp as well. And my recent solo release “Alphabets and Consequences” got a nice review by a favorite critic on mine, Bill Milkowski, in this month’s Jazz Times and is available on CD Baby and iTunes.

Up next: a new electric quartet debuts this week at Royal-T in Los Angeles, CA (Adam Benjamin / Tim Young / Billy Mohler / Matt Mayhall) on Thursday, Apr 14. Next Sunday, April 23 at Blue Whale I’ll play a duo set with Jason Harnell (drums) and a trio set with Jason and Joon Lee (vocals). May marks the return of Kneebody to LA with a concert at Harvard Westlake on May 15 and a gig at Angel’s in Santa Monica on May 16. Below is a photograph of the City of L.A. Time Switch. Where they, you know, switch time.

A record that is just being mastered called “Red Oak Duo” is a new project of mine with guitarist and wiffle-ball virtuoso Storm Nilson. It’s our first CD and was 2 years in the making, and we’ll be touring the West Coast in support of its release from July 19-Aug 3. It’ll be my second release on f.Boo records, a local artist-friendly label, and I’ll be posting some preview clips here soon.

Other upcoming 2011 highlights include Kneebody as faculty for a week at the Banff International Jazz Workshop in June, and playing the North Sea Jazz Festival in July, as well as our first tours in a few years through Chicago, Austin and other cities we love. Dave Douglas and Keystone will return to Europe, Canada and the USA in the summer and fall. Matt Mayhall trio does its first West Coast tour in fall 2011, and the Donny McCaslin Perpetual Motion band hits Europe next summer!

Thanks for reading. More compelling and readable content awaits you in the near future. This blog will be an significant focus of mine coming up, and I appreciate your patience during its dormant phase.