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)!

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.

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.

Buy It From CD Baby Here.

Buy It From iTunes Here.

Not to hurt Jobsie’s pocketbook, but I get a little bit more of the money if you buy it through CD Baby, so I recommend that if you are undecided.

And now to plug the CD release show!

Sunday, May 16, 7:00pm – F.Boo Studios, Burbank, CA

$15 ($10 students) includes a CD, and delicious food and beverages! Dealski!

RSVP via email or phone at 818.846.2312 to receive the street address (so hot it’s Unpublishable).

For those that have not attended my annual F.Boo solo concert in the past, it is a casual and intimate affair. Recommended to bring a pillow, and a #2 pencil. More information on their loving and nefarious narrative at their website.

April 24– Stanford University. The premiere of the collaborative work between filmmaker Bill Morrison, composer Dave Douglas, band Dave Douglas + Keystone. This has been over a year in the works and we are very pleased to premiere the work that concludes a year-long residency at the University.

• Win Tickets By Being A Smartypants Here.
• Read the Program Notes Here. (pdf)
• Watch The Trailer Here.

We will be in residence at the University in the week leading up to the premiere. Highlights will include a matinee performance for students on Monday, a screening of the film with soundtrack on Tuesday, and a lecture / demonstration on Technology and Jazz on Wednesday.

May 7 –Dateline, Bakersfield! Dave Douglas and Keystone make their Southern California debut in the newly burgeoning hotbed of jazz, Bakersfield CA! Mainstagin’ it at the Bakersfield Jazz Fest. This is a short, educational 2-hour drive from Los Angeles. Wasco, Shafter.

May 16 — CD release show for my new solo record, Alphabets & Consequences. At long last! The yellow and green disc can be yours. Just attend this intimate performance in the newly burgeoning hotbed of jazz, Burbank CA! An F.Boo Studios presentation. $15 gets you the concert AND a copy of the CD. Whoa. More details on the Shows page, and more announcements to come.

May 25 — Kneebody visits the heartland — Berlin, Germany. An afternoon clinic and performance at the Jazz Institut Berlin (under the sensitive guiding hand of John Hollenbeck). And an evening performance at the venerable A-Trane.

May 26 - May 30 — Kneebody will be coming to Italy to play several festivals and clubs - details to be announced soon.

All this, and Baseball, and Birthdays, and Whitney Houston??  Believe It.

There will be a masterclass / performance at University of Nevada at Reno the following day (Friday, March 12). I am pleased to visit with the fine jazz program that is cooking up there featuring luminaries such as Peter Epstein and David Ake.

There will be two performances in the picturesque mountain villa of Truckee, CA (conveniently located half an hour from both Reno and Lake Tahoe) at Moody’s Bistro in the Truckee Hotel on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13, beginning at 9pm and going past midnight.

There will be an album made subsequently, recorded next week at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Reno, courtesy of Steinway Pianos. It’ll come out and you’ll hear it and it will be thought-provoking. Provoke! Provoke!

And then next week we will perform Friday, March 19 at Cafe Metropol in Los Angeles, with Hamilton Price IV on bass.

And then, just around the corner, is my solo piano performance to celebrate the release of my new CD, Alphabets and Consequences! This will take place on Sunday, April 10, at F.Boo Studios in Burbank, CA.

Other recent major events include the addition of our beloved hound Enid to the Benjamin clan. There are, y’know, photos on Facebook if you want to see how sweet she is.

And I was happy to provide music for the matrimonial ceremony of Nate Wood and Jesske Hume this last weekend. Joining me in said affair was the erstwhile Richard Stekol, whose recent foray into the realm of Low Resolution Text Art has been a real eye-opener. Please allow me to share my most recent favorite:

This S is heavy, no doubt.

All The Things You Are

download: mp3 | FLAC

Hey dude,

She replied in a huff, “I wish you guys could get you
regards
Riegel”

Man I’m not going to forget that one any time soon! And to top it off, Millipo11 added 49 useful links to his joke as well, for such great websites as Miracle Cabbage Soup Diet, Diets for Quick Weight Loss, Maple Syrup Diet, and Miracle Cabbage Soup Diet! That’s the thing about Millipo11 - he’s as informative as he is funny!

So keep the feedback coming, dedicated readers. And remember, the best blog fans read each other’s comments as well, visit their websites, and freely volunteer their credit card information and social security numbers!

This blog is resurrecting itself, or rather it was never really dead, or more accurately it had not yet truly been born. Until Now.

Seeing as it’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted anything at all, I will begin with a brief discussion of the major developments –

- I am currently deep in pre-production for the new Dave Douglas + Keystone album “Spark of Being” (a score to the film of the same name by Bill Morrison). I am learning all sorts of things I should have known for a long time, as I will be contributing more to this album than mere Fender Rhodes playing. I’m also developing software instruments, creating sample libraries, adding my trademark wacky sequencing, and more. The general goal is to do something limitless in the digital realm, that matches both the depth and spontaneity of the great improvisers in the band, and the richness and ambiguity of Morrison’s visual work. Quite a task but I am learning as I go.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dave Douglas.                                        Bill Morrison.

Note: These are just random people with those names, not the people I am working with.

- Kneebody was nominated for a Grammy for our album with Theo Bleckmann reinterpreting the works of Charles Ives. This is a surprise and a great honor. I’m pretty psyched to roll up to the red carpet in my dented ‘96 Corolla with the discolored hood, but companion tickets cost some real skrillah, so as usual my companionship will come at a cost…

xx+  Grammy  =xx

- I have a new album of solo piano improvisations entitled “Alphabets and Consequences” that is going to press this week and will be releasing on F.Boo Music in March or April. There will be a CD release concert at F.Boo Studios in lovely Burbank to accompany the release. I think this album pretty accurately represents me and because of this I am quite nervous about it actually being released. You know, the frailty of humanity, and all. The CD package features lovely design by Adrianna Benjamin, and a short inscrutable essay by Adam Benjamin.

xxxA Teensy preview of the cover.

- The Black Plums (Richard Stekol / Adam Benjamin / Nate Wood) have completed our new studio album “Gashing the Great Darkness”. It’s a relatively stripped down affair focusing on such topics as: solitude, regret, ignorance, peace, love. I think it’s the bee’s knees, I really do. We’re designing the cover now and will release in the spring or summer, playing in LA, NYC, Woodstock and Philly for the release. Thanks to all who came to our pre-new years eve show with special guest Greg Leisz, that was a real pleasure.

xxxI call him Uncle Richie.

As a statement of recommitment / rebirth / nondeath of this blog, I will now post 2 more posts, a post of words and a post of music. Thanks for reading.

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