The End of March, The End of Madness: My latest trip to New Orleans

This week I’ll be writing about my latest trip to New Orleans, which had me in the Crescent City for the front end of March Madness, making a lot of things difficult, but in the end turning out well. Mrs. S and I met virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell (again!) and we got lucky and met Ellis Marsalis, too. I even got an autograph.

Speaking of which, one month less one day to the date, here’s the photo of me and Mrs. S meeting Wynton Marsalis early last month:

Two jazz musicians and a fan

You can see he’s an impeccable dresser and he’s friendly. I actually had the opportunity to listen to his program on Sirius XM radio on the drive home from New Orleans yesterday. Very informed and very informative, it was one of the most educational radio programs I’d ever heard. I’ll probably have to go sit out in my car on Saturday morning from now on, unless I spring an extra $3 a month for computer access to the radio channels.

Finally, I’m starting my Post-Bop piano book experiment today. Wish me luck.

I'm helping the economy, a little. You?

Back in August, I bought a new car that included an XM Radio introductory package. After the free 90 days was up, I had the opportunity to sign up for another three months for $6.99 per month, which I did, and after that, the price was to go up to $12.99 per month. Right before the price was due to go up, I decided I would cancel the membership anyway. My logic was simple: I'm only in my car for 40 minutes a day five days a week, mostly, and it isn't worth $13 a month to listen to a handful of songs a day, especially with my burgeoning jazz music collection to keep me company on drive time. Naturally, I used this fact as a catalyst to start buying some more CD's for my collection. Then I called XM to cancel.

As soon as I told them it wasn't worth the high price to renew, they offered me five more months for $3.99 a month. Now, I sort of figured they would offer me something, and I thought that they would likely give me another three months for $7 a month. With this much improved offer, I was hard pressed to say no, and in fact, said "OK".

But I didn't stop my CD buying.

In addition to discovering the Jazz Heritage Society, I also started scouring e-bay for things on my music want list. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because my first search of e-bay for "jazz cd" turned up 140,000 matches! Still I was able to pare it down, and between my five introductory CD's from JHS and my purchases on e-bay, which average around $4 each, including shipping (!), I picked up the following:

Cross Country Tour by Ahmad Jamal
The New Crystal Silence by Chick Corea and Gary Burton (signed)
Milestones by Miles Davis
Focus by Stan Getz
The Complete Last Concert by the Modern Jazz Quartet
Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock
Concert by the Sea by Erroll Garner
some Stan Kenton
some Kathy Kosins
Bingo by Rova
Blue Train by John Coltrane

Ahmad Jamal and MJQ both will be on the Yoity Tot list, just as soon as I figure out who to shunt out of the list in their favor. (Don't worry. I plan to start a "Formerly on the Yoity Tot List list".) Most of the other stuff I haven't even had a chance to listen to yet, since I'm still listening to XM in the car and practicing playing music almost all the time when I'm at home. Anyway, the point is that e-bay can be a valuable resource for purchasing music on the cheap, as can the JHS (which has the advantage that everything you purchase is new), and that when I find new resources, I like to use them.

As always, I continue to do my meager part to get the economy rolling again. I say, Let's Jazz America!

Possibly worth the price of admission

With my car's lease about to expire and recent term leasing agreements about as appealing as a pimple on the tip of your nose, Mrs. S and I decided to go ahead and buy a car. Fortunately, the company my dad retired from (Generous Motors) is basically giving cars away right now (seriously: we didn't pay one dollar for the car, although we'll have to start forking over a couple hundred a month to GMAC next month), so we went ahead and became a two Vibe family, purchasing a very sleek, very sharp, midnight blue 2009 Pontiac Vibe.

("Dammit! I thought 'late to jazz' would be about music!" It is. Just hold on and keep reading.)

As anyone who's purchased a GM vehicle lately knows, they come with free Onstar and free XM satellite radio for a couple of months, to possibly get you hooked and make you want to subscribe. Well, I'm here to tell you after two days of driving with the XM jazz channel tuned in (not to mention my eight day business trip over Christmas when I had an XM-equipped rental), I'm thinking a subscription to XM might just be the way to go. I mean, hell, I just put on the main jazz channel, and that's what I get: jazz! And not that lame-ass Kenny G, Dave Koz, "would've been Ferrante and Teischer if born thirty years earlier" jazz. We're talking Italian saxophonists covering Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Count Basie, some Czech guy live at the Bohemian Caverns... Real "real" jazz.

Now, on a good day, I only spend forty minutes in the car, but with school, if I end up actually going twice a week, that would add another two hours a week to my in-car time. I'm thinking, for the exposure to different music, musicians and songs in the jazz genre that XM will provide over the four and a half hours I'll spend in the car each week, listening to real jazz but not the same old CD's from my collection, $12.99 a month just might - might - be worth it.

I don't have to make a decision until my introductory subscription runs out, so I've got a couple of months anyway. If you're a jazz fan and/or XM fan, let me know what you think: to XM, or not to XM?