Mike Lee Jazz

This is a video of my ensemble at the Jazz Connections Summer Jazz Workshop. It features Steven, James, Zach, Alex, Evan and Matthew.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Here’s Ah-Leu_Cha from from Friday July 17th. This tune closed set #1

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

New Tricks CD Cover. Artwork by Rob Henke

Hey, summer is quickly coming to a close. For the last seven weeks, I’ve been on the road or teaching/directing camp full time or on vacation with my family. I’m completely out of my routine, but seriously recharged and ready to hit the ground running. This is one of those moments in life when choices seem clearer. It’s a good time to shed old habits and pick up new ones. It’s goal setting time. But before I do, I’d like to look back at a great summer. The New Tricks tour in July was transformational. It’s a real band and Ted Chubb and I are making big plans to keep this band working. Please check out our new website: newtricksjazz.com or better yet, buy the CD at CDBaby.

It was a great summer for teaching. Birch Creek was out of sight this year. Since my son, Julian started doing the camp last year, it’s become an even more joyful experience for me. We brought Anthony Orji along with us on bari-sax and bass clarinet and that added even more excitement for me as a music educator. We have so much fun with the students and then we get to play concerts with a tremendous big band every night.

Michele Rosewoman's Composition Class at Jazz Connections

Jazz Connections Summer Workshop at Montclair State is harder in a way for me because I’m co-director and never let up for three weeks, but it’s so rewarding. The students this year were the strongest to date and they were very high-character students as well. With the recent “graduates” of our program now assisting the faculty and the tremendous concentration of young talent at the camp I honestly believe this one of the strongest aggregation of young talent anywhere.

My First video on youtube: Check it out!
YouTube – Prelude to a Kiss

We had a couple of great gig’s with the Cecil’s Jazz Orchestra over the past week. We played last Friday Night as a special weekend performance. It was great playing to a packed house. Having played many Mondays to a small audience, it was really a pleasure to play for such a packed, appreciative house. Continue reading »

To bring understanding to this weeks events, I must start with a little history. Even most luke-warm jazz enthusiasts today know who Joe Lovano is. He is a great saxophonist – and I don’t mean great like “hey man, you sound great” – no Joe is Great – clearly one of the most important saxophonists of our time. Continue reading »

Last night I did a recording for a wonderful singer/songwriter named Chris Koch. He’s a dad right here in my town of Montclair- our sons attend the same school – and has undertaken a massive recording project. He has tons of material and apparently has decided to get it all documented. He says he’s laid down over 30 tracks of original music over the last 6 months. Continue reading »

Jim Rotondi at 46 Lounge

This was my second trip out to 46 Lounge on Route 46 in Totowa NJ, just a few minutes from my pad. For the second time I was able to leave the house after my two little ones were asleep, hang with an old friend I had hardly seen since we were all on the scene together in the mid 90’s, and be back home by midnight. This was better than the last time, because I actually got there in time to hear some tunes and got to play some. Continue reading »

Rich Derosa

This weeks gig was another grand success. Maybe its just a slow time of year but no one seems to be subbing out and the few subs we have are just tremendous. I think everyone is getting excited for our upcoming gig on Friday November 16th at Cecil’s.
The weekend is a whole other ball game. We’re hoping that a nice crowd on Friday Night will help build the Monday night audience. Continue reading »

About a year ago I was called by Aaron Johnson to play at Fountain Baptist Church. It was an early morning gig. Not a ton of bread considering the long hours, but I was definitely intrigued. Continue reading »

Bruce Williams

Tonight I was lucky enough to sub for Marty Fogel on Richie Cecere’s gig. If you’ve never seen the place you wouldn’t believe it. An 18 piece big band, 6 show girls, sound and video techs, choreographer and of course, Richie singing.</p> Continue reading »

Ed Xiques

I just got back from a rehearsal with Diane Mosers’ Composer’s Big Band where we rehearsed the music of Ed Xiques who plays lead alto with her band. Great player, super guy, nice section leader. His music is some of the most rhythmically satisfying writing I’ve ever had the pleasure to have played. Continue reading »

Every Monday night I have the extraordinary pleasure of performing with the Cecil’s Jazz Orchestra at Cecil’s Jazz Club in West Orange, New Jersey. They even let me lead the band! My path to Big Band leadership was definitely a circuitous one. Continue reading »

Ted Chubb – tremendous trumpeter with New Tricks and tremendous human – got married to his beautiful and fun-loving wife Rachel today. The Ceremony was in central park and it was amazing how many people stopped to watch them take their vows. Anyway, the Bride was beautiful and Ted was emotional as they stood under the bright sun surrounded by friends family and a couple of hundred curious park inhabitants. Continue reading »

I’m almost done with the latest overhaul of my website. I get totally obsessed with it and I barely sleep while I’m doing it. There will be some slick new things like subscription functions which allows a subscriber to sign up, confirm, change information or unsubscribe at their discretion. There’s and actual contact form which users can fill out to email me rather than have my personal email listed in public to get bombarded with spam. There’s a new music player which will be uniform in all browsers. I think I’ll have some tracks from the New Tricks band that we recorded in May. Good stuff. Continue reading »

I had big plans to go hear my old friend Donny McCaslin playing at Club 46 in Totowa, not far from where I live. But early in the day Mario Rodriguez (bass wizard) asked me to play on a Christian rock tune he was producing. Of course if he hadn’t told me I wouldn’t have known because the lyrics were in Spanish. Anyway – it’s always a challenge to come up with something fresh to play on a pop tune that doesn’t go to that many places harmonically. Continue reading »