For some reason, stars aligned and planets danced and I ended up with a goodly number of concerts to go see in the first half of the year, mostly as Christmas or birthday presents. I think this is the most number of shows in a short time frame that I’ve been to see since I lived in NY and went to multiple Schaefer Music Festival shows every summer.
Here’s what they were:

• Wayne Shorter Legacy Celebration, January 6th at SFJAZZ CenterIt was originally supposed to be Wayne’s great quartet, but he was recovering from an illness that precludes travel, so instead he was “honored by an amazing array of his peers… a wonderful group of his musical ‘family members’ [performing] music from his celebrated career along with his longtime band members.” We saw band members Brian Blade, Danilo Perez, and John Patitucci joined by Joshua Redman and Ambrose Akinmusire.
• Bill Frisell, January 25 at Kuumbwa JazzThe guitarist’s When You Wish Upon a Star project featured the group from his Grammy-nominated album of his arrangements/adaptations of music for film and television, with Petra Haden on vocals, Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on drums.
• John Scofield with Lettuce, March 24 at SFJAZZ CenterLettuce is a monstrously good instrumental funk ensemble (thanks to Tom DeFiglio for turning me on to them a few years back). Scofield appeared as a special guest on their 2002 debut album Outta Here, and they’ve rejoined forces over the years. Lettuce consists of Eric Bloom (trumpet), Ryan Zoidis (saxophone), Adam Smirnoff (guitar), Nigel Hall (keyboards & vocals), Erick Coomes (bass), and Adam Deitch (drums).
• Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio, April 14 at SFJAZZ CenterKurt Rosenwinkel presents a revised edition of his standards trio featuring Italian bass virtuoso Dario Deidda and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr., performing material from his 2009 album Reflections and new settings of timeless classics.
• Tedeschi Trucks Band, May 11 at the Fox Theater OaklandOne of my all-time favorite bands, and they just keep getting better as time passes.

Still to come is Snarky Puppy, May 30 at the Paramount in Oakland… a terrific Texas-bred/New York-based instrumental quasi-collective led by bassist and composer Michael League. “Snarky Puppy isn’t exactly a jazz band. It’s not a fusion band, and it’s definitely not a jam band.” Thanks to Jeff Nix for turning me on to these guys a few years back when they were more obscure.
And in the coming months there’s a few shows I’d like to catch, though I don’t have any tickets yet: Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, June 7 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, and Adrian Belew, September 17 and 18 at the Chapel in San Francisco…

We had a pretty decently rainy winter this year and the hills are all still green well into spring. Here’s what’s going on in my musical endeavors:

• No Static continues to be moderately busy. We played six gigs between January and April, and currently we’ve got several coming up, starting with San Carlos’ Hometown Days event this coming Saturday, May 18, followed a week later by our first appearance at Highway 1 Brewing Company in Pescadero on Saturday, May 25, then the Wine Room in Moss Beach on Saturday, June 1. Scott will be out of town for a lot of July so we probably won’t take any gigs in that period. Next one after that is another community festival, Burlingame On the Avenue, on Saturday, August 17. 
• Meanwhile Scott and I landed our first duo gig, also at the Highway 1 Brewing Company, on Saturday, June 8. Scott will do a solo set, then I’ll do a solo set, followed by the two of us together. I’m using the solo set this as a forcing function to finally get more comfortable using a looper and a guitar synth. Fingers crossed I can keep it afloat!
• The loose jamming aggregation consisting of guitarist Jeff Kamil, the bassist know to some as PJ, and drummer Tom DeFiglio got together in early March for our first throwdown of 2019, and had a second one in mid-May.
• Lea & Co.’s long hiatus continues; I think we can safely assume it’s a thing of the past.
• I’ve continued to only show up at Stan Erhart’s weekly jam session at the American Legion Coastside Post 474 in Princeton-by-the-Sea about once every six or seven weeks. I always have a good time, sometimes a great time… I really should go more frequently…
• I managed to get out to the mid-week Club Fox jam in Redwood City once this spring, the first time in over a year if I’m not mistaken.