JazzBurgh

The University of Pittsburgh Jazz Seminar has been going on all week and today was the climax of the program with a day of "show and tell" sessions from genuine A list jazz greats followed by a concert at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. At the center of the University's jazz program is the Pitt Big Band....a full jazz orchestra with all the trimmings. Shaz is an alumnus of the band, having played second alto with them for the first few years of us living here on our first tour of duty. Proof of this can be found in that fact that Shaz's photo is still on the front page of the program's web site.

Today has been fab! It was one of those brilliantly sunny yet cool fall days. We mooched into Oakland this morning with the kids and had pastries and coffee outside the Crazy Mocha (my daily coffee shop and the place where I regularly push back the foreskin of science with other future Nobel laureates). Next stop was a demonstration and question/answer session by drummer Cecil Brooks III. Both the kids thought this was brilliant, particularly Adam who was captivated. Here is a video of him explaining how he plays poly-rhythms. Here he is doing his stuff. Shaz knew what he meant. I didn't have a clue!



After the jazz, Sophia and Shaz went to a class-mate's birthday party and Adam and I visited the Soldiers and Sailors memorial museum which was packed with various firearms and sabers. Needless to say this went down well with Adam!

After racing home for a quick scoff, Adam's favorite (student) teacher from school came over to babysit and Shaz and I went to the Jazz Seminar Concert. It was wonderful to get out and do something grown up! The line up included Benny Golsen who wrote classics such as "Killer Joe" and "I Remember Clifford (in memory of the trumpeter Clifford Brown". He also wrote some classic TV theme tunes including M.A.S.H, Ironside and, incredibly, The Six Million Dollar Man. Also playing were John Faddis, Randy Brecker and Monty Alexander, not to mention our old pal Dr Nathan Davis who used to direct the Pitt Jazz Ensemble and once described Shaz's rapid improvement on the alto sax by remarking..."aint she gettin' busy?"






Finally....here are some pics of Halloween. It is a really big deal here and the kids loved it.