Recent music

I’ve had this idea…

that I should start some sort of label and call it RECENT MUSIC. I bought a Zoom H6 recorder and started capturing my gigs, hoping to find some magic in the everyday comings and goings of a gigging musician. Now’s the time to start sharing stuff!

For you, my lovely followers on my email list, I’ll be sharing select tracks from recent gigs. RECENT MUSIC if you will. All of this is in hopes of finding something worth committing to tape (figuratively but maybe actually!) in the near to probably distant future. Hopefully, this can be a way for us to interact about the music I’m making and a way for me to get it out to you. This will not be an archive (for now) so with each new edition, the older stuff will disappear.

If you enjoy what you’re hearing and want to hear more, encourage others to subscribe to my email list. If you want to hear this stuff on record in the future, consider buying some of my older music or donating to the cause via my PayPal page. Both are linked below.

Thanks, Mike

This particular gig features a trio I love playing with…Joe Michaels on bass and Tyler Dempsey on drums. When the vibe is just right, we hit on a loose, open, and deeply listening kind of vibe that I just love. I’m sharing two covers plus one of my newest originals we played at our most recent gig at Vic’s Jazz Loft in Jim Thorpe, PA. Hope you dig it.

“Bryant’s Bounce” is a song I was hipped to by a couple of people. It’s by the telecaster master Jimmy Bryant and pedal-steel wizard Speedy West. I transcribed it this past fall and started playing it on gigs.

“Emily,” by Johnny Mandel, is one of my favorite jazz standards. I’ve been playing it for years but recently have taken inspiration from Julian Lage’s renditions.

Last is one of my tunes, “Renovated Heart.” I wrote this one during the pandemic for a new love interest. She said it was “the best song ever.” I’ve often played this solo (check out the Bonn Session recording from 2020!) but I absolutely love exploring it with a trio. Still figuring out how to play over it I think but this is a fun artifact to check out. We’ve been dove-tailing this song with another one of mine called “I Don’t Have Time to Love You.” Maybe I’ll share that song sometime soon.