Guatemala Jazz Festival 2015 – Ambassador’s Residence

Back to Guatemala City now for a reception at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Todd Robinson.  We could not ask for a more welcoming host.  Ambassador Robinson hails from Newark, NJ, a jazz town once and forever.  He truly believes in the power of jazz to uplift and unite everyone.  He is also an idealist […]

Guatemala Jazz Festival 2015 – Coban

The second day of the tour we drove to Coban in central Guatemala.  The city is surrounded by beautiful mountains and has a more country feel to it.  Watch out for the chocolate soup before lunch~!  I thought I was in heaven. In the afternoon we gave a workshop in a municipal building to students […]

Guatemala Jazz Festival 2015 – Concert in Guatemala City

Our first concert of the tour was at the auditorium at Instituto Guatemala Americano in Guatemala City.  It was a pleasure to play the Baldwin grand on stage and interact with the audience who engaged deeply with us.  Our program included songs from our recent CD,  “Louie’s Dream, for our jazz heroes.”  We played the […]

Guatemala Jazz Festival 2015 – workshop Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

It was wonderful to return to Guatemala, this time with quartet and LaFrae Sci on drums (she and I were there in 2011 with the Blues Band), Evan Christopher on clarinet and Paul Beaudry on bass.  The first day we gave a workshop at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, got to know the wonderful […]

Eli’s blues message in a State Department salute to Black History Month

I’m honored to be featured in this article on the blues on the US Embassy website… “American Blues Music Formed by Pain to Cure Pain” — by Stephen Kaufman

Abakan, Siberia

Dlya menya ehto ne prosto pesnya Sdelai vdoch ee ti poymesh Ya ee bleus vso vremya vmeste Dushevny blues Dushevy blues Russian translation by Ludmila Borisova A Healing Song by Eli Yamin and Clifford Carlson from the jazz musical “Message From Saturn”       We had the good fortune to visit the music school […]

Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

We arrived in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia early in the morning on July 1, drummer LaFrae Sci’s Birthday. She was the first of the band off the plane and immediately received the warmth and welcome of the local people. When we got to the hotel, we found the International Music Festival in full swing with musicians from […]

Eli Yamin Blues Band arrives in St. Petersburg for Russia Tour 2012

  After a long trip from NY via Amsterdam, we arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia at midnight and pulled up next to Air Force 2 with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton aboard.  With a few hours of daylight still ahead of us, we took a magical “white night” walk and saw some of the beauty […]

Montenegro Premiere of Nora’s Ark, the jazz musical by Eli Yamin and Clifford Carlson

What an unbelievable week we had in Montenegro at Jazz Art Jam, celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month, a co-production with Jazz Art Montenegro and The Jazz Drama Program with support from the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro, the municipality and Porto Montenegro.  I never dreamed that this production of Nora’s Ark could take off the way it […]

Guatemala International Jazz Festival

From Idaho, it was straight South to Guatemala with the Blues Band.  This time, for the first time with Charenee Wade, vocal and Ben Stapp, tuba, along with LaFrae Sci, drums and yours truly at the piano and hollering.  Man, what a gas.  The first night we opened the festival with a concert on the […]