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 […]

Eli Yamin Blues Band and Okra Dance Company at TriBeca Performing Arts Center

What a gas it was performing with all these cats.  This is what I’m talking about–jazz arts for a better world!  We can do this when we coordinate our minds!  That phrase comes from Don Pullen’s tune, “Listen to the People.”  This is the 20th anniversary of that tune. Everyone needs to know it too…that’s […]

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 […]

Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival 2011

  What a phenomenal festival this is.  7,000 young people from all over the Northwest descend on Moscow, Idaho where they are embraced by the entire University of Idaho community.  And I mean the whole community from the president to the freshmen and families in neighborhoods.  Students, teachers, jazz fans and curious bystanders are all […]

Chillan, Chile

Arrived in Chile last Saturday.  Had a day to visit Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago then headed South to the area hardest hit by the Earthquake in late February.  We have been blown away by the warmth of the people down here.  Chileans LOVE the BLUES!

You Can’t Buy Swing at the White House

I’m still pinching myself but it’s true, we played at the White House with my quintet three times over the holidays in the East Room.  When I was there for the Jazz Studio in June, I left a couple copies of my CD, You Can’t Buy Swing, for them to check out.  Sure enough, in […]

A Wail of Two Cities

Last week, Evan Christopher invited us to do a concert with him at the University Club in Manhattan.  It was Evan Christopher, clarinet, Ari Roland, bass, LaFrae Sci, drums and myself on piano. The concept was “A Wail of Two Cities: New Orleans to New York.”  Evan put together a distinctive, fiery and sweet program.  […]

Jazz Quartet at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City

We had a wonderful week at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.  It was great to be home again and performing with great musicians and close friends in such an illustrious venue.  You can see Columbus Circle from the piano bench.  It feels like you are playing jazz […]

The Jazz Drama Program In Mississippi

The trip to Mississippi was amazing.  The photo above captures the sheer joy we felt at the culmination of the workshop performance of Nora’s Ark, the jazz musical by Clifford Carlson and me.  Judi Holifield, Director of Whole Schools Initiative, sponsored by the Mississippi Arts Commission, brought me down to University of Mississippi at Oxford, […]

Blues Band in Drama and Xanthi, Greece

I was struck by how deep culture and aesthetic beauty runs in this country.  The town of Drama has a population of 50,000.   We visited a municipal music center where 900 students participate in lessons and ensembles.  Here’s a clip from our performance there.  Check out the serious audience participation! Then we went to a […]