Edgy Blues, Americana Country, Florida Rock

Jim Crozier's Occasional Newsletter
April 2009

Upcoming shows:

The next big Jim Crozier Band show will take place at the American Legion Hall, Lake Ella, on Friday, June 26. I will be back with lots of my friends and at least a couple new songs. This show will feature; Alvin James and the Pretty Big Band with help from the Jones Brothers, the Summit Ladies Choir, and the Bone Dry Band. More about this later!

I will be playing with Tallahassee Swing at the annual Tallahassee Museum Jazz & Blues Festival at 4pm, Saturday, April 4; and for the Knott House Street Dance at 7pm, Saturday, April 25.

For any of you folks who might be attending the annual Silver Stars Banquet at the University Center on April 30, I will be joining Steve Sternberg and the band for that gala affair.

I will be making it out to Doc Russell's Wednesday Nite Open Mic at the Warehouse at least a couple more times in the next few weeks. That is a very well run event and it has been good for me to rough it on the stage alone, and good to hear what all of the younger folks have been up to – there's some good stuff out there.

AND:
Every Tuesday - Be sure to check out Tallahassee Swing every chance you get. The band plays at the American Legion Hall (Lake Ella Drive, Tallahassee) every Tuesday evening from 7:30 to 10 (and has been for coming up on 20 years now). I will be playing bass with them on March 31, April 14 and 28.

Recent Events:
On March 6, I joined Florida Banjo star Mary Z Cox and hubby Bob as they hosted the Cracker Coffee House event at the Stephen Foster Memorial State Park at White Springs. We played to a packed house for people from all over the country. Ken and Virginia Miller and Ron Patrick also came over from Tallahassee to join the show.

After years of saying “I am going to get to some of the concerts of the Biennial Festival of New Music at FSU College of Music”, I finally did during the last weekend of January. I attended three of the concerts including one by “eighth blackbird”, an established ensemble specializing in the performance of new music – http://www.eighthblackbird.com/. I also attended an electro-acoustic concert where a single instrument interacts with electronic music which featured some fine performances. The final concert I attended featured the FSU Wind Orchestra, the University Symphony Orchestra, and the University Chamber Choir. Of all of it, I probably most liked the work of current FSU doctoral student, Neil Anderson-Himmelspach. Nearly thirty composers from around the world participated in the festival.

On February 12, I made it down to Sopchoppy to the Frog and Hummingbird Company and Butterfield's Roadhouse for one of the special blues jam sessions that Salli and Gabriel have been hosting. I totally enjoyed the scene – the audience was to die for! Thanks guys, I will be sure to make it down again.

Media Help
If any of you use any of the Internet Radio Services, particularly http://www.last.fm, it would really help if you would type in “Jim Crozier” from time to time. I have stuff there, and on http://ilike.com/, too.

And of course I am frequently adding and changing music and other stuff at:
http://myspace.com/thejimcrozierband - there are a couple Tallahassee Swing Videos there, as well.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jim-Crozier/30430640034 - if you are on Facebook, drop by and “Become a Fan”!

And on my own music page at: http://jimcrozier.com/music.html

I used a new online service called tunecore.com to release Talkin' To the People as a single – so you may buy it now at iTunes, Amie Street, Rhapsody, and other popular digital music distribution points! - even got some money from that already, yea (not much, but it's a start). 


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Jim Crozier
http://jimcrozier.com
http://myspace.com/thejimcrozierband
http://cdbaby.com/cd/jimcrozier
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New Music

After years of saying “I am going to get to some of the concerts of the Biennial Festival of New Music at FSU College of Music”, I finally did during the last weekend of January. I attended three of the concerts including one by “eighth blackbird”, an established ensemble specializing in the performance of new music - http://www.eighthblackbird.com/

I also attended an electro-acoustic concert where a single instrument interacts with electronic music which featured some fine performances. The final concert I attended featured the FSU Wind Orchestra, the University Symphony Orchestra, and the University Chamber Choir. Of all of it, I probably most liked the work of current FSU doctoral student, Neil Anderson-Himmelspach. Nearly thirty composers from around the world participated in the festival.

Lot of work.

I love putting on shows. Nothing is as exciting as being in front of a crowd of people doing what you know to do - Talkin' to the People - but, damn, it's a lot of work.

It is happening again on February 6, 2009, at the Warehouse in Tallahassee. I am calling it the "Pretty Big Band Show". We will have 10 or 12 folks with us for this one, not as big as the band I had for the March '08 show, but still a pretty big band.

Helping me in the rhythm section is Steve Redmond on drums.
On guitar we have TD Giddings, Jimi McKenzie, and Eric Pfeufer.
Bill Landing is on sax, and the highlight is the choir with:
Kathi Giddings, Deborah Lawson, Steffi Tassos, and Katie Crozier.
Bob Weiss will be doing a set of classic R&B and also singing lead on a couple of my songs. And, a couple of brilliant young musicians have been invited to join us for a few songs and have tentatively accepted; Alphonso Horne on trumpet, and Erma Kyriakos on violin. Adding to my own material are songs by TD, Kathi, and Jimi.

We start out at 8pm with a set from the Jones Brothers Band. Next, the Jim Crozier Band kicks out a set mostly from the "Down to the Village" CD with some new stuff in the mix - expecially: "Talkin' to the People". Rounding out the evening is the Bone Dry Band, featuring material from from our Suburban Woodville neighborhood.

Love to you all, hope you can make it, I know it will be worth the trip!

Jc

http://www.jimcrozier.com

Jim Crozier Band at Bird’s

Friday, January 02, 2009

Check out this event: Jim Crozier Band at Bird’s Hosted By: Jim Crozier When: Friday Jan 02, 2009 at 9:00 PM Where Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack 325 N Bronough St Tallahassee, Florida|10 32301 United States Description: Jim Crozier Click Here To View Event

Thanksgiving

I've got the fire going good - I will BBQ the turkey in a while.
My daughter, Katie, got in last night, with her dog.
Both grandmas and my son will be here this evening.
It will be a wonderful ThanksGiving Dinner.
And then Jean and I will disappear to St Augustine Beach for the rest of the weekend.
I give thanks!

jc

Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival

On November 15, I had the thrill of joining hundreds of other songwriters as a guest writer at the annual Frank Brown Songwriters Festival on Perdido Key in FloriBama land. Jimi McKenzie shared a writers in the round session with James H Williams and a very young Monroe Hamit for an hour at the Perdido Key Resort in the Sandcastle Room. The real thrill was that we were followed by a group of writers that included Tim Johnson, Steve Williams, Thom Shepherd, and Lance Miller. Since they have a bunch of hits among them, we ended up with a pretty good crowd!

And wow, Reneda and her team really treat us like royalty!

jc

Good Rehearsal

Last night, the newly reconstructed band "Bone Dry" assembled for the first time - this is going to be a great show.

We got through 26 of the 29 songs on the list.

It was the first time that some of the cats had met each other.

Ya'll gotta make it! 621 Gallery, Railroad Square, Tallahassee, Oct 10, 6pm.

This is only a part of the Charles Hook Memorial Weekend, he would have been 60 the day before. Sculptor, Charles Hook was a friend and teacher to us all.

jc