And one more thing

Mark Okasaka has continued to play tracks from my CD, "Down to the Village" each Sunday afternoon during his show, "Snatches of Jazz" on 88.9FM, WFSU-FM Tallahassee, FL.

Thank you Mark

Here is the Hymn

This is a link to the recording of Hymn to Opportunity that I mentioned. Please enjoy.

jc

What a musical week-end

Yea, I know its been a while since I've been here. I've been busy. I'm thinking that producing one show a month is about what I can do ;=)

Friday started out with a great shot from the "Tallahassee Democrat":
Check this out

The McKenzie Brothers with Jim Crozier at the Warehouse went off well. Rick Knowles joined us and Kathi and TD Giddings helped out all night long. I have a recording of "Hymn to Opportunity" with a lot of crowd noise, but really decent performance.

The real treat was when my old buddy Jimmy Lohman made a surprise visit from Austin, TX. He sat in for the last set - yea, that cat can play.

Saturday, the Jones Brothers Band did their annual gig at the "Big Chili" party which has been going on for 21 years now, with us as the band for the past 13 years. It is a Chili Cook-off but the judges are required to "cleanse the pallet" with Tequila between tastings - some interesting results - always ending up with us playing the hardest rock & roll we ever do - they want to boogie.

After that I visited friends a the Warehouse - The Bottom Dollar Boy$ - and another bluegrass band from out of town that I am not recalling the name of. All of Big Bend Bluegrass royalty was there.

Late night, John McKenzie, TDGiddings, and I played guitar in a circle until the wee hours - I am not used to playing guitar and got a blister on my thumb.

GREAT week-end.

love to all
jc

The sweetest sound

The sweetest sound that an arranger ever hears is:

"Turn it in for a number!"

So Pemberton's Blues in in the book.

jc

New Chart

Heading into Tallahassee just now for the Tuesday Night Tallahassee Swing Band weekly dance.

The band just bought a bunch of stuff from the book of another band leader that was hanging it up. ALSO, I have a new chart to play.

So we will be sight reading about a half-dozen charts tonight.

I love playing with a band that can pull that off!!!!

Jim Crozier
http://jimcrozier.com

The March 22 show

Major progress has been made on the plan for the March 22 show.

There are 9 charts that I need to write or finish between now and then. I still have 3 (or 4, depending on how we count) that I need to pretty much start from scratch.

It will be good and exciting to make this show work.

jc
http://jimcrozier.com/

On the Radio again!

I love it when that happens...
Just sitting in my studio working on some stuff, the radio's on, but not payin' whole bunch of attention, and then I realize that I am hearing one of my own songs and double check to make sure that the tuner is still set to FM.

Mark Okasaka just played "The Cat Song" from my new release "Down to the Village" on his weekly Sunday afternoon radio show, "Snatches of Jazz", on WFSU-FM, 88.9FM, Tallahassee, FL

He played my song, "Ain't No Use" last week.

I thank him very muchly!

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

Florida Banjo

Mary Cox is releasing Florida Banjo.
She asked me to play bass on it.
I did, and now I anticipate its production.
This is fun music.
Old time dance music
before electricity, or at least where they were.

http://jimcrozier.com

NSAI workshop

Well, to start out, the Tallahassee Swing Band schedule did not include playing my new chart last night - Elliot did put it on the list for next week, however - and the rhythm section parts could use a little editing anyhow. Bob White was the drummer on Jan 8. He was a professional drummer in the society circuit out of Local 802 for many years - retired from that - did another 20 years in sales - came to Tallahassee - and is out to do some playing now for fun and profit. His chops may be a bit rusty - but he damn sure knows how to do this stuff. It was an honor working with him last night.

Tonight, Wed 1/9, was a Nashville Songwriters Association International (NASI), Tallahassee Workshop. I haven't paid my dues there for a while, but I will be signing up again this year. This was the first workshop of the year, had a lot of good folks show up, all at different stages of growth, but all for real. I expect that we will be hosting some songwriter presentations in the coming months. The group feeling seemed to favor intimate performance situations.

jc

New Chart!

I head into town at this moment where the Tallahassee Swing Band will premier my new arrangement of Jimmy Lohman's "Pemberton's Blues".

I will let you know what happened next.

jc

Radio Play

Mark Okasaka played "Ain't No Use" from my new CD, "Down to the Village" on his Sunday afternoon program Snatches of Jazz today.

The program airs weekly at 3pm Sunday on WFSU-FM, 88.9 in Tallahassee, FL.

For years, that program was the reason I had a radio ;=)

The CD is available at http://cdbaby.com/cd/jimcrozier , iTunes, and from several fine Tallahassee retailers.

gonna finish this chart

Jimmy Lohman wrote a song for the Victor Nunez movie "Gal Young'Un" that he and I played with our group for many years that followed. I am presently finishing up a big band arrangement of "Pemberton's Blues" for the Tallahassee Swing Band that I totally expect to take to the gig Tuesday, January 8, at the American Legion Hall in Tallahassee, Florida.

It sure is a blast playing with a band that can (and will) sight read a new chart on the gig!

jc

Nola’s Muse, an Unresolved Situation.

Nola’s Muse, an Unresolved Situation.

Song About No Place to Go, Still!

A quick search of the news shows that on the dawn of 2008, more than two years after the Katrina flood, much of the soul of New Orleans cannot return. Songwriter, Jim Crozier visited from Florida in July 2006 and was struck by the contrast. While he, as a tourist, was treated like royalty from the French Quarter to Uptown, everything else for miles around was disaster. His experience of hanging out with musicians there left the same feeling, that so many who had dedicated their lives to the creation of the song of New Orleans could never return to stay – there is just no place to go. His song, “Nola’s Muse”, features Carrie Hamby’s accordion and David Langston’s fiddle, and the whole Tallahassee Swing Band as the gentle waltz becomes a second line parade. It is now out on Crozier’s new CD titled “Down to the Village” available at CDBaby.com, iTunes.com, and several Tallahassee retail outlets.

Jan 4, 2007

JacroMusic

http://jimcrozier.com

Reference:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/us/nationalspecial/03renters.html
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/01/pf/neworleans_pellissier.moneymag/index.htm