Hello folks, I'm pleased to report that after quite a while spent writing, rehearsing, recording, mixing, and designing the artwork,  the CD release show for the Ian Carey Quintet+1's new album, Roads & Codes, will be held February 21 in Oakland! This group has been playing together for close to ten years, but Roads & Codes ("on the cutting edge of new sounds and exciting compositions for modern jazz" --CriticalJazz), represents our most ambitious effort yet.The show will be next Thursday, February 21 at 8pm, at a nice new venue in Oakland’s uptown neighborhood, The Sound Room. It will feature the exact same personnel as the CD, even including Evan Francis, who we’re lucky to have joining us from his new digs in New York, and newest addition to the group, the great Kasey Knudsen, performing all the music from the album (including new arrangements of works by Stravinsky, Ives, and Neil Young) and select "hits" from our previous CDs. The show will also feature the original art which I’ve created for the album in both projected formats and as signed prints for sale.And to sweeten the pot for those on the fence, everyone purchasing a ticket will recieve a FREE COPY of the CD!WHAT: Kabocha Records and Bay Area Jazz & Arts present The Ian Carey Quintet+1: CD Release & Art Show for Roads & CodesWHO: Evan Francis, flute & tenor saxophone; Kasey Knudsen, alto saxophone; Adam Shulman, piano; Jon Arkin, drums; Fred Randolph, bass; Ian Carey, trumpet, flugelhorn, illustrationsWHEN: Thursday, February 21, 8pmWHERE: The Sound Room, 2147 Broadway (@ 22nd St.), OaklandTICKETS: $15, includes free CD with purchase! (advance tix available here.)Next Tuesday (2/19) will be the official "street date" of the album, which means it will be available for purchase at various sites around the web (links to come) and will (knock on wood) be heard on radio stations across the land.Hope to see you Thursday!

Since I guess it wasn't enough work for me to write, arrange, rehearse, record, mix, and design my upcoming CD, Roads & Codes (due out Feb. 26),  I decided to incorporate my love of graphic novels and manga into the cover art. (Some of my favorite creators are Daniel Clowes, Jiro Taniguchi, Chris Ware, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and my dad, who's been compiling books of dream drawings for years.)It'll be a serious time investment, but: a) I'm excited about testing my illustration chops, b) anything that gets the CD noticed and helps it stand out from that pile of discs gathering dust in Joe Jazz Critic's closet (or the used CD bins!) is good, and c) I only do this every few years, so why not go all out?I'm still figuring out what story the front cover is going to tell, but the back cover will feature a series of illustrations, each inspired by one of the tunes. I'll be sharing them here as I finish them.Here's are the first four tune illustrations--the first is for our version of Andante (the first movement of Suite #1 for Small Orch.) by Stravinsky, the second for  "6 Av Local," my tribute to the morning ride from Brooklyn on the F train; the third for "Nemuri Kyoshiro," my samurai-movie-inspired blues; and the fourth for our cover of Neil Young's haunting theme to the great Western Dead Man. (Click to see the full images.) Stay tuned for more--hope I can finish them all in time to press the CD!

Hello folks, happy summer to you all! I hope you're all OD'ing on corn dogs and peaches and outdoor shows while the gettin' is good. I wanted to give an update on my upcoming, soon-to-be-but-not-yet titled new album.After an outstanding house concert in the spring, we learned the sad but exciting news that the great Evan Francis was heading for New York, and decided it would be a crime to put this new music on disc without him. We were lucky to find a single day prior to Evan's skipping town which worked for all six of us (plus our engineer Dan Feiszli), so we filed into Studio Trilogy in SF for an 11-hour, nine-tune marathon in early June. This challenged chops, fingers, tempers, and attention spans, but at the end of the day (literally), everyone was very happy with the result (or so they said!).Currently Dan and I are knee-deep in the mixing process, and it's looking like the album will be released in January (kind of a long wait but we have to avoid the jazz radio Christmas music crunch for obvious reasons). The disc will feature all new 6-piece compositions and arrangements, including six originals plus reworkings of music by Ives, Stravinsky, and Neil Young.Look for more details soon about the CD release and show dates. (And I'll be back soon with a fresh installment of "New to Me.")

Hi folks, I've been MIA lately but it seemed like a good time to catch you up on music-related news--good, bad, and who knows.First the bad--you'll notice the Quintet's show scheduled for mid-January has been canceled, due to the unfortunate fact of the venue, Coda, following too many clubs to mention into nonexistence. This hits me, and the scene in general, particularly hard, as Coda was the perfect venue for jazz and related musics--the place looked great, treated the musicians well, paid decently, and took an interest in promotion, so of course it couldn't last in the Bay Area. I was asked recently in an interview to name my favorite venue, and I said, "I used to like Pearl's, until it closed. Then I liked Octavia Lounge, and it closed. And Anna's Jazz Island, closed. My favorite venue is any venue that's open." So we can tack another on to that sad list.  (Note the title of the Times article: "Death of Jazz Club Underscores a Changing Scene"--I wish that this represented changing. Seems like the same old same old to me.) Oh well--the hunt for places to play continues.On a more positive note, my album Contextualizin' has been featured on several "Best of 2010" lists recently--the first from The Jazz Page ("Another solid band out of the Chicago area"--close enough, maybe this'll get us a gig there?--"Ian and the Quintet have a nice sound that can appeal to music lovers across the jazz spectrum and beyond"), and the second from Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Jazz Station (I also made the trumpet and flugelhorn lists, with some very heavy company, and Adam Shulman was recognized in the electric piano category). Both give me the warm fuzzies, especially since the record was released so early in the year and has been off the jazz blogosphere's radar for a while. (This would be a good time to put in a word of thanks to Terri Hinte, whose tireless work getting the CD to the right ears has been a huge part of its success.)Another recent plus--my wife and I took an incredible 2-week trip to Japan this month, which was life-altering in at least a few ways. One revelation--I knew the Japanese were into jazz, but I had no idea how ubiquitous it would be. You hear it in cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, everywhere--and not just the Kind of Blue or Coltrane/Johnny Hartman they occasionally deign to play at Starbucks--I'm talking about some burning shit to accompany your yakisoba or stationery shopping experience. There are also a ton of jazz venues, at least compared to the Bay Area. I was fortunate to make it to a jam session at Intro in Tokyo, which runs every Saturday from 5pm to 5am (!)--that's no exaggeration, either--the trains don't run between midnight and 5, so why not jam while you're stranded? (I left at 3:30am, and the other musicians were surprised I wasn't staying for the whole thing.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and plenty of great players over there. I hope to go back as soon as possible. (I should mention that The Ian Carey Quintet would happily sell its own grandmother for some gigs in Japan. Just an FYI.)Finally, a quick update on what's next for me musically--I'm about to start a few months of heavy shedding (that's "woodshedding" or practicing, not shedding fur, although there might be some of that, too). On the agenda is writing new material for the group, hustling up some shows, working on my Okinawan sanshin and reminding the trumpet who's boss. (I'm joking. The trumpet is always the boss.) Stay tuned for updates, and fresh installments of "New to Me," which I hope to make a regular feature. And Happy New Year!

Happy summer! For those of you who weren't able to make it out to our show last week at Coda, here's the first video from that great evening (great for us, anyway--I leave the musical judgments to you).It's the tune which has recently become our favorite opener, "Sockdolager" (ironically defined as "a decisive blow or answer : finisher"), as heard on Contextualizin'. It features solos from me, Fred, Evan, and Adam (getting his Rhodes on), with Jon's tidal groove(s) washing over it all.Ian Carey Quintet - Sockdolager from Ian Carey on Vimeo.Not only was it great to be playing with these guys again, it was also encouraging that we got such a big, enthusiastic crowd out (you can't miss them on the video), some of whom I think are a sign that the club is taking off--definitely refreshing to see after so many closures of jazz-friendly venues in the recent past.Currently, our next scheduled show as a quintet is at Berkeley's Jazzschool in September, but we've got some feelers out for gigs between now and then so I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I've got appearances coming up with the amazing Circus Bella and the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (formerly of Pearl's and Rasselas), so it's looking to be a busy, musical summer.BTW: if you haven't yet, please take a minute to "Like" my jazz page on Facebook ("You like me! You really like me!"), or follow me on Twitter (which I'm really starting to get into, after years of stubborn resistance). Thanks, and stay tuned for some listening recommendations, more gig video, an upcoming radio interview, and some follow-up thoughts on the jazz funding debate. Cheers!

Hi folks--as you can see, the website has a new look (it was long overdue). Let me know if it's working for you. I'm planning on doing some more regular posting in the future (beyond announcements and self-promotion--because, let's face it, that gets boring), to share my thoughts on the jazz scene, the trumpet, what I've been listening to, etc.... RIGHT AFTER I get this self-promotion out of the way: first, I do want to mention that thanks to the great crowd that turned out for the CD release show, we've been invited back to Coda on Wednesday, June 16. I'm planning on having some new material ready to debut, so be sure to come down so you can say you were there THE NIGHT JAZZ CHANGED (or something).Also, the CD got a really nice review recently from The Jazz Page:

... the stuff that great jazz is made of, a blend of solid musicianship and writing. Carey's trumpet and fluegelhorn work has an inviting tone that can attract jazz aficianados and novices alike. The quintet is a terrific assemblage of talented players...

... you can read the whole thing here.Finally, as a reward for making it through the above promos, and as a preview for those who didn't make it to the release show, here's another tune from that night, the 5/4 harmonic maze called "Leap Year" (also available on CONTEXTUALIZIN'), featuring the talents of Evan Francis, Adam Shulman, Fred Randolph, and Jon Arkin. Enjoy!Ian Carey Quintet: Leap Year from Ian Carey on Vimeo.