Greeting from St. Louie, Louie.

We had our first show last night, it went really well even though I was beat from the plane ride and getting up so damn early. We play two sets a night through Thursday and they are all sold out. That's good news, an enthusiastic crowd ALWAYS makes for a better show. Remember that next time you go see music and everyone is sitting on their hands.

My record has been mixed. I've been listening to it quite a bit and I must admit the mix is pretty happenin'. Only a few minor tweaks before it gets sent off to be mastered.

I leave for another tour tomorrow. The driver is picking me up at 4:45 AM ... that's damn early! First St. Louis, then Oklahoma, then Japan. I hope to make some blog entries while I'm on the road, I'm pretty excited about the trip and it would be fun to update from another country.

Wish me luck.

Since I began making my record I made sure not to put any unneeded pressure on myself regarding the recording and manufacturing of it, no hard deadlines, no strict course of action.

But as the record gets closer to being finished and my schedule gets busier I find myself under more stress to get it done. I really need to have this thing pressed by the time I leave for my 9-week gig in New York City. If that happens, I'm going to make it under the wire. A lot of important decisions need to be made and a lot of money needs to be paid in a short period of time.

*whew* I hate pressure.

So for a break in the stress I am going to present to you some fine women who grace the cable airwaves weekly. You won't see these ladies on Entertainment Tonight or anything, but if you watch the Travel Channel or Food Network as much as I do you will recognize them for sure. And not only are they hot, but they are talented and good at what they do.

First up we have one of my faves, Samantha Brown.
She looks like your best friend's hot mom when you were eight. She hosts Passport to Europe and Great Hotels on the Travel Channel. Killer body.

Next up, the adorable Rachael Ray.
My mom loves Rachael Ray. So do most people who watch Thirty-Minute Meals. She's way cute and has this high-pitched, raspy voice that is super sexy. And she can cook too.

Speaking of cooks, here is Giada De Laurentiis.
She hosts Everyday Italian on Food Network. Isn't she gorgeous? She can peel a garlic clove in no time, now that's hot!

And finally #1 poker hottie Shana Hiatt.
Shana hosts The World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel. Unlike the other three who are quite talented in what they do, Shana is just a hottie. No way around that one. Unfortunately she will no longer be hosting the WPT, I think she wants to pursue a career in acting. I actually saw her say two lines in the wretched movie Must Love Dogs. Nowhere to go but up Shana! For those who are really interested you could probably find some nude pics of Shana from when she did Playboy a few years ago ... That's what I hear anyway.

Aaaah, that's more like it. I'm feeling a little better now. So I'm off to choose fonts and work on licensing and all of the other crappy stuff you don't think about when you want to make a record.

If any of you out there read Downbeat, the jazz magazine, check out page 166 of the October issue. There you will find a picture of yours truly jammin' onstage at the International Society of Bassists Convention. The picture is part of the "Student Music Guide" section of the magazine. Every year Downbeat has a special issue covering all of the schools in the country with a jazz department. I can only assume my teacher at WMU sent in the pic as the caption says "Lyman Medeiros, Western Michigan alumnus."

So it's not like an article on me or anything. But it is a cool picture. And it's cool to be in the magazine regardless.

So I'm back from a roller-coaster visit to Indianapolis. I had a wonderful time. The show Friday night was incredible. There were so many people who came to see me and support me I almost was overwhelmed. During the show it was quite obvious that a large percentage of the crowd was there to see me instead of my BOSS ... but Tyrell was a good sport about it and the band had a good time. You can see some pictures on J's Blog.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the show. I hope to be back to Indy with my own band early next year.

The rest of the time in Indy I spent visiting with friends and family and watching the Colts whup up on the Jaguars. I had a great time at the game and a great time seeing some old friends. I even went back to my old high school yesterday to visit with my old band director. Things have changed a lot at the school, sure sign I'm getting older. But it was great to be re-united with the man who first introduced me to jazz.

Now it is back to work, recording session today and tomorrow, show with Tyrell on Saturday, then we leave for a three-week long tour (that indcludes Japan) on Monday.

Just so you know, I've changed the settings on my blog so anyone can leave a comment if they like, not just registered bloggers.

So tomorrow I leave for Indiana to do a show with Tyrell. It's the first time I've played in Indy for at least 6 or 7 years and I'm pretty excited about it. There are a lot of people coming ... everyone from my high school band director to my wife's family. It should be a lot of fun.

And I get to see the Colts on Sunday, GO BIG BLUE!!

See you next Wednesday.

So I've picked up some new stuff over the past couple of weeks. I haven't gotten a chance to digest the stuff yet, but I plan to on the plane this weekend.

Ray Lamontagne is a singer/songwriter who was recommended to me by my buddy Phil (the guitarist with Rachael Yamagata, they opened for him this summer). Trouble is his first CD and what I've heard of it is really good. He has a roughness to his voice that I really dig. So far all of the songs have the same vibe though.

I am a longtime fan of Lonnie Plaxico's. His record Emerge is one of my favorites and was an inspiration when I was writing the music for my record. This new one, Live at the Jazz Standard features a young band and arrangements of some jazz tunes that I'm anxious to hear.

KanYEWest-Late Registration. While I kind of dug his comments about Bush even though they were a little off-target and ill-timed, that is not the reason I bought this record. Producer and musical savant John Brion produced a lot of the tracks, he's so creative I can't wait to check out what he did.

Drew Gress is one of the most creative and solid bassists in New York right now in my opinion. I believe this is his first record, 7 Black Butterflies. I can't wait to hear what his compositional style is like compared to his contemporaries Scott Colley and Reid Anderson.

I've had some time off and some time away from the bass. It's nice but I'm starting to miss playing. I won't have that problem soon enough.

I leave this weekend for my big return show in Indianapolis with Tyrell. That will be a lot of fun. Then I come home and have a two-day recording session with a singer. Then I leave for my long trip to St. Louis, Oklahoma, Japan, AC, a week here in LA, then I'm off to NYC for a couple of months. From this weekend on things will stay pretty busy for me. And I have to get my record mixed and pressed in that time too. I'll have a lot of music around me for a while.

But I still need to practice. So I'm off.

This looks to be the start of a great season.

The Dodgers and Lakers were both disappointments. The Pacers were just a tragedy. But it looks like Big Blue is in for a true Superbowl run.

Tonight I went to a Dodgers game courtesy of my good friend Cory who has season tickets. The Dodgers are not very good this year and have been losing a hell of a lot more than winning. But Dodger Stadium is always a good time and the seats are great so of course I jumped at the chance to go.

It was a great game. Literally the best baseball game I've been to. The Dodgers were up until the 7th inning when the Giants (the hated rivals) pulled ahead by as much as three. The Dodgers won it in the bottom of the 9th scoring three runs in one inning for the come from behind victory. It was great, exciting stuff. It was a good night for sure.

If you've ever sat in box seats before you know that food is free. After Corey called me this afternoon to ask if I wanted to go I didn't eat a thing for the rest of the day. Ballpark food is the best. I think my last count was two Dodger Dogs, chips, peanuts, ice cream, root beer, and lemonade. Not a bad haul.

... here are some more fun facts to sway you. I can't believe I just heard about these things:

-Two days after the hurricane hit President Bush was in San Diego giving a speech at a fundraiser.

-FEMA did not ask for assistance until five hours after the storm hit when it had been predicted to hit three days earlier.

-Vice President Cheaney is still on vacation. Hope he's having a good time.

Thursday I went to see the Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibit at MOCA. I've been anticipating this exhibit ever since my sister-in-law saw it in New York and told me it was coming to LA. It has been open for about a month or so but I've waited until I had a day to myself to see it. I had never seen a Basquiat in person before yet he is my favorite painter and I've read extensively about his art and his life.

I must say the exhibit is phenomenal. It truly is a comprehensive collection that captures his entire career perfectly (granted his career spanned less than 10 years, it's still pretty remarkable). Literally the only thing missing would be his old SAMO graffiti before he started painting, and I don't think there is much of that out there.

All of his "greatest hits" are there including Untitled (Head) which is featured on all of the publicity for the show, Six Crimee what I consider one of his best, Untitled (Sugar Ray Robinson), Now's The Time, etc. The only one I expected to be there that wasn't was Self-Portrait As A Heel, but I was pretty impressed that all of these were in the same collection. There are also many paintings (such as Grillo) on strange canvases (wood panels, doors, etc.)that are pretty exciting to view.

The show is laid out chronologically for the most part. You get to see his work as he hit the ground running with pieces from his first show to the end of his life where the quality of his work tapered off. This was interesting and sad for me to see. JMB died in 1988 and by 1987 his paintings were noticeably sub-par to his earlier work. His paintings always had a primal, rough quality to them, but by the end it seemed as if his stroke had lost it's intensity and his eye for composition was too sporadic. But even in the midst of sloppy work such as Victor 25448 and Riddle Me This Batman there are gems such as Eroica and Pegasus. The show ends with Exu. I can tell just by looking at it that Basquiat was a mere shell of what he once was when he painted it and drugs had damaged his mind and his hands to the point of self-parody. That being said it is still a beautiful paining as it bookends his tragic life.

It is commonly believed that the soundtrack and sometimes inspiration to Basquiat's work is jazz music. JMB himself said it on more than one occasion. But I must respectfully disagree. Jazz is my music and JMB is perhaps my favorite artist but the connection between the two is superficial. You can look at Basquiat's work and see an improvisational and African approach that is present in jazz as well. But that parallel is too easy. You see with jazz music improvisation and personal expression come from technique. While most of our greatest jazz musicians never attended a music school or conservatory they all spent relentless hours practicing, listening to other musicians, and honing their craft. All of these things are blatantly (and beautifully) missing in Basquiat's work. I see no technique, just raw expression.

The soundtrack to Basquiat's work is rap music. Both were born in NYC in the early eighties, both are unapologetic in their rejection of standard artistic concepts. Like a rapper grabs a mic and freestyles about his surroundings on top of a drumbeat, JMB grabs his paintbrush and vigorously paints surrounded by his source material (comic books, magazines, television, etc.) on top of a canvas. These parallels are much more obvious and accurate ... To this observer anyway.

I plan on going back to the exhibit at least one more time. Maybe more. I'm sure I will have more to say after those visits as well.

The entire situation in New Orleans is a tragedy. I'm sure everyone feels my sadness and empathy towards those people stranded in terrible conditions without food or water, clothes or shelter.

The government can send tens upon tens of thousands of troops to the Middle East in a matter of days but they can't get people out of New Orleans or get food in? That is disgusting, simply disgusting. It is apalling how long it took troops to get rations into an American city. And the tales of death, murder, and rape are sickening. And true to form with this administration's actions the rich of the city were tended to before the masses huddled at the convention center and SuperDome (see above article).

CNN paints a rosier picture. But this is only the beginning. This tragedy is going to have a far-reaching empact. It brings up a lot of issues concerning class and race discrimination in our country and in our government. I'd bring up some initial thoughts I have about it but I might sound like a raving conspiracy theorist and I don't want to do that. There are enough raving lunatics in the White House right now.

I haven't figured out a way I can help, if you have a suggestion let me know. I just had to comment some how.