First Chorus

For fifteen-odd years, most of my writing has lived in setlists and lead sheets, plus the occasional liner note. This page is for the rest of it.

I've redesigned this site a few times, and every version had the same gap. The shows page tells you where I'll be, and the records page tells you what I've made, but there was never a place to write about what finally clicked for a student's left hand, or what I'm hearing in a 1923 cornet part at two in the morning. Now there's a place for it.

What to expect

Teaching and practice come first: ideas from lessons and from the practice room, mostly the small adjustments that end up mattering the most.

Then the transcription projects. Lately that means early jazz. I'm working on a critical edition of the 1923 King Oliver Creole Jazz Band recordings, along with companion projects on the founding drummers, bassists, and pianists of bebop. As pieces of that work come out, I'll write about what's in them and what the old records taught me.

Some posts will be about lesser-known pianists. The history books settle on the same dozen names, and some of my favorite players are not on the list. I'll write about the ones who deserve more ears.

And some will be about the tools. A lot of that work runs on software I've been building to pull hundred-year-old records apart and hear them more clearly than the shellac wants to let you. If you like the nerdy side of music, these posts are for you.

Posts go up here first. If you'd rather get them by email, join the newsletter and I'll send a note when something new is up, along with shows and releases. There's also an RSS feed.