Todd Clouser: Arts Day Out Program

Much love Kirby Brown. Thank you for sharing your passion, support, and positivity with us. It was a gift to have known you. In a day on cynicism, you lived by the law of compassion and a desire to experience. You inspire. See you in another place.

See below for a new approach to the musings page. Student and young friend John S called me out for writing "cheesy crap" on this page and took it upon himself to fix it up. Remarkable job Juan.

But a couple things coming up that we got going on. Early December I'll be out on a short Mexico tour with trumpeter Steven Bernstein (www.stevenbernstein.net). Steven is a downtown NY legend, Grammy nominee, and an incredible performer. Check out his Sex Mob records. I met STeven this summer in New York at a workshop of his, and it turned out we'd played with a number MX players in common. Guadalajara based Troker's rhythm section will round out the group. 

Some local Los Cabos shows are coming this month as well, highlighted by a gig with former Latin Idol finalist Samantha Rae and Argentine sax player David Cantoni. Everything is too quiet
down here right now, though November gives hope. I'll be back at Havana's Jazz Club regularly and just getting dates together for Syriaccus Bar, a happening new place in town.

 

And lastly, I finished up mixing our record last week in Minnapolis with Jason Orris at the Terrarium. Its sounding good, but Im taking the next few weeks away from it before getting on with mastering and release shows as the new year turns.

 

Thanks for your time. I hope that wasnt super cheesy.

This is your humble correspondent
john Schaible

Coming back to a small tropical storm and a nice hot jacuzzi i have realized how nice life is in beautiful mexico. I am now getting ready to my upcoming event witch includes hot dogs football and a lot of drinking of the soda product. But yet i now have to start practicing for my tour in Mexico. we will start of in Guadalajara and end in Mexico City. I will be traveling with the famous Steven Bernstein on first class Mexican Air. All in all it is going to be another great season of excitement and fun.

Yes, yes, yes, etc. Just returning to my adopted Mexican home after a couple weeks in New York. I had the opportunity to study with Medeski, Martin and Wood once again and do some playing with Richie and Eren Cannata and many others. Shared the stage with guitarist Jeff Pevar last night at NYC's The Bitter End and was really happy with how things went. Im lucky to be able to get up to the city and soak up some inspiration. Lots of learning going on and feeling re-dedicated to practice and a forward thinking approach to playing and our possibilities. Look for some video and audio clips up here soon from our time out east. All the playing felt really, really positive.
A few shows in a quiet Los Cabos the next couple weeks with percussionist Cesar Escobedo and his "Los Cosmopolitans". Excited to get on stage down here and share whats been happening. Ive been working a lot on our new record(s), getting it all together for mixing in a couple weeks up in Minneapolis. Im happy with where its at right now, though Ive been playing so much in recent days I cant help but to think there's some pieces I could hit better..... but thats always the case.
Lots of good things beginning to come up for the coming seasons.... visiting artists, tour, record release, arts day out, so on and so on. Stay around to see whats coming.

Thanks for your support!
Todd

A few quality August gigs have come up, Im really looking forward to a couple weeks with percussionist Cesar Escobedo and Los Cosmopolitans here in Los Cabos after a brief New York trip that will allow me some artistic nourishment. As much as the solitude inspires and allows time to create, its also easy to grow distant from modernity in music and, for lack of a wiser phrase, whats happening. New York City is an easy spot to grow re-inspired, re-acclimate, and be humbled by the playing of others. I did a similar trip last year and was able to see Bill Frisell play, study with Marc Ribot, and do some playing with Richie Cannata. It was an onslaught, in the positive sense.
These couple weeks have been dedicated to combing through our recording sessions at the Terrarium and getting back to a lot of listening and practicing. November through May finds those things getting lost. A couple records I've been spending a lot of time with are Sonny Rollins' "A Night at the Village Vanguard" and Sex Mob's "Din of Equity". Contrasting eras and, to an extent, instrumentation, but they both feel alive and playful. There's a humor in the jazz thats happening, something that I think the genre has really lost over time. Now too often its nose to the air blowing, seemingly aimed at putting the listener in their place....or something strange I don't get. The great jazz and beyond artists of this day are those who have found a way to communicate across genre limitations, and to a greater extent, communicate more than just themselves and their technical prowess.... thats what it was back then as well, with Miles Davis electrifying, the Motown and rock infused playing, rooted in jazz, of Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett fusing all kinds of creativity into his own, on and on. Anyhow, Frisell, Scofield, Metheny all play guitar far beyond jazz or their instrument, theyre making music that is musical (subjective I know). Its not for a certain listener set as things progress. Aside from fore-mentioned guitarists, Brad Mehldau is maybe my favorite modern "jazz" artist. His playing is so purely emotive regardless of whether he's covering Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", playing through he and Metheny's changes, solo, or his own compositions. I

Ill be playing some traditional Mexican music with Los Cosmopolitans on these August gigs, which is a bit intimidating given a largely blues and jazz background, but its a group of players aimed at creating and playing with bands not as a leader offers me a different perspective and the chance to get at some new tunes. Our new record comes from all sorts of places, with Julio on piano and percussion, a native of Havana, Cuba, Adam Linz on bass holding down the jazz front, and Greg Schutte keeping us all in line with his genre-bending drumming always played in seamless time. I get to have fun playing over the top.

Be back in Minnesota to mix late August and do some playing as well. Thanks for coming by.

Arriving back in Los Cabos and looking forward to some downtime. Our little Minneapolis run and recording went off really well. Playing the Dakota is always a pleasure, its a great sounding room, people listen, and new folks always come down.
Looking forward to heading to New York for some more studies and playing in a couple weeks, but for now its more writing and preparing to release the new record, most likely not until the new year. Im still writing for the local English newspaper regularly and have a night out/music column you can check out at www.gringogazette.com. Gonna go check out Samantha Rae singing this evening and pick back up the writing we'd been working on. Hope to get a demo out in fall.
Going to take some time to get our new record out on a broader scale and get a real proper tour going. The dream remains Europe next summer.

Thanks for your support.

Check ou thte clandar for whats coming this summer. After a season ending trio show at Havana, I'll be in and out of the Baja for a few gigs, but really looking forward to a couple weeks back in Minneapolis. We have a night at the Dakota once again, July 16th. Its such an incredible and storied room, its humbling to play. Ive always felt really good about our performances there, and feel the new tunes on hand will mark another quality night of progress. Been writing incessantly, never quite sure why that happens, but tunes tend to come out in bunches. I was lucky to hit that state a month or so back and now am refining and rehearsing.
The 318 show we'll get to sing some of our older material and loosen up a bit.

All shows will have Greg Schutte, www.gregschutte.com, behind the drums, and Adam Linz will be back on bass for the Dakota gig. Julio Cesar de la Cruz, a killing Cuban player is coming up to play piano on the new record and at the Dakota as well. Its his first week up in the states after getting his green card, he's not to be missed. We've been playing regularly together for the past couple years.

Thanks for coming by, stay in touch

Living in the Baja requires adaptation and understanding, whether it be cultural or personal... suppose they're intertwined, anyhow.... My automobile decided it needed a really healthy nap, not the first time, two days age when arriving on Highway 1 in Los Barilles, a small largely ex-pat fishing town located about an hour and a half north of Los Cabos. Its still there. Sure, we had the local mechanic there within an hour, an obvious inconvenience as Mexico had just reached halftime in its football match (thats right, Im that cultured that I dont call it a soccer game any longer). The mechanic was hammered and brought only a screwdriver. It ended up with him belly down hitting the gas tank with a rock in hopes to stir up the apparently bad fuel I that had clogged the lines. With that, what must be said is that he charged nothing when nothing worked, offered me and friend a ride back to our little hotel, and the owners of the restaurant where our car decided to rest were eager to call us other mechanics, push my car up the hill to their home's parking lot, and all this on their own accord and full of understanding. So while timeliness and tools may be at a premium here in our smaller towns of the Baja, humanity is not.
Well I hope to get back on the road and teaching tomorrow, but the extra day's stay has given me a chance to work on the charts to record and shows we have coming in the states this July.

When I left Minneapolis in May of 2006 for Los Cabos, I had conceded to frustration and cynicism and fully convinced myself I was to be a hobby musician. Id grown predictably disenchanted with the mediocre gig rock band scene in Minneapolis and living in an unhealthy manner. Functioning in that way and trying to remain inspired to create, stay close to yourself, and keep quality in craft is something I found impossible. I remember being confused and performing daily exercises in self doubt beyond the necessary amounts. I was empty in my writing and existential in regards to music.
With today's happenings, I feel close to recovered as ever after a long haul. It took me a year to get back to playing after settling here in Mexico. I started with solo guitar gigs, sheepishly running through some jazz standards, but got paid some (always feels redeeming, whether right or not) and rediscovered the guitar, how it helped me emote, and all that Id yet to learn with it. Los Cabos gave me the opportunity to slowly nurture back confidence and I ended up getting some quality gigs, getting back playing as a guitarist with some old hand rockers. We did the Baja album the following summer, and while my playing on there is a bit timid and anxious and Ive progressed beyond what I had to work with then, I had the chance to get with Linz, Schutte, and Weinbeck, and became certain again music is what I should be doing. Writing came easier and playing gigs no longer required straining over anxiety and self doubt. I felt comfortable in putting a couple bands together down here and for whatever reason, people really seemed to like it...... it felt like a surprise then. Teaching kids grew confidence as well. Your students become your teachers, your fans, and an avenue to rediscover what we got into this for.
Ill spare the rest of the story to you and myself, but Im in a reflective state tonight after having Arts Day Out today, performing with students and their bands and a really self satisfying night at Havana's. The show tonight was only decently attended ("decent" a feat unto itself against the backdrop of swine flu hysteria keeping our town void of any guests), but, with a clear head as now, and a humble trio joined by upright and drums, I lost myself completely in playing. I felt comfortable and engaged, and perhaps even a little proud in what was coming out of the guitar. Its been a good couple years of practice, work, and working to get myself healthy, but today felt as if all these things culminated into a night of playing that I could enjoy, on my own. No matter who was or wasnt listening, it felt really really good..... and it feels things will continue to go that way.

Everyone is healthy here in Los Cabos, come down, go see music, enjoy the beaches, kiss somebody...... we got no swine flu, though unfortunately we got no tourists either due to panic and the 24 hour news cycle having little to do other than create hysteria.

The tour in Guadalajara ended succesfully. Touring in Mexico isnt all that easy, though with ample patience and understanding the hiccups and changing nature of plans, promotions, etc. can be seen as adventuresome rather than nuisance. I arrived back in Los Cabos sick with a mean flu and am just getting around to kicking it.
We played to a beyond full room at Primer Piso Friday, the stairs heading up to the venue lined with folks, which was nice, but it was a surprise to be sharing the night with another group. Rolled with it.
Musically, we had a great mesh of players and were able to take a lot of chances. There's not a big market or understanding for jazz and playing out down here, but with the energy we brought, people were able to connect and open up a bit. The grooves are always dug, by us and audience. Im getting some clips up soon.
Looking forward to another mini-tour run up in the states this summer and a full last couple weeks here in April.
Thanks so much for your support, happy spring and thanks for an incredible winter for us musically!

Just heading off to sound check at Primer Piso, a cool little room here in Guadalajara. Last night lacked the chainless energy experience of our first night here, but we ran some different tunes and engaged some folks. Tonight and Saturday promise to be full rooms. Thats all I got for now, thanks for coming by.

Im in our old hotel lobby right now, downtown watching a pigeon snack on the little nut bowl they brought me with my Dos Equis Lager. Fearless little flier that he is, giving the high heeled, not quite bleached but tinted blonde waitress fits. She's chasing it with a little spray bottle. He's winning.
We had a great night of music last night playing at a bar called Rusty Trombone, coincidentally the name of our first gigging band, and creators of the oft un-acclaimed record "Las Balas des Platas". Scotty Moe is missed.
We ran through a bunch of tunes on the new record, some Baja stuff and a couple old electric era Miles Davis tunes, Mccoy Tyner's "Passion Dance", and some others that escape. The crowd was really responsive and supportive, made some headway with contacts for festivals around the country, all positive. Playing with Schutte and Linz, and joined by Julio is a really strong like-minded combination.
We're all staying in the same room, 4 beds, and a lot of hilarity ensues. The usual antics of Linz and team are only compounded by the colorful nature of Mexican culture and its workings. He's playing a silver glittered electric bass with a strap claiming "Do not cross line". The rest of us have pretty normal setups.
Its fun playing to young crowds and getting loud, there's no being careful here.
Ive been doing some amateur recordings of the shows Ill get up when we return to los Cabos and our concert producer, mainland manager, master conversationalist, Cesar Ortiz Ortiz has been taking to all his professional photo gear.
Having the urge to sing some old tunes tonight, gone to the website to recover lost lyrics.

Thanks for your support

Been too long since I posted anything here, though March's festivities provide an ample excuse for website neglect.
Finally feel like Im settled and able to just concentrate on playing and learning for a few days here away from home. Im up on the roof top of our ancient hotel here in Guadalajara, looking over at the ornate old colonial era Cathedral.
Adam Linz, Greg Schutte, and Cuban master musician Julio Cesar de la Cruz are here to form the quartet we'll be performing with for the next 4 nights. Something about being a large, somewhat foreign feeling city to play music inspires dedication to making some unique things happen musically. Practice and work gigs are coalescing into a chancd Ive always aimed to have, playing our music to new faces in new places. Cant wait to get on stage with these guys and get on with it. Sure to be the first run in many longer ones to come.
Ill try to post here after the shows with photos and some clips. I have a few from our gigs in the Baja Ill get up soon.
Thanks for all your support and coming by. All the best
Todd

Stick around for a busy March and April. Check the calendar for Tour info and www.artsdayout.com for our upcoming events.
Thanks as always for your support.

Its been a good and busy time preparing for the upcoming weekend highlighted by "Arts Day Out", an event that Im more excited about than any of the shows I've done, as my students will get a chance to rip in front of folks and enjoy the rewards of the past two years plus of work. Ive been practicing with them all week and everything looks to be incredible. Its really gratifying for me as well. I never imagined myself being a teacher, but its become something Im enamored with. There's a cyclical inspiration that takes place that confronts the cynicism we gain with age.
If you're in Los Cabos, come down Saturday from 12 to 4. Friday I get to pad my ego and rock chops with a set with former Dire Straits guitarist and good friend Jack Sonni, with a couple sets of my material prior. Saturday night post Arts Day Out we'll be back at Havana's to enjoy the atmosphere we've committed to cultivating. A weekend I've always aspired to be a part of, and lucky enough, have been able to help create with a sense of confidence and ambition I've found here. I'm aching to begin......
Other things coming... 2 week Mexico run with Adam Linz and Greg Schutte from March 25th to April 6th in clubs, La Paz, Los Cabos, Cerritos, Guadalajara.

Im beginning conversations for a couple weeks in Europe this summer in hopes of getting things moving over there, and a New York stop to continue studying as well.

All the best, thanks for your support
Do it, do it, do it.... its the only good fight there is. you'll ride life straight to perfect laughter

We've settled into a really excellent trio for the next month or so down here. Sebastian Dimarco of Argentina on upright bass and Geovanni Ramos of La Paz on drum set, occasionally joined by his brother Leo on percussion. Its a fun and forward thinking group and feels like a unique band with distinct character. We've got some good stuff coming up, but are playing little less as we tend to planning the Arts Day Out weekend in January and a busy spring with shows in the Baja and on the mainland with Linz and Schutte..... there's another record hanging out there as well, just working out the appropriate way to get it out.
Thanks for your support...

Thank you everyone for a great week. Havana's yesterday made for an incredible night. Too many good people. Im lucky and humbled.
Also want to thank Sebastian Dimarco for killing it on upright bass and Geovanni Ramos on drums. This is the trio we're gonna work for the season, all like-minded, positive, and ready to create whats to come.
Come out, support live and original music.
Here's the set we played, more or less-----

Aqui Como Alla (Ribot)
California Chaser
Unbreak the Morning
Caravan (Ellington)
Seven Nation Army (J White)
Beatnik Highway
Son of a Preacher Man
Motel West and Blue

All Out London
Cold Duck Time
Drive at the Sun
Manic Depression


Man with No Country
Hey Joe
----- Roberto on harp
Shake em on Down - with Paul Clade on guitar, Roberto Blanco on piano

The rest is a mystery..... good times

Sunday is turning Monday and Im restless as usual. Excited about the coming week's release shows in San Jose del Cabo and all else to come. We're getting really positive reviews on the new record, so thank you, and most importantly thanks to all who made it happen. Before I let shame creep in too far, I'll let it slip through my fingers that I actually like the record too. Everything has been quite a process to get here, and coupled with the tours and coming events, it feels everything is moving in a more tangibly positive direction.

And there's a bunch more material to come.

Thank you for your support! Come out to the shows this week if you're in the Los Cabos area. At the risk of inflating expectations, we've got a bunch of unique things going on that should make it memorable, Id hope at the least.

See you soon

Thank you all again for an incredible, just sort of sold out, night for the MN version of our "Beatnik Highway" record release at the Dakota Jazz Club. I felt really good about the music that night and what we were able to accomplish.
This week the Los Cabos season kicks off in a proper way. Havana's Saturday night with our regular trio of the past year, Julio C de la Cruz on bass and G Ramos on drums. These guys kill it and we've managed to create a pretty unique approach. Hope you can make it out.
Beyond that, things are booked though April. Saturdays at Havana's weekly, except where noted below. Some highlights:


Dec 10 --- Liga Mac at Tiendas Palmilla
Dec 11, 12 --- Album Releases at Galeria Ida Victoria and Havana's Jazz Club
Jan 24, 2009 --- Inaugural "Music Day Out", artist and student interaction, recitals, and workshops
Feb 17, 2009 --- Double Album release, "Out in the Hellwind/Bright Life"
March 18, 2009 --- Visiting artist week, featuring Richie Cannata
March 26 --- Todd Clouser Quartet Baja shows with Linz, Schutte, Weinbeck
April 1 --- Mexico mainland tour, Todd Clouser trio with Adam Linz and Greg Schutte ---- Guadalajara, MX City
June 2009 --- Europe with Linz and Schutte

Thanks for your support!

Thanks to everyone for making our Mnpls album release an exceptional evening.

Fri, Nov 7th, Dakota Jazz Club
Set I
Beatnik Highway
Son of a Preacher Man
Drive at the Sun
Amazing Grace --- Todd Solo
Short Story (Ken Dorham)
Ocean Mirror
Caravan
Aqui Como Alla (Ribot)
Man with No Country

SETBREAK
Bright Life -- with Molly Dean
You Gotta Grow Up Sometime --- Molly Dean
She Got Lonely On Her Own ---- Todd solo piano

Set II
Cold Duck Time (Eddie Harris)
All Out London
Billie's Bounce
Untitled
Manic Depression (Hendrix)
Unbreak the Morning
Born By the Night

We're (The Royal We) putting together a really unique night for the album release at Dakota on Friday. Guests, some solo stuff, songs.... Im really excited about it. Ill be in the studio the rest of the week touching up some mixes on the never ending album of songs project. Molly Dean is gonna come do some singing on the record.
Hope to see you Friday, 730-ish. Call ahead and get tickets or a table so you dont get parked in the rafters.... www.dakotacooks.com

Todd Clouser and the Band of No Country cordially invite you to the
legendary Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, MN Nov 7th, 730 pm, to
celebrate with us the next release in a series of writings and
recordings, the 12 composition, unclassiffiably modern jazz dance rock
album "BEATNIK HIGHWAY".
A record inspired by wonder and wander, exploration
without hesitation, and dedication to craft, "Beatnik Highway" finds
Todd and Band playing at their most confident, layering the album's
gifted melodies in improvisation against rich but accessible harmony.
The tunes on the record are footed in the jazz vocabulary, but avoid
categorization with equal adherence to groove and a melody meant for
memory.
The band of Todd Clouser on guitar, Benny Weinbeck on
piano, Adam Linz on bass, and Greg Schutte on drums, augmented on a
number of tunes by Henry Weinbeck on trumpet and Joe Savage on pedal
steel, have crafted a listenable but dense record, with 9 original
compositions and unique arrangements of 3 popular tunes. "SON OF A
PREACHER MAN", a live-evil inspired "MANIC DEPRESSION", and a
fittingly ambiguous arrangement of Elliott Smith's "INDEPENDENCE DAY",
all performed in a manner unique to the band, make for the trio of
covers.
In short, "BEATNIK HIGHWAY" is a record of excellent players
running through a variety of styles, woven together by fine
composition and improvisation. DONT MISS THE RELEASE!

Todd Clouser Quartet
Friday, Nov 7th, 730 pm
Dakota Jazz Club, MNpls, MN

www.dakotacooks.com www.toddclouser.com

Im taking care of some good friends' dogs for the next ten days in their home up here on the Gringo Hill. Its a tough place to disappear, but Im committed to doing so, with the exception of teaching obligations. I brought up a bunch of old folders of half done tunes, 3 line poems written on the back of receipts, and a small piano and my guitar setup. Im looking forward to a throwback week of writing and planning for the upcoming season here in Los Cabos. All will turn to madness as the Dakota CD release nears and from then until early summer with shows, teaching, and a promising season of events.
Im paging through old charts, old demos I had forgotten making in my basement in Minneapolis, and all sorts of poetry. In the least of cases they provide an able starting point, if not for their merit, for the inspiration to inquire into my repulsion.
It feels good to be in a different space and committed to just writing and playing each evening after work. The results will show themselves in time, unless of course they're no good. All the time and resources put into all the recent recording, album artwork, etc. can get themselves in the way of continuing to create. Im remaining committed to kicking dissuasion and cynicism in the jugular.

Im really very excited about this album we are just finishing. We've all invested a lot of ourselves into it, and its apparent in the results. Joe Johnson and I spent a week with Schutte coming in off and on tweaking the mixes, though the recording was mostly live, a few takes, often the first being the one ending up on the record. Im humbled by playing with these guys and all the time they felt these songs were worth. About the music..... everything was written and arranged in the past year and a half, as is commonplace on our records there are shades of styles, all stamped by the desire to feel, travel, get things done.... Id like to think. It feels like a lot has led up to getting to where this record lies, this being the most concise of the stuff Ive done, not necessarily making it all that concise I guess... but anyway, Im babbling. Much of the writing was done on a summer of travel between Europe and Southern Africa, then refined and dressed in heat back here in the Baja. I hope you will like it, I think you may, and I hope you get to come see the band Nov 7th, Friday, 8 to 11 at the Dakota Jazz Club. A Friday night at one of the nation's finest jazz and beyond venues. Im excited.
There's an album to follow as well, all recorded, of songs..... called Todd Clouser and a Band of No Country "Out Naked in the Hellwind"..... one Ive always had to make, a title thats been waiting for it, and songs that found the right players..... 2 plus years of sessions and work. Id say more, but its no good being apologetic about art and titles.
Thanks for coming by!