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A little more than a week ago, I was lucky enough to attend the first annual Switchboard Music Festival live at Dance Mission Theater on March 30, 2008. It was a full day of inspired music that’s best described in their own words:

The Switchboard Music Festival is an eight-hour music festival bringing together composers and musicians who are all pushing the boundaries of their respective genres. No other Bay Area music festival or concert series is dedicated to the idea of bringing together such an eclectic, genre-crossing/-breaking/-bastardizing group of experimentalists, innovators, and musical omnivores.

Some of the finest musicians in the Bay Area played over the course of the eight-hour music marathon, including Aaron Novik, Amy X Neuburg, Christopher Adler, Dan Becker, Del Sol String Quartet, Jeff Anderle, Edmund Welles, Erik Jekabson, Gamelan X, Ian Dicke, Ian Dickenson, Inner Ear Brigade, Jonathan Russell, Robin Estrada, Ryan Brown, and Slydini.

This really turned out to be a tremendous day of live original music, so please enjoy the photographs and this audio sample of Erik Jekabson’s trumpet solo (using a delay) called Opening Fanfare, which was the appropriately-named first song played at the festival (thanks Erik!). And don’t forget to help support this very-worthy festival when it comes around next year.

 Opening Fanfare [6:03m]: Play Now | Download

Our good friend Ian Dickenson has recently been playing some gigs at Savanna Jazz in the Mission with the legendary Barry Finnerty and asked if I’d like to come down to record a couple of sets on Tuesday night. Well, I couldn’t resist the invitation, and I was rewarded with some great Jazz all night long by the Straight Ahead Trio. The Sevanna is a cozy venue down in the Mission with excellent acoustics and a great vibe. Barry was really ripping up the guitar licks, Ian was grooving hard on the bass, and Dave Rokeach was keeping it real on the drums all night long. Finnerty has played with some of the best musicians in the industy, including the great Miles Davis among many others. He has also recently released his seventh album entitled TRAZZ! and his first book Melodic Materials for the Modern Jazz Soloist. Barry was gracious enough to let us post the following original song from the recording I made that night as an MP3 file for your listening pleasure. This recording is intended for personal, non-commercial use only and cannot be used for any purpose without the express consent of the artist.

 Jasmine Breeze [9:26m]: Play Now | Download

I was recently asked to record an innovative performance put on by the Bay Area Composer’s Circle. They are a group of young composers who get together a few times a year to put on a concert of entirely original classical music. The night was filled with amazing compositions that spanned a wide range of musical styles, including an operatic piece, a piano solo, a string quartet, and a bass clarinet duet to name just of few. You can get a small taste for what the performance was like by clicking on the music file below of award-winning composer and bassist Ian Dickenson’s fanatastic solo called Sex Blues. This recording is intended for personal, non-commercial use only and cannot be used for any other purpose without the express consent of the artist.

 Sex Blues [8:59m]: Play Now | Download