It's the NAILing list forApril 2022

2021 is history.

Back in February I attempted to put out a year end wrap up newsletter. I got so busy so fast I was unable to do much than the few "this is what's going on this weekend" emails. And I'm still busy - even though it's relatively slow at the moment the summer is looking pretty crazy..!
I'm going to include some notes here from the newsletter I never sent, since I've already written big chunks of it. But I want to get to what's going on in the present.

So here's a quick look back at 2021…

I did about 65 shows in 2021, give or take a few. That’s quite a lot considering the state of things. Most of them were outdoors, and quite a lot were in Woodstock with Cloudburst but many of the usual suspects were represented: Supercluster, NAIL, Nail Jung, and the Eric Person quartet. There was a lovely gig in august with the Robert Kopec Trio doing the music of Bill Evans; I did shows with the Flash Band, Damon Banks, and Joe Deninzon, and sat in with the Burr Johnson Band and the Dave Fields band during the Skipfest concerts (on the same day). There was also the launch and year-long run of “Night Flight Music Live”, an online streaming series created by Eric Person and produced by Eric and I. Those shows aired last Friday of every month and featured some great local artists. NFML performers get paid by donation and overall, you all were very generous.

I also did close to a half a dozen “Live from the Lab” streaming concerts. Again, your generosity was overwhelming, and is very much appreciated. You can watch my livestreams here.

There were also the cancellations: several rained out dates at the Colony in Woodstock, 2 cancelled NAIL shows (one due to a personal injury – I’ve recovered, thanks) and a gig with Ray Levier in Nyack cancelled due to the Omicron surge currently, um, affecting everything.

One of the highlights of the year for me was the premiere of “Convergence: Series A”, a new piece of contemporary chamber music I created thru funding from Arts Mid-Hudson and performed by X Ensemble. It was originally supposed to premiere in June of 2020, but we know how that went… The premiere finally happened on the April edition of Night Flight Music Live. Many of you tuned in and donated significantly - enough so that I could, all expenses covered, host a second performance in July. We did so at the Ritz Theater’s Greenspace (outdoor stage) and after almost getting rained out, the show went on to great acclaim and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Read the D & H Canvas Article about the show.

As far as 2021 recordings:
As you probably know I use Bandcamp to host my CD & download sales, and during the pandemic they started “Bandcamp Fridays” on the 1st Friday of each month during which all administrative fees are waived. This was a great incentive to release collections from my back catalog. In addition to all the music I released in 2020 I was able to put out 3 more discs in 2021: Nail Jung “Live at the Linda” (January), “The Valley of Hidden Dreams”(April) and “Inner Mountain” (November). I put out a bunch of music in 2020 as well, and you can find all of them here.

All in all it was a super busy year and I am ever grateful I get to do this magical thing called music. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you – whoever listened to a track, came to a show, watched one of my YouTube videos; tuned in to a livestream, or just reached out to me this past year - your support means the world to me.

Now that we're here in 2022 there are quite a few things of note that have already happened including the return of Mr Gone, performances from Cloudburst, very interesting work with Choreographer and educator Nita Little, duo concerts with Robert Kopec, and the 2nd season of Night Flight Music Live. Still planned for 2022 are recordings of new music by NAIL, Nail Jung and X Ensemble, plus regularly scheduled events from the Ableton Hudson Valley Users Group [AHVUG] and more Live From The Lab concerts. Also coming up this summer is a new community project called "Mix-xed", a "contemporary mashup of arts and culture" taking place at the Ritz in Newburgh tis summer.

I've a handful of things this week and next, including the Return of the Mahavishnu Project. This super fun project is the brainchild of drummer Gregg Bendian; I've been with them since 2008. We haven't done a show in 7+ years, so it's pretty exiting to be back! We're playing at the Cutting Room in NYC (4/5) and the Falcon (4/14). Details below.
If you've stuck with me thus far then thanks for reading!