Thank you for making our 15th anniversary an incredible night!

I want to thank everyone who came to our 15th anniversary show last Wednesday night at Trumpets Jazz Club! What an amazing night! We knew we were excited about playing, but when all of you came in and filled up the club...well...there was a lot of love in the house...and we felt that! It makes a huge difference in the performance of the music when musicians know that the audience is diggin' the music...the electricity of that appreciation just flows through the band..and it makes all of us dig in even deeper to the music....so thank you for that.

Also, a big thank you once again to photographer Chris Drukker for all of these photos, they are just wonderful! You can view the rest of them here.

I'd also like to thank The Montclair Times, Joan Finn and George Wirt for including me and the band in their "Women In Jazz" article, which also included interviews with pianist Gerri Allen, and vocalist Melissa Walker.
And.. a thank you to Tim Wilkins of the Star Ledger for getting the word out, as well!
All of us in the band are so appreciative of your support!

We also want to thank Enrico Granafei and Kristine Massari, owners of Trumpets Jazz Club for giving us a home and making it so easy for us to come play the music!

A big thank you to Judy De'Angelis...otherwise known as "Judy..at the bar!"...for holding it all together! And all of the staff there as well.

Another big thank you goes to my son Chad Moser, who came in and subbed for Natascha at the last minute!

Thank you to Allwood Community Church for giving us rehearsal space.

And a huge thank you to Dennis Connors for creating the new video on us...which you can see here.

As you can see, performing a concert of music involves not only the band...it also involves all of these folks who help to make it happen, and of course a very wonderful audience......yes...there was a lot of love in the house that night!

More anniversary celebrations...15th for the big band!

This Wednesday night we will be celebrating our 15th year of playing music together as the Diane Moser's Composers Big Band! 15 years! Wow!

We will start the night off with my tune and the name of this blog.."Flipped Kitty in the City",  move into some "Boogie Stop Shuffle" by Charles Mingus.....

then onto some new compositions by Marty Fogel and Erick Storckman....

 a new arrangement by Russ Vines on Billy Harper's tune "Priestess"

 and guest trumpet player Chris Rogers' arrangement on Tom Harrell's tune "The Water's Edge", we'll also play a wonderful composition that we played last time and looking forward to playing again by Rob Henke called 'Koufax"..in memory of Sandy Koufax,
we'll also be playing a Duke Pearson chart that Mike Spengler is bringing in called "Chili Peppers"

and ending the 1st set with my composition "For My Mother".

The second set we'll play Matt Haviland's tune "Comes A Time",

Jim Cifelli's tune "Blues For McCoy"

 a beautiful arrangement of a Joe Zawinul tune "A Remark You Made' by Ed Xiques...and end the set with Ed's tune "The Newcomer".

(photos courtesy of Chris Drukker...thank you Chris!)

Tonight I was sorting music and "cleaning out the books" as we call it...discovering hidden treasures of old set lists and such..sometimes I find photographs and notes about this and that...and while I'm doing that I can hear the band rehearsing the music (in my head) and what was said and sections that were worked out..and how the performances went...and the hang after the rehearsal and after the gig....
It is amazing to me that we have been together for 15 years and I feel so honored to be working with these outstanding musicians and wonderful souls who come together to create what Jim Cifelli calls a Sonic Party.... because it is absolutely that...a Sonic Party! And you are all in invited!

Our brilliant friend and photographer/film maker Dennis Connors has been working on a documentary about the big band, and has put together a short preview of that ...which you can view here.

Photos from last nights show..........

We had a wonderful performance last night-the band sounded great-tributes to Frank Foster, Daniel Pearl and Elzy Kolb.....guest composer Russ Vines.... a great audience...a lot of love in the house!
These photos are from the wonderful photographer Chris Drukker...with lighting by another wonderful photographer/film maker Dennis Connors who was there filming with his crew.
http://gallery.me.com/dianemoser#100693
Our sincere thanks to everyone who came out-we loved playing for you!