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.

3rd Anniversary and continued good health! Thanks to all!

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of my surgery for the removal of GIST tumors...one 13 pounder and several satellite tumors. I celebrated by going out to dinner with my son and his girlfriend to The Grand Sichuan on 9th Ave and 24th street in NYC. With the exception of weight gain and some muscle issues I am in very good health. I go for my next round of cat scans on Friday and I am confident that everything will be just fine.
I wrote a few months ago that I had the opportunity to speak at Novartis for their Oncology Kick Off meeting and that I met one of their oncologists, Dr Christopher Keir who I later spoke with a week later.
Dr. Keir is the one who wrote the new labeling information for Gleevec and updated the time to be on Gleevec to three years and more if needed. This was recently in the news.
I asked Dr. Keir how long I would need to be on Gleevec, and he said that due to the rather large size of my tumor I would need to take Gleevec for a very long time. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I understand the reasoning. In the meantime, I am finding new solutions to deal with the side effects, and counting every day as a true blessing!
Thank you all, once again, for helping me and Chad through that incredibly difficult and scary time.
We will never be able to thank you enough!

Photos are courtesy of Novartis. To the right of me is the amazing Tricia McAleer, who is the Program Director at Life Raft Group  an organization that not only assists all of us who have GIST, but is also very much involved in the research and development for a cure. To the left is Tracy Furey, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication at Novartis.

February Newsletter

Dear Friends,
Some of you are on my regular email list, but just in case you are not, I thought I would post this newsletter here.  Lots of goings on are happening so let's get started!
I have several new recordings that will be released soon...Duetto with Mark Dresser, WDMO with Duncan Moore, Rob Thorsen, Marguerita Page, Will Parsons, Peter Sprague, Mary Redhouse and my son Chad Moser, Inside/Out Trio with Tim Ferguson and Rob Henke. All of these are in various stages of production so as soon as I have dates on that I will pass it along. And just as a side note, Chad has a new recording out....his first..it's called IMAYDIS, you can check it out on CD Baby!

This past August I was awarded a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts made possible by a grant from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and I was named the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation-Creative Fellow, Millay Colony for the Arts, 2011.
The fruits of that labor will be a recording of my birdsong project in the next month or so, and a premiere of my work for big band "Music of the Spheres" Fall 2012.
More soon....

This past November I was awarded the CAP Recording Grant from New Music USA  to record my composition "Music for the Last Flower" with my quintet in partnership with Planet Arts. This composition is inspired by the James Thurber book "The Last Flower" and created with a grant from Chamber Music America's New Works: Creation and Presentation program (now called New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development Program). I received the grant in 2003 and the work was premiered in 2004 and has had several performances since that time...but we never got the chance to record in a studio setting...and now we do! This will be happening late spring/early summer....more soon...

Save these dates for Diane Moser's Composers Big Band
March 14th Trumpets Jazz Club  Montclair, NJ 8PM $15
Performing new works of our resident composers and some of our favorites from the book!

June 13th Trumpets Jazz Club  Montclair, NJ 8PM $15
Presenting the big band music of Jaki Byard!
I cannot tell you how excited I am about this project! I have been searching for this music for years and finally found it through the wonderful John Sergenian.
More soon.......

Events coming up soon....
Breaking Boundaries:The Art of Alex Masket
Wed Feb 8th 7:15 PM Jacob Burns Film Center, Pleasantville, NJ, showing, panel discussion and reception $6 (members) $11 (non-members)
This is the documentary that I composed the music for and recorded along with my quintet. It continues to tour around to different film festivals, centers and special showings with Alex's incredible art.

Music for the Soul Concert Series presents: Roger Verdi, trombone and Martha Locker, piano
Saturday Feb 11th 8PM suggested donation $15
This is a series that I produce at the Allwood Community Church in Clifton, NJ. Both Roger and Martha are incredible musicians and will be performing a diverse program of music that dates back to the 17th century up through the present. Go to the link above and you can hear samples of their music as well as more information on this concert.

Projects for you to consider.....
Oliver Lake Big Band Recording A new project by my dear friend and incredible musician/composer Oliver Lake, to create a new recording with his big band. I have supported this and am asking you to take a minute and check out his project on INDIE GOGO Also, please consider subscribing to his newsletter by emailing him at olla@aol.com.

Liz Phillips Biyuu  Another new project by another dear friend, and exceptional artist , Liz Phillips who creates interactive muti-media installations. This project will have a premiere at Roulette (Brooklyn, NY) this spring, and is on the support website USA Projects. I have supported this project as well and again asking you to take a minute to check it out!

Novartis Oncology Kick-Off Meeting

Just returned home from speaking, along side with Tricia McAleer from the Life Raft Group, at the Novartis Oncology Kick-Off Meeting. This is a meeting at the Novartis campus where they talk about all of the research they are doing, and they like to hear from patients and other groups who are affected by or involved with said research...as in GIST and Gleevec. It was held in a fairly large auditorium,

with probably 250+ folks in attendance.













Before Tricia and I sat in those chairs, we watched a short video of their meeting from last year in Dallas, featuring the Pulitzer Prize winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, who won the prize for his book.."The Emperor of All Maladies..A Biography of Cancer"...which I found to be very inspiring!

And, Novartis gave me a copy of the book-can't wait to read it!

Their moderator, Tracy, asked me about my symptoms, the various stages of the diagnosis, everything leading up to where I am now which is coming up to year 3...cancer free!
When I told the audience that the tumor was 13 lbs there was a huge collective gasp in the auditorium. Now, if you've ever heard several hundred people gasping at once, it can be quite a jolt, so I kinda laughed after I said that and said.."yes, that's like having twins or one really huge baby"...which of course they all laughed and the tension in the room was gone...and we continued.

I talked about the need for Novartis to educate us more about the science behind Gleevec, and what exactly is it doing in our bodies, what causes the side effects, are there nutritional deficiencies, and more information on the studies and stats of adjuvant therapy.

 After we spoke and left the auditorium, a doctor from Novartis came up to me, handed me his card and told me to get in touch with him and he would help me with a lot of the questions I had posed, so I hope to be talking with him in the very near future.

I also thanked all of them for their work on GIST cancer and on Gleevec...I don't think we Gisters could ever thank them enough.

They asked me for photos so I sent them photos of me at Lake George (very short hair), the recording session with the Inside/Out Trio (hair is curly and longer) the big band gig at Trumpets in 2011 (hair is still curly and much longer)...thought it would be good for them to see the healthy transformation.
 They were ecstatic to hear that I was back to performing, composing and teaching.

Tricia talked about the role of the Life Raft Group, their research, and their outreach. She also talked about the need for more information from Novartis and perhaps personal contact with patients to guide them through the process.

It was a really great morning, and a big shout out and thank you to Leslie Fields, their Associate Director of Patient Advocacy, for making it so easy and laid back for Tricia and I to participate (not to mention the yummy breakfast!)

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!

All About Jazz Concert Review of Perry Robinson,Max Johnson and yours truly.....

Back in August-post Hurricane Irene-the wonderful bassist Max Johnson invited me to play with him and the ever astounding clarinetist Perry Robinson. It was a magical night of music-lots of quiet intensity and lyrical playing by all of us. This is a review of that concert from the All About Jazz (online version) newspaper that was posted just a few days ago.
Enjoy!

By

MARTIN LONGLEY,

Published: October 7, 2011

Perry Robinson/Diane Moser/Max Johnson
The University Of The Streets
August 30, 2011

Native New Yorker Perry Robinson is not one of the better known free improvisers, but his stature is no less significant as a result. Within a certain scene the clarinetist has accrued importance, his activities stretching back to the early 1960s. This low-key set involved a trio with pianist Diane Moser and bassman Max Johnson, making up a mixed generational spread. They all have connections, but hadn't played together for quite some time. There was no sheet music in sight, but their improvisations existed within the realms of chamber composition, mostly being of a sensitively harmonious nature.
These three possessed a strong sense of instant composition, masterfully evolving ideas in a gradually linear flow. It appeared that the small gathering who witnessed this session were gripped by the music's concentrated aura. Though the medium-length improvisations were mostly serene, this didn't impede a recurring mood of thoughtful, introverted tension. All three players were expert at alternating sudden emphatic clumps of notes with contrasting streams of calm flotation. This was particularly apparent as Johnson's bruising bass lines, fingered with hardness in a gloriously unamplified state, were regularly alternated with groaning, bowed stretches, establishing a sequence of percussive bullishness, entering into hovering sustain. Moser, too, initiated sections where she was hammering with gusto, building up rippling blocks. Robinson maintained a superbly articulate clarinet poise, dancing loquaciously, only becoming more fragmented and strident during the closing piece. All three players were completely immersed in the music—much like their audience. This set's quieter, introverted methods were all the more poignant when set beside its fleeting outbreaks of aggression.

Massaged Kale Salad

Just returned home from a 50th bday party that was fabulous-great food and great friends!
I brought Massaged Kale Salad...which everyone always loves so I figured I would share the recipe...it's a variation of a recipe that I found on a wonderful blog called http://iheartkale.blogspot.com/2009/01/massaged-kale-salad-with-grated-root.html 
I do  the "massaging of the kale"-with olive oil and sea salt...then as I add in the ingredients I massage it some more....
1 grated (small) beet grated
(2 or 3 baby)carrots
minced red onion (about 1/4 cup),
kalmata olives (about 1/3 cup)
1 diced (small) tomato
1 diced (small) avocado
.....then I add lemon juice...more massaging and a little bit of balsamic vinegar-the vinegar was only for tonight-I was just in the mood for it!
As I said to someone who asked for the recipe...to me it's about the kale...everything else just adds a little bit of seasoning.
From start to finish it takes less than 30 mins (depends on how fast you can chop and dice).
Go to the blog...really fantastic recipes on there!