I am so great.

Ok, ok.

Since I’m SO popular these days, I should do an update I guess.  Welcome to all the readers stopping by from the Island of Misfit Musicians!

I could just really continue to go off on a huge rant here but I am stepping away from the edge and moving on the to awesomeness that is the Sara. L. Julian. Experience. v. 2.0

Anyway….

So I had a great time in Austin back in, September was it?  I got to play at the Cactus Cafe in Austin TX with Zoe Lewis and it was AWESOME!!!!  The venue was great and I got to meet a couple of local musicians, Sick and Rania who make up the group The Finer Things.  I would link their myspace page, but it seems to have gone missing for the time being, so I hope they are not gone also cause they had a good little thing going.  Sick (who plays fiddle, guitar and all kinds of stuff) gigs 6 nights a week in Austin and issued me an open invite to sit in with him whenever I am in town AND told me I can play trombone for him if he ever hits San Fran.  Many thanks to Zoe for the opportunity as I have been wanting to make some connections in Austin for a while now.

Now, in terms of getting out to play here in the SFO area – nada.  Not working for me right now.  One – the work schedule.  Two – living in Oakland.  Three – lifestyle changes.

I have made great strides in changing the way I eat.  It’s been a lot of hard work and I occasionally backslide, but for the most part I am eating healthy and losing weight.  I weigh less than I did a year ago.  The next step for me is to get some tromboning and fitness into my schedule every day.  I’m at about 60%, so I’m going to make that my focus now.

The job schedule is actually working out for me pretty well.  I’m by nature more of a night person and frankly, I wasn’t doing enough quality playing between 6pm-10pm to make it worth keeping the hours free.  Plus overly structured playing isn’t really something I’m looking for right now, like with big groups of people and a lot of written charts and not enough solo time.  I know of two, possibly three jam sessions that I can hit after work but…

Living in Oakland is a drag.  BART stops running around 12:15AM and that’s just around the time when the sessions are getting good.  A cab is $40+ and the sketchy bus only runs once an hour and who the f wants to deal with that with a custom made instrument.  Heck, I don’t even feel safe walking halfway around the block at 2:30 or so in the morning because of what I hear on the street at night sometimes through my window, so renting a car is also out of the question because of parking and having to walk.  I guess I could park the car and call a cab, but seriously, who can relax and play when you have to worry about all that stuff.

I’ve decided that I must make moving across the bay my priority in 2010 if I want to continue to grow as a creative artist.  So I will lay in wait, patiently until my moment arises.   In the meantime I am working on a couple of appearance for early 2010, June 2010 and my summer east coast tour.  I’ll keep the updates posted.

And away I go again…

Waiting at SFO for the redeye to Cincy.  Man, I hope this is a big plane cause there are a ton of people waiting here for it and I know the flight is oversold.

I’ll be in Bloomington Indiana this weekend appearing with the IU Marching 100 Alumni Band.  It’s homecoming at IU and I figured what the heck, I’ve never done the alumni band and since I’m getting more involved as an IU alumni these days it would be a good thing to do.  I’m going to be playing my great uncle Wally’s trombone – he played it in the M100 back in 1926.

Pre-boarding…

Well, that’s my big update.   Sorry so short.  That Austin show went really well, I’ll have to post more about that later cause it looks like this plane is about to get crazy.

OUT.

Where did summer go?

Seriously.

Had a great East Coast Tour in July, it was all kinds of awesome.  I have some pictures up on the flickr page if you are curious.  One night I played at the Arthouse with Zoe Lewis and followed that with a jam with John Demasi and his band over at Bubala’s along with Zoe and trombonist  John Wolf.  Later in the week I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in on Zoe’s feature at the Provincetown Art Association Museum Summer Jazz Series, hosted by drummer Bart Weisman.  I wrapped things up in Boston with a private session with my old piano playing friend, Suzanna Fiore.

All in all a most excellent adventure, aside from the nasty virus I picked up at some point during my travels.  That knocked me out for a couple weeks and then my back went out.  And I started this whole new way of eating, the first three weeks being dairy free, gluten free, no caffeine, no alcohol, no sugars or artificial sweetners, nothing processed.   That took up a lot of time, all the shopping and cooking, but it is really paying off and I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

And that tunnel leads to Austin TX at the end of Sept where I will be appearing with Zoe Lewis at the Cactus Cafe Sept 30th at 8pm.  I’ll post more details soon.  I’m really psyched to get the opportunity to jam in Austin.

And in between now and then I’ll be eating good and living healthy with a little detour into the midwest coming up next week.  Not taking the horn and I’m pretty booked up between meetings and social stuff.  I’ll be tweetin’ as I go along.

Cheers!

East Coast Tour

In a week I will be off on my East Coast Tour.  Aka a “vacation”. Unlike like my last few trips, I’m actually taking the horn with me this time.

Monday July 20th you can catch me at the Arthouse in Provincetown with Zoe Lewis.  There may be a couple other venues I’ll be sitting in at in P-Town, but I won’t really know until I get there, so I’ll be sure to tweet any additional info.  On Thursday July 23 I’m going to be meeting up with the piano player from my band in Boston and her partner for a private jam session in Waltham around 6:30pm before heading out to eat.

I’ve got my music blog up at http://sljmusic.blogspot.com/ .  SLJ Music.  I’m being really low key about it right now, but hope to have more stuff on it an official launch in the fall.

I’ve been having a great time hitting the session at Amnesia in the Mission.  My friend that hosts it, Mitch Marcus, has up and moved to NYC, but the session will still be happening.

I’m going to take some time after my East Coast Tour to focus on my health and lifestyle and make some changes that I need to make to continue to grow as an artist and creative being, so aside from the time I’ll be putting in on the ax at home, my appearances will be limited.  It’s only a temporary break and the investment of time I am making to improve my health and general well being will be worth it.

I’ll try to update from the road and if you’re in the P-Town/Boston area, check it out!

Buh bye Birdie…

Snide tweets aside, it wasn’t all that bad.  The kids did a great job and we as a pit got tighter every performance.  And I appreciated Mills College – I’m thinking that might be my next ste\p in terms of artist development.  I don’t want to be in a degree program, but I want to explore some improvisation and electronics there.

I got some small group playing and soloing in – the rhythm section and I threw down an impromptu jazz jam pre-show which seemed to go over pretty well.  The jam sessions are paying off.

Speaking of sessions, I’m blowong one off tonight because my back hurts, but I’m hoping to be back at it next week.  There’s also a session at Club Deluxe in the Haight I want to check out on Tuesdays, so maybe if my back feels better next week, I’ll try to catch it.

I may or may not be playing at the show I mentioned that’s coming up Friday – haven’t been able to rehearse with the guy yet, so I’m not sure if that will go off.  And wow – it’s June already – I need to tighten up my upcoming New England tour!

Peace out peeps!

On the Road Again

To Austin this time. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not taking the ax, but I am going to the Help Keep Austin LOUD fundraiser on Saturday, details at this site http://www.keepaustinloud.net/

I had a great time at the jam session last week, got invited to another one on Tuesday nights in the Haight and picked up a gig with the Beehavers and Space Cat at the Revolution Cafe June 5th, details to follow soon.

For now though, I am off to take in the sights, sounds and energy of Austin TX! Oh yeah, and margaritas and texmex!

Peace out.

Upcoming…

Some changes in the Upcoming end of things…

I’m heading to Austin May 15-17 but have decided not to schlep the horn with me.  I need to get a travel case and I’m also in the middle of securing a new apartment, so in the interest of saving some $$ I’m holding off on the case purchase.

My pal Zoe Lewis has canceled her San Francisco show in June, but you’ll be able to catch me with her in P-Town during my New England jaunt in July, a couple times at least!  More details later.

I’m volunteering to play in the pit for a children’s theater production of “Bye Bye Birdie” at the end of May, info on the sidebar to the right.  I think kids should get the opportunity to perform with live musicians, so I’m helping make that happen.

I’ve been hitting a jam session in the Mission on Wed nights at Amnesia that sax player Mitch Marcus runs.  It’s been a kick in the ass and I think the first night I played it was the worst I’ve played in public for years.  I’m giving up on going in with a tune prepared because both times its been a disaster.  The best playing has been done over Afro Blues because I play the shit out of F minor.  LOL.  What have I gotten from all this?  Sometimes you get so hung up in the “music” that you can’t make music.  So I’m still going to be making my way out to play, but who knows what I will play or if there will even be anything played on a given night that I will want to play on.  And that’s ok.

That’s it for this post, I’m really hoping to get my new music blog up and running soon, hopfully after my living situation settles down.

Sara’s Big NYC Adventure

I made my return to NYC last month, just for a visit – it was nice to be back in the city and to see old friends.

I took a redeye into JFK – checked out the new Virgin America service and it was pretty cool. Sleeping a little on the flight would have been cool too, but if a xanax and mojito wouldn’t do it, I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

I got into JFK around 8AM – just in time to take public transportation to Jersey City in the height of rush hour. Seriously. The walk from Chambers to WTC Path was a zoo, I had forgotten the vast numbers of people in NYC during rush hour commute. Wow.

Made it safely to my destination and slept off the flight then headed into Harlem for some Dinosaur BBQ with Jim and Judy. Good food, good times.

Saturday was rugby, hanging with some broadway peeps and hitting earth hour in times square. Then off to help save the SS Gay with Jim. The weather started to turn a little rainy that night and that carried into the next day.

Sunday I caught up with my pals Joey and Charles and got my copy of Joey Pero’s new CD.   It was a wonderful visit and Charles gave me a great idea for a one woman show I am working on.  We all bonded over Laurie Anderson’s Big Science.  That night I met up with some members of the Big Apple Corps for dinner.

Monday was my last day in the city, so I schlepped my bag over to Margo’s en route to lunch with a former co-worker from Davis Polk.  It was great to see her and catch up.   After that, I met an old Indiana University marching band pal for early afternoon cocktail and then went off to meet an old support group for dinner.  Hit the Garage in the Village after that to say hi to an old trumpet player friend, then it was off to bed for my 5AM taxi to the JFK and back to the west coast.

Overall, it was a most excellent trip.

In Memory of a Friend

Front - Stacy K. Back - Debra Silver, Jim B., Sara J

I was going to post about my trip to NYC, but shortly after I returned, I learned of the tragic death of a friend of mine, so this post is to honor her.

Tragic murder of Deb Silver

I met Deb in the fall of 2003, she turned me on to a big band that was starting up and looking for trombone players. Deb was picking up the horn again and trying to get her chops back. She was a solid dependable section player who I could depend on to know her part. Unfortunately the big band didn’t work out, but Deb and I stayed in touch, going to some movies, to the village to hear some jazz and cabaret. Her favorite performer was Murray Hill and we went to one of his shows together and had a great time.

Deb was pursuing an acting career on top of her day job, so she was a very busy woman so we didn’t get together that much the last couple years I was in town.

When I got involved in the start up big band Spectrum my last few months in the city, I needed one more trombone player to fill my section and Deb was the obvious call. the rehearsals were in her neighborhood, it was third part which she loved. She came right in and fit in to the section and did a great job.

I had a few email contacts with her in the past two years and had thought about contacting her when I went back for my first extended visit since moving, but Deb wasn’t on the facebook, so I neglected to make that extra effort to reach out to her. It would have been to no avail anyway, as she was taken away from us at the beginning of Feb 2009.

There’s some serious swing dancing/burlesque/acting/tromboning going on upstairs now! RIP Deb, you were a real sweetheart in a city of hardened souls.

NYC Minute…

Not yet, but it will be soon.  Like less than 24 hours soon.

All the sudden I’m twittering and I’ll be twittering my way across NYC over the next 5 days.  You can follow me via the sidebar on the right, my facebook status or through twitter.  saraljulian  I’m seriously stalkable.  And I can do it all through simple text messaging on my phone.  Who needs a phone with internet anyway?  (At least until I switch to Verizon)

Now, it’s been almost exactly two years since I left nyc and a lot of things have changed in my life for the better.  I’m hoping to catch up with some friends, have a little fun and behave myself.

I’m not taking the horn, but I’m going to try to take in a little music while I’m there.

Follow along….