A poem from Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton - one of Maryland's finest!

Rehearsal with Luther

Luther and I are playing next Tuesday (the 16th) at Outpost. Here's a clip from rehearsal.

Forbes Graham + Luther Gray rehearsal 11/8/10 from Forbes Graham on Vimeo.

Ellie Goulding "Lights" dubstep remix

I'm way way way behind on the whole dubstep bandwagon. Honestly, most of it is way too slow for my taste. But for some reason I've got into dubstep remixes of pop songs, and this is one of my favorites.

Para Quintet at Zeitgeist Outpost

Thoughts

Bill Dixon passed away in his sleep on Tuesday. I was blessed with the opportunity to spend some time with him these past couple of years. I don't feel that I could really pay him any real tribute in my own writing. So I won't. But I feel that I must take a moment to editorialize a bit. If every musician playing modern improvised music would approach their work with HALF, even HALF the integrity that Bill approached his music with..well, there'd probably be a lot less music. Coming from us at least.

But the music that would be there, would be a lot better.

That's just my opinion anyway.

Rest in peace, Bill. I don't want to admit that you have died, but I guess I have to. You have died, but you have not gone.

Marc Edwards/Weasel Walter group - "Blood of the Earth"

Coming to a theatre near you on June 1!

Mobius Artrages

Last Saturday Grizzler participated in ArtRages, an event put on by Mobius. The party took place in an office building near the airport. Lily and I went to Atlantic Works Gallery and then headed on up to this. I'm enjoying going to East Boston more these days.

Here's a compilation of sorts from ArtRages.

Jazz Week performance in Hyde Park

Trumpet in Toronto!

I'm going to be playing in Toronto early next month. I'm raising money on Kickstarter to pay for the plane ticket and transportation. Why? Two reasons. One, I'm getting door money for the gig. Two, I'm planning to play in Mexico City in the fall, and if this fundraising attempt is successful it will help with that trip. So..click on the link below!

Trumpet in Toronto!

Weasel Walter Quintet at Zebulon, NYC

Dad City is in Amherst

Last week I took a trip out to Amherst and played at Jack Callahan's house, aka Dad City. I had an amazing, beautiful drive down 202 passing through towns like New Salem and Shutesbury. My grandfather actually retired to Amherst and I used to spend summers there as a child. I had no idea there was a college there until I went on tour with Orchid when I was in my early 20s. Anyway, as regards to the music: Here's what happened:

Another video of Liz and I

Watching Robocop

There is an icy poignancy to the way that Robocop kills.

Julie Mehretu lecture at University of Michigan

This is pretty long, I just started watching it.
I'm also watching Robocop. Great movie.

Sword of Doom

I loved this movie back when I was in college.

Rehearsal with Liz Roncka

Pizza and music Sunday

Stopped off at Peace O' Pie in Allston, MA for some vegan pizza. Pretty good stuff.


I can't eat alone without reading. I stick to my periennial favorites, a Sara Paretsky novel.


Later on I went over to 7A West studios to do some mixing and editing on an session I did with Luther Gray, Dave Rempis, and Pandelis Karayorgis.

Winter Wonderland

Weasel Walter/ Marc Edwards group in Brooklyn, NY

Bang Bang - new noise track

Lots of fun feedback glitchy noise.

Bang Bang by forbesgraham

Blueberry Lime sauce

The ingredients are:
Blueberries
Lime juice (fresh squeezed)
Agave nectar
Chili flakes

I'm going to make some more tomorrow, and I will try to post better measurements then.
Even though I am not into measurements.

Article/interview/feature at All About Jazz Dot Com

"Even if I just listen to a good trumpet player for a little while, I play better. It just happens that way."

Gordon Marshall was kind enough to write about me for the publication All About Jazz. Thanks Gordon!

Read the article here. I'm going to go off and listen to some good trumpet players now.

Lunch

Fried bananas, blueberries, strawberries, soy sausage, johnny blaze cakes.

Games

My wife found this card game, Set, at the town dump. I remember playing it one time, but I'm not sure when or where. At any rate, the object of the game is to build sets that are in some ways similar or unique. It's a moderately challenging brain teaser of a game. I actually like to play it when I eat sometimes in lieu of reading a book.

You Can't Bring Me Down

Rocky George is one of the great and underrated heavy metal guitar players. Watch the video and go back to the old school.

Trumpet trio with Birgit Ulher & Greg Kelley - Feb 5

my duo cd with Tatsuya Nakatani is out!

Hop on over to www.blaqlghtn.com to pick up a copy.

In other news, I have a lot of gigs coming up in the next couple of months in the Boston area and in NYC. I don't want to leave anyone out, but some highlights include:

Weasel Walter/Marc Edwards Group at The Knitting Factory on January 31
Trumpet trio with Birgit Ulher and Greg Kelley at the Goethe Institut on February 5
Duo with Kevin Frenette at 119 Gallery on February 13

Word.