Tomorrow night is the last Conan show for now…. and for interests sake…..if you simply just can’t get enough of Seneca Black in a tv house band, I shamelessly encourage you to watch the 3:00 am repeat of Conan tomorrow night which is scheduled to have the Penny Lane solo in it again.

When I get some more time later in the week. I’ll write more personal experience stuff up in here.

I hope everyone is in fine fettle, and of course dishus the scoopus if you got ‘em!

Seneca

Here We Go Again……..

I’ll be playing in Conan’s band again Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Conan was SUPER COOL last week on the first hit. He came up to Clark and I during a commercial break to say thanks and hello. It also was cool that he dapped us up, and introduced us on camera.

Thanks to everyone that checked out the first one! We’ll dish later!

Seneca

Folks…………

Alright, here we are.. the day is approaching us…. God help us all….Tuesday night June 6th, will be my first appearance on the Conan O’Brien tv show. I’ll be playing trumpet in the house band. I can’t guarantee what you’ll see or what the hell is going to happen. What I can tell you is this: Conan is funny (no shit) and will be funny (again, no shit).

My next show is a week from that tues, and then wed. the next day. I’ll post again to remind everyone.

I hope everything is “cake and ales” for everyone, and as always dish some scoops when you can…….

Nothing too intriguing to dish this week. Yeah there is a lot going on, yet just a case of different odds and ends. I have a gig down in Reading Pa, Saturday night, where I’ll be playing a traditional swing dance of sorts. It’s an Armed Forces ball with a swing-jazz band providing the entertainment. I was called in to play these Harry James solos for the gig, such as “Ciribiribin”. Then Sunday, I’m going in for my first substitute on the show “Hot Feet”, which just opened on Broadway. It’s all “Earth, Wind, and Fire” music in the show, so that’s a cool thing about it. The uncool thing is that I have two days to learn all of it. Some of the horn lines are a little tricky, and it’s gonna require some practice. It’ll be ok, yet I just need to get my “ducks in a row”. I need to take a few hours tomorrow and work on it. Then to cap everything off, Monday, I’m going up to the Boston area to audition for the brass ensemble “Innovata Brass.” It’s a traditional 5 piece brass group, that plays a little bit of everything. New modern pieces, classical, jazz, etc. I naturally hope to have a good audition Monday, yet my chops will no doubt be fried by all the hard playing over the weekend. It’s not so easy to go from pounding EWF’s “September” on Sunday to playing, “The Prayer of Saint Gregory” Monday in an audition. Eh, well,.. nothin but a “chicken wing”…either way, the experience is what counts. The striving to acheive something is what counts, no matter what. When you look at it like that, there’s nothing really to worry about no matter what happens. One time when I was 13 yrs. old I totally messed up the national anthem in a performance. Hah, man I felt like it was the end of the world!!! Truth was, it really wasn’t the end of the world by any stretch. It was all just chalked up to experience. We just have right now, everything else in the past is an illusion. An illusion we can define and interpret to a most peaceful place for ourselves if we choose……I’m stopping, hah, no pulpit or soapbox tonight…, too sleepy and plus Three’s Company is on Nick @ Nite……., be back next week

Strong success was unfurled last Sunday in Philadelphia at the “Broad Street Run.”

Now for the real kicker…..Two years ago, the last time I ran the race. I hadn’t properly trained, and honestly wasn’t in the best frame of mind, (and honestly had to revive my intestines from failure several times during that race). During that particular event, as the race wraps around city hall and heads into the final three miles, I remember someone distinctly cheering me on as well as all the runners. Believe me, I needed it more than anyone… That distinct person I later found out was Ed Rendell, govenor of Pennsylvania. He comes out every year, being a huge Philly guy, and cheers on the runners in the same spot every year. This was dooley noted on my part, espescially during a much more disciplined training regimine this year. Things were going to be different this year, …oh yes…. I was going to have vindication served!!

I was more than ready this time around, and was holding below an 8 minute pace well throughout the race. Yes, this was mo’ like it!!!….The race wrapped around city hall. I hastily anticipated the revered moment….I spied him, there he was …same spot, smiling, …hand stretched out slapping “hi-fives” to the passing runners, ….cheering gaily. I made my move, crossing in front of several runners path…..”ED!!!!!!!!!!!!! RENDELL!!!!!!!!!!!!,” I bellowed in startling fashion. I pointed to him point blank, and slapped his hand in full stride. The look on his face was priceless, as he was taken back. No doubt his bodyguards perked up, “Who the hell is this, jackass?” No fear though, I never lost a step and cruised to the finish gloriously.

I was kinda digging myself considering my performance, yet my personal trainer wasted no time in bringing me back down to Earth. “Did you win?”, he asked. “No, I didn’t win,” I replied. “Why not?”, he said. I retorted, “C’mon man, they have professional runners running in this thing, people who do this for a living, and spend all their time running, and enter into all these………….” by then he wasn’t listening………could that be a trend with me???? hee hee

Anyway folks, be back next week. My love and thoughts with everyone, and hope things are as Axl Rose said in Brownstone’ ……”a little bit better than befo-a-whoa…..”

What a long week so far… I arrived back from Pittsburgh this afternoon. It was an 8 hour drive to and from, and that of course can wear on you. I took a journal somebody gave me as a gift years back to write in. It actually happens to be one the most thoughtful thing’s anyone has ever given me. It’s a homemade book, bound with this “natural-sort” of paper. Everything was put together by hand and it very well could be something you would find in Borders or some other bookstore. I stopped writing in it a few years back because the red ink ,used to color the covers, started to wear off on my fingers when I’d hold and write in it. Sort of like how the newspaper does that sometimes to your hands. I just thought the hell with it, let me finish off the remaining pages in this book anyway, and put it up on my bookcase.

One time I heard the saying, “Keep a journal, and one day a journal will keep you.” That might be kind of a banality in terms, yet I’ve found journals and musings to carry important information that helps out later on down the road in life. It shows where you’ve been coming from and how you can adjust to certain things. I think a lot of times things work in cycles or we sometimes repeat patterns of behavior that get us into trouble in the first place. I just have a problem staying consistent with writing, yet even a little bit helps.

The gig went well out in Pittsburgh. Most of the band was made up of “first-rate” musicians here in New York. You have to be quick in those ranks. You have to have quick eyes, being able to sight read and adapt quickly to whatever arrangement you’re playing. I split lead trumpet with “perennial NY lead trumpet hero” Bob Milikan. The section also included well known trumpeter Scott Wendholt. Playing with cats like that really brings the music to life “right from the get”. It’s like working with actors who know exactly what to do with each little line they might have in a play. They need little direction and follow keenly to whoever is playing the lead part in a scene and or the architecture of what everthing in the moment represents. In our case as musicians, it’s the arrangement, or tune, that we’re playing. To say the least, playing with musicians like that makes you proud to be a professional.

The surprise of the gig was having Liza Minneli perform a few numbers with the band. I’ve never worked with her before, and naturally, she exhibited exquisite stage presence. She sings a style that could be considered from a “by-gone” era, yet she captivated an audience of 1,500 people. Liza and I went and had some Sambuca afterwards, and honestly she was a real cut-up………………….hee hee, just kidding….really… just kidding about the last part. ;}

On that note, I’ll bring everything in for a close. Oh I forgot to add….I’m going to participate in the “Broad Street Run” in Philadelphia, Sunday. It’s a 10 mile race that starts around 8am. I ran it two years ago, and my personal trainer suggested I prepare and run it again. I’ve been getting ready for it the past month and a half, and I hope to have a good showing. I’ll put some pics up hopefully on the myspace page next week(www.myspace.com/senecablack) .

I’ll dish more then, …..

Okay here we are saddled up blogging again. We find life supple and agreeable, and what more can we ask for? The gig last weekend with Oliver Lake had a wild ending to it. Before the band was to play it’s third set around 12:30 am, the power went out in the club. It actually went out on the whole block in West Orange, New Jersery, where we were playing due to a blustery, rain strom. There ended up being a little bit of light, thanks to some candles lit along the bar. Nonetheless, it was a bizarre moment having the patrons in the club and the band up on stage in the dark. Needless to say, a dark club with 15 jazz musicians can be a perilous situation for those in vacinity, yet eventually the set was called off and everyone made it home safe and sound! ;}

Oliver, is one-of-a-kind, and his music allowed for a lot of freedom. He encouraged the individual player to shape and curve the music much more than is allowed by most bandleaders. The result was some creative solos by members of the band. To me that’s the great thing about jazz music, anything can happen. It’s sort of like a great comedian in action. He has to create and express something that reaches inside of the audience and evokes an emotion in the moment. There’s a lot of similarities between a jazz musician and that of a clever comedian. They have to “woodshed” on their delivery and material; much the same as a jazz musician would. One time, back in 1994, I saw Jim Carrey perform Charlie Chaplin’s theme, “Smile”, on the Tonight Show. He raised the roof on the show with his talent, and the people loved it. He even had consistent vocal pitch and nuances along with a “Jerry Lewis-inspired” sparkle. He had to have worked his ass off, and that’s where the real art of it was able to be exposed. He not only sang the tune, but did this whole improvised, wacky, comedic, Jim Carrey-esque ending. It’s sorta hard to describe here, yet it really was creative and funny as hell!! It’s crazy how life has these parallel’s if your mind is open to them.

Anyway, I’m going out to Pittsburgh next week, on May 1st to the 4th. I’m playing in a band that’s playing the music of Don Sebesky…….., or led by Don Sebesky….I don’t know (sad, I know ;}. We’re playing a function at Heinz Field, courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh. The big treat for me is that I’ll be able to hang with a childhood friend of mine, who lives out there. He teaches at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (outside of Pitt.) and we’ll be able to hang out there for sure. Now figure this one out,…..here’s a 28 yr old guy who’s teaching sociology, doing well for himself, and desires to leave everything he’s established, to go live in the woods, create, and manage his own brewery. Hey, why not???? right?? Another treat is, whenever I see him, he orders all the drinks. You can imagine what kind of bulls**t inevitably develops, at least on my end, as the night goes on. “Okay, Seneca let’s move on to a more amber taste…. appreciate the shift to the fruity hops and savor the decor. We’re gradually intensifying the hops to indulge the palette and senses…”

Hey, fruity hops, dry hops, hopscotch, whaaaatever, it just means I’ll be able to give another toast when the drinks arrive!!!

Hah…, I’ll wrap up for now friends… Look for me to be back at the end of the week, or the beginning of next.

Okay, just a quick dish…now that we’re back in action on this front. Let me just jump into the pool with what’s goin’ on…. This weekend brings a new taste with a gig with the Oliver Lake Big Band at Cecil’s Jazz Club in West Orange New Jersey, Saturday night. Oliver Lake is a renowed saxophonist, better known as a member of the famous “World Saxophone Quartet.” His music is definitely one-of-a-kind and it should be cool to play with him and his band for the first time. I don’t know much about the “World Saxophone Quartet”, and Oliver Lake, other than the music is extremely original in realtion to the jazz canon. I like experiences like this one, though. You get to experience a man’s music, whom you’ve never known before. You in turn get an opportunity to see life in a new way, and that is the great thing about being a musician, or artist. The same is true for anyone that appreciates music, art, etc. In any art, you’re able to come into contact with (if you choose) some of the unseen things in life, that will enrich you and help you along with what you know. Like when you go to museum and see a painting say of whatever…. a sunset say. You could see something in that painting that makes you go, “oooooh, I know what that means or feels. That’s like the color of the sunset when I was a kid playin out back,.. and had this neighborhood friend that used to look out for me and how those times meant alot to me.”, and so on and so on…. That’s a trip, man. It certainly makes life more interesting than say… what would be easy to think about this weekend, “Oh great, I got a gig on Saturday, yeah man let me nail this sh*t, etc, etc.”

Well, I’ll get down from my soap box for now. :p……. On Sunday, I’ll be playing at Birdland, here in the city with Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin band. I highly recommend this band. The energy is raw and like any good latin music has that explosion and sparkle to it. I’m not a regular member, but from time to time play lead tumpet with them at Birdland.

Let me sign off for now. I’ll have more dish and get everyone involved with all the “monkey-business” and hijinks goin on in my life, week to week. I’ll be back at the beginning of next….