Jan 01 2009
Happy New Year!
Well, 2008 has come and gone as amazing as that might seem. The fact is that the year is over and now 2009 lays ahead of us full of promise and pain and good and bad. I am very glad you are still here with me, those of you who regularly visit this blog and read my inane ramblings. I do my best to be entertaining and try to keep you informed of things or provide you with things I think you might find interesting. Whether or not I do that well, I don’t know, but I try.
2008 was a rough year. I became a full-tim writer in 2006 and started writing a jazz and blues blog for a place called b5media in 2007 as well. I did that for about a year and things were going well. The high point was when I was able to cover the Chicago Blues Festival live from downtown Chicago using Utterz. This allowed me to post audio clips using my cell phone, which was fun.
It was there that I discovered Otis Taylor and his band. It is where I found Cassie Taylor, his beautiful and amazingly talented daughter. She is now a friend of mine on MySpace although she probably is completely unaware of my existence. I suggest checking her out and you too can appreciate how beautiful and talented she is.
We lost some great names this year. Bo Diddley passed away. Freddie Hubbard finished the year with a terrible loss to the jazz world. However, Buddy Guy is still out there doing his thing and I look forward to his annual February residency at his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends, here in Chicago for 2009. I’ll bring you more about that later. Wynton Marsalis continues to grow into the King of modern Jazz much to my delight. I love listening to him and watching him play.
2008 was also the year I discovered the Sad Salamanders. If you have not heard or picked up their album “Cigarettes and Fishnets” yet you really need to. I promise you it will blow the doors off of your car if you listen in the car and blow you through your chair if you listen at home. These guys are having a blast playing and it shows throughout the album.
So, it was, as most years are, a mixed bag. There were ups and downs. The economy sucks and it has affected me as well. The freelance work has become rare and sporadic, but I had two new books come out in 2008, so it’s hard to complain too much.
I wish all of you a very happy and healthy new year. I hope you celebrated safely and if you are nursing a hangover might I recommend a jazz or blues album to help ease the pain. I hope you stick around and come back here often and I always look forward to your comments.
Happy New Year!
