New Paint Job by David Valdez

David Valdez, saxophonist and blogger!

So some of you might be noticing the new look of jazztruth.blogspot.com. All the work was done by saxophonist and blogger David Valdez. Valdez has lived in the Portland area for about a decade; before that, he spent time in the NYC are, although originally he hails from Santa Cruz, California. Valdez is a monster alto and tenor saxophone player, and we have played a handful of gigs here in Portland. I was glad that Valdez decided to help me spruce up my blog; he has been blogging for many years, and knows a lot of the ins and outs of blogging that I don't. (He has one of the more successful blogs in jazz, http://davidvaldez.blogspot.com/http://davidvaldez.blogspot.com/) Many have commented that they like the new look, and I'm hoping that this will help to move me up in the blogging world, with whatever that means.(Ha!)

According to my stats, I'm pretty well over 100,000 hits. It's nice to know that there is an audience out there. However, Valdez has helped to make sure that I get some more traffic, and he's given me some important tips on how to get more readers and also how to post more content. Speaking of which, I'm test out this Posterous link. It's a PDF file of a piano piece I wrote about 15 years ago, and recorded on my first CD for the Fresh Sound New Talent Label("Unresolved",available on Itunes, and also here, featuring Mark Turner, Jon Gordon, Drew Gress, Howard Curtis, and Kurt Rosenwinkle.) The piece is called "Year's End", and if you want to check it out, then by all means, enjoy!

Some gigs in Portland with the Kerry Politzer Quartet coming soon

Valdez and I are going to be doing some gigs around Portland in January, some with my band, and also with the Kerry Politzer Quartet.(Here is a link to her music.) I'll be posting about those days as they firm up. I'm looking forward to doing some more playing!