The Juanma Chronicles

Bay Area chronicles

2010-06-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had a chance to go to the bay area and visit some friends. I always love to go up there mostly because it's so beautiful and the weather is so nice. This time around the added bonus of the trip was that the Dave Holland quintet was playing at Yoshi's in Oakland.

I've had the fortune of watching Dave play in a few different groups, but I was really looking forward to seeing this particular group because it's one of my favorite Dave Holland projects. I remember my good friend Nick Grinder introducing me to this band and I couldn't believe how good that stuff was. Since then I hoped to be able to see them live and it finally happened and Nick was there with me.

The usual elements that make me love this band were all there. The great tunes, their incredible sense of time, the amazing solos, the funkyness and the mind blowing duets between Robin Eubanks and Chris Potter.

One of the things that has always amazed me about Dave Holland's groups is just how unbelievably good the ensemble playing is. Granted, he always plays with amazing musicians, but there's something about the music that he writes and maybe the way he leads a band that makes the ensemble sound so good. I recall an interview I read a while ago where he said that he was extremely influenced by the music of Duke Ellington, and I am sure he meant it compositionally but I feel as if he's somehow managed to transfer some of that big band ensemble quality to his small groups. Maybe i'm talking nonsense but that's something that I've been thinking about.

The other thing that I remember about that interview is how he said he was striving to make "multi-layered" music, again in relation to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, In that he wants to create music that people can relate to quickly on a first listening but once you go more in depth you can find all these elements of added complexity. The music that the quintet plays is very much in this vein. The melodic and rhythmic material of these tunes is usually very strong and as a listener you can connect to it very quickly. But behind all that there's usually all these really interesting countermelodies and harmonies, polyrhythms and counterpoint that enhances the overall effect of the tunes.

I was also able to talk to him afterwards and he was very kind and nice. He commented on how they had memorized most of the tunes by now, because when playing challenging music it was better to internalize it. And what I liked the most was how grateful he seemed to have those musicians in the band almost taking no responsibility for the group sounding great, he just kept saying "It's easy to sound good with those guys". It made me think about how important is the concept of collective respect among musicians. And then I also just how fortunate I was to be able to speak with such a towering figure in music.

Anyway, you can read the interview here

Stay tuned for next time

Juanma

Miles Reflections

2010-05-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

I often make a point to check out Dave Douglas's label Greenleaf Music's blog because there's always interesting stuff to check out, articles that make you think about things in a different way and it's always a great way to keep up with what some of my favorite musicians are up to.

Today there was a post of both an interview with guitar player Nels Cline and an old Dave Douglas article talking about Miles Davis's influence in their art. Both articles with an emphasis on the beginning of Miles electric period.

Here's the audio clip of Nels Cline interview:

And you can check Dave Douglas's article here.

As far as my own humble opinion goes, I have as much respect and love for Miles's music as any musician can (or should???) have for the work of one of the great masters.

In my experience Miles is one of those few artists whose music I can continuously go back to and find new elements that seem relevant to whatever I am doing. Even thinking about certain aspects of his career has been a valuable practice for me. To try and achieve certain aesthetic goals with the music that I write or finding my own way to approach other people's music.

I've been exposed to Miles's music from an early age because my dad loves his music so much (I believe he is, in fact, his favorite jazz musician period). Even as a child I could tell there was a special quality about this music. I still feel the same way. I have listened to many jazz records and I feel there's something extra special about Miles's. The best example that I can provide of what I'm talking about is how Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams played together during that period on a lot of other records, and great playing that is no question about it, but their playing wasn't quite as adventurous and exciting as when they played with the second quintet. I feel this holds true to many of Miles's sidemen throughout the different periods.

There was something about Miles's presence that allowed for certain things to happen musically that wouldn't happen anywhere else but with him. Take a pause for a second and think about how monumental of an achievement that is for a musician. To transcend your instrument to such degree where things are happening on your account and you are not even playing. Now that's pretty powerful.

In Miles's music seems that the results achieved by the collective is what really matters, creating music with a great deal of content. I mean what a great band leader to have. Someone who has the strongest opinion about the direction of the music WHILE giving everyone the freedom to do their thing. How much conviction would someone need to have in order to show up to a recording session with little to no music and letting the musicians just play and have that record be Bitches Brew? I mean that's one of the records that people talk about when they talk about...records!!!

I was fortunate enough to discuss some of this music with Ralph Alessi who is one of my contemporary music heroes. And he said to me that one of the great things about Miles is that he is able to create a vibe instantaneously. You hear the music for a few seconds and it immediately puts you in a certain mood.

And I think everyday of ways to approach music where what's in me and others it's more important than what instruments or what notes are being played. The effects of thinking this way and finding people who think the same are pretty exhilarating.

That's what Miles is to me. One of the great fathers of what we do. Someone that continues to affect the choices musicians make everywhere.

Juanma

A new record and a new project

2010-05-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

I recently got the New Paul Motian cd "lost in a dream". This is a wonderful trio cd with Chris Potter and Jason Moran playing Motian's compositions live at the Village Vanguard. I have not been able to stop listening to this record in the last couple of days I got it. I was once told by a great musician that all the greats of music are always able to instantaneously create a mood trough their music. This record is certainly a great example of that.

The compositions are stunning, the sound is amazing and the playing...well I mean I just told you who plays on it. I think we've learned that you can only expect excellence from these guys.

If you like amazing music do yourself a favor and check the record out Here

Now for something different...

I've been really lucky to participate in several pretty involved music projects in which I've gotten to basically do 3 things: Be part of a band, Write whatever music I wanna write for individuals in those bands, Play my colleagues wonderful music. The result of this has been very gratifying, nevertheless, lately I've been feeling like most of the music I write it's pretty involved and requires a lot of rehearsing in order to make the music happen...and don't get me wrong this is a great thing.

But I recently had the idea of creating a body of music that would be really nice simple tunes that could be played by most skilled musicians with very little or NO rehearsal. My idea for this is that I could bring these tunes to impromptu sessions or use them as vehicles to play my music with different musicians.

This has been already put in motion, I'll be playing very soon with the first of many band configurations I plan on playing. I'll keep you posted on it.

Good Night

Love,

Juanma

Plans for the summer

2010-05-19T01:46:00.000-07:00

I am incredibly fortunate to be a part of the CSUN Jazz dept. Trough them I've been able to do many things in music that I could've only dream of. Like the tour I did this past winter with the Josiah Boornazian group. Now the department has been amazingly kind to offer us a chance to record a whole album worth of small group music.

I'll be recording with both the Josiah Boornazian sextet and my own group.

I'm pretty excited and I'll keep everyone posted about this.

Being Here

2010-05-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

I sit here today not being able to sleep, haven't really been able to sleep well for quite some time. Lots of thoughts go trough my mind. Reflections on things that have happened and things that are happening around me. And music music music permeates all these things in one way or another.

Because I am still a student I've always looked at the struggles of being a musician as something daunting that will happen in a near future once I'm done with all my studies and out in the "real world". I often dread the time when these things will happen and overlook what's happening right now.

And then today at 4:30 in the morning I realize that while the future might hold some challenging stuff for me, these past 6 years haven't necessarily been a walk in the park. Now there's both good and bad things about this.

The good has been the learning. I've learned a lot about music, myself, about living alone, about responsibilities, about friendship, about taking risks, love, discipline. And, in the large scope of things I am very fortunate to live the life that I live and have the experiences that I've had. I've met many people who will not experience much of what I have in a lifetime.

I am so grateful for this. The price of pursuing this life, however, has started to take somewhat of a toll on me.

For 6 years I've been a citizen of nowhere, not of this country not of mine. For 6 years I've been essentially economically dependent, Again I'm fortunate to have amazing parents who support what I do, but what am I doing for them?? Which brings me to the fact that I haven't seen my father and my stepmom for 3 years, I only see my mother roughly once a year (some years I have skipped) and I have a sister who's turned into a woman since the last time I saw her. There's a whole portion of my family that I've lost touch with. I haven't been successful in sustaining a stable relationship with someone else. For 5 of those years I lived in LA without a car (those of you who live here know what that means). I've occasionally haven't had a place of my own to live, And finally to bring us full circle I haven't been able to sleep well lately...wow

At this point you may rightfully ask yourself if I'm just trying to evoke pity on me. And the answer is no, I am not. I am analyzing my life with a microscope and trying to understand the implications of my actions and the things that happen around me.

Music it's amazing but it can be very unforgiving. It is one of those things where if you aren't willing to make certain sacrifices you better reconsider your career path, I learn this more and more. And I realize how much better I need to be.

I ask myself. Has it been worth it?

A big resounding YES

I now remember sitting a few weeks ago watching Chris Potter play and thinking how fortunate I was to be there two nights in a row watching one of my heroes play. Then I looked back further and I was amazed to realize that I've been actually able to see MOST of my heroes (Dave Holland, Dave Douglas, Herbie Hancock, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Steve Khan, Ralph Alessi, Scott Colley, etc etc etc the list GOES on) I've been able to talk to these people, to even learn from some of them.

Then I thought about a whole other list of heroes...and that's YOU, my INCREDIBLE friends and colleagues. I've learned the most from you. I feel fortunate to play your music, to hear you play, to stand alongside you on the stage, to sit next to you in class, to talk to you about this music that we love so much and hear your often insightful thoughts.

It is you that inspire me every day to get my shit together more and more. It is you who completely change my ways to approach music everyday. It is you who have stepped in to the plate so many times to help me out whenever I needed something. It is you It is you who've really shown me what being a friend is all about.

Seeing how great you are makes me realize that I do what I do because I have no choice. The only way I'll be happy and have a chance at a decent life will be if I become the musician and the quality of person I want to be.

If none of this makes sense....please give me a break it is 6am after all

Love

Juanma

New Article

2010-05-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone

Last post I mentioned the awards that we recently won at the monterey next generation jazz festival. Well my school's news paper, The Daily Sundial, put out a whole article about it. So for those of you interested in checking it out here it is:

http://sundial.csun.edu/2010/05/music-students-head-to-jazz-festival/

Also here's a picture of us playing at the festival

Love,

Juanma

Hello after a while (and a couple of links)

2010-05-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone

I haven't posted anything in a LONG time. No excuses really, I just haven't been on top of it. Then a couple of days ago my dear friend Michael Mull told me I should keep posting things because he was reading. So here i am back again!!!

Since I'm talking about Michael Mull I'd like you guys to check him out. Truly one of the best musicians I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Amazing alto saxophone player, Incredible composer and arranger just a great great musician all around. Here's his website.

http://www.michaelmull.com/

Also he just started a blog that I'm sure will have all sorts of interesting stuff, so here it is:

http://michaelmullmusic.blogspot.com/

Also, I'd like to officially announce that I have a website, for those of you who want to check out some of my music and know more about me. I'm pretty excited about it. Here's the link:

http://www.juanmatrujillo.com/

In some other news, in the past few weeks I had the honor to play with the Josiah Boornazian group at the Monterey and Reno jazz festivals. And we won 1st place combo at BOTH!!! wow, what a great surprise. This group has been one of the main projects I've been collaborating for the last couple of years and it has been a very rewarding experience. Josiah has written some wonderful music and the band sounds really great. For more info please go to:

http://www.myspace.com/josiahboornazian

We'll be recording some of the music soon and I'm sure I will be able to make that available for those of you who wanna listen.

That's all for now

Love,

Juanma

Anything to help

2009-09-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

The organization justice for jazz artists has been passing around an electronic petition to help jazz musicians earn pension payments. Please take a minute to sign the petition and check out what they have to say.

Love Always,

Juanma

Dear jazz musicians and listeners,

We need your help. Our country has recognized jazz as a "national treasure", yet in many cases, prominent and well-established jazz artists spend their retirement in poverty -- or never retiring at all.

Two years ago in New York, Justice for Jazz Artists! (a project of AFM Local 802) succeeded in getting a tax break passed, benefiting NYC jazz clubs like Birdland, the Blue Note, Iridium and the Jazz Standard. The savings were supposed be directed into pension payments for the musicians that perform at these clubs.

In other words, at NO COST to the clubs, musicians can receive pension contributions for retirement.

Unfortunately, despite early support for the tax break, the club owners have since refused to even discuss the issue with the J4JA! campaign.

Visit the website below and SIGN OUR PETITION to force the clubs to sit down and discuss how to put this money to its proper use -- pension payments to jazz musicians.

http://www.justiceforjazzartists.org/

Dave Douglas Reflections

2009-09-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

The Dave Douglas clinic at CSUN was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. It gave those of us who were lucky to be there a close look at how the mind of this great musician works and how he approaches composition, improvisation and just music in general.

The clinic started with a brief introduction, followed by playing by two student groups (the Josiah Boornazian sextet and the Vento/Grinder quintet). Dave proceeded to comment on the performances addressing elements such as performance, dynamics, interaction, composition, arrangement, etc. All the suggestions where very thoughtful and relevant. It was great to witness him talking about these things on the fly and realize how he was able to have a grasp of several dimensions of the music on a first listen. He got up and played a phenomenal solo with Josiah's band to further illustrate his points.

Then he proceeded to talk about composition and how putting together many different bands was a very important part of his process. This allows him to focus the direction of each band into one specific thing rather than trying to make one band play many different styles of music at the same time. He then explained how important it is to take into consideration every aspect of a composition's structure from the very beggining of the writing process so that the music has a strong foundation. It was very helpful to see him analyze one of his compositions on real time so that we were able to see a written map of his composition and discuss what happened in every section.

Then probably the most fun part of the evening was working with him on some improvisation excersises with a creative use of the metronome. Using the tune "All The Things You Are" as the structure to work on, several of us tried to play thinking of the beat provided by the metronome as dotted quartet notes or dotted half notes. This of course was challenging but at the same time it was inmediately obvious how doing something like that could improve your playing greatly. This excersise exposes how well you know a tune, develops your concept of time and makes you think about the logic of your phrases.

His set yesterday at the Angel City jazz was INCREDIBLE. Such a high level of energy and spontaneity. There's a strong "collective concept" and no one ever plays anything that seems out of place. What a great example of a group that manages to truly entertain the audience while maintaining the ABSOLUTE highest artistic standard.

It so inspiring to talk to someone who not only has such an uncompromising attitude toward its art, but furthermore had a serious interest for the rest of us to achieve the same. Someone who constantly pushes himself to be out of his comfort zone and constantly strives for a high level of depth in what he does. Someone who has managed to take arbitrariness out of the picture so that everything happens for a reason. The complexity of Striving for simplicity.

To find out that he was quite an approachable individual was a Joy. Countless have been the times that I've tried to talk to someone I look up to and it turns into an unpleasant moment of akwardness. Dave truly had an interest in what everyone had to say, even yesterday after his set he made time to talk to us (The rest of the band was equaly as nice to say the least). It made me think about how relevant being a good person is to the quality of music you make.

In short this was a very powerful experience that will remain as an important part of what happened to us during this period of our lives.

I'm thinking about a lot of things and for that I thank you Dave.

Love Always,

Juanma

(Left to Right: Roland Garcia, Juanma Trujillo, Ariel Vento, Jose Aguirre, Dave Douglas, Nick Grinder, Josiah Boornazian, Will Wulfeck, Matt Digiovanna)

Jam Session this coming tuesday.

2009-09-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Saxophonist/Composer Chad Bloom will be hosting a Jam session this coming Tuesday. He is one of the great local players. We are trying to get as much people to come so we can finally have a decent jazz jam session in the valley. I'm doing my part in helping promote the event.

Here's the info:

09.08.09
Amazon Bar & Grill
14649 VenturaBlvd, Sherman Oaks, CA

8:00-11:00pm
JAZZ IN THE JUNGLE
Jam Session hosted by Chad Bloom featuring Dave Robaire (Bass) and Adam Alesi (Drums) There WILL be a keyboard available. No cover charge!

14649 VenturaBlvd, Sherman Oaks, CA

http://chadbloom.com/

More Pictures

2009-09-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

I'm very excited that I figured out how to add pictures to my posts. I think this will both make my posts more interesting and will encourage me to take more pictures whenever I play.

These two new slide shows are from the last two gigs that I had at the Tribal Cafe. You will notice that in the second set of pictures I'm sweating very profusely, this summer has been pretty intense in LA.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the pics.

Love Always,

Juanma

Photo Test

2009-09-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hello to all

This is a test to see if the picture thing works. Here are some pictures from an old Big Enough Band show at Cal Arts taken by Cici Easley Jones. I hope you enjoy them.

Love Always,
Juanma

News for this week

2009-09-02T02:08:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone

It's been a busy week. I started school last monday and had to go through auditions and for ensembles and scheduling rehearsals, also I had another gig at the Tribal Cafe that went pretty great (I will post a lot of pictures from that as soon as I figure out what's the best way of doing that in this engine).

Also, I will be posting soon some dates for upcoming gigs with the CSUN jazz A band. This is one of the great ensembles from school that i'm very lucky to be a part of. This band gets to perform very often at venues both in and out of campus, so be sure to check us out somewhere around LA.

But without a doubt the big news for this week is the Dave Douglas masterclass at CSUN. I'm incredibly excited because Dave is one of my most admired artists and a constant source of inspiration for everything I aspire to do. To make this even more of a big deal, there's a big chance that two of the bands that I play with (The Vento/Grinder Quintet and The Josiah Boornazian sextet) will be performing for him and get some feedback, and the prospect of that is incredibly exciting. I'll tell you all about how it went next week.

I would like to say that for those of you who happen to live in LA that technically this is not supposed to be an open event, but needless to say there won't be security reinforcement of any kind, so if you are interested please stop by the Cypress Hall building at CSUN this Saturday at 6:00pm and enjoy an afternoon with one of the most relevant artists in recent jazz history.

In the meantime here are links for both of his pages.

http://www.davedouglas.com/

http://greenleafmusic.com/blog/

Love always,

Juanma

News and last gig

2009-08-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hello

Today I added a calendar to the side of my blog where you can see my upcoming gig dates. I'm still trying to figure out some of the features this service offers, which seem to be endless.

The gig at the Pasadena Jazz Institute went GREAT. I was really happy to finally perform there, what a great sounding room, too bad that it's closing. TODAY is the last day and I've heard there will be some great bands playing there tonight so please go and support local jazz.

At the same time I'd like to let everyone know that we'll be repeating our jazz marathon at the Tribal Cafe tomorrow at the same time. Many of the same bands will play (Vento/Grinder 5tet will be joining us) and I'll have the honor of playing in one of the bands with Mike Shapiro on drums. Mike is one of the greatest drummers I've ever played with and also one of the greatest teachers I've had, he's usually super busy so it's always a treat when we can get him to sit in with us in the middle of his hectic schedule.

Anyway here's a link if you want to get more info about it.

Tribal Cafe

www.tribalcafe.com

1651 W Temple St
Los Angeles, CA 90026-5026
(213) 483-4458

Love Always,

Juanma

Gig Tomorrow

2009-08-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

I will be playing tomorrow with both The Vento/Grinder Project and The Big Enough Band.

I've always wanted to get a gig at this place and now I'm playing during its last week of existence. It's a weird feeling because it is one less place to play jazz in LA and there are not many left. At the same time is always just good to have a gig.

Anyway I hope to see you there, looks like the music will be really good and it'll be free for those who want to go and have a good time at this great venue.

Love always,

Juanma

http://www.pasjazz.org/

The sunday aftermath

2009-08-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Just got back from playing at the tribal cafe...pretty tired from playing with 3 bands, but overall was a GREAT experience. Here is a little summary with impressions of each band that played.

Papa Bear: These guys were great, it takes a lot of courage to play without a bass player, they played a mix of original tunes (very rhythmically challenging) and other things like Paul Motian tunes. Colin Woodford has a very special approach to rhythm and it amazes me that whenever I see him he has the music memorized, never bring a music stand to the gig.

Josiah's Band: Playing in this band is very challenging, Josiah has a strong conception of how he wants his music to sound like, and I admire him for having these band for such a short period of time and already having a quite a large book of music all composed by himself. It is very difficult to try and approach these complex tunes in a way so they don't sound like they are, we are slowly but surely getting there, I'll be playing a lot with this band the rest of these year I'll keep you posted on what we are up to.

The Conference: Playing for the first time with this band was a joy, we actually got started with some issues because we weren't able to schedule a rehearsal with everyone before the gig, Justin Janer was scheduled to work on the only date we could do the rehearsal so I had to email him the charts and then hope for the best on the gig. This was actually possitive for this band, it was pretty loose and in the moment (with a few minor mistakes here and there) and we achieved some good chemistry on the bandstand. Justin of course sounded phenomenal, if you are not acquainted with him you should really check him out he's great, since I didn't post a link to his page last time I'll do it now http://www.myspace.com/justinjaner

The Big Enough Band: I love every single person in this group. It is a great feeling when you play in a band and everyone knows how to work toward a common goal. We've been playing a lot of my tunes in this group but at this point I feel like the tunes more and more are the bands rather than mine and that's a great feeling. I'll be playing with these guys at The Pasadena Jazz Institute next Tuesday as well as with trumpetist Ariel Vento's band be sure to come and check it out.

The only thing that I have left say is that I feel very fortunate to be able to colaborate and make great music with these people. Hopefully it will continue.

School Tomorrow

Love

Juanma

Tribal Cafe TODAY!!!!!

2009-08-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hello

Today is the gig at the Tribal Cafe I hope you can make it out there to hear some great music.

THE BANDS:

PAPA BEAR

Andrew Conrad (sax)
Colin Woodford (drums)
Maxwell Gualtieri (guitar)

http://www.myspace.com/papabeartheband

JOSIAH BOORNAZIAN GROUP

Josiah Boornazian (Alto Saxophone and Composition)
Matt DiGiovanna (Tenor Saxophone)
Juanma Trujillo (Guitar)
Gabe Rudner (Piano)
Charles Derek Beach (Bass)
Brian Bothwell (Drums)

http://www.myspace.com/josiahboornazian

THE CONFERENCE (NEW GROUP!!!!)

Will Wulfeck (Trombone)
Justin Janer (Alto Sax)
Emilio Terranova (Bass)
Juanma Trujillo (Guitar)
Mike Hughes (Drums)

THE BIG ENOUGH BAND

Michael Mull (Alto Sax)
Matt DiGiovanna (Tenor Sax)
Juanma Trujillo (Guitar)
Emilio Terranova (Bass)
Brian Bothwell (Drums)

http://www.myspace.com/thebigenoughband

Come over and have a good time

Love

Juanma

Welcome and news for tomorrow!!!!

2009-08-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone

I want to welcome whoever is reading. Please write I'd like to hear what you have to say. And bear with me as I'm still trying to figure out how this blogger thing works.

As of now I don't have much to say except for hello and to include an act of shameless self-promotion and invite you all to a show I'll be playing at tomorrow with some great bands. The flyer has all the info nescesary to get there.

Love to all

Juanma

http://www.tribalcafe.com/