Unfortunately, I have not heard from her since that time. I did hope to get an interview with her, but the time for the nomination is over and there are no updated on her MySpace page (linked above) which indicate whether or not she achieved that nomination. I am hoping she did. but then, I am a tad smitten and a tad biased. Yes, that is creepy, but I don’t care.

So, I wanted to write about her again, just because she and her music have been on my mind lately. I love promoting people who can use an ever-widening audience, much like I did with the Sad Salamanders last year and earlier this year (was it only this year that I started with those guys?).

I think Cassie is already very talented. I think if you have a way to find the Otis Taylor Band, you should beg, borrow and steal to get to see a show. They are truly one of the best live bands you are likely to see and if you love blues music, you need to see them. I think that Cassie, being as young as she is, will only go on to bigger and better things.

Of course, if you loyal readers of this particular blog happen to check out her MySpace page and send a message to her that you read about her right here, well, who am I to stop you? Maybe she’ll give me that interview after all. And, of course, I also believe all attractive women, musician or otherwise, should develop a sudden attraction to portly, bearded, glasses-wearing writers from Chicago.

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Of course, at this point, I might be drifting into stalker territory. I can’t help it. I would love to tell you that I contacted Cassie via her MySpace page and she has agreed to be interviewed by me or something, but that is not the case. She’s probably getting a restraining order against me or something, instead. What can I say, this is how I do things. Is it any wonder I don’t have a girlfriend? I am just too creepy.

Cassie is the bass player and back-up vocalist for her father’s group. Of course, I also obsessed about how attractive she is last week and there is probably nothing more insulting for a serious musician than to obsess just on their looks. What can I say, I can’t help that either. I stated she was the sexiest woman on the planet and I stick by that.

Look, I have no musical talent of any kind. I took guitar lessons for about six months and after spending a ton of my parent’s money, quickly realized my short stubby fingers were going to prevent me from ever being the next Hendrix or Clapton or even George Harrison (my apologies to George. I don’t mean to set him at the bottom of the guitar-playing ladder but he is often the most cited as a guy who was luckier than he was immensely talented, argue amongst yourselves). I can’t even read music.

So, I can tell you that she sings beautifully. She plays the bass very well and I think bass players don’t get enough credit. She plays with a band who is not the Red Hot Chili Peppers so she doesn’t stand there like Flea going insane on long, intense bass solos. Still, you notice the bass in Otis’ songs.

More importantly, she has stage presence. There is a stage full of musicians, all of them hugely talented, playing all kinds of instruments, and yet your eye cannot help but be drawn to the red-haired bass player. That counts for a lot, I figure.

So, anyway, I found her MySpace page and thought I would share it. Take a look. Look at that picture and the rest of his pics. Tell me she isn’t beautiful? She has music samples too. You can hear that she has talent. So, get to know her now.

And if you can, tell her you heard about her through me. Even a restraining order would probably bring publicity to the blog. As they say, there is no bad press, right?

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Check out their MySpace page:  www.myspace.com/sadsalamander.  They have lots of cool stuff there including their video for “My Parents Were Swingers.”  They also have an outstanding mention about this particular blog and a link, which I great appreciate. 

I also recently checked in to see if the band was touring or playing just yet.  According to the information there, the entire band is busy playing all over the place, but they just aren’t playing together at the moment.  So, in a way, I am going to dub the Sad Salamanders a kind of jazz SuperGroup. 

I have just about worn the dots off the the CD they sent me to listen to and review.  I have to tell you, there is just nothing cooler on a warm spring day than driving around with the music blaring in your car, arm out the window and the windows down.  I happen to have a car where the top can go down and I can’t wait for summer when I can take the top all the way down and blast some of the music.

If I actually knew anyone who ran the Chicago Jazz Festival, I would contact them to make sure this band was on the list of performers.  I do hope they manage to work their schedules out and start touring. 

OK, sorry, I know, you think I am sucking up.  The fact is, I am passionate about the things I like and I want other people to like them.  Ask the people who have had copies of Peter Himmelman CDs pressed into their hands by yours truly.  I like spreading things around that I like and turning people on to cool things.  Right now, this is about the coolest thing I have found around here.

Of course, I am also always open to a bribe.  So, if you happen to be in a band you think is cooler and hipper than the Sad Salamanders, you can e-mail me at any time and I can tell you how to get me your CD as well.  Be warned, though, if I listen to it and it doesn’t blow me away, I’ll tell the truth about that too.

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Being the lazy SOB that I am, I am not bothering to root through my own blog and find out. I figure, if I posted this before, it was a long time ago and, well, quite honestly, it’s a local group and they should get more attention. So, if I posted this before, dammit, it’s worth checking out again.

http://www.myspace.com/pingtree

The band is called Ping Tree. I am totally loving their sound. It’s got that old classic jazz horn sound that I love. It’s also fronted by a guy named Art Davis who is not only a jazz music teacher at NIU, but a great trumpet player who’s played with just about everyone. In fact, here’s his bio from the MySpace page:

“One of Chicago’s leading jazz trumpet artists, Art Davis has been a busy performer and teacher in that city since the early 1980s. He has been a member of the NIU jazz faculty for ten years. As a performer, Davis has had a varied career. He has toured with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney. As a charter member of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra (formerly Jazz Members’ Big Band), he has appeared with Joe Williams, Kurt Elling, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, and Jimmy Heath, among others. He has also performed with such notables as Maynard Ferguson, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Natalie Cole, Diane Shur, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis, jr., Tony Bennett, and Michael Feinstein. Art Davis appears on many recordings, including those with Frank Mantooth, Janice Boria, Jackie Allen, Rob Parton, Tommy Meullner, Kelly Brand, and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. Art Davis has degrees in Music Education (B.M., University of Illinois) and Musicology (M.M., University of Illinois). As a graduate student, he specialized in ethnomusicology with an emphasis in African music. For over fifteen years, he has been mentored by such master drummers as Gideon Foli Alorwoyle and Abubakari Luna.”

That’s not too shabby, my friends.

So, anyway, check out the MySpace page and give the tunes there a listen. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have this evening.

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So, instead, I did some checking for Miles Davis stuff on MySpace.  Right away I found one I thouht you might enjoy checking out.  Please do so by clicking right here. 

Not only is there a cool history of Miles and his music, there are some posted musical videos of Miles on there.  They are from Miles in his later years, rather than performances that must have been recorded somewhere from his heyday in the 50s, 602 and 70s.  Still,  you do get to see him have some interesting give and take with Herbie Hancock on the one video.

I love the way Miles used to play, although it sometimes ticked off fans and people who just didn’t understand him.  He played with his head down, not really acknowledging or interacting with the audience.  He would kind of lean back a bit, his horn pointed toward the floor at a slight angle. 

When another musician would do his solo, Miles was known to leave the stage.  Some thought this was because he didn’t care about their music, but really he said he just wanted the focus to be on the musician who was doing the solo and not him.  He also felt that the entire show should be about the music.  His political beliefs and the things that were important to him could be dealt with after the show.  Duing the show, it was about the music.  So, it wasn’t important for him to wave at the audience or bow to them or acknowledge that they were there.  Did they hear some great music?  Well then, they got ther money’s worth.

Of course, Miles was an arrogant guy.  For me, though, I think there are a few people who sort of earn the right to be.  Being arrogant doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing either.  It means you have total confidence in what you are doing and you know you have nothing you need to prove.  If it’s done right, it can even be something to admire.

Maybe some day I’ll get that way about my writing.

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There is a guy that is a bit of a Chicago treasure in the jazz world.  He is also a morning radio personality on the jazz station here.  You may have heard of him.  His name is Ramsey Lewis. 

He was born in the Chicago in May of 1935 and is one of the most-respected men in music in general these days.  He is also the morning show host on Chicago’s WNUA, smooth Jazz radio station.  He is extremely active in the Chicago jazz scene and plays almost as tirelessly as Buddy Guy does with his blues and his guitar across town.

So, it was very cool to come across a MySpace page dedicated to Ramsey complete with awesome music clips you can listen to.  Click right here if you want to check it out, and I hope you do.  It’s worth the time. 

I have to admit, I have started to like these fan-created MySpace pages over the pages created by artists.  The fans take such loving care and time to create these pages, extensively research them and meticulously update them.  An artist who is busy recording and touring has little time for all of that.

So, please, check it out and introduce yourself to not only a great Chicagoan, but a great musician and one of the few living legends in the jazz scene these day.

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There are also a lot of jazz musicans that I am just not familiar with.  As I have mentioned many times, I tend to be a classic jazz kind of guy.  My jazz CD collection contains CD releases of a lot of stuff recorded in the 50s and before that.  I don’t have too many of the newer stuff.

At the same time I realize people who may be stopping by here might like the newer stuff.  Personally, I try to be open to the newer stuff as well.

So, I was looking around on MySpace, hoping to find a new musician I might be able to point you to, and, instead, I found a site dedicated to a man I had heard of, but didn’t know much about.  That guy’s name is Jaco Pastorius.  Sadly, Jaco died back in 1987, so the term “new” may be bent slightly here.

Since I am hardly an expert on Jaco, I thought I would direct you to this site.  I love the MySpace music pages.  They have samples of songs and great information.  Someone took the time to create his site and it appears to be lovingly done. 

So, please click right HERE and check out the MySpace page.  Enjoy the tunes and read some of the very informative blog entries and stuff on there.

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I did a simple search on MySpace for Jazz Musicians.  One of the guys who cam up is a gentleman by the name of David Murray.  http://www.myspace.com/davidmurraymusic is the page.

This guy has been around for a while and apparently has played with just about everyone in just about every form of music you could want.  It says he even played with Jerry Garcia.  Not being much of a Dead fan, I can’t say that impesses me TOO much, but still, that’s some diversity.

He has won a grammy and he has a bunch of new albums out.  Also, his space has tons of music you can listen to plus videos.  Plus, he plays a sax that looks really weird.

All in all, it’s a great MySpace page.  When I opened it up and the music started playing, it was very cool. You know  love the old-fashioned jazz sound and this had it. 

So, enjoy.

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Still, you deserved some kind of posting, so I picked a random MySpace page that featured some jazz music I dug.  So, introduce yourself to a man named Nathan Holaway from Ceveland, OH.  He’s got a ton of music available for you to listen to on his page too, which is cool.

Click here and check it out.

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The artist is Sean Jones.  He’s from Pittsburgh.  He has a MySpace page you can get to right here.  There’s a bunch of cool tunes you can check out there for free.  You know me, I dig the trumpet players.

He also has a website at www.seanjonesmusic.com.  He appears to have a new album out from this past August called “Kaleidoscope.”

For those of you in Chicago, Sean will be appearing at the Green Mill on October 19.  The show starts at 8 pm.  He will be there with the Sean Jones Sextet.  For more information on that check out  Greenmilljazz.com. 

I wish I had more time to write today, but I just felt I had to get this one out to ya.  I can’t believe it’s October already!

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