the status of the mp3s at cc.com

if you’ve noticed the BUY MUSIC page at cc.com is inactive, here’s why:

I am in the process of setting up paid mp3 downloads of my music, to be sold through my site via musicformovement.com. This process was sidetracked by the impending and now actual arrival of Joey Baron to town. I should be able to finish the work this week. In the end, the studio albums will be able to be purchased, and there will be free stuff on the LISTEN/DOWNLOAD MUSIC page.

Bear with me, I’m giving up on iTunes and all the rest as a way to sell my music. It appears as though, like in ye olde days of record retail, indie product is relegated to the back of the store and goes unpromoted. To generate sales at iTunes I have to spend advertising and promotion dollars. If I’m going to do that, why wouldn’t I simply send people to my site? So, that’s what I’ll eventually do.

the joey baron celebrity golf classic weekend

I have the extreme pleasure of hosting Joey Baron this weekend in Toronto. He’s doing lessons and a clinic today in the first-ever drumLAB event. I’m calling these things “drumLAB Experiences” and this one is “Experience #1″. (this is because I’ve been using “drumLAB: Experience drums and percussion” as a slogan for the new venture…)

Last night was purely social, consisting of retrieving Joey from the airport and having a relaxed and fun dinner that featured TWO soup courses (the waiter decided that the kitchen’s first servings of their soup were meagre, so he brought two more bowls for the hungry drummers). This revealed Joey (not surprisingly) to be a kind and generous individual with a passion for drumming and music that is infectious and inspiring. In short, I couldn’t be more pleased to be doing what I am doing. On top of that, the event itself is sold-out (actually, I capped the ticket sales, I’m sure I could have sold more…), and thus, financially solvent.

I’m hopeful I’ll have some pictures to post next week.

er, I mean, cc2

Well, 25 minutes before downbeat last night EricB phones me, he’s got a medical emergency (not life-threatening, but definitely not gig-able…), so Dave Patterson and I are now playing duo!

DaveP was initially stressed about it (but that tends to be his mode-of-operating so I wasn’t worried), and then delivered a stunning evening of very lush guitar playing. It was cool for me, because while guitar/drums duo is nothing odd to me (hey! you can see cc+mo on February 6 at the Village Playhouse in Toronto for $5, 2190E Bloor Street West, downstairs), my duo with MO gets away with alot more silence and general ambient activity. Last night we had to get the songs across (standards, mostly), which requires a different kind of duo playing. It’s not so much a conversation as a harmonization, where we’re both playing all the time, but have to weave our multi-directional parts. Fun, but it’s definitely easier with a third musician!

cc3 tonight

cc3 is a special lineup tonight: me (cc), eric boucher on keys (cc + 1 = cc2), and david patterson on guitar (cc2 + 1 = cc3). MikeP is off tonight, as he has to attend the Denzel Sinclaire showcase gig (MP works for his record company…).

In other news, Rob Price emailed me this morning with news of our first gig in the NYC area. We’ll be doing a date at a place called Freddy’s in Brooklyn in mid-March. I’m excited it’s happening so quickly, so stay tuned, I’ll post the details when I have them.

fun

this is a fun ad.

catching up…

So, Joey Baron’s lessons are almost sold-out (which relieves me financially of any risk now), with the last lesson likely to be sold by this evening. Clinic tickets are still very much available, but regardless attendance looks to be good and I’m really excited about this event.

In other news:

-hot on the heels of JB, Dave King of The Bad Plus is coming to town and would like to do a clinic on February 8th. Immediately following the JB event I will start working on that one. (when it rains it pours I guess!)
-a recent journal post suggested I might be liquidating some of drum gear. I never did make it out to the storage space to do an inventory, but that whole endeavour is officially on hold until my other projects slow down
-I’m recording tomorrow night and Tuesday afternoon to finish the tap dance piece I created this fall with Paula Skimin. We are creating a recorded version that will not require live musicians so that her company may tour with this piece.
-There’s been a flurry of Hot Buttered Soul interest this weekend, with two lucrative gigs coming up. This is a cash injection I was not anticipating and will not be unhappy to receive.
-planning continues on the Rob Price/Chris Cawthray band that will become the latest and greatest dual-metropolis avant-jazz band. The names of the sax players Rob has been suggesting are bona fide “famous jazz musicians” to me, but it turns out, in the real world, are just guys looking for gigs like us.

this has suddenly taken over my professional life…

This was something that was in the talking stages in November, but then seemed not to be happening. Two days ago Joey called me and said he was free, so, now it’s ON. It’s very exciting. You gotta go.

cc’s warehouse o’ gear

I’ve been musing all weekend about liquidating a whole pile of musical equipment. I recently moved almost all of my equipment into storage to make room around the house, and it’s been in storage now for over a month.

I haven’t been there once.

I keep my Tempus kit at home (here it is onstage at the Gladstone: , along with my cymbals (three bags worth), and a REMO djembe, and a Roland SPD-6. I’ve been fairly busy and haven’t needed any other of my gear….

So I’m thinking about sending it out into the world. There’s a few things I’ll keep (my Sonor Phonic kit and Signature snare drum, my congas, etc.) but I tend to have duplicates and triplicates of everything. I think I’m going to head up to the storage space tonight and make an inventory of the gear. That will give me some perspective on the whole thing…

download links

sample tracks from my audio and video releases (and links to purchase hard copies) are here.

miscellaneous unreleased mp3s and live videos are here.

My music is available for purchase online at M4M, iTunes, MSN Music, Puretracks, and others.

here we are

This is the new blog. The old blog is here. The new one offers the Category feature, so that as posts are made, I can group them according to their intention. So, if you only want to know about new downloads or other music releases, you can view only that. Thanks for making the jump over to the new URL,
chris.