Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, belated Happy New Year to you all! Year of the SNAKE. Hell yeah! My year.

So everybody throw your hands in the air and shake’em like you just don’t care.

*Sigh*… I just don’t care.

Anyone who knows me knows I don’t like to be a complain-y pants which is why I live by my childhood rule that “If you can’t think of anything nice to say, then shut your mouth you stupid, stupid boy.” So I took a deserved break from blogging, a step back from social media and returned to what I do best: incessant over-thinking to the point of apathy.

2012 was a busy year with a number of concrete goals (making albums, CD release concerts, big band charts, etc.) and I do well with these kinds of hard deadlines. It was a year of production, getting a few groups (the JD Trio, the Hummingbird Brigade, and soon (and I really mean it this time)… the electroacoustic project) up and running with recordings. It was a year of “opening doors” as I like to say. In other words, having a commercially released album to sell/share was the first step in getting more work. Door = opened.

And step 1 was fun! I love step 1, the conceptual work, the composing, the recording/producing. That’s my passion.

Step 2: hit the pavement and start booking some gigs. Effectively… selling the product.

Unfortunately, I strongly dislike step 2 and so this is where things came to a bit of a standstill. Partly because “sales” and the wonderfully humbling experience of being an artist don’t mix that well, and partly because it’s just a tough business. But mostly because I’m lazy and spoiled.

I don’t like doing it, so I put it off.

So gather ’round kids while I tell you the tale of, em… hmmm, of… a clockmaker. And let’s call him, I don’t know… Jim Dandy.

Mr. Jim Dandy’s running his own business, working in his store to create beautiful clocks. He loves his work and his product continues to improve over time, but people don’t really know about his store because he doesn’t want to spend too much time advertising, bookkeeping, marketing, etc.. Although he knows it’s often not the best clockmakers who sell more clocks, he’s nevertheless playing the odds that if his clocks are one day good enough, people will come to him. And some do! … But not enough.

The odds, and time, are against him.

Well, eventually Jim won’t be able to afford to continue his work as he learns that a company doesn’t do so well without income. And now the clock-maker’s art is compromised. Instead of dealing with the business side of things while working on his craft, he largely ignored this responsibility and must now spend more time trying to generate income from other things.

“How about teaching?” his friends ask. “You love making clocks, so you’ll love teaching the craft to others! At least you’d still be involved with clocks!” they conclude. So Jim teaches, and discovers an appreciation for and, to some extent, an enjoyment of clock making education.

But something doesn’t seem right.

“Education is all well and good, but teaching is teaching and clockmaking is, well… clockmaking is my passion, not education. A little is fun, but as my primary income? This simply won’t do!” says the clockmaker.

Furthermore, old man Dandy isn’t getting any younger and, with age, has a few more financial concerns to think about than simply survival. Modest transportation, his own place to live maybe, going to the theatre, perhaps an occasional night out drinking premium whiskey cocktails bottle of wine. All these things mean something different than they did 10 years ago, and one would presume they’ll mean something different again in another 10 years. More than any of these luxuries however, Dandy wants to make sure he’s never financially dependent on others, not even for his art.

So he pulls out the calculator and adds up what these things cost, versus what his income would be IF things were going well in the clock business.

“Oh dear! cried the clock maker. “These two amounts are simply nowhere NEAR eachother!”

And so he thought and thought and thought some more. Feeling slightly guilty about the fact that material desires were influencing his life at all, and slightly irresponsible for not dealing with these eventualities sooner.

“How can I make this work?” Exclaimed the clockmaker. “Do I need to learn a new skill and if so, what? Perhaps I might even enjoy learning something new! What else can I do while not quitting what I’m already doing? I’ve come so far, but I have so much farther to go. I can’t quit. Time is precious. What sacrifices am I willing to make, if any? And how is that all of these choices can seem both weak and brave at the same time?!”

Round and round the clockmakers thoughts whirl. Knowing that the worst decision is no decision, but man oh man… it’d be nice to make the right one.

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

(Above partial painting “Clock Maker and Apprentice” by Andy Gard)

(*Special thanks to Phil Dwyer for the reminder that “Apathy is over-rated!“)

Readers, I’ve been remiss in my SMNP duties, which I’d feel bad about except that I am instead using all available time to release more and more hot Dander-tracks for your enjoyment.

For example, THE HUMMINGBIRD BRIGADE album is now on the music page and available for purchase via iTunes download or via CDBaby if you want hard copies to give as Christmas presents to EVERYONE you know. And could possibly be more festive than this contemporary, aggressive, rockin’ take on New Orleans brasses band music. Even my Grandma likes it! Her exact words were “What a racket!” But I’m pretty sure what she meant was “What a joyous, joyous, holly jolly Chistmas-style racket!”

So that’s two albums out on my new label Reigning Parade in just one year.

But wait! What could be even more exciting than two new albums?

THREE NEW ALBUMS!

Well, two albums and an EP to be exact.

Remember that electroacoustic album I was talking up a few years back?

No. Of course you don’t! Because that was YEARS ago!

I wanted to add some more tracks before releasing it but at this point, I just want it to be “out there” like my trio album and my 11-piece album. I want people to be able to hear it for themselves so I can finally stop trying to explain what the music is like.

So stay tuned! More updates on this and other things next week.

Thanks for reading and have a terrific week!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, this is finally happening! I’ve been listening to this album come together over the last 6 months and I can tell you IT IS ROCKIN!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this band, it can be described as such:

Mix the exciting New Orleans brass band sound with some soulful B3 organ, hard-groovin original songs, a band of merry men and just a few sazeracs, top it off with a clarinet and you’ve got THE HUMMINGBIRD BRIGADE!

Still not sure? Check out some of our YouTube videos here, here, or here.

So get out your calendars ’cause here come the details…

THE HUMMINGBIRD BRIGADE CD RELEASE PARTY!!!
@ PAT’S PUB (403 E. Hastings)
DOORS OPEN AT 8PM, SHOW STARTS AT 9PM, TICKETS $15 ($10 w/ student ID)

If you’ve never been to Pat’s Pub you’re in for a treat. It is one of Vancouver’s oldest music venues, the food and drinks are so very tasty and well-priced to boot! (NOTE: it is cash only at Pat’s) Click here for more info.

And finally, to all those who pre-ordered your CD back in July, I thank you for your support. It took longer than expected to finish the album but you will have it later this month and it will be worth it I promise!

So please spread the word and join us for an evening of great music and celebration!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, I gotta say, it feels pretty damn good to be James Danderfer this week.

My trio show (with “Sugar-Joe” Poole and Chris “24-7″ Gestrin) at the Cellar was a blast and my 1st trip to Calgary was fantastic! Huge thanks to Mark DeJong for asking us to perform at the Canmore Opera House, for carting our asses around Calgary, for lunch, for organizing our jazz clinic at Mt. Royal University (along with Jim Brenan) and for being patient with me at 5am when I could barely pull my sleepy self together to get the airport. You’re the man Mark!

Calgary’s Heritage Park was a real treat as well; the Canmore Opera House was a beautiful and intimate heritage venue, and the staff/organizers were an absolute joy to work with. Finally, the audience was terrific. One lady came up to me and told me our music had “made an 84 year-old woman’s heart dance again.”

BOOM!! Now THAT is the appropriate reaction to a JD Trio show! Nailed it.

Moving on, the Georgia Straight features an interview of yours truly this week. Alex Varty conducted the interview and we quickly got to core of my nature; I am a violent, violent man. Or at least, that’s the impression you might get from the text below my photo if you didn’t know that “cutting heads” is jazz-slang for one-upping a fellow musician on stage, which,… I don’t really do, but hey, drama sells newspapers and let’s be honest folks, nothing can match the vibrancy of blood painted walls. Am I right?… Who’s with me?

Finally, I am excited to announce a Danderfer endorsement by Légère Reeds. That’s right! Cat’s outta the bag! That silky sweet tone your accustomed to listening to day in and day out? That’s produced from a synthetic reed. I’ve been playing Légère Reeds for over 10 years and now, I am finally a Légère Ambassador. And why was I selected to be the new ambassador?

Come on! Isn’t it obvious?! I’m James Danderfer.

… and I, um… emailed Légère and asked for the endorsement.

Point is, endorsements have begun. So Nike, Coca-Cola, and Tobacco companies? If you’re reading, and I have to assume you are, I am ready to be the new face of your product. Call me.

And on that note, I gotta wrap this SMNP up. My amazing week is wrapping up in the bountiful oasis that is Mr. & Mrs. Chops GRANDE’s house in Oak Bay, Victoria. Time for me to take part in oversee some turkey dinner festivities!

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

OK Danderfans, you’ve been asking for more Danderfer and here it is. My trio (with young Joe Poole on drums and Chris ’24/7′ Gestrin) is gonna be swingin’ at The Cellar jazz club a week from today. That’s right WEDNESDAY NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 26th, 8pm. BE THERE. (Click here for more info on the Cellar)

If you’re not familiar with my sure-to-be-famous-at-some-point trio, you can hear examples of our classic-meets-modern style here, here, or even here.

This is “good-time music” people, so come on down and have a drink, share a laugh, and dig on some clarinet. And for those who have seen the band a hundred times before, never fear, we will have some new material to present. I don’t know what exactly, but we’ll have something for ya!

And now to all my Danderfans in the “Wild Rose Country,” the moment you’ve surely been waiting for has arrived. I’m bringing the trio to Calgary, Alberta YEEEEEE HAAAWWWW! We’ll be bringing the swing like it’s 1929/2012 at none other than the Canmore Opera House (located in Heritage Park) this Thursday, Sept 27th. Not only is this my first time performing in Calgary, this is my 1st time in Calgary, period. Very excited about this, and hopefully I’ll have some time before the show to see some of the city.

You can find more info on this show here.

That’s all for now. I hope to see you next week in either Calgary or Vancouver. Thanks for reading!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, what a whirlwind of activity these last few weeks have been.

Let’s start off with some good news. Ladies and gentlemen, the doors of the Danderfer Centre of Music Education are now open and we’re accepting students. HOORAAAYYY!

And by “doors” I mean the car doors and by “Centre of Woodwind Education,” I mean my beautiful 1990 Oldsmobile Cutless Ciera (the 1st car I’ve ever owned, as of 2 days ago!) That’s right, we are going mobile with this thing because that’s the way of the future!

… Coincidentally, that’s also the only option available when you don’t have a studio to teach from. Plus, let’s face it: people are busy, and young students are especially busy with school, homework, sports, facebook, TV, more facebook, etc. etc… It’s really a win-win for me to drive to people’s houses so that’s what I’m gonna do.

So to all Vancouver-area Danderfans out there, spread the word! And here’s a link to my Kijiji add to spread it with.

Moving on, I am happy to say the search for a new mouthpiece is OVER,… for now.

I tested dozens of mouthpieces looking for something different, something with a certain “je ne sais quoi”, something, well… louder.

In the end, I went with a Richard Hawkins “C series” mouthpiece because it had the balance of more volume but with a depth of character. It’s not that it was louder right away, it was the feeling that I could push it further. In other words, all mouthpieces get to a point where, when you’re blowing a LOT of air through them, the resistance builds up and they just won’t go any further/louder. So the trick was to find a mouthpiece that sounded good at a regular volume but would also take more “gas” before they hit that wall.

Did that make any sense to non-clarinetists?

Anyways, funny story, while trying dozens of mouthpieces I found I liked this mouthpiece right away, then I spent weeks comparing it to the others, my judgement getting progressively cloudier and finally,… I settled on the one I liked best at the beginning. Lesson learned.

The other lesson learned? TRY OUT MOUTHPIECES IN CONTEXT! For the first time, I asked a drummer, Joe Poole, to play while I tried out some of my final mouthpiece picks (4 in all) and what a difference it made. Some mouthpieces sounded louder on my own but couldn’t compete with the wide sonic range of a ride cymbal, also, a slightly lighter reed (producing a little bit more brightness) worked great with the drums but alone I would’ve said it was too bright.

Other mouthpieces I liked included an old Selmer E (which I’m gonna buy just to have it as a possible backup) and the Theo Wanne “jazz” mouthpiece (definitely a powerful sound but, with so little resistance, I found it lacked the possibility for nuance).

Alright, I’m gonna wrap it up now. Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

(pictured above: The Repin, St.-Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture)

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Hello everybody, sorry for the SMNP absence again! This is just a mid-week post to let people know I’m selling one of my two clarinets. But not just any clarinet! This is the instrument I played on my famous debut album “Run With It.” That makes it worth at least $5 extra!!

For anyone interested, here are the details:

- 1994 model
- 2 cracks occurred in ’94 and ’97 but were expertly repaired by Peter Spriggs with NO problems since 1997.
- includes the original case, a BAM case, and an extra (shorter) Accubore “Eddie Daniels” barrel (64mm).
- the instrument was just appraised for $1000 which is what I’m selling it for.

Okay, that’s all. I may write again this Saturday but don’t hold me to it!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, anyone who knows me knows that I’m a city boy moving at a country pace. My idea of “roughing it” is a picnic without stemmed wine glasses.

Every so often though, I’ll venture out via air-conditioned vehicle to a smaller city within the countryside, a city in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. called Penticton…“A Place To Stay Forever”, or in my case “A Place To Stay ’til Wednesday While You Watch Olympics With Grandma Danderfer.”

The Okanagan Valley is the fruit basket of B.C. and man is it beautiful out here! Located between two lakes and surrounded by rolling hills of fruit orchards vineyards, it’s a terrific vacation spot. In fact, it’s so popular with BC and Alberta residents alike that there isn’t a single hotel/motel room left to stay in this weekend. Which of course doesn’t affect me since I’m staying at Grandma’s house, delicately nestled in a gated community full of identical houses and man-made waterways. It’s great, it feels,… right somehow. These just might be my people.

Quick, someone give me a pipe, a sun visor and a garden gnome. I’m ready!

But wait! I CAN’T GET IN ‘TIL I’M 55!?! AARRGGHH! Thwarted again.

Well, looks like I’ve got 20-odd years to tread water play my clarinet while I move up the waiting list. Hmmm,… what time is it now?

Okay, back to the music.

I’m going through the rough mixes of THE HUMMINGBIRD BRIGADE‘s studio recording and it’s sounding pretty damn good. Very excited to get this album finished and out there for you!

I’ve got some new Richard Hawkins mouthpieces on the way to my place. Very eager to try those out.

And of course my next BIG show is coming up. Well, actually, it’s not. I don’t actually have a big show coming up. I guess I better do something about that.

Alright, I’m tapping out of this SMNP! Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

(above painting: “Gated Community” by Amy Casey)

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, anyone who knows me knows that I am a simple man. When I find something good, I stick to it.

This is why I’ve been playing Richard Hawkins mouthpieces since I was 16 years old. Richard didn’t even have his brand of mouthpieces at that time, it was a prototype that he gave me while I was studying with him at Interlochen. It was easy to play, sounded good, and (most importantly) it had the potential to sound fucking amazing,… at least when Richard played it.

Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of mouthpieces out there, but where other “gear-heads” would be curious to try something new out every so often, I was content to let that which was not broken remain unfixed.

But in recent years my personal sound concept has changed a little. Especially since I began checking out more of the old New Orleans players such as Barney Bigard and Johnny Dodds, the sound I’m looking for has been steadily veering away from the classical sound that the Hawkins mouthpieces were designed for. Also, I’m not playing in a concert hall full of hushed, attentive listeners; I’m playing with bands like The Hummingbird Brigade for heaven’s sake! I could use some more volume over here!

So I’ve been asking around and trying some mouthpieces, trying out a Brilhart 3 that’s pretty cool and I’ve tried out the new Theo Wanne “jazz” mouthpiece (which is plenty loud but not quite the right sound). And I gotta say,… I really don’t like trying out a whole bunch of mouthpieces, which of course require different types of reeds, and reed placement, etc. etc. It just goes on and on.

However, I’ve come up with an idea that might solve the issue of mouthpieces and my inherent laziness. I just called Richard Hawkins and told him what I was looking for in a mouthpiece and lo and behold it looks like he’s going to find/create some tests and let me try them out.

Okay, it’s late at night now and I must sleep.

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Well, so much for a punctual SMNP this week! It’s been a busy time for this ol’ clarinetist as I’ve been driving around Alberta with family, visiting relatives I haven’t seen since I was little; in some cases, relatives that I’ve never met. I can now say I’ve been to Edmonton, Vermilion, Ardrossan, Rimbey, Red Deer and Islay.

I know, right? Pretty cool.

The whole thing was my idea too. I thought it’d be fun, or at least interesting, and it was both. Lots of beautiful people in this family tree of mine, and lots of great stories.

In particular, farming stories are quite something. Listening to farmers (especially older farmers) talk about their work was impressive. I mean, I work pretty hard, but not near as hard I could. A point made all the clearer after listening to these people talk about working their 600 freakin’ acres of land, or waking up every hour through February nights to help the cows with calving, or threshing wheat ’til 3am and then working a 2nd job starting at 6am.

And then it occurred to me that it doesn’t matter what job you do, what matters is the resolve and integrity with which you do it.

It also occurred to me that I am not a farmer. I’m a musician.

Yes, I really should know that by now, but often I think, “Why should I get to play music and write music and be inspired and excited? What makes ME so damn special?” Some people would ask the same questions of me I’m sure, viewing my pursuits as selfish (OK, that one’s true), immature or downright invalid. I suppose it wouldn’t be such a concern if I was actually making a decent living a living at it. (Damnit Jim! I’m a jazz-man, not a day trader!)

Anyways, ultimately the answer is, nothing. Nothing makes me “special,” or… any more special than anyone else. I just have to keep doing it because a.) I can and b.) because I turn into a miserable bastard if I stop doing it.

After 6 days of this vacation, I finally had a chance to practice clarinet for 10 minutes, a chance to let out some of musical ideas I had been thinking about while driving around Alberta. And those ideas led to more ideas and soon I was excited (and a little overwhelmed) which how much there was to work on just within one simple idea.

After the first 30 seconds of practicing I could feel my brain lighting up with interest and then I laughed and blurted “I’m a musician!” out loud to myself. It was so clear. I just wasn’t as interested in anything else as I was with playing, not as excited about anything else as I was the next recording project, or show, etc.. It’s not what you do, it’s the resolve and integrity with which you do it that counts and I can do more.

And with that, I think I’ll tap out of this SMNP.

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

Above illustration by Harry Everett Townsend (1879-1941)