Fulcrum Point's Concert for Peace

For its 16th annual Concert for Peace, Fulcrum Point New Music Project showed off some serious chops.  The first set went from Somei Satoh's meditative "Hikari (Light)" to Louis Andriessen's taut and racing "Hout (Wood)."  The second set filled the South Shore Cultural Center with Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver.  A little yoga on a windswept lakefront ended the afternoon.  Looking forward to working with Fulcrum Point again on its November 1 concert, featuring Indian classical music alongside Messaien and Mingus. 

Pharez Whitted at the Green Mill

Last Saturday night, I did two really awesome things. 1) I spent 3 hours listening to the great jazz pianist Willie Pickens at the Green Mill while he fired off Thelonious Monk tunes like it weren't nothing.  And 2) I met and photographed trumpeter Pharez Whitted, who is a very nice guy but will knock you over with trumpet solos.  I love photographing musicians.  They do their thing, I do mine, but I've never thought of them as mere entertainers.  There is art, there is the moment of creating music, and they've spent years learning how to be really good at it.  Photographing musicians is a privilege, and a task I am continually drawn to purely out of respect for their work and for a love of music.  

Pharez Whitted blows a mean trumpet at the Green Mill.