by Steve Chase
There was music planned each morning at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, even as they opened the gates in Telluride Town Park. On the first morning, a bagpiper stood ready.
As the rope was dropped and the first several dozen Festivarians began a sprint for the prime tarp locations on the grass in front of the soundboard tower, only yards from the stage, the piper played a highland ceòl beag. In a tradition at the Telluride Bluegrass, you can claim your spot for the day with a tarp, although etiquette …

By Steve Chase
Back in 1979–80, I played a horn with the house band of a bar called the Inn Place in Connecticut. Those were the days when analog instruments still ruled the day. Our keyboardist had this monophonic mini-Korg synthesizer, the budget version of the professional level Mini-Moog that was played by masters like Chick Corea of Return to Forever and Joe Zawinul of Weather Report. It was always a blast to mess around with that contraption, discovering the limitless sounds you could come up with a few twists of …

by Steve Chase
I recently downloaded from bt.etree.org a great Pat Metheny Group 1984 concert from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I had the chance to play it, I was amazed at how good it was, both in its musicality and in its high fidelity. It’s possibly one of the best shows of my 200-plus-show Metheny collection. Not one to ignore comments written about this show on etree, I knew something was up when I saw over two dozen comments. Something going on beyond normal “thanks for the concert” notes.
I was right. …

By Steve Chase
The Colorado high country can be hot and dry in August. So there I was, pouring water over my head as I stood in a dry dusty “field,” waving cars into parking spaces. I was doing this dirty work to earn tickets for the Telluride Jazz Festival, and it was worth the trouble. The festival venue was outdoors, in Telluride Town Park, surrounded on three sides by the sublime San Juan Mountains. Some call it the most beautiful venue in the world, and they could be right. This …

By Steve Chase
Someone at work told me about the music service Pandora a year ago, but I hadn’t bothered to check it out until I recently loaded the Pandora App on my iPhone and turned it on during a long drive. There are many music “services” on the Internet, some of them available on individual artists’ websites. Generally, they work by streaming an artist-focused “radio station” feed that you can listen to on your computer or through your phone or handheld music player. What makes Pandora different is its …

By Steve Chase
A few weeks ago, I grabbed all of my CDs and boxed them up. Stacked and racked in our family room, hundreds of the darned things had sat idle since I ripped them into my iTunes database. a few years back. I bought only two CDs last year—nationwide CD sales are down by almost 50 percent since 2000. Digital outlets like iTunes have filled some of that gap, but the internet has completely changed how we get our music.
Internet revolution aside, this last decade has produced some fantastic …

By Steve Chase
With the “E” revolution roll-ing forward at full speed, its im-pact on music is more evidentall of the time. Small bands that would have never been able to build a fan base when the record companies controlled their destiny are now the in-novators who will keep good music reaching our ears. Nichemarkets have become the new  keep their improvisations freshand cutting edge. Only 50 tick-ets were sold for this third S2 program held at the 9:30 Club inWashington D.C., and we were really excited when the doorsopened for …

by Steve Chase
I’m no weatherman, but I think we’re in for some real winter weather this year. With cold temps, a snowy countryside, and the prospect of a little skiing comes the chance to sit back in the evening in front of the fire with a warm drink and enjoy some holiday music. Here are some of my musical suggestions for the season. All of these selections can be found in the usual places on the Web: iTunes, CD Universe, or Amazon, and others.
Christmas in the Heart, Bob Dylan (2009). …

By Steve Chase
Don’t bother asking me for advice on the stock market. Having a relatively long daily commute, I listen to Sirius satellite radio (www.sirius.com), a media format that I believed would grow steadily in the future. I was convinced, and bought some Sirius stock, only to watch it drop precipitously to about five cents a share before recovering to its current value in the mid-fifty-cent range.
With more than a hundred channels to choose from, there was lots of music to hear on Sirius, and good web resources to find …

In college I was privileged to take a jazz history taught by the late great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean (www.music-city.org/Jackie-McLean/discography/). Growing up in the 1930’s Jackie learned to play with the help of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk, and was a sideman with many of the greats including Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Freddie Hubbard before leading a number of groups and making dozens of recordings.
Jackie loved Jazz, and made sure his students were well-versed in the foundations of this art form, including who the “real” jazz players were in …