Monday, October 21, 2013

Freddy's Bar this Thursday - Garage this Saturday

Greetings.  Hope you're swell.  Or, if nothing else, I hope your swelling's not so bad.

Ack.  I think I'm better at this in the morning with coffee.  I'll just get right to it:

Thursday I'll be leading an incredible trio (Russ Meissner + Andrew Hall)  for the Uke Night in the back room at Freddy's in the South (ish) Slope.  I'll be the special guest this month for 
Freddy's monthly ukulele night (every 4th Thursday.)  I'll be putting on my special guest clothes and performing two sets.   First, I'll do my own little uke-centric show, featuring originals and not-so-originals.   I will then be joined by Daria Grace for the second set where we will wow you with our two-ukulele antics from the Pre-War Ponies songbook.   And if you are a ukulele player, or are considering becoming a ukulele player, or you just like being in the same room as a bunch of ukuleles (and face it, who doesn't?) come early for the 7pm - 9pm ukulele jam hosted by the amazing Katie Down of theUkuladies!  All uke players are welcome.

But, wait! There's MORE:

That's right! If you act now... uh,  ...  well... whether you act now or not, I'll be in the West Village playing tailgate trombone at the 
Garage with none other than Kevin Dorn's Big 72 on Friday night for four complete sets of non-stop, hard-core Dixieland fun and frivolity (redundancy and repeating one's self) at the completely ridiculous hours of 10:45pm to 2:45am.  Oh yes.  That's just how we roll with the Big 72.  Dixieland history shall be made, lest we have a Dixieland Disaster™.

All the above items are explained in more detail below (er, except that little bit about the swelling) on the page that you get to when you hit the "gig schedule" link to the right of here...


Take care,

w

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Peg + Cat premiers on PBS Monday morning! Barbès Thursday!

Greetings!  I'm very happy to say that after well over a year's work, Peg + Cat the children's educational cartoon where I've been serving as musical director and as a composer, will be premiering on PBS tomorrow Monday, October 7th.  If you have a little munchkin preschooler of your own, you may want to check this out.  In New York, it'll air 9am. (Other parts of the country, check yer local PBS listings.)   Monday they'll show two episodes back to back, and then it'll be on at 9am every weekday morning after that.  The show is a lot of fun and teaches math concepts to preschoolers.  There is also a Peg + Cat app with games available (that I worked a lot on) for the iPad and for Android tablets  (Kindle Fire too).  You can also see the first episode or buy the upcoming season on iTunes.

Peg is an upbeat (and perhaps a wee bit hyperactive) little girl that solves problems using numbers and math* along with her laid back, inspiration giving (and easily distracted) cat.  Peg plays the ukulele, and there is a lot of music in this show.  There is so much ukulele and trombone in this show, I'm surprised it got through the network censors.  I was even able to put a good bit of my favorite 8 bit Commodore 64 generated sounds in there, especially when they go to outer space. (Which, thankfully for me, is often.)  The show was created by my uber-talented  friends Jen Oxley and Billy Aronson.  Needless to say, I'm happy and proud of the show, and to be a part of it.

In other news, on Thursday, I'll be playing soprano ukulele and trombone with Daria Grace and 
The Prewar Ponies at our monthly residency at Barbes in Park Slope.  Fun shall be had as we daintily tromp through some lesser known gems of the 20's and 30's.  Hope to see you there!

All the info for the above mentioned show, as well as a look into the rest of the month is listed at the "gig schedule" link to the right...

Take care,


w

October 2013

Thu 10/10 10:00pm w/The Prewar Ponies @ Barbes (6th ave @ 9th st BROOKLYN)

Wed 10/16 7:00pm – 10:00pm JWH Trio @ The M Bar at the Mansfield Hotel (12 W44)

Thu 10/24 9:00pm JWH trio + Special Guest Daria Grace @ Uke Night at Freddy's Bar (627 5th Ave btw 17th and 18th st BROOKLYN) 

Fri 10/25 10:45pm – 2:45am w/The Big 72 Garage (99 7th Ave S)