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January 9th, 2010
Happy New Year! Last year was
filled with a lot of exciting musical moments and I am looking forward
to many more coming up in 2010 as well. First on the list is some
performances in early January with a new co-op quartet I'm very excited
about. This band features Adam Kolker on saxophones, Jeremy
Stratton on bass and Jeff Williams on drums in addition to myself.
I'm deeply honored to be making music with these outstanding musicians
so please try to make it out to some of these performances if you can.
We are planning on making a recording come springtime.
Coming up right after that, starting
January 14th, trumpeter Kris Tiner and I kick off another TIN/BAG
mini-tour. This one is in the Northeastern US and features
performances in North Syracuse, NY; Pittsfield, MA and New York City.
We will also be recording the new material that we have been working on
for the last couple of years for our new album. We are very
thankful to have some support for this project coming from the
American Composers Forum. This duo has been around for
about 5 years now and its always a special opportunity to hear Kris and
I together, if for no other reason than he lives in California and I
live in New York. We would love to see you at these concerts!
Also on the horizon is a tour of the
Mike Baggetta Quartet supporting our release on Fresh Sound New Talent,
Small Spaces. We have a good schedule coming together and
will be playing in Youngstown, Cleveland, Rochester, Toronto, Western
Massachusetts, Maine and more. I'm also happy to be joining
saxophonist Ralph Bowen again for a performance with his band in
Philadelphia, PA in early April. Check out the
schedule page for more information about all of these activities
and I look forward to seeing you in the audience!
September 5th, 2009
Hi everybody - first bit of new news
to report is that Small Spaces, the debut release from the Mike
Baggetta Quartet issued on Fresh Sound New Talent, is now available for
digital download on
iTunes,
Rhapsody,
eMusic and
Amazon MP3! If you have another digital download site
preference, check with them as well, it may be available there.
Click on the names here for links, there's currently also a link to
iTunes only on the Discography page, but that will al be updated
shortly... have at it!
In other exciting news, Kris Tiner,
my TIN/BAG cohort, recently received a Subito grant from the California
chapter of the American Composers Forum, of which I am now also
a newly minted member. This grant will be used to fund our new
recording and a short tour out here on the East Coast in mid-January
2010. Keep your eyes here and on the schedule page for updates...
And speaking of schedules, there are
a few nice upcoming dates for the Mike Baggetta Quartet in Brooklyn.
We're sharing a night of "modern jazz guitar" with our friend Nate
Radley's band up at Rose in Williamsburg in October and then playing at
one of our favorite spots, Tea Lounge, right here in Park Slope, in
mid-November. We are also currently planning 2 short tours for
late winter and early-mid spring 2010 for the quartet - again, keep a
look out on the Schedule page as information is updated
frequently...Thanks!
July 5th, 2009
Tune in to WKCR, Columbia University
radio, Wednesday, July 8th from 6 - 9pm as I'll be hosting The
Musician's Show that evening! If you are in the New York City
metro area tune in at 93.9FM. If you're out of the area you can
stream the feed live online from their website. Follow the links
from my schedule page to do that. In addition to playing my own
music I'll be playing a selection of pieces from recordings that have
inspired my playing and writing as well as a lot of music from my
favorite musicians and collaborators that are on the scene today.
Should be a lot of fun...
The next performance by the Mike
Baggetta Quartet has been scheduled for Thursday, August 20th at the
Cornelia Street Cafe as part of their mid-August Guitar Festival.
Confirmed groups besides my quartet are trios led by Ben Monder and Brad
Shepik - two of my favorite guitarists! Hope to see you there....
April 16th, 2009
Lots of new news to report this time
around. First I want to draw your attention to the fact that
Small Spaces, the debut recording from the Mike Baggetta Quartet, is
now out and available from Fresh Sound New Talent Records. I'm
really happy with this band and this recording and the music so I hope
that you will all check out this CD. It's also pretty special
because I have been checking out a lot of music on the Fresh Sound label
for the past many years, so I'm really happy to have my music be a part
of their catalog too! We have a CD release concert on Sunday April
26th at 8:30pm at the
Cornelia
Street Cafe in Greenwich Village, Manhattan for those of you in the
NYC area. If you are free that weekend I would love to see you at
this special performance featuring Jason Rigby on Saxophone, Eivind
Opsvik on Bass and George Schuller on Drums. There's more info
about this on the Schedule page...
You can currently
order Small Spaces from the Fresh Sound website (its secure!)
or you can pick up a copy from me at the CD release performance (or any
other time you see me!). Next time I post some news Small
Spaces should also be available from Amazon.com as well as for
download on iTunes and possibly some other sources - check back in!
Also just released from Fresh Sound
New Talent is saxophonist Jeremy Udden's new album, Plainville,
on which I make a little guest appearance with his exceptional
band...click through the Discography page for more info on that CD as
well...
My last piece of exciting news is
that I have been added to the roster of endorsing artists for
D'Addario Strings.
I have been using D'Addario strings for most of the time I've been
playing the guitar. Although I did flirt with some other brands, I
kept coming back to D'Addario for their consistently high quality and
value. You can check out my artist page at the D'Addario website
here!
February 13th, 2009
Some quick news for the website
today. I'm really happy to say that I've been selected as a winner
of the 2009 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards. This award
recognizes talented young jazz composers under 30 years old (I just made
it!) and I am very happy to be included with some of my respected
musical peers. To read the press release,
go here...
I should also mention that the Mike
Baggetta Quartet's CD, Small Spaces, has just received its first
review from All About Jazz NY, one of the greatest jazz resources in
NYC. It's a really nice review by Clifford Allen and can be
read here on p.23. Small Spaces will be issued on the
Fresh Sound New Talent label in March/April. Please don't forget
to mark your calendars for the CD release concert at
Cornelia
Street Cafe on Sunday night, April 26th featuring Jason Rigby,
Eivind Opsvik and George Schuller.
January 26th, 2009
I hope the new year is going well for
everyone so far, thought it might be time for another update on the
website since the year has turned over again. The biggest news
coming up is that my quartet will be holding its CD release concert at
Cornelia
Street Cafe on Sunday April 26th at 8:30pm. This will be the
first public availability of Small Spaces by the Mike Baggetta
Quartet issued on Fresh Sound New Talent. I'm really excited for
this music and I hope that you will all mark your calendars and make the
trip out to see this great group perform. We'll have the usual
suspects of Jason Rigby on saxophone, Eivind Opsvik on bass and George
Schuller behind the drums on the gig! If you just can't wait,
though, you can catch our next performance at the
Tea Lounge in
Brooklyn on Wednesday, February 26th at 9pm. Same guys...
In website news, you'll notice that
there is finally some streaming music up on the music page behind each
of the selections. You can check these out for more info and
sounds on the Mike Baggetta Quartet, the Mike Baggetta Trio and TIN/BAG,
my collaborative duo with Kris Tiner (my generation's most underrated
trumpeter and composer). There's also some talk of a new
TIN/BAG
album being recorded later this year...stay tuned.
November 2nd, 2008
Lots of exciting things happening
over here. The first of which is the soon to be released album by
the Mike Baggetta Quartet, Small Spaces, on the Fresh Sound New
Talent label out of Barcelona. Eivind Opsvik, Jason Rigby, RJ
Miller and myself recorded the music back in April and I just finished
mixing and mastering last week and it sounds really good...like,
really good. The artwork is being finished up as I type this
and I'm working on booking some concerts for this group - so keep an eye
on the Schedule and Discography pages for the latest developments.
I've also just finished updating the
Music page at mikebaggetta.com and you can now find links to information
on my current projects. There's even an audio player so you can
hear music from these groups, including some mp3 clips from the Mike
Baggetta Quartet's previously mentioned release, Small Spaces.
The last thing to mention for now is
that I am very happy to be returning the Bop Stop in Cleveland, OH on
November 14-15. I was asked by bassist Dave Morgan to perform in
the large ensemble debut of his piece written for Chamber Music
America's New Works grant program. This is an excellent award for
Dave. He is definitely a musical voice to be recognized and I'm
flattered to be a part of this performance. If you're in the
Cleveland area that weekend, please come down and check it out.
Also, feel free to use the Contact page and let me know if you're
interested in taking a lesson with me that weekend while I'm in your
neighborhood!
September 11th, 2008
Welcome back from summer everybody. Checking in to
Mikebaggetta.com with some news. There are a couple of new videos
up on YouTube. One is of the Mike Baggetta Quartet playing
Olive Tree from our upcoming Fresh Sound New Talent CD, and the
other is some footage of a performance I gave on John Coltrane's
Moment's Notice up in Portsmouth, NH last autumn at the Press Room
jazz series. These were both great gigs so I'm pleased to be able
to share some of that music with you. Find
Olive Tree here
and Moment's Notice here.
Some fun gigs have been happening, as well as more coming
up soon! I had the pleasure of being included in some performances
with the Kevin Norton Trio recently and have really enjoyed being able
to play, rehearse and get to know Kevin and bassist John Lindberg.
Two very heavy musicians and incredibly kind people. Hopefully
there will be more of these coming up...There are also a lot of good
trio gigs coming up including one this weekend in NJ with drummer George
Schuller and bassist Chris Higgins. Another event to watch for is
the Guitar Masterclass I will be giving at the Community Music School of
Springfield, MA on Saturday morning, October 25th followed by an
evening duo performance with pianist Warren Byrd in the Berkshires at
the Castle Street Cafe.
One last very important note: There is a TIN/BAG
performance coming up soon! These have been too rare lately and it
is always special music that gets made between Kris Tiner and I.
We'll be performing at the Infrequent Seams series in Brooklyn on
Thursday night, September 18th. Kris and I will be performing a
bunch of new music that we're planning on recording soon for the next
CD, so don't miss the chance to hear this music live. We'll
sharing the bill that night with James Ilgenfritz and Dave Ballou.
Keep checking the schedule page for more recently added performances!
June 20, 2008
A belated update about some news here
at Mikebaggetta.com! My quartet, with the great George Schuller
filling in on drums, had a great gig at the Brooklyn Lyceum last week as
part of Joe Philips' series over there. Thanks to everybody who
made it out. We received the following nice little listing in the
NY Times from Nate Chinen: "The up-and-coming guitarist Mike
Baggetta seeks an adventurous but accessible dynamic with his quartet,
which features Jason Rigby on tenor
saxophone,
Eivind Opsvik on bass and George Schuller on drums." I'll be
mixing and mastering the album of this band soon for an autumn release
on the Fresh Sound New Talent label - stay tuned.
I'm gearing up for a few weeks of
teaching jazz guitar this summer at Camp Encore-Coda in Maine as well as
at the National Guitar Workshop's Jazz Summit week in New Milford, CT.
John Scofield, Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart will also be there!
The latter part of this year is coming together with some nice gigs,
including a special one with TIN/BAG in NYC - see the schedule page for
more details...
April 15, 2008
The quartet recording went great at
Michael Brorby's Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn yesterday.
We got some really great music down with Jason Rigby, Eivind Opsvik and
RJ Miller. Stay tuned for details about the future release of this
record. The next gig on the calendar for this group is at Joe
Phillips' Wednesday series at the Brooklyn Lyceum on June 11. RJ
won't be playing drums for this date, but George Schuller has agreed to
join the group for this gig! George has been one of my favorite
drummers to listen to over the years so I'm really excited to get to
play my music with him on June 11. More details about this gig are
on the schedule page...
April 8, 2008
The Quartet gig at Bar 4 went great
last night! I'm really excited to be recording my music with Jason
Rigby, Eivind Opsvik and RJ Miller next week at Michael Brorby's
Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn. Of course all news about the
recording and its release will be posted here as soon as it becomes
available. I also want to say here how much fun I had being able
to play trio with Steve LaSpina and Jeff Hirshfield last month.
These guys are two of the best and the music was a blast for
everybody...hopefully there will be more of those too!
Last news for now is that I am
featured in this month's All About Jazz New York paper. I
have a little write-up in the Listen Up! section. You can
get the paper for free at venues throughout NYC or you can download it
for free from
their
website. I'm on page 12. Thanks everybody!
February 25, 2008:
Just wanted to put an update on the
news page today. Yesterday I recorded a little bit with my friend,
and great saxophonist, Jeremy Udden for his new album coming out on the
Fresh Sound New Talent label in the near future. His band for this
record includes Eivind Opsvik, RJ Miller, Pete Rende and Brandon
Seabrook. Those guys are great. He asked me to come in just
to add little bit of extra guitar and I was really happy to be included
in the project a little bit. Keep an eye out for the CD...
The Mike Baggetta Quartet has a bunch
of gigs coming up! Soonest is Thursday, February 28, 10pm at
Freddy's Backroom in Brooklyn, NY with Eivind Opsvik, RJ Miller and
Jason Rigby. Future dates in Brooklyn are April 7th at Bar 4
and June 11th at the Brooklyn Lyceum. This band will be
recording my music the second week of April for a future release - stay
tuned and check the SCHEDULE page for more details on where you can come
out and show your support for this music and group!
Lastly, I have two fun trio gigs on
the calendar so far in March. The first is Saturday, March 1st, at
the Williamsburgh Cafe in Brooklyn, NY, 8pm. I'll be joined
by the exceptional vibraphonist Tom Beckham and extraordinary bassist
Gavin Fallow. The second one is Saturday, March 22nd, 7:30pm at
Delta's in New Brunswick, NJ. I'm very excited to be joined by
Steve LaSpina on bass and Jeff Hirshfield on drums for this gig!
...should be a lot of fun!
January 23, 2008:
Welcome to the new website everybody.
As you may notice I have ended my blogging experiment and will be giving
all news updates on this page of the website from now on. And,
even though the link at the top is no longer there, you can still locate
me on MYSPACE at
www.myspace.com/mikebaggetta.
Just finished a recording with
Swedish tenor saxophonist Klas Toresson a few days ago. It was
nice band that Klas put together with myself, Jeremy Udden on alto and
soprano saxophones, Bridget Kearney on bass and Mike Johnson on drums.
We recorded a bunch of tunes by Klas, a couple of Jeremy's and Bridget's
as well as my tune, Hospital Song. Stay tuned to this news
page for details on its release in the near future.
For those of you going to my
DISCOGRAPHY page to order copies of the CD Canto., my solo
prepared guitar disc, please note that this album is no longer available
in hard copies. It was originally a limited run by a now defunct
label. Instead of pressing another set of discs I have decided to
make this available as a digital download only. This is happening
as we speak and I will put it on the news page when this becomes
available. Please keep checking back if you are interested in
this! |