8.26.10 - Our season starts back up again at The Dragon Upstairs.  The core trio consists of Mark Tanouye on bass; Stew Sherman on drums and Ike on the KORG SV-1 (keyboard).  The experiment: combine as many different art forms as possible and apply our own interpretations and arrangements.  Stew Sherman, a native New Yorker and well-established diversified drummer, Stew Sherman has toured, performed, and recorded with numerous major international and local artists. Just to mention a few, Stew has toured with the world renowned legendary Temptations. He's also worked with pop star Puff Daddy on a MTV video directed by Spike Jones, and worked with Atlantic jazz recording artist Tim Cunningham, as well as recorded with RCA recording artist Rome. Mark Tanouye, beginning at age 4 as a classical pianist, Mark's musical palette traverses everything from zydeco, blues and bebop, Jazz, to metal, afro-cuban, and roots reggae. He's highly sought after in the local recording and live music scene, and has traveled internationally with countless shows and bands. Ikaika Tecson, well, he's just some nerdy IT guy deeply in love with the piano.  Special guests include: Santino Sgambelluri, from Guam and a background of straight-ahead Swing, Funk-based Fusion and (what I love) "scat"! This is when the Jazz vocalist becomes one of the improvising musicians using his voice as an instrument; Starr Kalahiki, always a local favorite, has done work with just about every artist in the state of Hawaii and has influences rooted in everything from rock n roll to Jazz;  Jason Gay - saxophonest from Washington DC, has rubbed shoulders with some very heavy players accross the scene.  Personally I think he sounds like some version of Joshua Redman, with a very unique sound. 

 

8.14.10 - So the Pali band made a lot of Japanese promoters a lot of money. I have nothing but good things to say about the Japanese people and especially their FOOD.  Big thanks to Pali and his wife Sachi for inviting me on this trip.  Some upcoming projects:  1) Dragon Upstairs SEPTEMBER season - I'm starting a series of collaborations with various artists, new frontman/woman each week, from different genres and basically "Jazz"-ing their tunes, I'll be preparing the lineup with the artist information this week so stay tuned; 2) I'll be performing weekly, on Wednesday's at Apartm3nt, with "The Bentos", or "Mini Bentos" rather (hehehe), with drummer Mark Lindberg and a killer vocalist/MC Jackson "Mox" Helm, it will be a trio of sorts; 3) I've booked a quarterly performance at DuVin which will showcase different vocalists and poets - all improvisational and fresh.  Details to come! 

 

7.20.10 -  Honored to be helping Pali/Sachi in Japan next month for a few gigs with the “Pali Band”. Material: some Hawaiian music, some Yoshida Brothers, and a whole lot of Pali’s original tunes he wrote for guitar and uke. In other news, Santino, one of my good friends/vocalists will be leaving Hawaii this coming Friday. There will be a huge jam session on Thursday w/ The Bentos at Jazz Minds in honor of the great Tino. I’ve also joined a project with Reggae vocalist Lubei Cavin, drummer Kapono Nailiili, bassist Will Yokoyama, and guitarist Kona from Tempo Valley.

 

 6.18.10 - Another video from Viz down at Visual Cortex from the PBS Little Big Band at Rafters this past Sunday, enjoy!

 

 

 

6.13.10 - "Dragon Chase", this past Friday, went awesomely.  We had a quick change in personnel - brought in Randy Wheller on the saxophones and B-Cap on MC.  The Star Advertiser came down to do a quick photo thingy and some video. The idea behind Dragon Chase is to mix a bunch of Jazz/Groove/RnB/Hip Hop artists together and improvise over various rhythms and progressions.  The music turned out great, I hope to see you guys at the next one.  We're there every Friday from 10 PM to 1 AM. Mahalo! Special thanks to Viz for coming down and doing this spectacular video.  

 

 

 

6.4.10 - this past weekend I helped Pali/Sachi back up

The Gospellers at Na Hoku, here's a group shot: Originally formed by Murakami and Kurosawa (along with 4 other members) in 1991 as a group within a college chorus club "Street Corner Symphony" at the University of Waseda, they recruited 3 new members in order to fill the vacancy (4 members previously left the group due to their job placement activities) for the recording of The Gospellers, their first major label release in 1994.

 

 

Tomorrow, I'll be helping The Spacifics open for hip hop sensation Aceyalone.  The Spacifics have been around for several years.  They play hip hop with funk infusions.  I met their MC's at a prior gig we had at King's Pub with Planet Cypher - the networking opportunity turned out to be very valuable.

 

 In June, at The Dragon Upstairs,  I'll be musically directing a new group, Dragon Chase, as an experiment: I'm writing music with Funk/Hip Hop/RnB rhythms and Jazz harmonics.  The group will feature B-Cap on MC/Vox, Kapono Nailiili on the drums, Mark Tanouye on bass, and myself on my new Korg SV-1.  

 

Also in the works, I'm helping out Pali/Sachi, from dokogatv, in Sapporo and Nagoya during the first two weeks in August. I hear there's excellent seafood there.

 

I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by good people, good music and these great opportunities, for that, I am thankful.  updated gig information below, shoot me a message (itecson@gmail.com) if you're interested in coming!

 

5.27.10 - Yuna Ito!!!  Just finished backing her up w/ Pali/Sachi (from dokogatv).  She has an awesome voice and the arrangements/cues were dead on.  

 

 

 

5.21.10 -  Next week, I’ll be playing with two J-Pop groups: Yuna Ito as well as The Gospellers. Both types of music is rather foreign to me, Jazz in general has very little to do with pop. The chord changes/progressions are different for the sake of accessibility.  The challenge is to do the music justice and play within the definition of that genre. 

 

During June, I’ll be musically directing a new group on behalf of Seph1 and Jennifer aka “Lady Paisley”. The group will concentrate on more groove and hip hop-oriented music with all the modal/harmonic tools that Jazz gave us. This is a wonderful opportunity to help Jen/Seph bring out their original tunes that they have written over the years. I’ve also been helping a group called A Touch of Gold with their tunes. They play a lot of funk and Motown stuff and I’m looking forward to working with their lead vocalist Marc. We’ll be playing at Aloha Stadium and in Maui for a few shows. Lucky we got music!  

 

04.23.2010 -Preparing for a new hip hop project in June featuring Seph1 and Lady Paisley - it's a new group, with new music, that we're writing.  I'm hoping to incorporate as much Glasper/Soulive/RH Factor into this as humanely possible.  Please be sure to come and visit the Late Show tonight at The Dragon! Send me an email (itecson@gmail.com) if you would like some seats or to get on the guest list. 

 

04.05.2010 - This coming Friday, 4/9, we'll be featuring guitarist Robert Shinoda.  Robert comes from a very strong musical background - involving himself in all aspects of the arts from theater, smooth Jazz, and many more. Rob's the founder of Nueva Vida, a hot local group made up of bassist Arex Ikehara, pianist/composer Aaron Nelson, and many others.  Gig starts at 10 PM and ends at 1 AM with a $5 cover charge.  

 

I did a recording of Perdido last night while practicing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCJ8Xj8iCeY

 

Updated gig schedule below! =)  Happy Monday everyone!

 

03.31.2010 -I started recordingour performances with my new Flip Camera.  Here's a sample of what "Planet Cypher" sounds like - video taken during intermission:

 

 

 

 03.25.2010 - This week, 3/26, we'll be featuring Ambrose Splescia from New York. Incredibly well received in New Zealand, Ambrose has toured with Michael Barrymore, played with Ben Morrison and the NZ Pops, Susan Prentice, Larry Morris, and Susie Lynch/Steve Larkins, among other notables. When not touring, he's a staff musician /teacher at Studio 10/New Frontier Records and the Corelli School, NZ's only academic school of the arts headed by the gifted David Selfe. New Frontier is where Hayley Westenra recorded her first hit record. Ambrose is featured with NZ's soulful Jerome Hendrix, and he just finished recording with James Ray, New Zealand's top country/pop artist, winner of the '03 Trans-Tasman Entertainer of the Year award.  Gig is at The Dragon Upstairs, Honolulu, 10 PM till 1 AM.  $5 cover charge - support live music! 

 

03.19.2010 - I'm lost in the heart of San Francisco right now checking out some eateries and to listen to Keith Jarrett, Hiromi Uehara, and Robert Glasper at the SF Jazz Festival.  It is quite sad that Hawaii doesn't have a similar festival.  

 

A friend of mine, Aiko Yamashiro, wrote a poem about the 3.11 performance at The Dragon.  You can view it here. 

 

03.11.2010 - Tomorrow we'll be featuring Jason Gaye, an awesome tenor player out of Berklee College of Music. He's played with the likes of Ravi Coltrane and Mulgrew Miller. Jason also won the NAACP award for best instrumentalist. Aside from Jazz, Jason involved himself in other projects ranging from rap, latin to funk music. His sound is heavily influenced by Chris Potter and Joshua Redman.

 

03.02.2010 - I recently joined a project with Aaron Friedman.  It's a lot of groove-oriented/RnB/Hip Hop type beats with very laid-back chord progressions.  I'm finding that the key to this kind of music is to keep things simple - you almost have to remove the complexity you learn in bop and most Jazz.  It's definitely a "less is more" type of art.  The gig tonight was awesome, there's a lot of talent here in Hawaii with MC's and poets and I'm thankful to be able to join the statge with these guys.  

 

The Late Show, featuring Santino, will be starting up again with this (first) Friday in Chinatown. The gig starts at 10 PM, cover charge is $5, and continues until 1 AM.  The Bartenders working Fridays are Ben and Paul (our resident English gentleman).  We also have another gig at Sarento's this coming Thursday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM.  Gig information is listed below, we hope you can make it. 

 

This past Sunday I joined Kapono Nailiili, Ioane Burns and L Halehaku Seabury with a group we call the Kekauoha the Jazz Project.  The performance was for KGMB 9 news. I'll post the interview once everything is "in the can".