Articles

I made my first jazz record with Dr. Lonnie Smith as a special guest, and that was a bit of a fluke, but my whole thing is about building relationships. I also built a great relationship with Jim Rotondi, and he played on my second record as a leade…

What goes into consideration when negotiating artist fees? It's not an exact science. Sometimes there's a flight from New York involved. Or maybe I want to get Oliver Gannon back to Frankie's Jazz Club: there's always an extra skip in my step when h…

It's very competitive out there. I get emails from people looking to play at Frankie's Jazz Club, and I reply, "Cool! have you ever been to Frankie's?" Then, they'll say back, "No, I don't know anything about it." Well, you need to! It's not about…

Let’s talk about putting out a jazz record in Canada. Maybe you have a group ready to record, but you’re unsure about promotion. Or maybe you’ve wondered if you should start a label, and how to make it successful. Stay realistic …

I work on multiple sides of the music business, so I'm giving you advice based on my experience; you don't have to agree, and I'm happy if you challenge me and want to get into a healthy discussion about anything. Let's talk about how people approac…

I get asked the question a lot: how do I get on the scene? With Vancouver, BC, Canada being my hometown, I'm more familiar with that scene than any other – but getting on the scene anywhere isn't as difficult as you think. It's really just com…

I've been lucky enough in my career to be involved in many aspects of the music business. There's no “music business for dummies”, and everybody's journey is different. However, I've seen a lot of musicians falling into pitfalls. It's m…

I made my first solo album without ever having a plan in place. And it took five years. Aim to Stay released back in October 2020, but its production had three long phases: 2015-2016: the artistic beginning 2017-2019: the nothing middle 2020:…

Today, I muster up the courage to tell you about the worst gig of my life. We’ll go from the lead-up all the way to the aftermath. My story is pretty tame. No one got physically hurt and no one’s rights were infringed upon. For sure, th…

I dropped out of Capilano University's Jazz Studies program at 18 years old, after one year of studies there. And the most common question my colleagues have asked me in the past ten years is, "Why?" How I got to CapU, and specifically Cap Jazz, in…