Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the mass email. Or is this a blog now?

Just wanted to let you know that my new group, Ben Goldberg School, will be playing this Saturday, January 14, in Berkeley at the Berkeley Arts Festival.

The address is 2133 University Ave. in Berkeley, and we’ll start at 8 pm.

I wrote a bunch of new compositions — come on by and you will hear truly inspired playing by some amazing musicians:

Ben Goldberg School

Jeff Cressman – trombone
Kasey Knudsen – alto saxophone
Rob Reich – accordion
David Ewell – bass
Hamir Atwal – drums
Ben Goldberg – clarinet

Plus a couple of rumored guests!

Hope to see you there.

Plus, I know I already posted this but I’m still crazy about it so here is a link to a lovely video of my song “xcpf” from a concert by Myra Melford, Scott Amendola, John Shifflett, and me at the Freight and Salvage last month.

http://vimeo.com/34702665

Peace,

Ben

(Ben Goldberg, our guest Plastic Alto blogger, play with Clarinet Thing, Go Home, Charlie Hunter, Plays Monk and Tin Hat — that’s a list I’m partial to — plus his own own own projects, like Ben Goldberg School — I will have to find, transfer and post the fine pictures of him taken at Bottom of the Hill in the Steven Bernstein Diaspora at the Earthwise 10th Anniv show — Mark Ben Weiss, editor, head plastician  — I was meaning to post something about the time Joe Dariensburg and Louis Armstrong All Stars played the Venetian Room — in January, 1962 — but I guess will have to make do with Goldiensburg instead)

edit to add, about twenty bars in: it might just be me, but I could not get the vimeo to play and switched to a different track:

http://vimeo.com/34554643

and this is probably totally just me, or my lack of coffee, and still, as I noted above, probably need to trim my fingernails, somehow affects my concentration and total Zeitgeist — cue the schadenfreude — but does that Israel Perez dude look suspiciously like….Peter Apfelbaum? Have they ever been seen in same room? Puzzling. Like Beth was saying, Custer that is, appropos of something I decided not to elaborate on, some people have asked her if she is part black. Is Perez a jew? Does he not bleed if you prick him?

I think at this point Ben Goldberg is going to be mighty confused and irritated — or the reader is — one guy — no more than one person will ever see this — to figure out when it switches back from guest blogger BG to MW. Like John Berryman dreamsongs. Quick Henry the flit. Bones. And reeds. All that. And rumored guests (not former members of Fleetwood Mac).

Ben Goldberg is also playing a big show for Jewish Music Festival March 4 at Freight and Salvage.

edit to add: big story on Tin Hat featuring Ben Goldberg in March 29, 2012 Chron by Jessie Hamlin