I have Jeff’s phone number, and that of his agent. Mark my words, he will lead a band in Palo Alto soon. Recently I named, as part of a poll I took, his band Tortoise as one of my five favorite musical tropes in the history of Chicago. Displacing, for this purpose, Sun Ra and Shure. Rah! Sure! Hey, baby and I’m in it with you. From Mark at Earthwise and Plastic Alto blog edit to add, my favorite song, and i saw them live at SF Jazz front room, and I bought the cd plus have it in muy Apple phone, is “Rfifted” or “Drifted” and it’s based on an Aretha song that I had never heard before. and: Jakob Baakgard in All About Jazz, 2016: He doesn’t just play on the beat, he stretches it and improvises around it and a track like “Jrifted” is the definition of laidback cool with saxophone lines, catchy guitar riffs and a wondrous beat-epilogue with strings. andand: AE, AA –that’s not a chord change, I don’t think,but it is how i remember to check and fix the spelling of the namecheckered abovely: Jakob BAEgAArd. I would be cool if Jeff replies to me or Jake with a improvised ditty B, A E, A, A, D or something. Strike up the band, Palo Alto. andandand: Found the song, don’t know what the “jr” with “drifted” means. I think she is day dreaming and thinking of me. But I know her song is not called “Day Dreaming And Thinking of You” andand but not anand: (It is called “Day Dreaming” but not called “Hey Baby And…” I mean) andand but not anand but ardan: Hi, (redacted) I noticed your name in the letters to council packets. Clicking thur, trying to follow your prompt, I instead ended up on your music page, with 60 or so videos that you had curated. (Ironically, the page about your support for the city staff member seemed to be missing…) Music is a big part of my life for 26 years here, as Earthwise Productions of Palo Alto, Between October 18, 2018 and March 13, 2020 I brought 16 shows and — I think — 25 acts to Mitchell Park Community Center, the new ball room. Concerts there hold about 200 people although my attendence – -this is apples and oranges — for 2019 via EventBrite was more like 25 percent capacity or 1,000 paid. The missing link is getting the word out — hence, here I am. Trying you. The continuum of artists willing to play, roughly $400 per person per performance – -whereas the audience pays $20 each — in a community space to stars and superstars and hit songs that people will be accessing fifty years from now exists but is remote. I think it is a quality experience, Earthwise at The Mitch, and I hope you can check out a future show. I had 10 shows on sale at time of shelter-in-place decrees. Some will be rescheduled, others lost in the shuffle. My Aretha connection is: 1) in 2003, on tour with my client Henry Butler, a piano player, from New Orleans – -and again I have changed the topic from bringing local, regional, national, international, clubsized acts here, to my even smaller and less significant management practice, wherein I’ve represented exclusively a handful of acts and artists over the years — actually at the bottom I will post a blog item about that, with links in many cases to their cds — was traveling with an all star blues band and we played large civic space in Houston, TX — about 2,000 capacity with a rotating stage and theatre in the round –like the old Circle Star Theatre in San Carlos – -which is defunct tho its site is marked by a rather large and bright messge board, on west side of 101 Southbound and — this is quite flimsy — the next night or two nights even Aretha was set to appear; I’m saying years ago I managed an act whose name appeared on a schedule in Houston that included Aretha. 2), Jeff Parker is a wonderful jazz guitarist and composer and recording artist in LA by way of VA and Chicago; his first New Breed recording has a song that samples in a unique way a less than famous Aretha single. Jeff appeared twice recently as a sideman in my series, or co-leader (not New Breed group — but they are on my wish list or hit list), one with Amendola Blades and once with Dave Douglas Engage. I am going a bit fast and am fallible but: you might like to know the existence, similarly, of a jazz group built around electric guitar from Switzerland called The Great Harry Hillman (named after a famous coach and athlete, from 1904-1944, a good run, excuse the pun). Cheers, Mark Weiss Plastic Alto blog Earthwise Productions The person you mention, does she succeed our first pr person on staff? My reaction was: with good leadership, we would not need spin doctors. Maybe the person you laud is better. Also, I like to think that music and even dance – I am guessing you like to dance — should be compulsory for people who make policy. An American radical once said: I don’t want to be part of the revolution unless it has dancing. my memory is off a bit but the riff I am referring to is something like: hey baby and I’m in it with you….hey baby and I’m in it with you….hey baby and I’m in it with you. In Jeff’s song, it starts barely perceptible, in the background and repeats roughly 30 times in 3 or 4 minutes, but by the end the band is deliberately following the riffs, instrumentally so that group of chords, or part of the melody goes from a counter melody to the main story. bw (“backed with” — like two singles released on a 45 rpm) Janine De La Vega, don’t know her, she is the spokesperson for Palo Alto Police, a former news reporter on TV, a Santa Clara grad, a Mom and replaces Zach Perron who was a Palo Alto native, Stanford grad and got a midcareer advanced degree from a prestigeous tho far away school, and then got fired because a former co-worker recalled that while chasing a suspect years ago he made a joke about that person’s ethnicity, and their lack of propensity in swimming – the man had fallen into the creek, evading arrest. Good luck, Janine. My sister, her first car, in 1976 was a Chevy Spirit of America Vega. White with red blue stars and stripes, bicentennial even.