trombonist, pianist, educator - Max Perkoff - Journal

Find me in my Blog

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

I've started an interactive blog on this site, so please click there for the latest, and to comment!

thanks,

Max

Vlogs have begun

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hello World,

I just posted my first video blog, on this site, and on YouTube & FaceBook. Let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see in the future. Future blog topics: Everything a Jazz Singer Should Know But Is Afraid To Ask. Beautiful Sound on the Trombone.

Shalom,

Max

Skin & Bone

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Several months ago my father and I played for the big annual Bread & Roses fundraiser. Our friend and musical colleage Ian Dogole was there and I invited him to sit in with us. He and I had gigged together, but Ian and Dad had not. Wham! Right out of the box it felt great!

Soon therafter Ian called and asked if I'd be interested in forming a group with Si and a bass player. You bet! Skin & Bone was born. Listen to our demo on this site. We're going for a blend of swing, bop, modern jazz, and world beats.

Let me know what you think!

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The End of the Tune...

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Since late '07 I've enjoyed a terrific steady gig every Monday & Tuesday night at O'Reilly's Holy Grail in San Francisco. It's a sextet with vocalist Darlene Langston on Mondays, instrumental on Tuesdays. With my father Si playing every other Tuesday, I play piano most of the time, trombone when Dad's on the gig. We play Great American Songbook standards and jazz standards that only jazz fans know and love.

Last night I was playing trombone with Joel Ryan, trumpet; Harvey Robb, sax; Dad on piano; Michael Burr, bass; & our leader Greg Gotelli on drums. Two police officers came in and began questioning one of the patrons, a man about 40. They went back and forth for quite a while, the man apparently pleading his case. Finally they took him out of the restaurant, though it was unclear if he was being arrested or just brought outside for some reason.

As they left, Michael said: "But he was the only one listening!"

Ah, the jazz life.

The joy of music

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Last night I played with bassist Tom Shader & drummer John Mader. We backed up Linda Kosut at The Octavia Lounge in San Francisco. The Shader-Mader rhythm section was such a delight to play with, it allowed me to mostly ignore the terribly bright and out of tune piano I had to play on!

Seriously though, I am so grateful to be playing music with these people. Linda continues to touch people's heart and soul. While playing "My Life" - a tune we've been doing together for almost 3 years - I played directly to my recently departed dear Mother: "But I know I gave joy to my mother..." It's difficult to even accept that good music making can come from mourning the loss of my mom, but I know it's the natural order of things...and Mom would certainly have wanted me to make the most beautiful music I could for the rest of my life.

Shader-Mader swung their touches off for us! And the pop/rock tunes had exactly the right feel - the right amount of air in them. I was able to float, fly around the keys, stay in one place when I felt like it. Musical freedom. Same thing as spiritual freedom.

Happy New Year everyone!

Goodbye New York

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Tonight is my last gig in New York City this year. 3 of my 5 out of town tours this year have been to Manhattan. This place has a hold on a piece of my soul. There are so many seekers here...artists, musicians, crazy people. The streets cross eachother and create a mosaic of names, history, dreams, sounds, and non sequitors. It all seems to make perfect sense if you don't look outside of New York for answers.

Thanks to Terese Genecco for asking me to play with her again, the Little Big Band is truly a musical family now.

So goodbye New York, hope to see you soon. Hope to taste you sooner!

Anyone need a trombone player who doubles on piano for their next NY gig?

Chicago-New York Tour

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700

I'm sitting in my friend's lovely Upper West Side condo on the 11th floor, looking forward to our performance tonight at Barnes & Knoble and to going home tomorrow. Two terrific days in Chicago: Gigs with marvelous musicians, Frank Parker Jr. & Stewart Miller. A day at the Chicago Art Institute. So inspired by Max Beckmann, Picasso's The Guitar Player, Seurat's Sunday In The Park, and many others. It's the clarity of their vision that excites me. I want to play with that clarity, with clean lines and deep colors.

New York is quite a phenomenon. The density of humanity is quite intense. I've been eating Jewish soul food every day: Hammentaschen, kasha knishes, bagels. (Gotta get another knish before I go!) Linda, Norman Curtis & I went to Harlem Sat night and sat in (1 song) with Maggie Brown, OBJ's daughter. Lovely club, historic site, yet they play loud pop music in the bar during the jazz sets. The jazz room in the back is separated from the bar by nothing more than two swinging doors. Remarkable. Maggie sounded superb - as a jazz singer, an interpreter of songs, she was fabulous. I hope you all get a chance to check her out.

Playing with Saskia Laroo & Warren Byrd

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700

June 29th brought a marvelous concert by my band with special guests Saskia Laroo, trumpet & pianist/vocalist Warren Byrd. Saskia is from The Netherlands, Warren from Connecticut, USA. They've been touring the planet for years with their high-energy funky jazz. What a high it was to play with them. Everyone in the band had a great time.

Saskia has the ability to combine "burning" lines with musical humor and a relaxed approach - much easier said than done! Her tunes are wonderfully funky, hip, and fun to play on.

Warren has a harmonic concept that is very exciting, rich, multi-layered, full of rhythmic drive. At one point Randy Vincent had to go to the piano and see what the heck Warren was playing!

I have to mention the venue: The Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley. It's simply a dream to play in. The audience and musicians are treated royally. What a pleasure.

I like New York in June

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700

How about you? Linda Kosut and I spent a marvelous week in Manhattan, June 1st - 8th. Two shows at The Triad on 72nd & Broadway...sitting in at Birdland and Cleopatra's Needle...ate at Zabars, H&H, and soaked up the air and heat of it all. There's just no place like New York City!

Our tribute to Oscar Brown Jr. was very well received by audiences and reviewers alike. We're going back in October, so stay tuned New York!

A special thrill for me was playing with Norman Curtis, a man of great heart and talent. Ben Bacot sang two numbers with us and brought down the house. His rendition of "People of Soul" still send chills through me when I think of it.

I really got into the city this visit, walking miles up and down and across Manhattan Island. The Sunday Broadway street fair (Upper West Side) was a relaxed, vibrant, full of good music, food, and crafts.
Central Park was postcard - perfect. A hot summer day, children playing stick ball on the Great Green, tourists paying respect to John Lennon at Strawberry Fields. Reading the NY Times and eating good deli on the bench, breathing in the warm humid air really gets your bones into place. Felt so good.

Took a long leisurly stroll through the Natural History Museum - saw our Homin ancestors staring back at me through a hollow skeleton's eyes. Had a truly uplifting, inspiring day at the Gugenheim - Kandinsky, Picasso, Pissaro, Rousseau, Modigliani, all really knocked me out! Franz Marc's 1911 "Yellow Cow" was simply marvelous - so life affirming. The art I saw that day was just as exciting and energizing as the best concerts I've attended.

I'm looking forward to returning and exploring new small corners of that great city.

Magic at The Saloon

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

I've been playing with my cousin Ben at The Saloon since 1989. There have been many magical sets, moments, entire evenings of music and energy there with the King Perkoff Band. Tonight was our last for this year. Ben returns with his wife to Berlin, presumably to return early in '08. I do hope so.

The magic the band has is difficult to describe, and very easy to hear and feel in person. People aren't just dancing, they are transcended, moving like they are compeled to move. Men and women, and tonight several men in particular, were propelled into an intense, hypnotic state. It was like watching someone's very personal story being revealed in movement alone. Amazing.

The band reached new heights of the Sound Wall That Is Rhythm & Blues. You had to be there!