GIGS:

NEWS:

• I have put together some teaching materials. Included are video of how to practise, .pdf documents of exercises, a recording of me composing a piece, a couple of transcriptions and lots more....www.seanwayland.com/lessons.html

• I am planning some more recording starting seriously in April. Its gonna be funky!!!

• More live downloads added. www.seanwayland.com/55livedec07jan08.html

• Dec 07: I have been writing a lot of songs. Demos are posted here: http://www.seanwayland.com/songs2007/

• I have put together an orchestra (strings, big band etc) of improvisers and written some new music for it.

• I have a new CD available "expensive habit" - www.seanwayland.com/expensivehabit

• I will be playing at the Baked Potato in LA jan 27th 2007  with a great band featuring Chad Wackerman, Jimmy Johnson and Mike Miller.

• Nov 19, 2006:New live download page added, featuring gigs with James Muller, Jochen Rueckert, Matt Penman, Felix Bloxsom .... http://www.seanwayland.com/livedownloads.html

• New release of mp3's from old out of print CDs added: http://www.seanwayland.com/greatesthits.html

• Hi there peeps. I did a great gig recently with Alto Saxophonist David Binney at the 55 Bar. It was a fantastic band ... Adam Rogers on guitar, Zach Danziger on drums and Tim LeFebre on Bass. I had a really great time. Dave is selling it as a download on his website too. Check it out www.davidbinney.com.

• I also recently played a couple of gigs with Madeleine Peyroux www.madeleinepeyroux.com here in Brooklyn at Barbez. My good friends Matt Penman and Will Vinson where also performing.

• I am starting a new project soon which is an improvising jazz orchestra. It will be a collaborative project with some of New York's other jazz composers. We start rehearsing soon. I will keep you posted.

• I will be visiting Sydney and Melbourne in Australia in February 2007 with guitarist Peter O'Mara http://www.peteromara.com/

• I have some plans in the pipeline to visit LA in January and Europe in May next year. Please contact me at sean@seanwayland.com if you can think of anywhere I might be able to perform.

• My new Solo CD is available now. It can be purchased from CD baby here http://cdbaby.com/cd/wayland4

• Aussie pianist Matt McMahon recorded my tune "Sun" (from back in the Banana days) on his lovely new CD "Paths and Streams".  Its a really great CD featuring the great playing and composing of a my Australian (Sydney based)  mates. More information is here www.kimnara.com.au.

• I am presently working on various recording projects. I have just finished my first solo CD, tentatively titled "The very thought of me". Most of it was recorded at Phil Punch's new Electric Ave in Sydney. I am eternally grateful to Phil for his help and support.

• I also recently spent a couple of days recording in NY. I had a great band: Jochen Rueckert, Matt Penman, James Muller, Donny McCaslin, Will Vinson and Kris Bauman. We recorded at "the studio" in Soho with engineer Jon Rosenburg.  It's not finished but you can check it out at www.myspace.com/seanwaylandmusic

• Perhaps you may be aware that last year I toured China with Jochen Rueckert and Brett Hirst. While we were there we made some instructional jazz DVDs. This little clip that Jochen posted on myspace is really worth a look. It is called "Some Roast Beef Curtain's" http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=3955959&blogID=45252637&MyToken=8780162d-25be-46d7-8f3a-68c4840614a5

• In New York I have seen some great music … Wayne Krantz, Dr Lonnie Smith, Sam Yahel, George Colligan, Chris Potter … All my old Favorites ..

• We went to say Wayne Krantz the day after we arrived. Echo got VERY excited to see Ari Hoenig play the drums . It all made sense to her why I wanted to come back here even after telling her so many tough stories  There are plenty of new guys playing on the scene that where not here before I have enjoyed guitarist Lage Lund  and saxophonist Will Vinson.

• I took a lesson from George Colligan which was great. He got me thinking about developing rhythmic ideas more …. It has helped me a lot. He is a great pianist and composer . Check him out http://georgecolligan.com/  

• I have got to play and hook up  with many of my old friends and associates here …. Guitarist Luca Benedetti http://www.lucabenedettinet/index.html

• ( with Jochen Rueckert and Matt Clohesy ) , Saxophonist Gerald Hayes ( brother of Louis Hayes ) . The great singer Madeliene Peyroux  http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com/ who I worked with once before has given us her pickup truck . She is in LA working on a new CD for the next few months. It is great to have a car.  

• I have also made some new friends here this time around already. Looks like I am joining Kris Bauman’s band the Dangit Bobbys. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=12038104

• He liked the way I sang the Daddy Cool song “Come Back Again” with Justine Clark the other night and wants me to sing it with his band “ at every gig “ .  We also had a great bass player on that gig Ike Sturm http://www.ikesturm.com/

• Ike has asked me to do some playing with his group. I hope he meant what he said !  He is a great writer and arranger, and his bass solos touch me very deeply.  

• I have been writing a lot of music lately , it has been good to be “out of work” for a few months. I have been organizing rehearsals with a largish band … Jochen Rueckert , Matt Penman,  Jonothan Kreisberg http://www.jonathankreisberg.com/  , Luca Benedetti on guitar, and saxophonists Kris Bauman http://www.myspace.com/worldclass ,and the great Donny McCaslin .  I get all the guys over , we play “too many notes” and then eat Sausage and drink beer. There is a great polish butcher down the street which specializes in pork … Keilbasy , Ham etc .  The polish supermarket sells Aussie beer too …. Coopers, James Boags, Tooheys New (the Tooheys is made in Florida and is undrinkable.. disgusting).  We have a gig coming up at the 55 bar in May which I am really looking forward to.  

• I am also planning to do some recording in June. James Muller is visiting New York . I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get him and Jochen Rueckert and Matt Penman into the studio. I think James is going to put a recording of us playing at the Side On Café  (back in 2000?) on his website www.jamesmuller.com. I have also asked Donny McCaslin and Kris Bauman to help out .  Allan Holdsworth is coming here in May and I want to ask him if he will overdub a couple of Solos … Wish me luck.  

• OK my bum is getting sore . Time to wrap it up. I am missing all you jazzgroovers very much New York is not what it used to be … it is a bit gloomy and the music scene is shrinking  … Don’t sit in Sydney there thinking that “ things are better somewhere else “ Get up of your bums and make it happen in Sydney …. There are plenty of great players down there Still for me this is a great place to be We have a great apartment thanks to pianist Uli Geissendoerfer http://www.ulimusic.com/

• whom I met in Australia.  Even with the scene shrinking, New York is still a great city to be in. Of course the coffee and beaches will never be as good as Sydney . I will have to visit often. 

• For those of you interested in hearing more about my new home please check out this link: http://www.seanwayland.com/newyork2006.htm

• Fairly recently I purchased a Nord Electro Rack 2 keyboard module. I had only planned to use it on gigs. I never thought it would replace a real rhodes in the studio. I have a recording of one of my tunes " In Colour" that I have been trying to play on for ages. I released Andrew Gander's brilliant drum solo on it on the ARC ( Australian Rhythm Changes CD ). The tempo is pretty bright and with me playing organ bass we cook up a pretty tough groove. I have struggled to find an electric sound that would work as a solo instrument. I love the oberheim Synths, but I could never get the attack sounding good without them being hard to play fast. Just for fun the other night after dinner I decided to try the Nord blended with the Oberheim Xpander and it turned out to be just the ticket. It was great to finally get this tune "in the can". Check it out http://www.seanwayland.com/mp3%20files/in%20colour%20mp3.MP3

• Next monday 19th September I am performing a gig at the Basement in Sydney.

• My wife Echo and I plan to leave for New York later this year for an extended stay. We are waiting to hear from the U.S immigration so the timing is unclear at the moment. I have however decided to organize a farewell gig for myself.. To help get the party started I am flying my good friend Ben Van Der Vaal up from Melbourne to play the drums. Also performing with me will be James Muller, Brett Hirst, Dan Waples, and hopefully some very special guests. It is very difficult for us to leave this beautiful country and so many great friends and musos. As a prolific composer of tunes (thousands by now!) it would seem a waste to spend my whole life here with so few performing opportunities. Sometimes I think to myself, “well Sean you wrote 300 tunes this year and you only got to perform 30 or so”.  I believe in the quality of this music (otherwise I would just stop, sit back, and watch the TV) and I am foolish enough to hope that I might perform my music more often. Hopefully overseas will give me some more opportunities. I also greatly look forward to getting back to New York and hooking up with the many friends that I still have living there, and to soak up all the great music that happens up there nightly.  I really look forward to getting to do some more recording with Messrs Rueckert and Penman, even if I am not sure that we could top “ARC”. I also hope that in New York I might find some people in the “music industry” over there to help me. I can’t do it all myself and there is barely a “music industry” here. That’s why we started Jazzgroove! I went down the other night to the excelsior and I thought to myself “When we started this thing we never thought it would get this big “. I hope the scene here continues to prosper and I know that if things don’t work out overseas I can always return to a vibrant scene of musicians here.  Please feel free to bring your horns down to the Basement on the 19th and play, or just sing along to Daddy Cool if you wish.

• James Muller ( http://www.jamesmuller.com/) and I recently finished a live recording at the Basement . I played my Hammond C3 organ which now lives at the Basement , and Felix Bloxsom played the drums. We had great night , and captured some of the excitement that James can generate at a gig on tape I think. It was fun for me to play bass with those 2 guys going for it "Australian style". Just like the  Australian pro surfers  took their " no holds barred" approach to Hawaiian big waves in the 70's , these guys play their jazz the same way!  They turn it up and take risks with the music and pull it off. Here is a sample to listen to http://www.seanwayland.com/mp3%20files/3_4_mp3.mp3

• Hopefully James and I will get a live CD out soon. Stay tuned.

• I have also recently completed a CD project with the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra. We recorded a tribute album of Mike Nock's music. I wrote an arrangement of Mikes' tune "Nata Lagal" which turned out real nice I think. Please visit www.mothershiporchestra.com

• More recently I have been working on some solo piano music, mostly at Electric Ave studio here in Sydney. Here is a little taste.

• http://www.seanwayland.com/mp3%20files/free.mp3