Hello Friends!

February promises to be a busy month of gigs; I hope you can make it out to some of these upcoming shows. Here’s what’s on the calendar:

Monday, February 8th at the Sierra Grille, Strong Ave Northampton, MA. 9.30 pm-12 am. The Monday night jazz series continues with a reunion of a trio that worked together for many years at a weekly Thursday residency at Amherst Coffee - Tristan Gutner on bass, Alex Syndman on drums, and myself on piano. It’s always great to play in this familiar configuration, especially after a long hiatus: if you were fan of Thursdays at Amherst Coffee, you are in for a treat.

Tuesday, February 9th at the Side Street Cafe, 42 Maple Street, Florence. 6-9 pm. For those of you who always say the Sierra gigs are too late for you, here’s your chance! Come out and support this great weekly gig (Every Monday and Tuesday evening) hosted by guitarist/vocalist Zack Danziger. If you’ve never been to the Side Street Cafe, you are missing out, it’s a wonderful local spot with delicious food and a relaxed atmosphere. And with free live music you can’t go wrong. Zack doing a great thing with his regular gig: he features different local musicians on every gig, and I’m fortunate to be a part of it. We will be having a lot of fun playing spontaneous arrangements of original compositions, jazz standards, pop covers, and more.

Saturday, February 13th, The Inn at Norton Hill, Ashfield, MA. 7-10 pm. A great valentine’s weekend date with delicious local food, chocolate tasting, and live jazz featuring myself and bassist Michael Dunning. Across the road from Elmer’s Store. Please call 413.628.4003 for more details and to make a reservation.

Sunday, February 14th, Fruitlands Museum, Havard, MA. 1-4 pm. More Valentine’s weekend fun for you “East Coasters.” This will be a duo with vocalist Leah Randazzo. We’ll be covering all the romantic standards your heart desires, plus some other pop tune covers appropriate for the occasion. For reservations & information contact 978-456-3924 ext.227. Visit http://www.fruitlands.org/calendar for details.

Monday, February 15th at the Sierra Grille, Strong Ave Northampton, MA. 9.30 pm-12 am. The Jazz Demolition Project (not my name but I’ll go with it for now) returns for a second appearance at the Monday Night Jazz Series. This is a killer quartet featuring some of the areas finest musicians. Like me, none of them want to be restricted by the term jazz, so we are combining our rock, folk, latin, funk, and soul influences in what we like to call “Indie Jazz.” The group features David “Goody” Goodrich on guitar, Jamie MacDonald on bass, Doug Raneri on drums, and myself on Fender Rhodes.

Monday, February 22th at the Sierra Grille, Strong Ave Northampton, MA. 9.30 pm-12 am. Another TRIO gig at the Monday Night Jazz Series!

So that does it for the gigs, for those of you who are still reading, thanks! One more quick thing, a long time friend of mine is starting a charity called Outdoors for a Cause (OFAC) As part of the Pepsi Refresh Project, her idea for the charity has been specially selected and so she has a chance to win $50,000 towards her organization! Take a minute and vote for her idea at http://refresheverything.com/outdoorsforacause (you can also read more about the organization at the link)

Thanks everyone!~

Hi Y’all - I have rescheduled Leah’s appearance at the Sierra Grille to THIS MONDAY, January 11th. Hope you all can make it, and sorry again about the confusion last week!

The show will feat. Leah Randazzo (vocals), Tristan Gutner (bass), Jon Fisher (drums), and myself (keys). We hit at 9.30pm, and there’s no cover. We would love to see some of you there!

Lots of great shows happening in November…hope to see you out! Here’s what’s going down:

The Sierra Grille Monday Night Jazz Series continues EVERY MONDAY at the Sierra Grille in Northampton, MA….9.30pm to Midnight, no cover. For those who haven’t checked out this venue, it’s a great spot. The food is creative and delicious and the beer and wine selection is top notch. And the best part…the prices are reasonable. My trio hosts the Monday Night Jazz series with a special guest every week and we’d love to see you down there. The lineup for November is:

November 9: Rick Tuntunjian (tenor sax), Jamie MacDonald (bass), Dylan Kumnick (drums). A fun night of my original tunes and jazz standards, all fueled by the fiery sax playing of Rick Tutunjian.

November 16: Leah Randazzo (vocals), Darby Wolf (organ), Jon Fisher (drums). Glad to be joined by Valley favorite Leah Randazzo, an incredible R&B/jazz vocalist. Come check out original music of Leah’s as well as soul/R&B covers and jazz standards.

November 23: Evelyn Harris (vocals), Tristan Gutner (bass), Jon Fisher (drums). I’m excited to be joined once again by the spectacular performer, Evelyn Harris of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Not to mention, I’ll be reunited with my great friend and collaborator Tristan Gutner on bass. Don’t miss this evening of R&B, soul, and jazz! (My apologies to those who came out for Evelyn’s last show and we weren’t there…I was not feeling well and had to cancel at the minute…)

November 30: David Goodrich (guitar), Tristan Gutner (bass), Dylan Kumnick (drums). This will be an exciting night of spontaneous and creative music that will feature the great guitar work of one my favorite local musicians David “Goody” Goodrich.

In addition to the Monday Night Jazz series, I have some exciting duo shows at some new venues…

Thursday, November 12th - Duo with Michael Dunning (bass)
Elmer’s (396 Main Street Ashfield, MA) 6-8pm, No cover.
An evening of choice jazz standards and original music; come for a delicious dinner and great music…

Tuesday, November 17th - Duo wth Zack Danziger (guitar)
Side Street Cafe (42 Maple Street, Florence, MA), 6-9pm
My first time playing Zack’s Duo series at a great cafe in Florence…it’s early, come out!

Last Wednesday, July 8th, two tracks off of my new CD were played on Worcester’s WICN, “New England’s Jazz and Folk Station.” This was very exciting for me….WICN is a big jazz station with a lot of listeners and any radio play opens up my music to a whole new audience. Please email the DJ and tell him that you appreciate him playing independent musicians and that you want to hear more of my CD on air! His name is Joe Zupan, and his email address is jzupan@wicn.org. You can tune in to his program, Jazz Matinee, Monday through Thursday 2-6pm, at wicn.org (live stream) or 90.5 (Worcester area)….thanks for your help!

Many of you have asked, so I thought I’d relay the numerous places you can purchase my new CD, “Ocean Rising”

1. First, the best place to buy one is at a live show! Come see me every Monday night at the Sierra Grille.
2. If you can’t catch me live, you can buy the physical CD or download the mp3s online at www.cdbaby.com/dantonatrio2
3. If you are in the Northampton area, you can buy the CD at local favorites Turn It Up! Records and Mystery Train.
4. If you want to use up those leftover iTunes giftcards from Christmas, you can buy my CD there too!

Many thanks.

Thanks to all those who made it out to the CD release show last Friday. It was an amazing time…playing with Makaya and Tristan was fulfilling as ever, and the room was filled with family, friends, and a bunch of wonderful new fans. We were all thankful to have such a loving and supportive crowd…..the perfect way to celebrate the release of our second CD. And for those of you who didn’t make the show, thanks to Dave Miller and Drew from Greenfield Community Television, the show was recorded and videotaped. I’ll keep you all updated on that….hopefully I will have some audio/video on my various sites up soon. OK…time for me to relax! Off to Rhode Island for a good old-fashioned family vacation.

Just wanted to give a final reminder for my trio’s CD RELEASE SHOW….it’s going to be THIS FRIDAY June 26th, at the Pushkin Gallery….the details:

Jeff D’Antona Trio feat. Makaya McCraven (drums) and Tristan Gutner (bass) CD Release Show
The Pushkin (4 Federal Street, Greenfield, MA)
Doors at 7pm / Cash Bar

I hope you all can make it! Now that Makaya is out in Chicago and Tristan is…well…going where the wind takes him in his Tristan-like-way, it is a rare opportunity that the three of us get to perform as a unit. We are all thrilled for the opportunity to share this special night with you, as we celebrate the release of our second CD and first effort in the studio, “Ocean Rising.”

So come by, be one of the first to buy a copy of the record, and don’t miss this opporutnity to see Makaya, Tristan, and I in action at a live performance!

Thanks again for all of your support.

Hope to see you Friday!

Jeff D.

the place where it all happens.

June promises to be an exciting month for me….first and foremost, the NEW CD, ‘OCEAN RISING’ IS DONE!! It’s been a long process, and I thank all of you for your kind words and patience along the way….it is finally here. I am thrilled about all aspects of the final product and can’t wait to share it with you all.

This means it’s time for a CD Release Show! We’ve decided on a date, FRIDAY JUNE 26th, but I am still ironing out a few details in terms of the location. It will be somewhere in Western MA and I will keep you all posted. But there WILL BE A SHOW on JUNE 26th, even if it’s in my living room (smile…) I am happy to announce that despite living in three different parts of the country I will be joined with long time friends and collaborators Makaya McCraven (drums) and Tristan Gutner (bass). We hope you can join us, it promises to be a special evening of music. So mark your calendars, and I hope to see you all there.

In the meantime, to give you all a little taste of the new record, I’ve put three new tracks off of the album on my Myspace page. Ocean Rising is a piece of mine, Street Savior was written by Tristan, and Svetlana is Makaya’s piece. I hope you enjoy them. Check them out at:

www.myspace.com/jeffdantona

There’s also some fun shows happening in June, including a special guest appearance by renowned vocalist Evelyn Harris of Sweet Honey in the Rock (THIS MONDAY), and a special show on my birthday, June 15th, with guests Makaya McCraven (drums), Leah Randazzo (vocals), and Darby Wolf (organ). (see details below….)

JUNE SHOWS:

Monday 6/1: Sierra Grille with guest Eveyln Harris (vocals) 9-12 / Free (THIS MONDAY!)
Monday 6/8: Sierra Grille with guest Jamie MacDonald (bass) 9-12 / Free
Monday 6/15: MY BIRTHDAY BASH at the Sierra Grille with guests Makaya McCraven (drums), Leah Randazzo (vocals), and Darby Wolf (organ) 9-12 / Free
Thursday 6/18: Amherst Coffee - TRIO 8.30-11 / Free
Monday 6/22: Sierra Grille - TRIO 9-12 / Free
Friday 6/26: CD RELEASE! with Makaya McCraven (drums) and Tristan Gutner (bass) / Time and Location TBD

Friends -

Just wanted to let you know about some exciting shows I’ll be playing in May….

As always, my trio will be performing at the Sierra Grille (Strong Ave in the center of Northampton) EVERY MONDAY. We play from 9-12, and there’s no cover. If you haven’t been around to check out a Sierra show, come on by….it’s a great time…nice atmosphere, delicious (and reasonably priced) food and booze, and good music.

The lineup for the rest of the month is:

TOMORROW, May 11: Special guest Leah Randazzo (vocals), with Darby Wolf (organ), and Jon Fisher (drums) We’ll be playing a bunch of Leah’s originals as well as cover tunes by Fiona Apple, Eryka Badu, Bill Withers, and more.

May 18: Special Guest Rick Tutunjian (tenor sax) with Gary Culver (bass) and Dylan Kumnick (drums)

May 25: Special Guest David “Goody” Goodrich (guitar) with Gary Culver (bass) and Dylan Kumnick (drums)

I will also be playing at Amherst Coffee at MAY 21st, from 8.30 - 11pm….Note the date change here! There was a bit of a scheduling mixup….but I’ll be there on the 21st for sure with my trio….we have a bunch of new tunes in the repertoire, and I’d love to see you there.

Last, June is turning out to be quite an exciting month: be on the lookout for a CD Release Party, a Birthday Show at the Sierra Grille, and several special performances with my long lost bandmates Tristan and Makaya!

Take care and hope you are all enjoying the Spring.

Cheers….Jeff