Volume 35 Number 6

After undergoing a liver biopsy in 2000, celebrated Portland jazz pianist Mark Simon was diagnosed with a life-threatening liver disease. Doctors don't know how long he's been suffering from this illness, but they say a liver transplant is essential to his survival. He was added to the transplant waiting list at University of Washington Medical Center last year.

YOU can make a difference in Mark Simon's life. Every little bit of help is important to Simon and greatly appreciated. Please tell all your friends and invite them to this event. You never know who may be willing to help.

Although Simons illness has taken a toll on his quality of life, it has never affected his passion for music. He has been an in-demand professional musician for more than 30 years and has had the honor of playing and recording with many world-class artists. Despite Simon's health challenges, he manages to maintain an active performance schedule. In 1995, he released a critically-acclaimed CD, Portland Nights, which features eight of Simon's original compositions. He has two more recordings that he hopes to release in the near future. Simon's main focus is to regain his health so he can continue his lifelong musical pursuit. Simon also loves cooking, watching the Chicago Cubs play and spending time with family and friends. Read more »

Not really a secret anymore; I was so favorably impressed with the July 4 celebration at Corbett, Oregon, that I just have to say so. The whole show on Monday night was over the top, with the band Random Pressure performing when Dance Instructor/Choreographer Maryanne Carter and KT arrived. These guys are Bona Fide! Wonderful singers, real-time band.

Everything was clean, organized, courteous and efficient, all around the entire area at Corbett schools.

After the show, when the fireworks were going off, more people had arrived and it was dark. It was hard to find the return path up to the entrance. KT hauls stuff on a wheelie cart, you know, chairs, cooler, etc., (no portable microwave, we're roughing it, thank you) and a very nice young man named Nick not only led our little caravan back to the entrance, hauled the overbalanced, overloaded wheelie cart up there and all the way down to the parking area, around the fence and right up to the Happy Hyundai with Hammie Hampster in the window.

Nick says he was born and raised right there in Corbett, graduated from their schools, and of course knew his way around even in the dark. There are lots of good kids in the world but Nick is fast becoming a man. This is the kind of young people who come out of Corbett Schools. Bravo!

Lew Jones’ Ecstatic Cahoots is a delight! The title is from a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby: “As if we had been in ecstatic cahoots on that fact all the time.”

The short instrumental opening cut, Intro, by Justin Jones, is at once non-verbal and well-stated. The second number The Day Will Come sounds like “if Jim Morrison did world beat music.” But it’s all about love: “The day will come when you would know just how much love one heart could know…” The guitar lines demonstrate a successful modern jazz application of Eastern scales.

“You’re gonna fall in love with me again” is the message in cut number three, a happy mountain-grass tune with various stringed instruments and some vaguely unidentified ones. The next song, saying “It ain’t right,” uses a blend of mandolin-type sounds, a four/four beat and a twist of Eastern scales and instrumentation. Read more »

Whether or not the name and music of Redwood Son has yet hit the big radar, this year’s “Best New Artist” of the Portland Music Awards heads for the summer with a rocket in their pocket destined to catch waves. Their 20-song double disc debut, The Lion’s Inside, boasts a dynamic versatility that crosses the borders of their West Coast Americana with hook-laden roots-rock and alternative country. All of this maintains an authentic universal “pop” vibe.

This was most evident at their “Double Album Release Party” at The Aladdin Theatre on June 11. From their first number, Good To Be A Kid (“when it’s Saturday night and it’s past your bedtime”), with Josh Malm alone on tall stool with guitar; to the full band song, Redwood Country; packing the dance area in front of the stage, they ‘owned’ music-goers at The Aladdin. It was obvious that this band has networked an adoring following of fans and music-lovers. Read more »