The title of the photo here is a little misleading. It really should be titled United States to Belgium. The couple pictured have become an integral aspect of touring musicians in Western Europe. Koen Vandenhoudt and his wife Christel reside…

We’re two shows into a European tour with People, Places & Things. While I’m writing this we’re on our way to Cologne, and yes they have free wifi on the train (U.S. please take a lesson on rail travel). Anyway…

I spent most of last week in the studio working on two new releases [if there’s anyone out there who I haven’t responded to in the last month it’s because I was trying to get ready for these recordings…sorry]…

  Back in August of 2008 I was fortunate enough to be commissioned to expand People, Places & Things to an octet. The concept was to feature three prominent musicians of Chicago in the 1950’s and create new music in a…

I was flattered that Howard Reich, of the Chicago Tribune, chose me as a Chicagoan of the Year for Jazz. Although it’s nice to be selected out of many people, it’s not really about a person, but a collection…

I just returned from a Loose Assembly 10 day tour in mostly Poland (we had 1 show in Munich). The tour went extremely well, the band seems to get better and better, especially since we don't rehearse anymore - don't…

In the November issue of DownBeat, you can see a feature that I wrote for their "Master Class" column. When I was first asked to contribute to the magazine I didn’t feel very confident about sharing any ideas on drumming…