New NYSCA grant
I'm on a roll this year with successful project proposals. I've just been awarded my second grant from New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Composer Commission program (NYSCA). [The first one was for Cycles Suite.] I'll be writing, premiering, and recording a set of nonet compositions for the debut of JENTSCH GROUP NO NET. This combined with the guitar and orchestra commission below) will make for a very exciting year!

Just received...
...a commission from American Composer Forum to write a piece to feature myself on electric guitar with the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra...an exciting project scheduled for a premiere in CT during thier 2012-13 season. Details TBA.

Web site adds
Lots of new stuff posted. Check out the new page on the navigation list to the left for scores/lead sheets and the page for writings. Much new content on the interviews page also...

Fractured Pop overdubs and editing...
...were just completed at the end of February in Buffalo. The final disc will have ten tracks and possibly a DVD. Mixing will happen probably this spring.

Fractured Pop Sessions
Just completed basic tracks for a new Jentsch Group Quartet record over a weekend. We were able to capture plenty of good stuff, to which I'll overdub more guitar parts. I have other ideas for the complete package as well, stay tuned. No release date yet.

Review...
...of our concert/video taping at Context Studios in June. The band was really on and we got some very good footage. I'll have to see what I can do about dissemination...

The Cycles Suite CD...
...is now available online at the Fleur de Son Records Web site.

New Commission Premiere
I've been awarded a Brooklyn Conservatory Commission to write something for the Conservatory's New Music Collective concert on May 16, 2009. I'll be setting Emily Dickinson's:
Just Lost, When I Was Saved!

for

Soprano (Julieanne Klein)
Alto Flute (David Wechsler)
Violin (Masha Lankovsky)
Trombone (Gregory Erickson)

The Cycles Suite premiere...
The FEB 11 2008 Jentsch Group Large concert at the Kitchen was a great success. I think we probably got a very good recording of a terific performance by the band. We received a nice review in the NY Sun.

Brooklyn Suite CD...
Some good reviews are in: AllAboutJazz and February's DownBeat Magazine (to be posted). I'm also quoted about the Brooklyn scene in Dan Ouellette's DB Question column in March.

Guest DJ, WKCR New York
I was the guest host on June 6 of the Musician’s Show on WKCR here in NY. Every Wednesday, they invite a working musician into their studios to act as a 'guest DJ' on Jazz Alternatives. I was asked to program jazz that was influential to me, things I’m currently listening to related to jazz, and some of my own stuff. Here’s my hopelessly eclectic play list (spaces indicate set breaks):

Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd - Monk’s Dream

Egberto Gismonte – Kalimba
Norma Winstone – Café

Jentsch Group Large – Follow That Cab (scroll down)

Wes Montgomery – ‘Round Midnight
Jim Hall – I Hear a Rhapsody
Tim Hagans – I Hear a Rhapsody

Duke Ellington – Caravan
Quintet of the Hot Club of France – Body and Soul
Louis Armstrong – Just one of Those Things

80s Nostalgia Set:
Art Ensemble of Chicago – Zero
Oregon – The Rapids

Christopher Jentsch Trio – Summer grasses, all that remains of soldiers’ dreams (scroll down)

Miles Davis – All of You (Plugged Nickel)

Studio orchestra set:
Frank Sinatra - It’s a Lonesome Old Town
Joni Mitchell – A Case of You

Jentsch Group Large – Imagining the Mirror (scroll down)

Garbarek, Vitous, Erskine – Clouds in the Mountain
Paul Bley – Ida Lupino

Tom Waits – Come on up to the House
Sidsel Andriessen – This is the Movie

Thanks to my host, Dave Seidenberg, and to those that called in.

Jentsch Group Large CD Release
Brooklyn Suite CDs are in and are available at the following:

Amazon.com
BarnesandNoble.com
CDUniverse.com
ArtistDirect.com
Fleur De Son Records - additional sound sample available
or through this Web site - go to the music page (scroll down).