iPadJAZZart at Healdsburg Jazz Festival, ShotGun Wedding, hip hop jazz! June 2012

Hip Hop Meets Jazz,  Shotgun Wedding Quartet - a Jazz Mafia creation.
WOW! did I have fun hopping while painting.
This was a dynamic informal performance a the elegant (check out the bathrooms) Spoonbar just off the plaza in Healdsburg. We happened to be walking by on our first evening at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, and although there was absolutely no space, I managed to sardine myself into a heaving mass of happy dancers, where I could see the action some of the time.

At a break I met Adam Theis - the Jazz Mafia don, and learn more about his innovative music ambitions which include a 60 piece hip hop symphony (Brass, Bows & Beats) for which Theis is the principal composer. We got this album. The Shotgun Wedding album having totally sold out.

Have not had this much fun in a long time, and I am surprised that I was able to catch Adam Theis, bass, MC Dublin, vocals, and Pat Korte, drums on my iPad. This iPad painting is autographed by Dublin and Theis. Thank you guys! Missing from the image is Joe Cohen on saxes and keyboard. Frankly, I couldn't see Joe. Sorry!
ArtStudio app, 3rd generation iPad

We only caught the last weekend of the Healdsburg Festival, and enjoyed the formal performances at the Raven Theatre, as well as the finale in the blisteringly hot sunshine at the Rodney Strong Vineyards, but I thought the informal jam at Hotel Healdsburg the last night which almost all the luminaries of the weekend came, and this hip hop jazz was the most fun.

Images:PadJAZZart, of Shotgun Wedding Quartet painted during live performance June 7, 2012 at Spoonbar in Healdsburg. The painting in progress, photo of me with iPad in lap, by G. Inkeles.

Being in Healdsburg is always a pleasure. The lovely shady plaza, the great food and wine, and as we discovered this time, Sonoma Lake. Just a twenty minute drive through the vineyards and into the foothills - a  cool breeze and a place for picnicking and a swim. We will be back!


Photo of Jessica Felix, artistic director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, by G. Inkeles.

2 fab JAZZ links: Monterey Jazz Festival, Redwoods Jazz Alliance

I have decided to add links to my favorite jazz sites starting with the The Monterey Jazz Festival. I have a new series of live paintings from this years festival which was the 54th. The link covers this one and shows what's being planned for the 55th in 2012.

I am also linking to our wonderful local Jazz organization: The Redwoods Jazz Alliance. The next performance will be with great drummer Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom. We have seen her with Dr. Lonnie Smith at the Monterey Jazz festival, and are very much looking forward to having her on our home turf at HSU on Sunday Oct. 30. I hope capture her on my iPad.

Here two live iPad paintings of jazz drummers: Justin Brown with the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet, (red background) and Michael Formanek's Gerald Cleaver.

Amazing Esperanza Spaulding, live jazz iPad painting of her performing at Humbold State University.

Cool signaturs on the iPad, President Obama, Michael Blake, Soeren Kjaergaard, Vijay Ayer ....

I was exited to see our President sign an iPad. I have asked the jazz musicians I have painted on the iPad to sign their images. (Well, not all of them, just he ones I was able to catch after the performance). Here's an image of President Obama scribbling his name on the iPad, and images of some of the signed iPad paintings I have. Note, no pen, pencil or stylus needed, your fingertip works fine!

And the ArtStudio app works just fine too - and all the other drawing and painting apps I would think.

At a recent rally in Seattle, Sylvester Cann had President Obama sign his iPad. Running the Adobe Ideas app on the tablet since "the President doesn't sign autographs along the ropeline because pens can be used as a weapon," Cann was able to get what he claims to be the first Presidential autograph under these conditions.

"Secret service was leery about the idea, but they warmed up to the idea and the President thought it was cool," Cann wrote Wired.com. "He looked slightly surprised, but proceeded to use his finger to scribble on the iPad."

Cann has set up a Google webpage to showcase the signature and a video from the signing as well as to track media mentions of the event. It's named, simply, "I figured, 'Why not ask?'"