Kaveh Rastegar: Blog/News

I've been back from Italy for about a week now. Our last show was a week ago. I was there with Ligabue for three and a half weeks playing in Verona at the Arena. We had ten shows. Eight of them were with the Orchestra of the Arena. This was the second time we've been there with the orchestra so it was kind of a reunion to see everyone I had worked with last year. They are all such great musicians. So professional and great to work with. This time, I had a great time hanging out with all of the bass players. These guys were the sweetest. They let me use their basses and bows to practice during down time. I also got to hang out with them and spend time at their homes with their families. A couple of the guys Luca, and Roberto live walking distance to the arena downtown in Verona. I couldn't imagine having a commute like that to go to work year in and year out. They live in one of the most incredibly gorgeous cities I've ever seen with a five minute walk to one of the most beautiful buildings standing on earth. One night all of us went out to dinner together and it felt great to be an honorary member os the bass crew for that night. It was also so great to see everyone in the Ligabue band and crew. Over the last year and a half I have had the honor and pleasure of getting to know some of the coolest people ever. The music has been getting better and better and I'm so excited for more great things to come!

I'm in Verona with Ligabue and band. We've been here for a couple weeks rehearsing and have started the series of ten concerts at the Verona Arena. It's been amazing. So great to see all of my friends here in Italia. The first two concerts last weekend were called Solo Rock N Roll as they were with the band only. We were able to cut loose and play unbridled unashamed rock for thousands of amazing fans. I'm told that the proceeds for the concerts have gone to benefit the rebuilding process of the earthquake in Aquila, Abruzzo. I'm very happy to be a part of something like that. The next eight concerts are going to be us accompanied by the Orchestra of the Arena of Verona. They are a great orchestra full of great people and today being the first rehearsal with them, I'm excited to hear how it all sounds. Once again, I'm totally happy and honored to be a part of this great production! Va Bene andiamo al arena!

Kneebody is excited to be leaving for Europe this week to play in France, Italy and Holland. Here are the dates for the concerts:

07.09.09
11:30PM
Viene Jazz Festival » Vienne, France
Collaboration Concert with electronic artist Daedelus (www.daedelusmusic.com).


Jazz Mix - Magic Mirror Parking Ouest Office du Tourisme 38200 Vienne Performance at 12am
Doors open: 11pm
Price: free


07.10.09
9:00PM
Sunside Jazz Club » Paris, FR
Sunside Jazz
60, Rue Des Lombards
Paris, France

other info:
Sets will be from 9pm to 1am (usually 2 1/2 sets)

Contact: +33 01 40 26 46 60


07.15.09
9:30PM
Al Vecchio Tagliere Gaverina
www.alvecchiotagliere.it
Piazzetta Manzù, Via Sant' Alessandro 13
Tel. e Fax 035/244725
Bergamo, IT



07.16.09
9:30PM
Piazza della Liberta » Polenza, IT



07.18.09
8:00PM
Bimhuis » Amsterdam, HO
Piet Heinkade 3 Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1019 BR
Contact: +31 20 788 2150

These clips have just been uploaded on youtube of the last Kneebody/Busdriver show at the Little Temple in Silverlake in the Winter of 2008. The video is taken from a computer sitting next to the sound booth. Not the best picture but I'm so psyched about how this music sounds. Bus is one of our favorite collaborations ever. I can't wait to work on an album with him. Rad rad rad.

"Gun Control"

"Imaginary Places"

Just got back from our trip to Denver and Minneapolis. It was all so great to get together with everyone and play and also see Denver and a new city where we’ve never played before. When we arrived in Denver, I went for an ambitious jog through my mom’s neighborhood. I came back exhilarated that I weathered the high altitude but later was disappointed that my left knee started to ache considerably. We had dinner at my mom’s house, watched a little bit of the Nuggets/Hornets game and later headed to the radio station KUVO with my friend Matt Seres to do an interview for our show at Dazzle. It’s always great to get to drive through Denver, retracing the route to KUVO that I used to take back when I was seventeen to DJ there overnight on fridays. We got there and had an interview with DJ Joshua Trinidad, a great person and musician. He’s been hosting a show there for the past few years and has always been so welcoming to us, playing our music and promoting our shows. We followed that with a killer chocolate shake at the Denver Diner on Speer and Colfax. Sitting there, we got to see Nuggets fans speeding down the street celebrating the team’s victory. The next morning, we were up early at six thirty to make it across town to teach a couple hours at Legacy High school. We worked with some great young musicians teaching them Shane’s song “The Slip” and playing improvisation games. We then headed south to another high school, Highland Ranch High School and played for students there. They had a concert that night and played some of the music they were rehearsing for us. I got together for a lesson with a young bass player, Sam Zarrin who’s father Ali is close friends with my father. Sam sounds great. Our sets at Dazzle that night were great. Now they have a full back line, drums, rhodes and bass amp are there already so we didn’t need to do the usual driving around to borrow friends’ equipment (thanks Daren and Derek, Mark and others for so many years of help in that department). The next morning, we flew to Minnesota. Minneapolis was amazing. This is the town where I bought my P bass five or six years ago. We’ve all been excited to play here. Our friend’s in the band Happy Apple are from here and they told us about the Dakota. Our visit was short but was great. We played at the Dakota Jazz club (www.dakotacooks.com). This is a true great modern jazz club. These people are all so dedicated and great there. When we arrived, a combo was playing. It was a sax player, bassist and pianist. They were celebrating the saxophonist’s 90th birthday. That’s right, the man was turning 90 and he sounded wonderful. They all sounded so good. They played “What’s New” and it was killing… We played to a really great crowd there. Two sets. Thank you to our friends who made it and brought their friends, Shari Mohabir, Ali Franzen, and Jared Hankins. We appreciate it so much. After we played, saxophonist Brandon Wozniak (http://www.myspace.com/brandonwozniak) played with a trio (guitar and drums). They sounded fantastic. Again reminding me that the best music is everywhere. Late after the gig, Shane and I took a cab around the corner to see my friends Colin Hay (www.colinhay.com) and Ace Baker who were in Minneapolis for a solo concert Colin was performing. We had a nightcap there and made it back to the hotel, slept a few hours and woke and headed to the airport for home. Now, we’re recharging and will be back in New York next month for our workshop at SIM (www.SchoolForImprov.org).

Been in the studio the last couple days with producer Mike Caren as well as my boys Josh Lopez, John Wicks and Jeremy Ruzumna. We've been creating some great sounds.

Last night I played at Home with Timothy Young and Nate Wood. We played older Thruster songs and new songs we've written recently and the music sounded so good.

If you play music want to participate in a one week workshop lead by Kneebody, we will be doing a residency at SIM (The School for Improvisation Music) in June. The program will be open to all instruments and all skill levels - preformed groups are welcome. In past residencies, the school has seen everything from highschool and college players up to adult hobbyists and retired pros. Here is all the info - deadline for applying is May 1st!

DATE/TIME:
June 15th to the 19th, 2009 11am to 5pm each day

TUITION:
$550 for the week (includes two lessons with any member during week)

LOCATION:
Brooklyn, NY

WEBSITES:
www.SchoolForImprov.org
(Click on 'SIM Workshops', then 'Kneebody Intensive Faculty and Schedule')
www.Kneebody.com
www.myspace.com/Kneebody

REGISTRATION/QUESTIONS:
Contact Ralph or Areni at: info@schoolforimprov.org

DEADLINE: May 1st, 2009

ABOUT SIM:
Founded by Trumpeter Ralph Alessi, the School for Improvisational Music (SIM) is the instructional facet of CIM for aspiring students of creative music. SIM has held 12 intensive workshops since 2001, attended by 500 students from over 10 countries. The SIM faculty consists of a cross-section of the most creative improvisers from the jazz and contemporary music fields.

This makes me so happy. You fourteen year olds are so lucky you can see this stuff whenever you want, or are maybe spoiled because of it. Here are The Dead Kennedy's in the studio recording the music that made it to the In God We Trust Inc Ep. Most of the songs from that session are up on youtube and they're all amazing. What a freaking good band they were. I was so infatuated by them that I bought all of their albums on vinyl, cassette and CD and called Jello's mother on the phone when I was in eighth grade. Good times. I love Klaus quoting "Teen Town" while they're taking a break...



The other Best Band in the world. Bad Brains. This is them playing Banned in DC in 1983. I was up in Seattle last week recording with Matt Chamberlain who has this DVD- Live at CBGB's. We watched it a bunch of times. So fierce and fun. I love the John Belushi dude who holds court on the stage during the beginning of the song. He's featured prominently in the DVD.

There has been a lot of recording lately. Everyone has their own studio and is constantly working on cool stuff. we've all been trading drives and driving around to each other's places and getting cool stuff done. I'm trying to work on new music and have been carving away at it here at home. I worked on a couple of songs with Jesca Hoop for her new album with producer Tony Berg. I recorded on a song for John Gold that my friend Scott Seiver is producing. Matt Chamberlain and I recorded some jams up in Seattle for a new project. Been working on songs with my friend Eric Ryan for the band Proud Mary who are from Manchester. Went to San francisco to record with Michael Urbano and Corrado Rustici for a new Italian artist named Romeus. Just worked on a few songs for a movie that is being scored by Brian Reitzell with Tim Young (Tim wrote these awesome country tunes that will be playing in the background of the film). I played on a few songs the other day with Jeremy Ruzumna and Josh for a new artist. Kneebody recorded a new album that is badass. Josh Lopez, Jeremy Ruzumna and John Wicks and I have been recording a bunch too. Fun fun.

I just got back from being in Seattle for the last few days recording music with my buddy Matt Chamberlain (www.mattchamberlain.com). Matt's one of my favorite musicians. We spent the days hanging out at his house eating, drinking, jogging, watching movies and recording really cool stuff. Bromance! Lot's of improvisations in his cool studio that will be so much fun to cut up and build on. I'm so excited to see what this music becomes!!

Last night I played at Largo with Colin Hay and band. I think it was one of the best shows I've ever played with his band. Colin sounded so good. The music was so fresh. We played new songs from his album that will be coming out sometime in the next few months. The band consisted of Charlie Paxson on drums, Kiki Ebsen on piano, Sean Woolstenhume on guitar and Cecilia Noel singing background with Colin singing and playing guitar with myself on bass. With the addition of Sean to the band, the sound of the group is so modular and fluid. He's such a beautiful player. There were really quiet moments and some rocking moments as well. I really hope that this particular band gets a chance to tour together at some point this year. It could only get better and better.

What a cool performance. The pairing reminds me of Caetano Veloso using drummers from Bahia on his albums and in his concerts. I love the shot towards the end of some of those USC guys playing. They look psyched! Holy crap dude, we're jamming with Radiohead!

Here's Caetano playing the song Tropicalia. So badass. I saw him on that tour. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Jaques Morlenbaum playing the cello is so inspiring. He plays and improvises exactly how I'd like to play the bass.

The Bardot Band has been sounding really good lately. We played this Tuesday with a great drummer Cully Simonton. He's badass. Also, Nikka Costa sat in with us on the Nine Inch Nails tune 1,000,000. Blast off.

So I just found out that one of my best friends has been nominated for a grammy for song of the year for a song that he co wrote. I just checked out the Grammy site and saw this:



Category 3

Song Of The Year
(A Songwriter(s) Award. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.)

American Boy
William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters (Estelle Featuring Kanye West)
Track from: Shine
[Atlantic/Homeschool; Publishers: Will.I.Am Music/Cherry River Music/Chrysalis Publishing/John Legend Publishing/Cherry River Music/Please Gimme My Publishing/EMI Blackwood Music/Larry Leron Music/Speir Music/Broke, Spoke and Gone Publishing]

Chasing Pavements
Adele Adkins & Eg White, songwriters (Adele)
Track from: 19
[XL Recordings/Columbia; Publishers: Universal-Songs of Polygram Int.]

I'm Yours
Jason Mraz, songwriter (Jason Mraz)
Track from: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
[Atlantic; Publisher: Goo Eyed Music]

Love Song
Sara Bareilles, songwriter (Sara Bareilles)
Track from: Little Voice
[Epic; Publisher: Tiny Bear Music]

Viva La Vida
Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay)
Track from: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
[Capitol Records; Publishers: Universal Music-MGB Songs]

Josh, you're a badass!

We've done this collaboration a number of times. It's always been such a cool show. We'll be playing our last show of 2008 with Busdriver, a super creative and amazing MC from here in LA at the Little Temple tonight. We'll start the night paying his music with him and finish the night with a Kneebody set. Badass!

Last week Josh Lopez asked me to play a show with Dennis Lambert. Mr. Lambert is a songwriter who wrote a lot of great songs like Night Shift, Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got, Don't Look Any Further and produced Glen Campbell's hits Country Boy and Rhinestone Cowboy. He's a great songwriter from a generation just removed from tin pan alley. Songwriters in the vein of a standard song. In the band was Josh and Scott Seiver. It was so much fun to get to rehearse and play with my old buddies and make the music sound great. At the gig, we played "Don't Look Any Further" with Saida Garrett. She originally sang the song and also wrote "Man In the Mirror". and Walter Orange from the Commodores joined us on vocals for "Night Shift". I was psyched to get to do the gig. It was a lot of fun.

It’s the morning of November 5th, 2008. For some of us it feels like waking up hung over from an amazing party. Last night we elected a new president. I’m really proud of our country. The older I get and the more I get to travel and read history, the more I appreciate and respect our system of government. I’m in awe of the way that in the midst of two wars and an economic crisis, our country can step aside, respect the framework of our system and peacefully elect a new government. For similarly powerful countries in the world, regime change could require blood to be shed and at minimum chaos. But I was really amazed at the way that it seemed everyone put their differences aside and respected the outcome. John McCain made an amazing and eloquent concession speech. He showed the respect and dignity of someone who deserved to be running in a presidential race. His words and example I think will help to heal the divide that exists in our country. Obama’s speech was amazing! It was a really great night!In addition to the election, I’m also extremely disappointed that California voted for Proposition 8. It sends a paranoid and unfair message and I think will be looked back on by everyone as injustice. Prop 8 was disguised as an initiative that was for family values and pro-children when it was really homophobia and bigotry. I think that California is more of a complicated state than people think. And also that LA County who voted unanimously for the measure is also misunderstood as socially progressive.

I'm in Verona this week playing seven concerts with Ligabue at the Verona arena. We played the first one last night. We're here playing with the Verona Opera Orchestra. I've had such a great time working with everyone. It's such a beautiful production and I'm really proud to be a part of it all.

Here's a clip from the crowd of us playing Certe Notti. I love this because even though these guys are in the back, they still seem to be having a great time. And it is all really beautiful to watch:

Hi Everyone -

This Tuesday Kneebody will be playing at The Temple Bar. It's going
to be our last concert there and it will probably the last time I'll
ever play at The Temple Bar because they've announced that they'll be
closing at the end of this month.

It's been really strange thinking about that over the past week. The
Temple Bar has always been here while I've been living in Los Angeles.
They opened the year I moved here. Before it was the Temple Bar, the
bar at 1026 Wilshire was called At My Place. I never knew it as that
but I heard that in the seventies, while he was here in LA living his
"lost weekend", John Lennon played there.

My friends and I were some of first bunch of musicians playing at The
Temple Bar when they opened. For the first few years I think that I
was there almost every night of the week; sometimes playing in three
bands in a night. At least it felt that way. I was there when we
put together a 20 growing to 30 eventually making it to a 70 piece
orchestra filling the bar. I played with some of my childhood heros
there. I was also there on many nights playing duets or trios with
singer songwriters. I also heard some of the most world class
inspiring live music I've ever heard there.

Early on, the owners Louie and Nettie Ryan and their booking agent
Megan Jacobs created an atmosphere that embraced the music scene and
the musicians that helped create it. There were many times when
Louie and Nettie would tell me and everyone else that we were all
family. That was their way to nurture and reassure all of us. And it
really did make me feel special to know that in this giant sprawling
city at the edge of this big continent, there was a place where we
could all play, anytime we wanted. We all felt how special it was.
And with music communities being as close as they are, word spread
quickly. Soon, the Temple Bar became a great destination for touring
bands from other parts of the country and the world.

Kneebody, in it's earliest stage played there every Monday. It was
during the time of those Mondays that we were able to write and learn
a lot of our songs. It was a weekly composition deadline for us to
write new music and try it in front of an audience. If we didn't
have that comfortable workshop environment, I'm not sure what the
band would sound like today or if the band would still exist.

Over the years, everyone started getting busier and busier.
Between spending time on the road, in the studio or just being
somewhere else that life has taken me, there have been bigger
intervals between my gigs there. The Temple Bar has always been a
place that I've kept coming back to. It definitely has been that way
for Kneebody. It's always been the best Los Angeles venue for us.
And because of how easy it's been to play there, it's been a palce
that we've kind of taken for granted. We've been able to create some
great nights of double and triple bills there inviting our friends
from out of town to play with us. It's going to be tough to find a
new place to play.

I want to say that for the record, I'm very happy to have played
there and am grateful to Louie, Nettie, Dexter, Swan and everyone
else of the The Temple Bar cast over the years. Thank you all so
much. It will be hard to picture anything else there at 11th and
Wilshire.




Here's the info...

@ THE TEMPLE BAR
Nels Cline w/Norton Wisdom
Todd Sickafoose's Blood Orange (featuring Jenny Scheinman)
Kneebody (Minus Shane)

Tuesday, September 9th
$10
ALL AGES
Doors open at 8pm
1026 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles
Info/Tickets: 310.393.6611 or www.templebarlive.com

www.kavehrastegar.com
www.kneebody.com
www.myspace.com/kneebody