Author Archive: mmelinger
Au Revoir, Miles
The moment is finally here. In seven days, we put the AJW’s Miles Davis season to bed. It didn’t feel like it would ever end, back in September of last year. Then, we were looking at an unbroken sea of 124 dates. Today, there are five left. Over the last nine months, I learned a …
How to Make a Million Dollars Playing Jazz
Start with two million… I know, ancient, right? But there is a reason the conventional wisdom is just that. A while back, a friend told me he had been talking about me with his private students. I assumed it was just another instance of someone offering me up as a cautionary tale, but no. He …
Remembering Marty Allen and Bill Kirchner
No, not the comedian and the saxophonist. Those are two different fellows. Marty Allen was a pianist and dear friend who moved to Austin from the Bay Area some seventeen years ago. A remarkably gifted musician with a highly original approach, Marty worked with many people, and as a soloist, until he died unexpectedly of …
Haute Qui-sine
So I’m looking through my new issue of Austin Monthly, a must-have local publication (because it was offered on a Groupon), when I ran across a recipe by local celebrity chef Paul Qui. Quickly realizing the opportunity to make a truly horrible headline pun, I decide to give it a whirl. Like many professional …
Funny How Time Slips Away
In 1975 (a mere 37 years ago, but who’s counting), I was an undergraduate in the UT School of Communications, which had recently relocated to a monolithic rust-colored building at the corner of 26th and Guadalupe, where it remains today. And considering the education I received there, rust is a particularly appropriate color choice. At …
How to Explain the Internet to your 92-year-old Mother over the Telephone
The short answer: don’t. Really. It’s a waste of breath. It only confuses her further. Who needs the stress? She does, evidently. She can’t grasp why there are copies of Endle St. Cloud’s Thank You All Very Much on the long-defunct International Artists label being sold on Amazon as CD’s and MP3’s. Or what an …
Herding Cats for Fun, Not So Much Profit
Best thing about being leader of a professional jazz ensemble: the players are all accomplished enough to make their own musical decisions. Worst thing about being the leader of a professional jazz ensemble: same thing. But if you’re an easygoing guy like me <hey, quitcher laughing over there>, that’s not the worst thing in …
Time to pay the PIPA
Hi there! I don’t exist, actually. Back in June of last year, I was asked to attend a meeting in San Antonio at the office of Rep. Lamar Smith, the author of the infamous SOPA bill that he recently withdrew in a hailstorm of negative public opinion. At the time, I was serving on …
Meet me at the intersection of Commerce and Art
A friend asked me recently, “Doesn’t it give you a lot of pleasure when you perform to look out and see everyone dancing and enjoying your music?” Well, of course it does. But it’s not the main motivator in doing what I do. I guess people forget that this is a business. Music is …
The Future Is Here! (and it needs to get paid before it leaves)
Yesterday I attended an invite-only roundtable discussion on cultural economic development, featuring author and consultant Louise Stevens. It was part of the ongoing dialogue on the arts in Austin hosted by the city’s Cultural Arts Division. Ms. Stevens is from out of state, but has been studying the arts scene in Austin and other cities …
saxsalon 