Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Much Needed Update

Hello Friends,

Lots to catch up on.

It was great to see such amazing fans at our recent show in Boise, ID. We hadn't performed there in several years and it was awesome to be welcomed back. Often when GFT performs at high school and college jazz festivals, we will spend time working with school groups. We had a great time getting to meet and work with all of the fabulous choirs at Boise State University.

Last Friday was quite a day. It began for me at 6:00 am as my high school jazz choir traveled to Bellevue to perform at the Music Educators Northwest Division Conference. They hit the stage at 8:00 and were done by 9:15. A good time was had by all. Then I spent the rest of the day fighting off a cold just long enough to make it through our gig at Benaroya Hall in Seattle that evening. Peter and Brennan spent the entire day running sound for the All-Northwest jazz choir (of which five of my students were members, thank you very much). In spite of over half us being sick, the gig at Benaroya was a blast. Inviting our friend Randy Taylor to join us for his rendition of James Brown's "I Feel Good" was a real highlight for us. Thanks to all who showed up from far and near (especially those who came back a second time and brought friends or family with them). We appreciate those of you who made a serious trek (some from as far as California) to catch a GFT show. Know that we're working on bringing our show to you, wherever you are. If there is a venue or a festival in your area that you think would be a good fit for GFT, let us know.

Thanks also to Misha Berson at the Seattle Times for this awesome review of our first Benaroya Hall performance.

What's coming up for us? We'll be in Scottsdale, Arizona on March 18th performing at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church. Click here for more info. I'll be honest, now is the time of year  when a couple of days in Arizona is sounding pretty nice. It's snowing everywhere around Seattle as I write this.

And then something else we're really excited about. We will be performing two concerts with the University Of Oregon's On The Rocks in what we hope is the first of many collaborations with the friends we made on The Sing Off. Catch us at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon on April 2nd (tickets available here) and at Town Hall in Seattle on April 29th (tickets available this Friday, February 25th).

Other than that, we're hitting the studio working on some new tunes and moving forward with our next CD. Thanks to everyone who has chimed in on Facebook and Twitter. Keep it up, we love hearing from you!

Best,
Jeff
GFT