Gebhard and I had an awesome time performing in Switzerland! I spoke to quite a few people in the audience after our concert in Zürich and met someone from Le Locle, which is the tiny village in the French part of Switzerland where my great-grandfather was from. My great-grandparents were Swiss and immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island in NYC. There is a book/family tree with the names of all of my DuBois ancestors in Switzerland going back to the 1500s (I believe the book even goes back to the 1400s when my family was all in the south of France!) so it was very cool for me to be able to speak with a local about this rural area of Switzerland where I have deep roots.
I took a day trip today with my dear-old Swiss friend for 28 years, Marc Burger, to Lauterbrunnen/Wengen where I took this photo. Switzerland is an incredible and stunningly beautiful place… Thanks for being such a great audience last night, Fulda!
Gebhard and I are off to Switzerland now and we are excited both for our concert this evening at Jazzclub Allmend Oberengstringen in Zürich (Oberengstringen), CH, 20h, and for the fact that the German rail strike is over! The Scott DuBois / Gebhard Ullmann Duo performs tonight at the BackStage Jazzclub (part of the Jazzfreunde Fulda) in beautiful Fulda, Germany, 20h!
Great rehearsal today in Berlin for the upcoming Scott DuBois / Gebhard Ullmann Duo concerts this week in Germany and Switzerland! This is an excerpt from my composition "Lake Shore Suite."
We’re performing at the BackStage Jazzclub (part of the Jazzfreunde Fulda) in Fulda, DE, Fri. 8 March, the Jazzclub Allmend Oberengstringen in Zürich (Oberengstringen), CH on Sat. 9 March, and the massive German rail strike happening right now can’t stop us! ;-) The Scott DuBois / Gebhard Ullmann Duo will perform live at Jazzclub Allmend Oberengstringen in Zürich (Oberengstringen), Switzerland on March 9, 2024!
( Photo by Karl Toomsoo) The Scott DuBois / Gebhard Ullmann Duo will perform live at the BackStage Fulda Jazzclub (as part of the Jazzfreunde Fulda) in Fulda, Germany on March 8, 2024!
(Photo by Karl Toomsoo) The full 90-minute SCOTT DUBOIS QUARTET LIVE IN MUNICH live concert film will be broadcast on the Stringray DJAZZ TV Channel this Friday, January 12h starting at 17h54 CET!
This is a description of the film from the tv listing in France’s Télécâble Sat Hendo tv guide: “A rising star of jazz guitar, Scott DuBois leads a quartet composed of Gebhard Ullmann (reed instruments), Thomas Morgan (bass) and Kresten Osgood (drums). The talent of these three musicians is such that they can go from a subdued style to a fiercely avant-garde approach in the blink of an eye. As part of this intimate and atmospheric performance delivered at the Jazz Club Unterfahrt in Munich in March 2016, DuBois and his band performed the entire album 'Winter Light', released a few months earlier, as well as 'Lake Shore Suite'." Here's my quartet performing my composition "Late Morning Snow" in the film... I had a great day today in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago…
I love reading about the daily rituals of composers, painters, prolifically creative people in general. Here is the daily routine of the great William de Kooning, from Mark Stevens' and Annalyn Swan's book, DE KOONING: AN AMERICAN MASTER: If Elaine [Fried, whom de Kooning married in 1943] found it strange to return directly to work on her wedding day, she never said so. That was the way of life on Twenty-second Street: every woman in de Kooning's life from Nini onward could attest that he was already married to his work. During the time when Elaine was commuting back and forth to Brooklyn, de Kooning's days were devoted to art, and they continued to be so after she moved in permanently. Typically, the couple rose late in the morning. Breakfast consisted mostly of very strong coffee, cut with the milk they kept in winter on a window ledge; they did not have a refrigerator, an appliance that in the early forties was still a luxury. (So was a private phone, which de Kooning would not have until the early sixties.) Then the day's routine began with de Kooning moving to his end of the studio and Elaine to hers. Work was punctuated by more cups of strong coffee, which de Kooning made by boiling the coffee as he had learned to do in Holland, and by many cigarettes. The two stayed at their easels until fairly late, taking a break only to go out for something to eat or to walk up to Times Square to see a movie. Often, however, de Kooning, who hated to stop working, began again after supper and pushed far into the night, leaving Elaine to go to a party or concert. "I remember very often walking by and seeing the lights on and going up," said Marjorie Luyckx. "In those studios, the heat used to go off after five o'clock because they were commercial buildings. Bill would be painting with his hat and coat on. Painting away, and whistling." Artists (clockwise, starting top left): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; Alice Rahom; Joan Miró; Jackson Pollock; Joan Mitchell; Willem de Kooning In honor of Beethoven’s 253rd Birthday today, here’s a video taken by Scott “Of the Woods” (that’s what DuBois means in French) driving up his very long (~0.4mi / ~0.64km), steep and rugged dirt/gravel driveway way up in the North Woods of northern Michigan.
Most of this long driveway is owned by the National Park Service but I have an ingress/egress easement on it to access my land and home at the top of this little “mountain.” It can be a serious challenge, especially in the heavy winters up north, but totally worth it to live in this incredibly inspiring and wonderfully wild and beautiful place. Thankfully my car is a beast and has been victorious against the driveway (so far)… I took this video this past summer while driving up my drive and Beethoven Symphony No. 5 just happened to be playing on the classical music radio station I listen to often. Beethoven’s Spirit must’ve followed me back home from his grave which I visited while on tour in Austria last year (I wouldn’t be surprised as it’s a very mystical place here)… Happy Birthday, Ludwig! Happy Birthday to the great Gebhard Ullmann! Here’s a photo of us taken in Berlin last year while on tour in Europe.
Geb and I have done 21 European tours together since 2006. Our first performance together was at the 2006 Madrid Jazz Festival. He’s an amazing musician and I’ve learned a lot from him while sharing the stage together so often over these many years. Gebhard and I will be on tour together quite a bit in Europe in 2024 (more about that in a few months…) A photo I just took of my backyard up in northern Michigan, which is the entrance to a very large forest. Amazing wildlife roaming there…some you want to meet while exploring, some you don’t ;-) but all fascinating and beautiful…
“Autumn Haystacks”
Composed by Scott DuBois From the 2012 album LANDSCAPE SCRIPTURE released on Sunnyside Records (SSC 1309) Scott DuBois - guitar Gebhard Ullmann - tenor saxophone Thomas Morgan - bass Kresten Osgood - drums “Mid-September Changing Light”
Composed by Scott DuBois From the 2017 album AUTUMN WIND released on ACT (9856-2) Scott DuBois - guitar Gebhard Ullmann - tenor saxophone Thomas Morgan - bass Kresten Osgood - drums The full 90-minute SCOTT DUBOIS QUARTET LIVE IN MUNICH live concert film will be broadcast on the Stingray DJAZZ TV Channel this Friday, August 18th starting at 17h58 CET!
Tune in to watch the FREDDIE HUBBARD QUINTET IN BRUSSELS 1980 concert before that at 17h19 CET… Here's my quartet performing my composition "Lake Shore Suite" in the film… The full 90-minute SCOTT DUBOIS QUARTET LIVE IN MUNICH live concert film will be broadcast on the Stingray DJAZZ TV Channel on Friday, June 9th starting at 18h CET and also on Friday, June 16th starting at 17h55 CET!
Here's the quartet performing my composition "Afternoon Ice Fog" in the film… |