September 13th update

Cheryl's been home for a week, so I've been pretty much away from blogging. :) She's back in Walnut Creek now, as of last night. :(

Tower of Power concludes their weekend series of concerts tonight at South Point. I'm hearin' that some of the cats will be comin' tomorrow night to our gig at The Palms. Rumor also has it that a bunch of the Santana Supernatural band will again be comin' to hang, as well as the Luis Miguel band, and that Dennis Chambers and Rocco Prestia are gonna sit in together on "What is Hip?"

That will be crazy fine, no doubt.

Speaking of "What is Hip," below is a YouTube clip of my ailing friend Kurt Kolstad getting up to sit in a for a few tunes with his former band "Type A" at the latest benefit show my many friends held for him on August 30th in Tacoma (we had to do this last year as well, given the crushing financial circumstances they have to deal with). His lymphoma had returned yet again, and on this day he'd just finished up 3 weeks of chemo and radiation. Cat can hardly walk, given the acute neuropathy side-effects of his treatments. Nonetheless, my bro' stepped up...



Joey T tells me that Kurt said his goal was to just not drop his sticks. Tim Haines told me they about had to carry him off the stage after he'd sat in. I hate that I couldn't get up there this time.

Below, a cut of Kurt with Type A from some years back during happier times, Steely Dan's "Night by Night."

It remains a goal of mine to get Kurt down here to hang and sit in with Santa Fe one night. He remains in remarkably good spirits, notwithstanding the protracted clinical and financial hell he and his family continue to have to endure.

rad.

My Cuz Jojo over in Pacific Grove hipped me to her. Very cool. Impressive rap sheet.

Rose Ann Dimalanta, a.k.a rad., grew up in Oakland, California and began playing piano at the age of 4. In 1990, she completed her jazz studies at U.C. Berkeley. By this time, she had already played alongside Bay Area jazz greats like Pete Escovedo and was quickly recognized as an exceptionally talented pianist. In 1988, she met Sound Engineering student Michael Kirsch at the College for Recording Arts in San Francisco. The two were married in 1991 and Rose Ann moved to Kirsch's hometown Hamburg, Germany. In 1992, she started her solo project rad. with the first release radified on her husband's record label, Soulciety Records. The record instantly won critical acclaim and sold over 50 000 units independently. The following years brought collaborations with Tower of Power, Roger Troutman, Howard Johnson, Marc Russo of the Yellow Jackets, Sheila E. and others. After leaving the label Soulciety Records in 1996, both rad. and Kirsch moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area and started attracting an all star cast of musicians to the project, including jazz guitarist Ray Obiedo and Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi. rad.'s band and live concerts have been a favorite among musicians everywhere and word about her talents traveled to Prince's Paisley Park in Minneapolis, MN. Prince invited rad. to join his band, the New Power Generation which she did for his Musicology tours in 2003 and 2004. rad. left the New Power Generation to focus more on her new born daughter and finish work on the album East Babe which was released on hers and Kirsch's label 7 Bridges Recordings in 2007. She has been touring in 2007 and 2008 with long time Prince saxophonist Eric Leeds and long time Santana drummer Billy Johnson alongside Jazz guitarist Ray Obiedo and bass talent Marc van Wageningen. A live album with this band "Live in Japan" was released in early 2008.

She's gonna be in the new 10 pm Jay Leno Show that starts tomorrow night. Nice. I'll have to Tivo that.

RAD.- Live HD from 7 Bridges Recordings on Vimeo.

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