Afternoons with Maria Schneider

Tune of the Moment: "Hey Baby" performed by Duke Ellington and his orchestra. This album features Rosemary Clooney (George Clooney's aunt) and is one of her best. Looooove it: "Blue Rose." Buy it today!

I just got home after a looooong Tuesday. Tuesdays are always long-3 classes back-to-back running from 3pm till 9:30pm. So please forgive the brief nature of this post (rather post something than not post at all!).

On a very different note to that of Rosemary Clooney crooning with Ellington & Co., I attended my second master class/lecture with the ever-inspiring Maria Schneider. Maria is a Minnesota-born, Grammy-winning composer and arranger. She has studied with Bob Brookmeyer and was Gil Evans' assistant for some time. More impressive than her training and accolades is her incredible personality. She is simply an inspiration-not only to female musicians-but to arrangers, composers, bandleaders and jazzers everywhere. Her lecture today comprised her reading excerpts of "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri. It was such an enlightening, philosophically comforting and inspiring two hours. Should you get the opportunity to hear her orchestra play, I cannot urge you enough to go go go.

So, here's a clip of of the Maria Schneider Orchestra playing their annual Thanksgiving residency at the Jazz Standard in NYC. The song is one of my favourites, "Journey Home" and I love how she talks to the band before they start playing-gives you insight into her down-to-earth nature. No affectation, just straight forward and real.

As for the food component of this post...Woolworths Onion Marmalade. I mentioned it in a previous post and thought I should reiterate it's yumminess once again. I would make my own onion marmalade but I suspect I'm too terrified to find out exactly how much sugar is necessary to attain that almost black, deep-flavoured, saccharine substance. Besides, the Woolworths brand is so delicious that it would be wrong to try and create a superior version. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Some things you can do with Woolworths Onion Marmalade:
-Brilliant with fish cakes
-Brilliant with roast chicken (especially Nando's Lemon & Herb chicken)
-Brilliant with ripe camembert cheese on toast or crackers
-Brilliant dolloped on top of mushroom barley or mushroom risotto
-Brilliant as the base for an artichoke and onion marmalade tart
-Brilliant eaten with a teaspoon, late at night, after a long day of classes, alone, while it snows outside...