Joni Mitchell's version of the Wardell Gray/Annie Ross classic "Twisted" has a couple of lines in it spoken by Cheech & Chong--Cheech Marin describes the song's protagonist, a slightly disturbed 3-year-old genius, as "Flip City." I liked the connotation.

We have, mostly in Central Indiana--Indianapolis, Muncie. It's a blast, and we want to get back out as soon as we can. About a year and a half ago we played the French Lick jazz festival and backed up Branford Marsalis. Bill Stewart's kick drum pedal broke and he had to borrow mine. I never heard it work quite like that before!

The internet is the best thing to happen to music since radio! Bands and solo artists can get worldwide exposure without having to pass muster with the major label gatekeepers--those guys are only interested in money--they have no interest in music, AT ALL. With legal pay download sites popping up all over, and personal mp3 players becoming the medium of choice for lots of folks, it's less and less necessary to put a lot of investment into CD mastering and pressing, and artists can distribute music in a steady stream instead of having to bundle 14 tunes before even ONE can be released. The mp3 is what the 7" 45 used to be--a bite sized chunk of music that consumers can enjoy without having to commit themselves to a whole package of tunes and a big chunk of change. Music is gonna start flowing more freely under these new rules, and it'll be more fluid and flexible--you don't have to come up with a 'grand concept' anymore, though it's still cool to do and the possibility's still there--artists will be able to react quicker to current events, and test the waters with new stuff without having to dump a lot of money into pressing CDs. This will make it possible to produce more music without having to wait until the huge investment of pressing a bunch of dead weight packages manages to break even.

I don't think the CD is dead (though I think DVDs are going to be a lot more widespread soon--the bitrate and resolution of the audio is higher, you can do 5.1 and 6.1 surround mixes AND video footage, and more and more people have access to players) but I do think the mp3 is going to be the medium of choice for people who just want to enjoy tunes and aren't particularly worried about fidelity. The convenience factor is just too cool--you can fit a lot of music in a small space. And if there's something you really care about in terms of maxing out the sound quality, you can always invest in the disc.

With internet-based marketing and distribution, any artist can reach a worldwide audience for both CD and mp3 sales, so the majors are gonna have to re-evaluate their paradigm soon--they're almost dinosaurs NOW.

The deal would have to be pretty splendid, and I'd have to retain some piece of the rights to my own work. Since majors don't allow that with new artists as a general rule, then no, probably not.

We started out with cats that were all from Muncie, Indiana--a lot of Ball State University students, and over time morphed into a group of older folks that are more spread out. Once the new lineup is in place, The band's radius is going to be about 200 miles. Rehearsals won't be fun, but with players as good as we've been lucky enough to get over time, you don't need to rehearse much.

"Influences..." well, that depends on who you ask, but mine go back as far as Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa playing with the big bands, to Miles, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays (don't get the two confused--they may play together, but they're different cats stylistically) John Scofield, Mike Stern, Jack DeJohnette, Steps, Steps Ahead, and of course the mother lode of all fusion bands, Weather Report. Vocally (we have a wonderful singer named Lydia Clowers) we've done some standards, but also a good bit of material from Dave Frishberg, a little bit from Joni Mitchell...like that.

I don't have one--I like traveling, and hope to branch out more as things pull together.

Like Churchill said (and Ross Perot rammed down our throats over and over) "Never give up, never give up, never, never, never!"