“We gotta flip the script on what a gangsta is — if you ain’t a gardener, you ain’t gangsta.”

This TED Talk is worth 10 minutes of your time. Ron Finley and his volunteer organization LA Green Grounds, recently profiled in the NY Times, are using urban gardening to take back the health of their South Central LA community. It’s inspiring.

“If kids grow kale, kids eat kale. If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. But when none of this is presented to them, if they’re not shown how food affects the mind and the body, they blindly eat whatever you put in front of them.”

Learn how to get involved.

To me, the word jazz means ‘I dare you’

and that says volumes to me. Dare to try something new. Dare to be in the moment. Dare to be you without qualifications. Dare to play drums without your left hand.

To listen to more of his thoughts on playing – including great anecdotes about Miles Davis’s leadership style, check out the NPR interview from February 2013.

I found out about this from Dave Douglas’s review of Wayne on the new site Talkhouse, which allows musicians to write about other musicians.

And if you need a refresher on Wayne’s music, visit his website. He’s doing some shows celebrating his 80th birthday coming up soon.

• Call your local school music teacher, and ask how you can donate your time or money to their program
• Email this list of free celebrity Public Service Announcements to your local radio station and ask them to play one or some during the month of March
• Post this list of 10 skills children get from arts education to your Facebook page or Twitter feed
• Visit the National Association of Music Educators for more information and statistics about how music helps our students grow and develop into fantastic adults!

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We have been having a blast performing for elementary school students all around the L.A. area. The kids are having fun and learning a lot about jazz! Thanks to the L.A. Jazz Society for making it all possible!

The album, “Archi-tet 2,” will be released in Japan in 2013. Aki’s original jazz compositions feature him on acoustic bass, Dave DeMotta on piano, Yutaka Uchida on drums, Mike Wilkens on saxophones, Miki Hirose on trumpet and flugelhorn, and me on trombone! Stay tuned for more information.

I had the pleasure of being the Musical Director for choreographer RoseAnne Spradlin’s “beginning of something,” presented at New York Live Arts in September. Here’s a great photo from the piece (by Ian Douglas)!

We interpreted Burt Bacharach’s “Don’t Make Me Over”, featuring Shira Elias (voice), Kiku Collins (trumpet), Queen Rose (violin), Art Hirahara (keyboard), and myself on trombone. We had a great time… and learned that you can make “eyeshadow” out of blue kinesiotape!

Are you registered to vote in November’s election? Deadlines are fast approaching (New York’s is Oct 12 and California’s is Oct 22).

Get registered (or check your status) now:

Pass it on!

I’m so proud to be the Director of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, a 2-week enrichment program for high school students celebrating its 29th year in 2011! This year we had classes in music, visual and material arts, theater, writing, and dance. Here’s a wonderful video sampling of what these young Vermonters got out of their dance class with faculty member Colleen Leonardi!

Here I am posing outside of our dressing room…

…which happened to be next to Ryan Seacrest’s dressing room. (He wasn’t in.)

A great shot backstage of all the fantastic horn players: Sarah Nelson, Mindi Abair, Jessy J, Anne King, and me!