My Chicago Music Adventures

D. Miner Performing Live @ 63rd Street Summer Festival 7/19/2008

2008-07-18T12:53:00.001-05:00

Alderman JoAnn Thompson's 16th Ward Festival on 63rd Street
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008
Location: 63rd Street & Morgan | Chicago
D. Miner performance at 6:30 PM

Blues Legend Otis Clay to Headline First-Ever 63rd Street Summer Festival
Inaugural community event in Englewood, presented by Alderman JoAnn Thompson, to also feature food, beverages--and an eclectic music lineup!

A day-long community celebration with food, beverages and an afternoon/early evening filled with non-stop music, including headline performance by blues legend Otis Clay, will be among the highlights of the first-ever 63rd Street Summer Festival presented by 16th Ward Alderman JoAnn Thompson.

The festival will be held on Saturday, July 19, on 63rd Street and Morgan. Hours are Noon-9:00 p.m. Admission is free.

A portion of the festival's proceeds will benefit REAP (Restoring, Elevating, Advancing & Promoting), a non-profit community organization that works to improve the lives of Englewood residents.

The day's diverse music lineup on the festival's music stage, sponsored by Budweiser, will kick off with jazz, hip hop and R&B acts. It will culminate with a live performance by Otis Clay at 8:00 p.m.

D. Miner performing live at the Majestic Star Casino Lakeshore Lounge

2008-07-10T12:43:00.003-05:00

D. Miner will be performing live at the Majestic Star Casino Lakeshore Lounge in Gary Indiana this Friday July 11th. Doors open at 8pm. There is a $10.00 cover charge. hope to see you there.

D. Miner Live @ Custer Street Fair Evanston June 21st 2008 - 4:15 PM

2008-06-15T21:34:00.006-05:00

D. Miner will be performing at the Custer Street Fair in Evanston (corner of Main and Chicago) at 4:15 P.M. Saturday June 21st on the Budweiser main stage. Don't miss it. But if you do, please come to The Amphora Restaurant that same evening at 9:00 P.M. for an encore performance. The event is THE AFTER FAIR AFFAIR featuring D. MINER
Time: June 21, 2008 at 9pm
Location: The Amphora
Street: 7547 N. Clark Street
City/Town: Chicago, Illinois 60624
General Admission is $10
1/2 off General Admission with VIP Flyer
StepNorth Members and FunCruisers $5

D. Miner Performing Tomorrow 6/6/08

2008-06-05T18:38:00.002-05:00

I am proud to announce that my partner D. Miner will be performing two songs from the Song Man CD here are the details.

Time: June 6, 2008 from 7pm to 10pm
Location: EVANSTON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM
Street: 1600 Dodge Avenue
City/Town: Evanston, Illinois
Contact Info: 847.329.0664
Event Type: Community
Organized By: The Evanston Youth Initiative

Joelee Presents: D. Miner - Song Man

2008-05-26T09:20:00.011-05:00

Joke Productions is proud to present the first album from D. Miner. Please enjoy. You can access the music player to the left. The music player is courtesy Step North a great site I am associated with.

Don't Take Away The Music

2008-05-08T21:40:00.003-05:00

Just heard some terrible news about new legislation set for a vote by the Chicago city council regarding music venue regulation. Jim Derogatis has the full story here. Get the word out to try and stop this from passing.

Vertikal - Red Hot Music

2008-05-02T22:33:00.005-05:00

The other night I went see the band Vertikal at Morseland. They blew me away. The band consists of lead vocals by Stacy Rene, rapper/vocalist Ben "Butta" Jones, guitar, bass, drums, 3 piece horn section and at times keyboard and turntablist. They do all original music that will make you dance your ass off or sit back and enjoy the soulful funky jazzy vibe. The energy level of this band is contagious. They remind me a lot of the funk era bands I grew up on but with a modern sound. One song they did somehow combined a jazz swing feel with hip hop that I never heard done quite this way. All in all it was a great show. I recommend that you see them ASAP. They perform the last Wednesday of every month at Morseland as well as other gigs around the Chicago area.

The Legacy of Chicago Music

2008-02-19T11:02:00.009-06:00

I'm gonna take a crack at defining the amazing legacy of Chicago Music.
Here it goes ...............
Gospel Music, Thomas A. Dorsey, Jazz, Chicago Blues, House Music, Chess Records, Louie Armstrong, Quincy Jones. The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Chicago(the band), Chaka Kahn, Frankie Knuckles, Steppers Music, Soul/R&B, Curtis Mayfield, Leroy Hutson, Tyrone Davis, ChiLites, Chicago Symphony, Fred Anderson, AACM, Earth Wind and Fire, Styx, Cheap Trick, Kanye West, Common, Chicago Trax, R. Kelly, Folk Music, Old Town School, Midnight Special on WFMT, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Brunswick Records, Marshall Thompson, Gus Redmond, Galib Gallab, Johnny Taylor, Lou Rawls, The Warehouse, Kinetic Playground, The Flock, Illinois Speed Press, CRC, Butterfield Blues Band, Sam Lay, Little Walter, Smashing Pumpkins, Delfonics, Howard Levy, Willie Dixon, Universal Recording, Bruce Swedien, Von Freeman, Eddie Vedder, The Dells, The Impressions, Jerry Butler, Nat King Cole, Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Hancock, Ted Nugent, Minnie Ripperton, Fall Out Boy, Buddy Guy, KoKo Taylor, Bo Diddley, Twista, Wilco, Kurt Elling, Steve Goodman, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Marshall Jefferson, Farley, Candy J, The New Colony Six, The Cryan Shames, The Buckinghams, Survivor, Ides of March, REO Speedwagon, Junior Wells, Ministry, Tom Morello, Walter Jackson, Pete Cosey, Steve Miller, Peter Brown, The Emotions, Deniece Williams, Staple Singers, VeeJay Records, C.O.D's, Hot Mix 5, Julian Jumpin Perez, WBMX, WLS, WCFL, WGCI, WVON, Dick Biondi, The Original Soul Train, Big Bill Bronzy, The Green Mill, Velvet Lounge, Regal Theater, Checkerboard Lounge, Theresa's, Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S, Mark Skyer ... These are just the names and places that come to mind. Who am I leaving out? It's amazing how many major music genres, artists and scenes originated in or have deep roots in Chicago.

I've Returned To My Chicago Music Adventures Blog

2008-01-23T11:17:00.001-06:00

It's been over a year since I last posted. A lot has happened. So I am going to summarize some of the highlights. I am now the proud owner of a Pro Tools home based studio. It's really nice not having to pay for all that studio time. Me and D. Miner have written a bunch of new songs. which I am excited about. I got an IPod for my B-Day and am now officially part of the IPod generation. My production company Joke Productions has morphed into a live performance band name Uncut. We've done a few gigs at Bill's Blues and at BooCoo Community Center in Evanston. More gigs to come. My daugter is lead vocalist in a great hip-hop jazz band named Vertikal. They are appearing at Metro in Chicago on Friday 1/25/2008. My goal is to become one of the most popular Chicago music blogs. Finally, I am working on a new community web site called at StepNorth Check it out and join!

Download Music Mart - Comments Wanted

2006-12-26T13:25:00.000-06:00

Well folks since I launched Download Music Mart in January of 2004 I have received thousands and thousands of visitors. I want to thank all who have visited so far. There is definitely something that is attracting people to the site... having traffic is a good thing but my original intent was to sell downloads and that is another story. I am convinced that if the price is right people will pay for legal downloads. Unfortunately the cost of each transaction is too high to allow for the price I would like to charge. I think that for unknown independent artists a download should only cost about 5 cents at most. So what I am doing is opening up a blog entry here, where I would love to have your comments about this issue and how to have a viable independent download site that makes everyone involved happy. I look forward to your comments.

>>back to Download Music Mart

The C.O.D.'s - Michael The Lover - 1965

2006-10-13T19:09:00.005-05:00

Check out this clip from YouTube.com. I can't believe it! As I mentioned in a earlier post I used to be in a band called Pinch. Robert Lewis was the leader of the group and my songwriting mentor. He used to be in a soul group named The C.O.D's and they had a hit record named Michael The Lover on which he is the lead singer. Robert told us stories about the group but until now I had never seen a video. I hope you enjoy it as much as me. Robert is the one in the middle.
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHk8MJLDB9E&mode=related&search=
YouTube has removed the above video so I am providing a link to the audio:
The C.O.D.'s - Michael The Lover - 1965

Joke Productions is Born

2006-02-13T19:56:00.000-06:00

I'm really excited. A lot of great things have happened since my last post. About a week before the new year I went to Bill's Blues to check out my friend Paul Nebenzahl's monthly jazz jam. I walked in the door and immediately saw my old partner in crime Mike Miner sitting there waiting to go up on stage and sing. We had lost touch so it was great to see him. Mike and I go way back to middle school and played in two groups. The Urban Crisis from 1972 to 1975 and a group named Pinch in the early 80's. Urban Crisis was a full blown funk band and Mike was the lead singer. Pinch was also a funk band that did a lot of originals. For those who don't know, Michael AKA D.Miner is the greatest vocalist I have ever worked with. We talked and then I played a tape of a song I was working on called "Joel - Go Home Now". I gave him a copy and we decided to hook up the next Saturday. When we got together Mike had finished the verses and we recorded a demo in my home studio. We continued to get together once a week and then in mid January we went into EV Productions to record the first 4 songs of our album. We have been collaborating on new songs since then. It's amazing how well we work together and how great our rapport is. Here is the info on the upcoming CD:
__________________________________________________________________
D. Miner and Joelee Project

The first 4 songs from the long awaited reunion of vocalist/songwriter extraordinaire Michael D. Miner and drummer/songwriter Joelee long time musical partners. Soon to be mixed and released to the world as part of their debut album.

1. I'm Sure You'll Know*
2. Joel - Go Home Now **
3. Tonite
4. Running Away ***

All songs © 2006 Joel E. Erenberg and Michael D. Miner - Joke Publishing Co.
* Synthesizer part Michael E. Anderson
** Backround vocals on Joel - Go Home - Stacy Rene Erenberg
*** Backround vocals on Running Away - John Nance, Guitar - John Nance and Willie Shields, Bass Steve Flugum
-lead vocals by Michael D. Miner all other instrumentation by Joelee

Produced by Joelee
Running Away also Produced by John Nance
Recorded at EV Studios - Evanston Il. 1/15/2006 ___________________________________________________________________
As soon as I can I will keep you posted on the release date of the CD. I will also be working on a secure way to let people hear the songs. Grammys 2007 her we come.

Recording Session at EV Productions

2005-12-03T14:05:00.000-06:00

On Thursday night I got a call from my long time friend Paul Nebenzahl. He wanted to know if I could come by EV Studios in Evanston to lay down some drum tracks. Of course I said yes, so 20 minutes later there we were in the studio jamming ourselves silly. I love it when spontaneous creative opportunities just happen with no prior notice. The music we created is very interesting. Some great, some OK and some junk. All in all a great night. I would like to say thanks to Paul and Dan the engineer.

Chicago Steppers in the House + Drumming Layoff Over

2005-11-25T09:13:00.001-06:00

My good friend John Nance is hosting "Dusty Stepper's" Sets every Wednesday at Bill's Blues. Because of the holiday, Wednesday was like a Friday and the crowd was quiet large. I arrived expecting to have a few and maybe do some dancing but was recruited by Jonathan Nance (the DJ and John's son) as soon as I walked in. My job was to work the door. In all my years in the music world I never have been a doorman/bouncer. I have to say I have a new found appreciation for the job. For those of you who are Steppers, check out this set. If you want to learn, they will be starting classes soon. It's probably the only Northside club that has steppers sets.

Before last Tuesday it had been three weeks since I played drums. I mean not even one beat. So Tuesday at Bill Blues was quiet a challenge. There was a good sized crowd and a lot of good drummers were in the house. Twist Turner and Tino to name a few. The house band was led by Mr. G and included bass player Greg McDaniel. . I was fortunate to jam with Shoji the bass player from Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater's band. He is a joy to jam with. I had a great time and got some nice compliments. Hopefully I won't wait three weeks to play again.

Underground Sound Rocks!!!

2005-11-25T09:13:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was the debut concert of Underground Sound a great new 18 voice accapella group. My daughter Stacy is in the group and has been rehearsing very hard for the concert. It was held at the Redmoon Theatre and was standing room only. Underground Sound rocks!!!. It was a great concert. Please keep you're eye out for this group.

Back to the Music Blog

2005-11-18T22:10:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. Life has a way of interfering with art. But they say life imitates art. So WTF. Music has been very berry good to me. And me to it. The best part is that wherever I go I take my music with me.
So what does this really mean? It means that I want to continue creating songs.
AS for the gigs. They will return in time but for now I am focusing on making real money. Why do most musicians get paid like shit?

Until tomorrow.

Joelee

Last Night at Bill's Blues

2005-10-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

Last night was the last night for the Grace Almond Combo Jazz Jam at Bill's. We have been there for about a year. Grace has decided to take a break to concenterate on other things. We hope to continue with a new vocalist. My daughter Stacy sang a few tunes last night and did great. Hopefully she will be the one.

A Sad Note

2005-10-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

I just heard from a close friend that unsung Chicago Blues and Soul veteran L.C. Walker has passed away from a sudden heart attack. My condolences go out to his family and friends. I had the pleasure of sitting in with him and Tom Crivellone at the Bills Blues Bar jam night in Evanston. He was a great singer and show man. He will be missed.

The Meeting Went Well

2005-10-13T14:08:00.000-05:00

Crocodile lounge is interested in the band. Possibly for a "Wednesday After Work Set" 6 to 9 PM. Keeping my fingers crossed.

My Chicago Musician Adventures

2005-10-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

I am so excited! I can finally share the "crazy" world of my musical adventures. Here in Chicago are some of the greatest musicians, songwriters, producers and dj's representing the legendary legacy of Chicago Music. I plan on sharing my little corner of this world in all it's pain and glory.

Today I will be putting on my booking agent hat after work. I will be talking to the manager of the Crocodile Lounge about getting a gig for my band The Grace Almond Combo. I just discovered this place and it has that trendy jazz ambience that I love. The staff is great as well. I'll report back.

Joelee