The end of the year is always a time to reflect and set new goals. Usually it is a best of… and worst of… list, but I decided to only go for the good stuff because there is plenty of problems and issues that don’t need to be celebrated. Here is the chronological review – come along for the ride and please share your memories!
January – The Whole World in Her Hands with special guest Ingrid Jensen showcases at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference in Louisville and during Jazz Connect in New York, the musical kinship is blossoming
February – It’s an honor to get to perform with Oliver Nelson Jr every year for a showcase of his Dad’s music at the Jazz Fables series in Bloomington – here is The Blues and the Abstract Truth
March – During Women’s History Month we were able to gather 7 of our wonderful regional musicians for a series of events in Evansville, Bloomington, Columbus, and Indianapolis
April – Jazz Appreciation Month and Poetry Month combined during Clay 
Corley’s 10th Anniversary Showcase of his Jazz and Poetry Podcast live in Philadelphia entitled Inspired Distinctions, a most creative interface of the two art forms – here is a taste
May – The Time Flies form initially only to recreate some tracks that we got to record with Bob Berg in the Nineties and ends up on two full recordings and a series of amazing performances in the US and Germany – the Bloomington edition is available here, the Germany edition with amazing saxophone work by Peter Lehel, Sandi Kuhn, and Lutz Haefner is coming in 2017.
June 10 – The Whole World in Her Hands CD release on Whaling City Sound, available here
June – The Indiana Jazz Exchange with recent IU grads Josh Roberts, Quinn Sternberg, and Matt Riggen travels to the Indianapolis Sister City Cologne to showcase Jazz Made in Indiana and experience the cultural riches of Cologne 
July – The second SPEA in Graz/ Austria course with 13 IU students and many special guests is a huge success and bonding experience for everyone, Russ Spiegel and Dena DeRose join for a special concert
August – The B’town Jazzfest has become a beautiful gathering of our local jazz greats, showcasing why Bloomington is such a great place to call home – here is a taste of The Time Flies
September – The Whole World in Her Hands embarks on a two-week tour 
through Philadelphia, Washington, Charlottesville, Cleveland, Oberlin, Huntington, Louisville, Evansville, Bloomington, Indianapolis and then goes into the recording studio – get ready for the recording and DVD documentary, I can’t even put in words how special this is – here is the trailer and more info on how to get involved here!
October – I spent a week in Vienna and a week in Berlin doing workshops and sitting in at many jam sessions and making new friends. Sabbatical semesters are the best feature of academia!
November – During three weeks in Reading, UK, the Jazz Jam Session Model for Entrepreneurship was validated and documented in several papers with my colleague Maksim Belitski and I got to jam at Ronnie Scott’s twice.
December – As Manhattan Transfer put it in their hit – The Whole World in Her Hands @Birdland:
How well those cats remember their first Birdland gig
To play in Birdland is an honor we still dig
Yeah, that club was like in another world
Happy New Year – and let’s all work together to make 2017 exceptional – if you’re close to Bloomington, join us at Topo’s 403 to close out 2016 in style!