12-29-2008 another year of travels – 26 countries in all!
2008 has been a fantastic year for me. Flying at Northwest has
been unchanged for me through the merger of NWA and Delta. I visited 26 countries, a record I
probably won’t surpass. In
February and March, I played on a cruise ship from Miami to L.A, via the
Caribbean, Columbia, the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, and Mexico. After a little more flying, I was back
out in May, June, and July through the Mediterranean and Northern Europe (14
Countries in all), nearly to the top of the Globe with the (unfortunate)
ice-free summer waters. After a
golf-filled fall, I made it down to South America for three weeks in December
to cap off a very well travelled year.
As I write this, my CD is being pressed, and should be at my doorstep by
Jan. 14th, and will be for sale on this site. I wish everyone a great 2009!
12-07-2008
Jazz CD is being pressed!
My jazz CD is at the factory being pressed, and should be
done in about 15 days. It´s been a long time coming, and I´m excited
about the product and about beginning the marketing process. Despite the
long delay in getting it pressed, the CD isn´t over-produced, and has more of a
¨live¨ sound, as we did 19 songs in four sessions (12 of which are on this
CD). I´ll have a Paypal page up on this site so you can order directly
from here. I´m currently spending nearly a month in South America (which
has been great!), so I can´t get the Paypal page up until I return (everything
defaults to Spanish...no bueno), but it´ll be up by the end of the year, along
with other updates.
05-18-2008
One week from my cruise... and I'm pretty excited! This
one will be my longest contract at two months, and my most anticipated
itinerary through Northern Europe. In addition to the great travels, I'm
looking forward to playing the trumpet every day, as flying has been taking the
front seat lately. I wasn't able to get the formatting done for my CD in
time for the cruise, but when I get back, that'll be my focus once again.
One of these days...
04-11-2008
I'm heading back out to sea on Crystal's Symphony! From
May 25th - July 24th I'll be cruising through the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.
Northwest was gracious enough to grant me a leave-of-absence. These
trips keep backing up my CD, but I do hope to have it done before I leave.
03-16-2008
(...website has been off-line lately. I'm glad to have it
finally fixed!). What's new... well, I'm back from my 3 week cruise ship
gig. It was a great trip and I'm very happy that I did it. I
enjoyed it so much that I actually tried to get a 5-month leave from my flying
day gig, but they didn't give it to me! The trip has backed up my CD
project, but I'll get it done soon. I just need to get the artwork
and CD layout done, and I'll get it pressed. It has been worth the time
and effort, as I am happy with how it turned out. Thanks for your
patience.
11-28-2007
My debut jazz CD is in it's final stage. It'll
be getting mastered tomorrow, then, just the art & pressing will need to be
done. It should be up for sale in November!
9-7-07
I'm moving forward with my jazz CD, and I have some initial
rough clips up on the site now.
5/4/07
My web site has been giving me a lot of attitude
lately... I think I've got it disciplined a little-finally. The
good news is that I've been in the studio twice recently recording my jazz
CD.
One more day with the combo should do it. Then it's of to
mixing,
etc. I'm pretty doggon' excited about it. It'll be a 50/50
mix of me
singing and playing-probably mostly standards when its all
done.
There's going to be some nice variety in it-something for everyone
to
love and hate-just like all my longest lasting favorite CD's! I got my
3
first picks for musicians: Phil Hey on
drums; Gordy
Johnson on bass; and Chris
Lomheim on piano. I can't ask
for any more than that! I'll
be posting updates as it comes along...
01/19/07
2007 has arrived, and I continue to appreciate life as a
musician.
Although I had no major tours, music continued giving
me
the opportunity to see the world, this time via cruise ships.
I
started the year in the Panama Canal, and ended it at a Casino in
Minnesota,
with a 5 week trip through much of the Mediterranian in the
summer.
Backing and meeting entertainers such as Bob Newhart and Don
Rickels also
gave me good memories on the year. I will be escaping the worst
of the
Minnesota winter by playing on a cruise ship
through the Caribbean
from Jan. 21st - March 4th.
Upon my return, I will hit my
1-year anniverssary with the Cuban band "Salsabrosa"
- a
band that has given me some of the most challenging and
rewarding musical
gigs of my career. Looking to the bottom of this
page, I see that
it's coming up on 3 years since my first entry... and 3
years since I
began talking about recording a jazz CD-how time flies when you
try to make a
buck in music! I sure hope that my next entry includes news
of my
recording, but we'll see...
09/06/2006
Okay, an update...
2006 has been another year with a lot of musical
variety.
I worked on a cruise ship in January through
the Caribbean and
the Panama Canal. In July I cruised the
Mediterranean,
seeing Italy, Croatia, Greece, France, and Spain.
I'm
considering some winter cruising as well. Locally in Minneapolis,
it's
been more of the same, with a mixture of bar gigs and private
parties. My
big decision will be when to go back to my day gig at Northwest as
a
pilot - October 1st will mark 4 years of
non-flying for me.
It's ironic, but I want to do more traveling before going back to flying,
which, of course, is traveling for a living - you just don't get as much down
time.
12/10/2005
I'm heading back out on a cruise ship - the Crystal
Symphony - for 5 weeks. I'm looking forward to the playing and the
travels (Caribbean beats Minnesota in
January!). Crystal has been the
top-rated cruise line 10 years in a row, so it'll be interesting to see what
that's all about. See you in
February. Happy
Holidays and Happy New
Year!
9/26/2005
JazzMN Big Band with Ryan Kisor-trumpet.
I'm
happy to be on this gig Saturday, Nov. 5th, at 7:30
pm in the Hopkins
High School Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are available in advance
($23-$25 for adults, $10 Student “RUSH”
tickets at the door with student ID) by
calling 651-209-6689.
Check out www.jazzmn.org for more info
including Ryan
Kisor's biography. The address is 2400 Lindbergh
Drive,
Hopkins, MN 55305
9/17/2005
Katrina relief: I'll be playing with the JazzMN Big
Band on Sun. Sept.
18th from 4pm-4:45 pm as part of a benefit
for New Orleans. The location is at the Landmark
Plaza at 75 W. 5th
St. in St. Paul. The entire
benefit will be from 1pm-5pm both inside and outside.
8/20/2005
I'll be playing on a cruise ship, the
Diamond Princess,
for 1 week from Aug 27th - Sept. 3rd.
It's an Alaskan
cruise out of Seattle, and I’ve never been to Alaska, so it should be a nice
way to see the place! I will be in email contact, and some phone
contact. See you on the return!
07/10/2005
You can go to www.janaanderson.com to check out
Jana's original CD, soon to be released. Amazing songs and
vocal ability displayed! I've got some public and outdoor gigs
in the next few months with the Stan Bann
Big Band, Temporary Heroes,
and the Good,
the Bad, and the Funky. You can check out their
websites on my
"links" page for more info. This site is
suffering through some HTML problems, if you see
some weird typos...trying to
straighten it out.
06/01/05
Hello visitors - sorry for the update
delay! Australia was certainly the time of my life! We
played to amazing sold out
crowds in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and
Adelaide. The country
is truly a special place. As if the tour wasnt
enough, my highlight
was scuba diving on the
Great Barrier Reef. I did 24
dives in 8
days with two liveaboard ships. In addition to the
fantastic coral
formations everywhere, highlights were diving along
a 3000' wall
drop-off, interacting
with giant Cod Fish (6'
and 300lbs.), and
seeing countless sharks close
enough to touch - especially during
the shark feed (no
cage!) with about 150 sharks! I managed to escape
with all my limbs in
tact, so I'm figuring out my next trumpet move at
present. I'll keep you
all informed...
03/03/05
On Tuesday, March 8th, Temporary Heroes are
throwing a
Minneapolis party! We're having a
crowd for our video
shoot from 7pm onward. If you're interested,
email me, and I'll give
you the info. It should be a fun, free
time.
02/05/05
Heres a quick plug for my gig on Tuesday,
Feb.
12th 7-11pm Ill be at the Dakota
Restaurant with Jana doing a
night of jazz standards.
This, Im sure, will be my
favorite (and
the most musical) gig of the year. Well be
backed by the Cities premier rhythm
section: Phil Hey-drums,
Gordy Johnson-bass, Chris
Lomheim-piano.
There is no cover, and, if you havent been there yet, the
new
Dakota is a great spot. (10th St.
and Nicollet Ave.) Please come
out and support this great night. www.dakotacooks.com
01/02/2005
Happy New Year! If 2005 is
anything like 2004, I'm in for
another fun year! Scheduled so far is a 5
week trip
to Australia with Bette Midler March 28th - May
5th.
Time to get my scuba certificate. After that...
three weeks in Japan... and
another U.S. leg... one can only hope. Until
then, I'm back with "the
Good, the Bad, & the Funky" and "Temporary
Heroes" in
Minneapolis (check out my Calendar page).
Jana will be getting
a new band up and running, which looks promising.
Also, I'm chipping away
at my jazz cd. Northwest
Airlines has called for me to return
to flying starting March, but I'll
be putting it off for a little while at
least. ...too busy to work!
12/6/04
something to check out
Jana and I will be featured in an article in
the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday Dec. 12th,
the same day as
the Midler concert. It should
be in the Arts &
Entertainment section, written by
Jon Bream.
12/02/2004
Were 5 shows from the end of the
tour, and its been a quick, but great
run. Bette celebrated
her birthday yesterday, and we made
sure to pull a big surprise for
her. In Anaheim (11/30) we went
into Happy
Birthday instead of The Rose, much
to her
surprise. The band all had b-day hats, and even the crowd (in
front) put
on hats that had been hidden under their seats.
Singer Pink came
on stage to bring out the cake, and
she stuck
around to sing parts of The Rose with
Bette. It was quite a good
time!
Ill see many of you in Minneapolis on Dec. 12th.
10/6/04
I'm back on tour with Bette M.
We're two shows into
the run, and it's off to a great start. Bette is in
great form, and the
band sounds great! Our last U.S. date is Sunday,
Dec. 12th, and it's
in Minneapolis at the
Target Center. Right now, it looks like
we'll be going to Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, and Europe early next
year. I'm keeping my fingers
crossed that it comes through!!! Next
week is at Radio City
Music Hall for 4 dates, so that will certainly
be a highlight.
6/6/04
A "Flying Photos" page has
been added.
I'm trying to add a little chronicle of my aviation
career, since November will
be 20 years since my first logbook
entry. I'll be
adding some fun pictures as well. I just got back
from a week in New York
City with my wife, Jana. We saw 4
Broadway shows and had a
great time!
5/26/04
I've added some more
pictures to the "tour
photos" page, compliments of
Irwin Fitch's camera. Don't
forget Fox ch. 9
8am-9am this Friday May 28th.
5/17/04
The Sugar Divaz will be featured on
Fox 9
news for the full hour from 8am-9am on Friday, May 28th.
We'll
be playing the night before 'till 1am and we'll have to arrive at a very
scary
hour, but it will be fun. Be sure to tune in!
5/15/04
It's official. Bette Midler and
the band will be
heading back out on tour in the fall.
We start rehearsals Sept. 5th,
and the tour is from Oct. 1st -
Dec. 15th so far. It'll be another
fun run!
5/4/04
The Sugar Divaz will be opening for
the Little
River Band on Thursday July 22nd to an estimated
15,000+ fans who
won't know what to make of us! It will be fun, however, and I'll
give the details when they come in. It probably won't be by
a little
river, but it may be by a big lake!
4/29/04
Here's a quick "thanks" to
everyone who made
it out to see the Sugar Divaz at M.M.C. on Wednesday
for Jana's
send-off. We all had a great time! She's off to do
a VH-1
special in New York on May 6th, and then
the Fleetwood
Mac tour starts in Madison, WI on May 8th. I'll
be heading
the caravan of fans out to see that gig - but first,
the
"Divaz" are off to the hot spots of Grand Forks and
Fargo, ND this
weekend to pump up those college clubs! Eric
4/20/04
I'm back from our fantastic cruise to Mexico.
It's
sounding like Bette Midler might be going out on tour again in the fall,
so I
better get going on my CD project! The Sugar Divaz will be on KARE
11 for
the full hour on an upcoming date- I'll keep you informed. Also,
the
Divaz will be opening for the Little River Band coming soon. Updates
to
follow! Eric
4/10/04
Hello friends. I'm heading out for a week with
my
wife, Jana, for a cruise to Mexico. When I return,
I'll try to
get this page up and running properly for regular updates.
I'm
formulating a plan for my solo jazz CD that I'll try to record soon.
I'll
be updating my progress on this page. See you soon, Eric
3-15-04
After a febulous run, the "Kiss My Brass"
tour
will be ending March 20th (although rumors are
already spreading about a
fall tour). Every day has been fantastic, and
I'm sad to have it come to
an end, but I'm also looking forward to doing gigs
back in Minneapolis with the
Sugar Divaz, GBF, Temporary Heroes, and my other
freelance work. I'm also
going to try to put out a CD of jazz standards,
so hold me to it!
Eric
