Foaming At the Ear Music - Dave Hartl - News

The Night Café is launched!

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Allan Slutsky and I have been rehearsing a project for over 2 years, and we finally think it's ready for the public. please go to <www.nightcafetrio.com> for all the information plus video and audio downloads. Reaction to this has been great, and we're looking forward to playing this music and presenting it in the very near future.

April 2010 update

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Played Thursday night with the Dave Stahl Big Band in Myerstown, PA. What a great group! They had been snowed out through the winter on this gig so everyone came loaded for bear and delivered the goods. I find it a great shame that there's not more venues for something this powerful out there.
Current time sinks:
1.) Drexel masters degree. I'm 6 weeks away from finishing and looking forward to having this onus out of my life. Now what to do with it?
2.) UArts teaching. 2 weeks left in this semester.
3.) The Night Café. This is my accordion/ mandolin/ bass group with Allan Slutsky. We played at Andrea Clearfield's salon in February to great response and have been working hard to get the promo materials together. As soon as we have a photo shoot and finalize the last pieces, Vince Colella will be building a web site for us. Be on the watch for its debut in early June!
4.) The next original CD, tentatively called "Main Squeeze". Basic tracks are in the can, I'm tweaking them over a long period of time, and looking to record some duo tracks with Vic Stevens to finish it off. I work slow, so stay tuned.
One last note: a week ago, my old friend Mike Rubin lost his battle with renal cancer and moved on to his new address (unknown). Mike was my rock and roll guitar teacher in the '70's and was, by far, the most outrageous and talented slide guitarist I have ever known. He was a real musical force, but never left rural Chester County and remained a local legend. I'll always have great memories of the time I shared with him, and feel that our world is a little smaller now. Thanks, Mike!

New link to e-portfolio

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Go to the "links" button, and you'll find a new connection at the top of the list. This is a website I'm building for a class at Drexel University. It presents my e-portfolio and a bunch of other information not related to my original music projects.

Just in case you were wondering...

Upcoming dates

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

On the gig scene, I'll be subbing in Wilmington on "Legally Blonde" the first week of December, and in Philadelphia on "Wicked" in January. Glad for the gigs, and especially glad to be away from Drexel and studying to do it!

On the creative side, Al Slutsky, Kevin McConnell and I will be recording and filming material for our promo DVD and website for Dolce, our mandolin/accordion/bass trio. We've been rehearsing almost 2 years, so it's pretty together! Stay tuned...

Summer 09 update

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Just a few words to update what's going on:
The July recording with Vic Stevens, Chico Huff, Brian Groder, and Chris Farr went fantastic, these guys really play!
I've got a lot of new material that I'll be doing my Frankenstein routine on with reconstruction and overdubs. Keep posted to this site for examples in the coming months.
Also, my pursuit of a masters degree at Drexel Online continues to interfere with everything in my life, although I'm learning a lot and enjoying it on some level. Here's a great site I discovered in one of my classes, go to this link if you want to see the books that have influenced me over the years, there's lots of recommended reading here, sort of a facebook for library geeks:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/davehartl
Enjoy the summer!

New projects coming

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Summertime and the living is greasy. Got some good upcoming things, subbing on "Grease" at the Academy of Music in Philly in July, and ramping up the next project.
Brian Groder, Chris Farr, Chico Huff and I are going into Vic Stevens' studio next month and do a loose fusion jam that will serve as a soundsource for the next CD, as always at this stage entitled "A Rumor In Their Own Time". This is completely opposite of my normal working method, and I'm looking to explore a much freer territory than normal by doing this. I'm thrilled to get the chance to do this with such great players, too, and am really looking forward to this date.
Speaking of great players, there's been a lot of practicing and (I'm forced to confess) Kordeen playing in my life these days as I rehearse with Al Slutsky for our light classic group, Dolce. The music is really rich and complex, and difficult to control with an accordion, but covers everything from Fritz Kreisler to Debussy and Piazzolla.
A lot of my attention is taken up with pursuing a masters degree in information and library science at Drexel University, or their online equivalent. One quarter down, four to go!
Drop me a line, let me know how everybody else is!

Is this regression?

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

A week ago Sunday we held a benefit for our friend Ted Greenberg at Gregory's in Somers Point, NJ. It was a great time, reconnecting with friends from many years ago who I don't get to see much of. Had a really enjoyable jam session with Mike Pedecin, Tim Lekan, Vic Stevens, and Al Slutsky, and then had the premiere performance of our yet-unnamed mandolin and accordion project.
Yes, that's right, I'm spending a lot of time these days back on an accordion of sorts, actually a Roland FR-7 virtual accordion, which is a very different and inspiring beast. But still...an accordion.
Old friends of mine love to torment me by reminding me of my misspent youth in which I became Pennsylvania Accordion Virtuoso Champion when I was 16, after which I prompty gave up the instrument and rarely touched it until recently. And then along comes Alan Slutsky ("Dr. Licks") who wants to become a mandolin virtuoso with accordion backing. And a new project is born.
Before you write this off, let us finish our CD and soon, a free posting will be found here. Stay tuned.

Take a FREE DOWNLOAD!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

We're over the hump, there's fewer cold months ahead than behind, days are growing longer, and Bush is gone!! Sure you're cold and grumpy, but it's getting better.
To celebrate, please go over to the "Music" page here and have a free download on me. This is my version of a tune by trumpeter Brian Groder called "Oculus", part of a project he's heading whereby a bunch of musicians all cover the same tune and compare the results. I really enjoyed doing this and want to share it.
By the way, just click on the names of the tunes while you're there for all the twiddly little details about these puppies. Thanks!

Fall '08 update, 11/1/08

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wow, what a week! Just got a hot new car (new for me, anyway), the Phillies won the World Series and had Philly invaded by 2.5 million people according to reports today, the election is 3 days away, and next week I try my hand at performing again for the first time since coming out of a long dark tunnel of rotator cuff surgery recovery. I'll be backing up a bunch of different groups at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Induction in Youngstown, Ohio with a band of friends, so I'm really looking forward to great music and great times.
My thanks to everybody who has been talking to me about the latest CD, and a reassurance that I'm hard at work writing and arranging the next project. All I know at this point is that it will be very different from all that has gone before it; be warned. That, and it will feature several very talented friends of mine such as Brian Groder and Al Slutsky . So stop back and check the postings for rough mixes and sketches as we go at it!

Looking ahead for '08

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's July and right now, looking forward to a short vacation and several good concerts (Police, Elvis Costello, and King Crimson). Then I go under the knife to repair a torn rotator cuff, which will put me out of commission on playing music for two months.
In the meantime, I'm working with Al "Dr. Licks" Slutsky on a mandolin & accordion project, some transcription work for trumpeter Brian Groder, a cover of Brian's "Oculus" is under way, and I'm writing the materials for the next Lab Work kind of CD. Downtime is spent studying Mosaic box sets and watching old "Mission:Impossible" episodes. September will bring a return to UArts and new challenges, so work goes slow but steady. I'll be back in full force, recovered from surgery in October, so stay tuned!