The boys in the ‘Project got the summer season off to a rousing start on the weekend of 8/9 May with appearances in Winter Harbor and Bangor.

On the 8th we awoke to see that our group was the subject of a feature article in the Bangor Daily News by Emily Burnham, our favorite music journalist in the whole world.

Later that day Austin, Gaylen, Mark, and newcomer to the group Colin Graebert (a Berklee-trained keyboard monster) kicked off the 2009 “Schoodic Arts For All” summer season with two shows at the wonderful Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor. At 1.00 we played for 100 local school kids in years 5-8, and then after a fantastic afternoon of local hospitality we hit it again with two white-hot sets at 7.00. Highlights included “So What” making time stand still as we opened the show, a scintillating “Footprints”/”Witch Hunt” combo, and a bunch of road-tripping Bapst students making the clave intro to “Blue Bossa” a LOT more challenging than it usually is… All hands agreed it was an epic night.

On the 9th we once again opened the John Bapst prom, this time staying and playing past our designated stop time because, well, we were just burning the room down and no one wanted it to end.

This summer finds us mostly on the coast, and “Project fans looking to see us really open it up might want to circle 21 August on the calendar. Bar Harbor might never be the same…
The Summer So Far:

21 June. Private Function, Whitehall Inn, Camden. (Yes, we do such things- give us a shout if you’re interested.)

19 July. “Winterport Music Festival” pre-fest concert. 2-4 p.m., Winterport Meeting House. We intend upon truly enlivening their Sunday afternoon, as this will mark AJP’s first appearance as a quintet!!

31 July. “Ellsworth Summer Music on the Waterfront.” 6 p.m. Bring ya beach towel down to the banks of the Union River. Let’s all make fireflies dance in the dusk.

21 August. “Bar Harbor Jazz Festival” 6-8 p.m., on the village green. Yes indeed, – we have a prime spot at Maine’s premier summer jazz festival and we are definitely going to make it count! We don’t want to tip our hand, but it looks like the second set of this show might even rival the legendary second set at Winter Harbor. One thing’s for sure- if you bootleg any of our shows this summer (and yeah, we encourage that, especially on video!) make this the one! See you on the Green!!!

As always we are open to venues here, there, and everywhere (even our native city of Bangor- book us for next New Year’s already, will ya?). If you are interested in having AJP in your own tent, festival, living room, stadium, hip jazz club or village green, just contact us. There is simply nobody else on the scene who sounds like AJP- and we can prove it.