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November 2nd, 2007

Hello from the Trio!

Since we last spoke there have been so many changes, its hard to know where to start. The biggest change is that our friend and bass player Chad Langford has relocated to The Netherlands to begin his Master's Degree in Composition at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague. We hear from him often that he is immensely enjoying his new "digs" and loving the academic atmosphere, we couldn't be more thrilled for him. We miss him dearly.

We've added friend, mentor, and musician extraordinaire Craig Hall to the Trio. Craig plays bass and guitar and has truly made this musical transition easy. Since August we've performed in WA, WY, MT and OK and next month we'll be in WA, OR, and CA followed by a 6-date MT tour in December. We can't wait to meet you at these performances and share some of our new arrangements.

As well, we've joined forces with friend and manager Karen Marsolek who has very capably taken over all of the Trio's booking and tour managing. What a relief to hand off some of the administrative work to someone who quite obviously can do this job better than us, and refocus our energies on the music. Karen also monitors our stress levels with frequent phone calls to the effect of "did you sleep enough, have you been eating your vegetables, do you have directions to your next gig?" Everyone should have such a person in their lives.

After the heartbreaking loss of our friend and mentor Mr. Ralph Sappington we reluctantly decided to forego this year's Trio album (which was to include Ralph's amazing trumpet playing) and instead decided to honor Ralph by helping young musicians realize their own music, much like he has done for us and so many others.

So...
In June we recorded 2 albums. The first is entitled "Chaos" with the young jazz combo Blueshoes, watch for their CD Release in conjunction with the annual Jazz MT Festival on Nov. 3rd at The Emerson, Bozeman. The second is the result of the HMDSS Young Songwriters Competition entitled "Footnotes" whose release will be Feb. 2nd at Reynold's Recital Hall, MSU. (for more about HMDSS check out the website: www.HandMeDownSomeSilver.org)

We hope this finds you well and we look forward to seeing you out on the road. Until then...

The Jeni Fleming Trio

Jeni Fleming
Jake Fleming
Craig Hall

June 2nd, 2007

Summer

It's official: summer has finally come to Montana. We've got some exciting repeat concerts on the schedule for the next couple of months, with concerts in Lead, South Dakota, Victoria BC, and (of course) Banditos in Virginia City! Check out the tour page for all the latest...

May 12th, 2007

Ralph.

We've had some terrible news this week. Our dear friend and mentor, trumpeter Ralph Sappington, suffered a massive stroke on Monday, May 7th. I am taking the liberty of posting the latest news here, from an email from Ralph's family:

At 11:29 am May 12 beloved husband, father, brother, and son Ralph Sappington went home to be with our Lord. A memorial service has been set for Wednesday, May 16th, at 1:17pm at First United Methodist Church Billings, MT. Thank you for your prayers.
The Sappington Family - Rhonda, Will, Becky, Jody, and Kathy