Hey jerry,

Just wondering.....Any chance you going to SPAH 2014 in St. Louis in August? If you are maybe your loyal students get a few minutes of instruction with the Master?........lol

It's up to SPAH to invite artists. The current Board of Directors is more oriented towards "business committees" and "budget savings" and is, IMO, overcautious, so their choices are tight and based on how little money can be spend out of the coffers.

I used to be the Convention Director for SPAH in the late 90's. This was a case of a real musician making decisions based on artistry rather than a "budget committee". We had some awesome gatherings in those days...the legendary 1998 Convention featured Steve Baker, Carlos del Junco, Jerry Portnoy (who just showed up for the "hang"), Steve Guyger (who just showed up for the "hang"), Curtis Salgado, myself and Kim Wilson. It was a real good vibe.

I spent the money as needed to provide the artists for an environment they could really enjoy and had faith that this would stimulate enough interest and attendance to pay for itself and have a little money left over to grow the organization.

It worked quite well at the time.

Now SPAH has a different philosophy and is more corporate than artist, although still a good experience to attend (but not quite like the good ol' daze, IMO). Can't live in the past, though. Things change.