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The same fellow who presented us with “ This is what Pi Sounds Like ”, musician Michael Blake  interprets the mathematical constant Tau to 126 decimal places. So you know the rules.  For those geeks among us, here is Wikipedia’s definition of Tau : Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ; Greek: Ταυ...

Luv this pic and running to another meeting. This post will have to do for today: lisman_piano_057 @ Flickr.com

One of the unexpected pleasures of working at a world-class company is working with some very talented and smart people. Many of my friends play musical instruments so a number of years ago I put together the Microsoft Jazz Band . This year was the highlight, for me, of our playing career when local...

I’m taking the rest of the week off to be with family, celebrate yet another birthday and pull off what may be the best concert event of my music career. I started the Microsoft Jazz Band six years ago and it has grown to be the best band that I play in. This Thursday, 8 July, at Big Daddy’s we will...

Revisited the Microsoft Careers JobsBlog following a link from another site and was reminded once again how much I like it. They say this about this blog: “Welcome to Microsoft's JobsBlog, an inside look at what it's like here ... all the way from the application and interview process to being a Microsoftie...

From YouTube , how ‘bout a little Friday jazz. It’s been that kind of week. Life Magazine photographer Gjon Mili joined with jazz producer and Verve-label owner Norman Granz to produce the short film "Jammin ' the Blues" in 1944 with Lester Young, Red Callendar, Harry Edison, "Big"...

I have been using Windows Live Movie Maker for a while now. It was free and just works. You can see an example of the result here in the Uploads window . Every one of these 49 movies were made with the beta Movie Maker program. I just bought a pricy competitor’s program to see if I could get better results...

  Enjoy a Microsoft Orchestra Summer concert at the Ballard Locks on a Sunny Seattle day. I had so many friends in this group which in the last six years has gone from a scary-small 25 to an impressive 82 musicians. And I forgot a pivotal piece of the camera tripod so I had the camera tied by it...

I was watching the Air and Simple Gifts composition at the inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday. (Thanks boss.) John Williams composed this song explicitly for the inauguration performed by Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on bass, Anthony Mcgill on clarinet, Gabriela Montero on piano. The Leblanc...

I have been kinda putting together and taking apart a sax quartet for a while now and this incarnation resulted in two videos being taken during a sight reading session. I've been all over the place with the names for this group from 'the Bis Keys' to 'Inspector Gadget. The players this time are all...

On my list of music software to explore is Microsoft's Songsmith. The Seattle P-I covered it yesterday in a piece called Microsoft's Songsmith makes music using PC . This article includes a great video for those starting from scratch. It's kinda a reverse Karaoke. I'm gonna try it with my sax or clarinet...

An amateur musician, I own one of the few bass saxes to low A in the world. I got to premier it doing a piece called “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” arranged by my good friend Ward Baxter. The 60 piece band behind me is the Woodinville Community Band . I’ve placed the video on YouTube: Happy holidays...

Ronald Lemmen found some pictures on his camera from this year's Global MVP Conference in Redmond. The first one is of my band the Dissonance: This picture clearly shows Curtis Spanburgh in his first guitar gig in the Seattle area. We now have proof. BTW, that's my lovely wife Suzy on alto sax, Gary...

This is part two of I won't be here tomorrow . Can I just say wow! This pickup band was a hoot to play with. The quality of the musicians at Microsoft is amazing. There aren't too many companies who can put together a band like this on the spur of the moment. Well we got everyone but Greg, the bari sax...

Does anyone not know who Wall•E is? I've been listening to the Wall•E soundtrack and thinking can a Broadway show be far off? Andrew, One of the CRM Lead Writers is a LEGO enthusiast with some serious creds. Today's Friday fun post covers his Wall•E interview with Pixar animator and LEGO fan Angus MacLane...

The Microsoft Global Summit met this week and that is one of my favorite events in any given year. It is the CRM team's chance to wine and dine those great people who make up the finest MVP team at Microsoft. These people are stellar both technically and as customer advocates. They come from all over...

I get a lot of comments from my co-workers and friends about my eclectic choice of music that is usually playing full-time in my office. So I've decided to take a page from Dare Obasanjo, akd Carnage4Life award winning blog. I've been reading Dare's blog for a while now so it didn't surprise me when...

Seattle has long been recognized as having a " remarkable jazz history ". People like Quincy Jones and Ray Charles got their start here. So it is no surprise that almost any time of the year you can enjoy fine jazz including groups that cater to people who prefer the standards, fusion, funk, bebop, and...

Some people buy boats. Others buy vacation property. I buy musical instruments. I have a small collection of vintage instruments like this Selmer Paris silver clarinet that plays like a dream. But I'm really a sax man. And to that end, I am working with a world-famous saxophone maker Benedikt Eppelsheim...

Friday was Microsoft's observance of the King County Day of Caring. For the fourth year in a row I put together a jazz big band made up of Microsoft employees. We played at the Crossroads of Bellevue and the Brighton Gardens. One of the highlights of the event was two ladies asking us if we had a CD...

Just in case you haven't been keeping up with Phil's blog lately might find this tidbit about the Titan CTP3 enlightening. This, to me, is the most exciting bit, "We’ll soon be opening up access to Titan (bits or VPC) to a wider partner audience." I suspect it will be exciting to many of the MVPs, ISVs...

Frank Glass was blogging yesterday about the fabulous weather we have been enjoying for a while now in Seattle. I'm on the eastside and yesterday by Lake Sammamish it hit 85 degrees! The skies are so blue and the water reflects it so nicely. Most people don't know that Seattle and surrounds becomes a...

My fledgling group the Dissonance opened for the first Microsoft Open Mic Night last night. We played three songs opening with Night Train, then Blue Bossa, and closing with Jersey Bounce. The soloists were hot that night and the band sounded good. Over all we were very happy with the performance and...

As I drove in this morning the winds were gusting and the rain was coming pretty steadily. A lot of Microsofties are off this week taking a much-deserved vacation. But the vacations this month and next are mostly about getting more family time. Those of us remaining are working feverishly to get things...

As a jazz saxophonist, of little repute, I enjoy finding a riff in a solo and running with it. To me it provides context and can make the solo ride just that much more fun. In jazz, solo's are rarely scripted or written out, so every time I play a solo, it's like finding a new path. But if I have a feel...