Dear Fans and Friends,

Accepted into William Paterson University`s Jazz Composition and Arranging Masters program, I leave Japan this Aug 4th for NYC`s JFK. I will attend for 4 semesters, from Sept `09 till May `10 when I will return to Japan for the 3 month summer break, then from Sept `10 to May `11 when I will graduate and begin applying for college teaching jobs. That`s the plan for now. I am not certain yet where I will call home in 2011, when my Japanese visa will expire. I think that will depend on work and relationships. This Masters program will teach me how to write for big band and larger ensembles, something I have little to no experience with yet. It`s exciting to imagine me writing, recording and touring with a Chako Big Band in the future!

My new address in the United States of America, which should be valid for the next 2 years, is:

Greg Chako
144 Diamond Bridge Ave., Apt. R15
Hawthorne, NJ 07506 (USA)

Phone: 201-984-4668

This address is in northern New Jersey about 20 miles west from Manhattan.

I will also maintain my current home address in Japan, until further notice, and my girlfriend Mitsuko is staying here keeping watch over things. July is the final month in `09 you can take opportunity to cheaply buy any of my artwork, CDs, musical equipment or other personal items.

I will go out with a bang, musically speaking, as my final week features me co-leading, along with Hiroshi Tanaka, great bands of different formats as follows:

Tue July 28 in Shibuya, at JZ Brat in Cerulean Towers, our biggest show featuring a quintet of Gene Jackson-drums, Greg Lyons-sax, Hiroshi Tanaka-piano and Daiki Yasukagawa-bass.
〒150-0031　東京都渋谷区桜丘町26-1 セルリアンタワー東急ホテル2F
JZ Brat（ジェージーブラット）TEL: 03-5728-0168 E-mail：info@jzbrat.com

Wed July 29 in Kannai, at Bar Bar Bar, featuring a quartet of Gene Jackson-drums, Greg Lyons-sax, and Brent Nussey-bass.
Tel: 045-662-0493(6868)
http://www.barbarbar.jp/

Thurs July 30 in Minato Mirai`s Aka Renga Souko, at Yokohama`s Motion Blue featuring a power trio with Hiroshi Tanaka-piano and Daiki Yasukagawa-bass.

If you haven`t had the chance to see any these fine musicians playing together, I hope you will take this chance to do so - because they are my last performances till at least next summer. And this is the first time British sax man Greg Lyons has visited and played in Japan.

Finally, if you haven`t already bought my most recent CD, Everybody`s Got a Name, do it soon and I will put those sale proceeds to good use furthering my graduate education! Support jazz!

"One cannot become a guitarist if he has not bathed in the fountain of culture" - Agustin Barrios Mangore