Well, the best laid plans of mice and men……!
Since the last update here, we have changed our plans dramatically. Karen and I purchased the old V&J Bistro in Sea Grape Plaza right across the parking lot from where I conceived, founded and ran the Island Sand Paper for the past ten years. Seems that some places are hard to get away from; call it serendipity if you will. In any event, our plans for an "around the world" sojourn have been put on hold.
The reason for this change is simple; my son, Colin and his sweetie, Victoria, are moving here from Savannah, Georgia and they will help us run our new acquisition as a healthy, jazz eatery. That's right, we are going to have music here as well as at the Purple Heart Theater. This will also allow us to cater food to the Theater from a licensed food facility so we expect our food quality and choices to go up considerably. IAF members will have a special night at the new place so look to these pages for more information as things develop.
A few of you have written to me asking why my picture no longer appears in the masthead of The Island Sand Paper. The short answer - that decision belongs to the new owners who have written to me to say they wanted everyone to know that they are now in control of the paper and felt that restricting my input would reinforce that control. Certainly their right since they bought it. I also signed a five-year agreement not to compete with them so my hands are tied.
In the meantime, we have a really exciting opportunity – Lou Donaldson, perhaps the best alto saxophone player alive today called me and it looks like we may have him on the Beach when the season gets under way. Look Lou up on the Internet where there are innumerable articles and discography available for anyone to see that he is the "real deal". He set the bar with the legendary Clifford Brown in the Blue Note recordings and is a prolific recording artist, having got his start in cutting sessions with Charlie Parker, the best known innovator in the history of jazz. Lou will be 84 in November and we hope he celebrates his birthday with the IAF later this year.
We are also in the early planning stages of putting together a large concert, possibly in partnership with the Sand Sculpting Competition held in November. We have explored having the Guess Who on the Beach for that event but nothing is finalized at this time. Nevertheless, we are continuing to keep active though we will have our hands full for the next few months getting the new jazz club up and running.
If you want to get in touch, write me at
Carl@islandartsfoundation.org or give me a call at the Purple Heart: 239-765-6988