Musician Steve Wexler Rocks NYC with Fall Performances

Musician Steve Wexler and his band, the Top Shelf, will be playing first-Thursday concerts in New York this fall at the Drom night club at 85 Avenue A, between 5th and 6th Streets. The series kicks off on Oct. 4 at 8 pm, with the next gig on November 1 and then December 6. On December 1, Top Shelf will be playing at 12 Grapes in Peekskill, NY. Says the Drom website,

Turning out unique arrangements of everything from Marvin Gaye to Beyonce, this 10-piece band is powered by original arrangements of familiar favorites. Steve Wexler and the Top Shelf features a powerhouse, four-piece horn section whose members have performed with The Temptations, The Fifth Dimension, Ray Charles, and The Tonight Show Orchestra. The horns are backed by a virtuoso rhythm section whose members have performed with John Lennon, Al Green, Audra McDonald, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, Larry Harlow, Maria Schneider, and Bruce Springsteen. If those accolades weren’t enough, the vocalists for Top Shelf have worked with Aretha Franklin, John Legend, LL Cool J, Sting, Michael Jackson, and many others. Combine these band members with superior material and arrangements and the result is truly “Top Shelf”. 

 Meanwhile, here's a word about Steve:

Steve Wexler (Bass, Arranger, Cat Herder): Steve has arranged for Broadway, off-Broadway, television, and numerous record albums.  As a student, Steve cut his teeth at Princeton University writing for the Triangle club and university jazz ensemble, and went on to win awards from The University of Miami, The Eastman School of Music, andDownbeat magazine.  As a professional, Steve has written for and performed with many "top shelf" artists including jazz legend Benny Carter, Salsa all-star Larry Harlow and Grammy award winner Maria Schneider.

When not leading the Top Shelf, Steve plays bass as a "hired gun" with numerous bands.  You can also find Steve playing bass in many orchestra pits throughout the tri-state region.

Steve Strogatz Starts New Math Series in NY Times

Cornell professor of applied mathematics Steve Strogatz has kicked off a six-part series in the New York Times "Opinionator" section called "Me, Myself and Math," looking at people through the lens of math. The first entry is called "Singular Sensations" and starts like this:

Sharpen your pencils, dust off your abacus and join me once again for a few weeks of mind-bending pleasure. No, I’m not speaking about politics.We’ll travel to a place where problems have answers and truth exists.The haven of mathematics.My previous series offered a panoramic view of the field. This time, in “Me, Myself and Math,” we’ll focus on how the subject I love — math — relates to the subject we all love — ourselves.

Amy Myers Jaffe on the Move to the Golden West

After 16 years at Rice University, energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe is packing up and heading west for a new position at the University of California-Davis. Here's the scoop:

Amy Myers Jaffe, a leading expert on the oil industry and influential thought leader on global energy policy, will join the University of California, Davis, next month. She strengthens the university’s leadership on clean technology, sustainable energy and transportation.

On October 1, Jaffe will become the executive director of energy and sustainability in a joint appointment to the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and Institute of Transportation Studies. She has spent the past 16 years at Rice University, where she served as director of the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. She is the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies, as well as associate director of the Rice Energy Program.

Jaffe’s expertise spans oil geopolitics and strategic energy policy, including energy science policy and energy economics. She said she was drawn to UC Davis by its focus on sustainability and the interdisciplinary research and relationships between transportation and energy, and by the opportunity to work near California’s state capital, which is an international pioneer on environmental and public policy issues.