I did two gigs Thursday and one Friday at lunch.
Gig 1: I played a trio gig at the High Museum with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith. The usual private event. Playing in the High atrium always sounds really good because of the natural reverb, but it's also the curse--if you push the volume at all, the wash of sound buries the crowd. We were asked twice to bring the volume down; for that room, I'd say that's a victory.
Kevin and Tyrone are just flat awesome. I haven't had any jazz gigs the past few months, and it's felt like an eternity since the three of us got together. I definitely want to try and do a new recording with them some time in 2011.
In the mean time, here's what I recorded last night:
I tried sushi (for the first time) because it was there and it was free. It tastes fishy. I didn't like it.
We had to go overtime, so I went running out of the High and straight to the 10 High.
Gig 2: I played the usual Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High. It went well. We had Daniel Morrison on drums and Kevin Spencer filling in for Pete (still out on baby duty). The first set was a lot of fun--we were groovin', and because I'd already played a three hour gig, I was fully warmed up.
We went on break, and I got very sleepy.
The second set was tough. I ran out of gas. I somehow made it to the end, got all my stuff back in the truck, and headed for home.
Friend of the band/Bencuya's high school buddy Jim Reindel was putting on a clinic at the 10 High, showing how to hit on every woman in the room and not get beat up. At some point his moves degenerated into some strange solo dancing. Notice in the photos how the crowd has pulled away from him.
Gig 3: I was up early for a Friday--9 AM, and on my way down to the Georgia International Convention Center by 10:20. Wayne, Jeff and I did a one hour House Live gig for a luncheon--I think it was for the GICC, and they were trying to convince event people to book their events there. Hopefully none of them noticed that the GICC didn't budget their time well--a luncheon in an hour? We did 45 minutes of overtime. Not impressive.
Jeff did not feel well.
On the way home, I stopped at Sam Ash and bought an Apogee Duet. Earlier this week I tried a Mackie Blackbird, but I didn't like it. The recordings I did earlier in the week needed a ton of gain to make them work--I mean, a weird amount of gain. I love Mackie stuff, but I'm not sure about the Blackbird. I know the Apogee's going to work out great. Plus, recording guys are snobs, and everyone to whom I mentioned the Blackbird turned up their noses at it. The Apogee is a much more accepted piece of recording equipment.
I have Saturday off...no gigs. What to do with myself?!
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