I took some pictures while I was sitting in traffic on I 75.
On the way home I stopped at Sam Ash and bought some reeds. I grabbed a box of tenor reeds as well as some synthetic Legere reeds. It seems silly, doesn't it? All the technology that goes into building a modern horn--tone hole placement, metal alloys, corks vs felts, not to mention the insanity over mouthpieces--all the thousandths of an inch and the baffle shapes and tip rail thickness, and yet the sound all starts with a fickle piece of cane! Why?
There was NOBODY in Sam Ash. They didn't even have canned music playing in the store. It was like I was a private shopper.
I made it all the way back home (approximately 40 miles round trip), only to get stuck trying to get back in my driveway! Madness! A neighbor and I spent two hours trying to chip through the ice in the street and my driveway so I could get my truck in the garage. Beating a shovel into concrete is NOT good for the hands and wrists.
So…the synthetic reeds. These are Legere Studio Cut reeds. I got the same strengths that I normally use. I really wanted these to work--most of the Yacht Rock gigs (which are most of the gigs I do these days), I'm picking up my horn two or three times in a seventy-five minute set, so the moisture on the reed has faded by the time I come back to it. On a typical gig, I set up my stuff (including my horns), and soundcheck is over by 9:30 PM. I may not play a note again until 11 PM, and then they might sit there through a thirty minute break, and then I might pick it up again midway through the second set, sometime after midnight. If the reeds could feel the same as they do at 9:15, that'd be great!
I tried them. I tried living with them for the break in period of thirty minutes. I tried running them under warm water to loosen them up. I tried them on alto, tried them on tenor, tried them on bari. I didn't like any of them. The sound is very cold and bland. I like big, bright, fat, greasy sounds, and I couldn't get that from these reeds. I gave up. They don't work for me. I opened the box of Javas that I'd also bought, put the first reed on my tenor, and it played GREAT right out of the box. That sealed the deal.
The trip down to my gig took longer than expected. There must have been some wrecks downtown--traffic was at a standstill--so I wandered off on 10th Street and made my way to the 10 High via flat streets and parking lots.
Yacht Rock did a silly promotion (strictly for our own enjoyment)--Glove Night--where we replaced the word LOVE with GLOVE in every song. Mark Cobb even made break music where he "fixed" it!
Here's the set list (which included some non-Yacht Rock material for the sake of handwear, and a few "greatest hits" to quell any potential riots). Some might not be so obvious: I Keep Forgettin' (We're not in Glove Anymore), Caribbean Queen (No More Glove on the Run), I Just Wanna Stop (For Your Glove), and of course, a little Michael Jackson.
I played WAAAAAAAAAY better than last week. Call off the suicide watch--I'm on the road to recovery. I had a few hiccups--I left my chart for The (G)Love Boat Theme in Mexico last year, and every time we play I forget six more notes. I've gotten to the point now where I only remember half the string part. Maybe sixty percent.
My synth thing on Lido Shuffle is coming along. There's a two handed stacking synth part that I have never played--I only play one hand of it--and I've always thought that eventually I'd get it happening. I wasn't quite ready last night, but I usually need four or five gigs to get used to the pace of playing it live, and there were only about seventy-five people there last night, so let the sucking begin! And I did. First pass, good; add left hand for second pass, a little wobbly! third pass, disaster! fourth pass, wobbly! It needs some more work--at 120 BPM I'm good, but the tune's at 140 BPM, so…not happening yet.
I Just Wanna Stop hasn't been on the set list in a while--probably since I died on the string part last year at Andrews or a few weeks later at the 10 High. I'm finally getting the hang of it! Last night I did well on it. I knew where I was the whole time (amazing!), and I tried my best to play the Ernie Watts I-can't-play-in-time-with-the-rest-of-the-band solo.
I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I finally fixed the little flute part in the second verse of Africa that I've been playing wrong for years. Oops. I saw a transcription of it--not what I was hearing! After seeing it written out, I also realized I could do more with the solo (some spots where it's almost totally in fourths)--since I'm playing the solo on EWI, I was able to set up my sounds to make that happen. I fixed that a few weeks ago, but last night was the best it has sounded to me.
I love playing (G)Love is Alive--I think it works well for us. You got Mark Cobb playin' the hell out of it, Mark Bencuya rockin' the synth bass (and a crazy solo!), Nick singin' the shit out of it. I wish we did that one every week.
We ended the night with Zeppelin's Whole Lotta (G)Love. Nothing for me to do on that but watch. Mark Dannells played great on that--a true rock star! Best thing he played all night.
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| note the splash cymbal placement |
I packed up, avoided the homeless guy in the parking lot, and made it back into my driveway without incident!
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