Backun Barrel

I upgraded my clarinet yesterday by buying a better barrel for it. It's a ringless Backun barrel. I wasn't looking to change my sound as much as I was trying to expand it, and the better barrel did just that.

I ordered four barrels to try--two by Clark Fobes and two by Backun. I tried the Fobes barrels first and then the Backuns. It was nice, nice, yeah, WOW! This one really seemed to make my clarinet go. I can get more air into it, and yet there's less back pressure. Just what I was looking for.

I'm off on a four day cruise (Yacht Rock).
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Saturday Night in Commerce

Last night Platnumb played a wedding reception in Commerce, GA (way up I-85). It was actually pretty fun. They hired a full horn section. The biggest news of the night was that I tied my tie a different way--half windsor instead of four in hand.

I gave up on a reed last night. It was a weird one. It felt mushy but it had some resistance. I started working on it by balancing the sides. That improved the response, but it was still mushy. The altissimo was not reliable--it'd do that thing where it would sound like I'd overblown it. I tried taking some wood off the back, but it was about the same so I gave up and threw it out. My next reed is better.

I'm into some reeds that I soaked too long. Lately my reed break in procedure has been to soak reeds for an hour or so, let them dry for a day (maybe play on the a little), soak them again for another hour, let them dry for a day, and then start trying to figure out what I've got. This box of tenor reeds was accidentally left soaking for about twelve hours (I fell asleep). I dried them off and thought I'd let them dry long enough before putting them back in the plastic sleeves, but the next time I pulled them out they were blackened with mold. Oops! I soaked them briefly in Listerine to kill the mold and left them out to dry some more. Hopefully they'll bounce back from all that water and won't start too soft on me.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

September 30 trio

I played a trio gig last Wednesday, September 30 with Louis Heriveaux (keyboard) and Tommy Sauter (bass). For your listening enjoyment, I have spent the past few hours trying to figure out how to post the audio. Here it is. I guess the player picks songs alphabetically--in other words, scroll up above Blue Monk to hear the first couple of songs.

There are a couple of tunes where the sound quality is not as good--I started with my recorder off to the side of the band. After a couple of tunes, I moved it to directly in front of us.

Also, you can hear during Black Narcissus someone requesting Electric Slide or Cha Cha Slide. Seriously...we played a bunch of nasty Joe Henderson tunes (I mean, GEEZ! we played a free tune right before I started recording!), and some lady wanted us to play Electric Slide with no vocals and no drummer. What are we going to do, just play two chords for 5 minutes so that four people out of one hundred fifty can do a dumb dance? I said, "We're a jazz trio," but that didn't solve it. Thus, we played Cold Duck Time and they did their dance. Then, quick as we could, back into Joe tunes.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Sunday/Monday

Not much to report.

Sunday was a day of digging out. I unloaded all my gear from the truck and put it away. I played my church gig that night (and took Jack with me). Jack puked in the parking lot before we went home.

The only thing memorable about Monday was that I was teaching and my phone lit up because of an incoming call. It was the store--Music and Arts. But I was there (and had been there for two hours). So I called them back, and as we were talking, I walked out front to let them know just how dumb they were. While I was standing there talking on my cell phone to the guy four feet away from me on the store phone, my phone beeped--it was the other clerk calling me!

The biggest news of the day is that Y.O.U., my favorite local band, has decided to disband.

Duo with Dan

I played a flute/guitar gig with Dan Baraszu tonight. I'd bet I've known Dan now for about twelve or thirteen years. In that time, I don't think he's ever made a mistake! We had a good time--it was a relaxed gig, and they even insisted that we eat! I had some kind of spicy shrimp pasta.

I recorded the affair (except for the first couple of tunes). Here's some 2 minute samples if you want to hear what we did.

Out of the Weekend

This past weekend I had no gigs which made it a good weekend to go to Mississippi and visit my grandmother. She's doing well considering her age. While we were there, Jack and I fished (we caught a bunch of catfish and a couple of turtles, but I returned them all safely to their natural habitat). Jack also drove the golf cart all over the neighborhood (highly illegal, but in a town as small as Leland, MS, who's going to catch us?). Jack had fun and we all had a nice visit.
Reggie got so excited chasing the geese in the back yard that he dove into the lake. I guess it's the lab in him. He can swim, though! He only did it once, so it's safe to say that he still does not like the water.

My grandfather died January, 8, 2009, and left me his truck. There has been an issue with executing the will (the title was in his name, not my grandmother's), and since it has been nine months, she is now able to transfer the title to me. So, Reggie and I drove the truck back. It's a 2006 Toyota Tundra (with double cab). An extremely nice truck with all of 5800 miles on it. It is huge...it fit in my garage with about a foot of space to spare (like 6 inches from the wall and 6 inches from the door!). Yikes!
To kill time, I took pictures of Reggie in the backseat on the way home.


I know...too many pictures of my dog, but I assure you, he's no ordinary dog!

I got home Sunday evening, and twenty minutes later I was out the door to go play my church gig.

Monday night I had a Platnumb gig at the Marriott Marquis downtown. Here's the traffic on the connector yesterday afternoon around 3:30.


We were supposed to be there between 3:30 and 4 to "stage" our equipment in the back hallway. Unfortunately, everybody got there after 5 (I got there around 5:45), so I rolled my stuff in and set up, and still had time to go to the break room and eat. Weather aside, I'm not at all sure why having me arrive at 3:30 was better than having me arrive at 6. It would have been a waste of 2 and a half hours of my life.
The gig was the usual mundane corporate thing where the attendees are either scared someone in their office will make fun of them, or just so stiff to begin with that there will never be any sort of wild drunken ruckus. In other words, I have no stories.

It was a bummer having to unload my stuff when I got home. Usually I pull into the garage and shut the door and go inside, but I had to park in the driveway due to the fact that there's an aircraft carrier of a truck parked in my spot!

The Weekend

This weekend was pretty easy. Friday I taught a few lessons. Nothing in particular to say about it.
Saturday was also pretty straightforward. Jack had a t ball game. That night I had a wedding reception--jazz quartet plus a singer. It was a wonderful alternative to the usual "we exist to serve you" sort of ass-kissing wedding gigs to which I've grown accustomed. We set up, we played, they dug it, and it ended. A three hour gig. No big deal. Why can't they all be that relaxed? Also, the food was awesome.
Sunday brought a recording session...the new Platnumb demo. No big deal. I sat in the control room and played EWI (strings and synths) on some stuff, and saxophone on two tunes. Done in an hour and a half. After that, I taught a clarinet lesson and hit my church gig.
I tried to stay up and watch the football game, but I fell asleep at half time. I'll probably have no better luck tonight.

The Easiest Gig I Ever Did

I had a duo gig last night that was supposed to be four hours long. It was a private dinner for about ten super VIPs in town for a business meeting. We were to provide the music during the cocktails before and after the meal.
Louis Heriveaux and I played the gig. Louis has become one of the finest jazz pianists in town, and is also one of the coolest, most laid back guys with whom you could ever hang out. Good thing, too. We played from approximately 6:30-7:05 PM, and then the crowd went in to eat. At that point, we were on break. Louis ran to a McDonalds to get some food to eat with the medicine he's taking. When he returned, we continued to stand by until the guests returned around 9:40 PM. When then played two tunes and they all got back on their mini bus back to the hotel. We were finished at 9:55 PM. I don't think we made it through ten tunes the entire evening.
So what did we do between 7 and 9:40? We hung out, talked, talked on the phone, text messaged the world. I guess Louis' medication made him sleepy, because for a while there while we were talking, he'd say something, and as I was responding to him, he'd fall asleep. In a minute or two, he'd wake up and we'd repeat (he speaks, I speak, he sleeps). This went on for a half hour, I'd bet, before he finally shook it off. While he was asleep, I took a picture of him.
Easiest gig ever.
I've got two gigs tonight (a jazz gig at Neiman Marcus in Lenox from 7-10 PM and then my usual Yacht Rock hit). Let's hope the race from Lenox to Virginia Highlands is an easy one.

Labor Day work

I had the weekend off (in other words, I didn't work Saturday night). It felt like it went by in about twenty minutes. I cleaned house Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning I got up and drove to Peachtree City to pick up Jack. Then we went to my parents' house and got my baseball glove and fishing pole. All of the sudden it was Sunday afternoon and I was trying to keep Jack occupied for the couple of hours before my church gig. We went swimming--I felt like I was jumping over the side of the Titantic. When I came up from underwater, I expected ice chunks to be floating around me. We swam for a little bit (and I did get used to the cold water) and then we walked across the street and tried fishing. I threw the line out and it settled, and Jack declared "This is taking FOREVER!!" We crossed back over and went swimming again (still cold).

I went and played my church gig. Nobody was at church. Nothing else to report. I wore my other new suit. I looked good.

Sunday night I watched Quantum of Solace and Frost/Nixon. Both were pretty good. I'm not sure what Quantum was about, but it sure looked cool. Frost/Nixon is one of those where I think it was good, but I could easily be persuaded that it was merely average.

I woke up late in the morning today (Monday). After some standard computer stuff (reading the news), I took Jack and Reggie to my parents' house. I then headed into Buckhead for a recording session for a guy named Jesus (not like "Hey Zeus", but like "Jesus Christ"). I played flute stuff on a very somber tune. We (Jesus, me, and producer Greg Lee of Yacht Rock fame) worked on it for about an hour and a half. I'm not sure what it was about, but it was in G. I played some pads and some real basic ideas that kind of floated along.

I went back and hung out with Jack, Reggie, and my parents. We ate hamburgers. We went for a walk.

I'm watching the Miami/Florida State game. It's a shame how these programs have changed. When I was in high school (in Florida), both teams had some of the fastest, most freakishly athletic guys in college football. I'm talking about Jimmy Johnson's teams, and Deion's stretch in there. Now they look like really good high school teams. Weird. I think Florida State will win.

I love you Erin Andrews.

I'm thinking Slumdog Millionaire tonight. Maybe.

Monday again

It's Monday again.

I'm doing all my usual Monday stuff (laundry, vacuuming).

I just want to take a moment say a word about "the sound guy."  The sound guy is everything when it comes to your gig.  He has the responsibility of helping the audience hear you and making you sound the best.  The soundman may also help you to hear yourself better (monitors).  If you can't hear yourself, you can't possibily know what you're doing.  Therefore, you should always avoid pissing off the soundman, as he is capable of ruining your best efforts.

Last night, I was the soundman.  Hope you got the message.

Monday

So...I'm doing laundry today, and then going to teach. Not very exciting, but then again, Mondays never are. It looks like I'll have an hour off in the middle to maybe practice, which should be nice.

For some reason, the pollen really kicked in yesterday evening, and I've been itching my eyes and blowing my nose constantly for about the last eighteen hours. I was kind of hoping all the rain would have washed the air clean of this stuff. Then again, maybe it's just inside the house.

Here's hoping my gigs this week are musically satisfying. It's getting to the point where I would trade the money on the gig for a sustained divine musical experience. I got a little of that Saturday night (courtesy of Marcus Miller, Grover Washington, Jr., and Mark Cobb), but Sunday was pretty bleak. We'll see what this week brings.

Kevin Harry sent me some pictures he's taken of me at gigs we've played recently. Here's a photo of me playing flute at someone's wedding ceremony. As always, I wish I was playing more flute. I love playing flute. It's a very different thing from saxophone or clarinet, and I like not only the flexibility of bending and altering the tone, but also the fact that I can use the color behind something else without intruding. With saxophone, I usually have to play around something else going on, but with flute it's very easy to stay in the background and then bring it forward in the music. It's very cool.
davidfreemanmusic.com