The Blahs

I was really flat last night. Not flat pitch-wise, but just flat energy-wise. It was really hard to get in a groove last night.

Thriller is tonight. It's sold out (actually over-sold by the promoters). It should be fun. I'll be glad to finish it.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

"It's all free throws"

One of our regular Yacht Rock fans was so pumped by our performance of a few Michael Jackson songs last night, he told us "it's all free throws now!" to which Nick replied, "What if we're Shaq?"

Last night was a strange one. We had two keyboardists on deck, so I was mostly just playing saxophone solos, as well as a handful of minor synth parts. I was also back in the corner of the stage, so most of what I heard was Mark Bencuya's keyboards, bass, and drums. It's a much different sound than the other side of the stage.
A couple of the guys had off nights, and it affected the vibe on stage more than just "oops." Also, Nick is worried that he might have picked up a cold. He had a doctor's appointment this morning to try and see if he could hold off the plague until Sunday!
Bencuya threw the synth solo for Love Will Keep Us Together at me. It's been a while since I've played that one. I did ok wandering through it, but I didn't get it note for note. Also, Bielenberg didn't know the string part for Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, so I got to go over there and play it on his keyboard (when he finally got out of the way at the end of the first verse!). He has a Roland Fantom. It's really nice! The keys have slightly more weight than my Triton. There's more of a solid feel to what I was playing. Bencuya has one too.
Not much else to report. I tried to study what Bencuya was playing. When I'm the other keyboardist, I need to be familiar with what he's doing, and I can't always hear him clearly. I learned some more stuff last night. He's still awesome, by the way.

I added a new page to my website: equipment! I even included a cell phone picture someone took of me last night.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Wednesday Yachting

Yacht Rock played a "blender" for Juice Studios Wednesday night at Magnolia Hall in Piedmont Park. It was a pretty low key affair--mostly people mingling and networking. We were the band on the other end of the room. It was a really easy gig. No problems (though I think we were all pretty underwhelmed by the sound company). I was standing next to the mains while soloing at the end of Reminiscing, and I checked after the song to see if my microphone was on. It was like that.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Yacht Rock on Ice

Yacht Rock played an event for the University of Virginia alumni last night. Outside. In the cold. In a tent with almost no sides.

We thought we would die. We were sure we would freeze and be left to die in the cold at the horse farm in Buckhead.

But no! Although I did sit in my truck with the heat running for an hour before the gig started, we were ok once we got up and moving. The first couple of songs I was blowing on my hands, but beyond that we might as well have been indoors.

A couple of cold weather problems...both saxophones were pushed in about a quarter inch past usual. Other than that, they felt good. I had no trouble with reeds, and once I got the mouthpiece in the right place, the pitch across the horn was not as way out as I thought it would have been. Even the flute (pushed all the way in) felt normal.
The display on one of my keyboards was very slow in changing. The keyboard itself was fine, but the display lagged behind. Weird.

Kip Conner (soundman for Shawn Mullins) ran sound for us tonight. It was really nice. He did a great job of bumping solos up last night. It you were in Buckhead last night, you probably heard me. I was that loud. It was great.

Ganesh sang with us (Nick was out of town). He did a great job.

Mark Cobb played well. He used his small kit, and he played the hell out of it. I played keyboard facing him. It was fun to watch. I think he set a personal record for "Pat Boone Debbie Boone" on a gig.

Mark Bencuya quoted Rhapsody in Blue in Hey Nineteen, I quoted The Hustle in Lowdown and Baker Street in I Can't Go for That, and Mark Dannells quoted Black Dog in the second solo of Peg.

I played keyboards as well as my usual stuff. No problems to report, other than a wrong chord I played twice (geez! twice?!) in Reminscing. Should have been GMaj7, but I played Bb9 twice. Sorry.

Big week ahead. Thriller as well as some regular Yacht Rock gigs. It will be good, but I will be sleeping next Sunday.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Jazz and Toyotas

I had no gig tonight. No biggie. I played an early afternoon trio gig with Louis Heriveaux (keyboard) and Tommy Sauter (bass) at Stonecrest Toyota in Lithonia. I even drove a Toyota truck to the gig. Here's the audio if you want to check it out:

I clearly had some trouble with my reed in the first couple of songs (the first tune we attempted was I Mean You; the last was Cherokee). Where's the first note? On Turnaround, I will eventually get the end of the head right. I can do it in private, but not in public, evidently. Also, the head on Ladybird? What the hell? I don't know. I bailed on it pretty quick, that's for sure. On the way out I attempted to substitute Half Nelson, but I obviously haven't thought about that one in a while. No dice. While I'm criticizing myself, how about not playing so sharp, Freeman? Are ya deaf?

It is strange to me to hear this trio play. On the gig I want to scream sometimes because the time feels like it goes to hell about an hour into the gig. From there on out, we three do not agree, and it drives me crazy. When I hear the audio, it's never as bad as I remember. My anger is not justified.

T ball, Jack's birthday party, and a Yacht Rock gig await me tomorrow. Time for bed.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Yacht Rock

We cruised through Yacht Rock last night. I would say it sounded pretty good, but I'm biased.

I think I played the piano part to for I'd Really Love to See You Tonight about three and a half hours Thursday afternoon. My fingers were sore, but I got it right at the gig. That and All Out of Love were my two biggies that I needed to spend some time on. All Out of Love got cut, so you can assume I would have nailed it.

We played Thriller as a sneak peak of the Halloween show. It never fails to impress me how many people know all the words to every song. I'm getting to the point where I feels like I don't remember anything, but the people in front of me did everything but the frikin' dance!

The soundcheck for last night consisted of Human Nature and P.Y.T. I think we're in good shape. I don't have much on either one. The last song we need to work on is Lady in my Life. There's talk about tucking a saxophone solo in that one. Sweet! All play and no work for me on that!

We had an excellent night. The crowd was better than it's been in weeks, and we cashed in on the fact that we were a 7 piece (Bielenberg was on assignment). Strangely enough, there was an abundance of parking spaces, which made me think we'd be doomed. It was not true.

The sound man added his pitch shifter (and probably some other effects) to Mark Dannell's solo on Peg (might have been about the fourth song!), and really messed him up mentally. I think he thinks Hans (the sound man) is looking for an opportunity to destroy him. Dannell's was doing well up til then, and it seemed like after that he just wanted to get through it.

What else? We finally played I Keep Forgettin' again, and Nick and Pete (probably Nick) decided to insert Regulate into it. Boo. I hate it when we do that. I get to play the rhodes part (Bencuya on clav), and so I practiced it alot, and then I had to give it up half way through. I will point out that, once again, the crowd knew the words. These people are well rounded.

Oh yeah...did I mention that Dannells wrote a bridge for Happy Birthday? We played it TWICE for our buddy Jim Stapley, celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday last night. Keep up the good work, Jim.

The encore last night was Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. It got PAINFULLY loud. I could feel myself going deaf.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thriller on my Mind

Thriller is killing me. I don't want to hear it anymore.

Yacht Rock had a rehearsal for Beat It and Billy Jean Monday night. We also checked a couple of the ones we'd previously worked on.

I spent tonight plowing through what seems like one million sounds looking for the right sound for a three measure solo in Human Nature. Fortunately (for my back and my sanity), I was able to find that obnoxious synth that I need for the chorus of P.Y.T. pretty quickly. I'm interested to hear what Bencuya came up with for the "Alvin" sounding vocoder thing at the end.

Tomorrow night we are doing Yacht Rock as a seven piece--Bielenberg has a gig somewhere else. I'm back on keyboards. I spent some time earlier today going over parts, and I'll do the same tomorrow. The only one I've never played before is the piano part on I'd Really Love to See You Tonight. I feel like I've got it, but I need to play it about 650 more times so I can feel confident about it. You only get one shot at the gig.
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Victory!

What a weekend!

Thursday was our usual Yacht Rock gig. We added two more songs to our Thriller project, and I think they both went fairly well. It's always hard to tell. You figure out your part ahead of time, but you don't really know if it'll work until you hear in the context of everything else; at that point, you really know if you need to change your sound, volume, or scrap something in favor of another part. With Thriller, it seems like there are more things that two keyboardists and the EWI can physically perform, and so you have to make sure you're grabbing the parts that will be missed the most. That cool part that you had never heard until you really started analyzing the track probably won't be missed as much as the big synth pad.

Friday began waaaaaaaay too early (noon) with a studio call for Yacht Rock. We gathered at Open Sky Studios (in Avatar) to work on a Christmas tune--another mash-up of a Yacht Rock song with a Christmas tune. I don't think I'm at liberty to say what the two tunes are. Also, Dannells wrote a bridge to Happy Birthday. It's in four.
From Open Sky I headed on to Lake Oconee for a gig with Platnumb. A strange corporate gig in a conference room at the Ritz. A weird one for sure. Everyone in the audience was at least 50. We had barely started the first tune (Breezin') when they asked us to turn it down (as in, turn off the P.A.). Then they asked us to stop all together. We returned after they ate, and the gig turned into corporate cabaret. They just sat and stared at us as we paraded song after song before them. At some point in all this, somebody requested Brick House, so we jumped into that, and EVERYBODY got on the dance floor. It was really weird. But, that beat what we were doing, and they stayed out there for the rest of the set. When we came back from the break, there were fourteen people left in the room, and we played for them for another hour.

Saturday morning, Jack had a 10 AM t ball game. It was pretty cold.
When I got home from that, I worked on some stuff for my Yacht Rock gig that night (mostly the strings for All Out of Love by Air Supply). I also pounded on my synth solo for Lido Shuffle (and adjusted my sound for that).
We played in the back of Paris on Ponce in the room called Maison Rouge. It is an extremely neat place...it looks like a nightclub from the thirties. We played one and a half sets. It was super easy. The GREAT news is that I finally NAILED the Lido synth part. I was so pumped I wanted to stop the show and high five everybody in the room. It was so cool!
I think I may have finally won over Bencuya. He's been the main proponent of two keyboards for the gig, while I think everybody else is either on the fence or ok with me doing it. After the gig, Bencuya said he thought we sounded better/just as full as we did two nights earlier with two keyboards. How great is that! That really made my night. His opinion on this subject carries more weight than probably anybody else in the band, so I'm really excited to hear him say that.
Did I mention I nailed the synth solo?
Saxophone-wise, I could hear myself fairly well, and so I had a good night. Good reeds on both horns, though I realize that one of my alto reeds is probably dead. At least, it feels dead compared to the one I played last night.

Tonight is my church gig. I also have to check out some Thriller stuff. It turns out we're only adding two songs tomorrow night for the rehearsal--Beat It and Billy Jean. There probably won't be much for me in either of those.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thursday

nothing happened. if you saw me there, you'd know.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Three Day Trip

Here's the round up of this past weekend's Yacht Rock trip. I made notes along the way. Here they are.

Thursday:
We brought on Mike Bielenberg tonight as the new second keyboardist. He did very well. I think the band enjoyed hearing all the parts. Between Bencuya and myself, we have to drop parts from time to time (for instance if I'm playing a sax solo), so having the extra hands there keeps them going.

I was back across the stage, tucked in between the bass cabinet and Mark Bencuya's gear. It's such a gift to be able to sit and watch him play. He has great command of the vocabulary of this music. It's awesome. I didn't have nearly as much to do, so I tried to steal anything I could from him.

Mark Cobb had a good night. He was solid as a rock.

I had a problem with the power supply for my MIDI wireless. I solved it with batteries. Trip to Radio Shack!

Jimmy Fallon is having Christopher Cross on his show for a "Yacht Rock Party." We are encouraging fans to contact Fallon through NBC and let him know we're out here doing it already.

In the middle of the first set, the effects pedal that I use for my sax died. I trouble shot it and figured out that the power supply was falling out of the socket. Not enough that the unit got no power, but not enough that it would pass on signal. I would have never guessed it, but while I was checking to make sure everything was plugged all the way in, the menu scrolled, stopped, scrolled, and stopped. I found another spot on the power strip, and I was back in the game.

Friday:
Friday, I drove around to get a new power supply. I went to the nearby Radio Shack seeking 9 volts and 500 mA, but they didn't have one. They sent me to the Radio Shack by the big Chicken, which they claimed had seven of them. That store had none. He informed me that Radio Shack didn't even carry that power supply. I went to Guitar Center, and the guy at the counter told me the voltage had to be correct, and you had to have at least the number of mA (but you can go over). Evidentally, the mA is how much your thing draws, and so if your power supply can give more, you're ok, but if it can't give it enough power, you're in trouble.
So...I bought one and brought it home, but it didn't fix my problem.

I loaded in to Andrews Upstairs at 7 PM. Nobody else showed up until after 8. I need to adjust that! I was completely set up before I saw anyone else.

We had a good crowd--I think it was probably sold out. We made good money, and the crowd was into it. I think we as a band wonder how long the crowds will continue to come. So far so good!

Bielenberg had a prior commitment, so I played keyboards as well as my other stuff.

Alyssa Olson sang Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, Physical, and Magic with us tonight. She did very well, and the crowd ate it up. Don't Go Breakin' my Heart and Magic have been two of my worst songs (keyboard-wise), and tonight I did well. That was a relief.

I remember at one point playing keyboards and watching Mark Cobb groove it and thinking about how cool it is to play in a band with these guys. Everyone in the band is so good on his instrument, and everyone gels so well. It's really neat to be a part of this.

We came back from the break with Africa, and I screwed up two measures of the solo. I jumped an octave too low, and that threw me off for a couple of seconds. I want a do-over!

My saxes felt really good tonight--good reeds on both horns. Unfortunately, it was not a big sax night.

We've had some issues with the sound at Andrews the past couple of months. Too many effects (too much reverb on a drumset that's supposed to be really dry), and volume (everybody in the audience complains that volume is unbearable). Things were noticeably better this month.

No much else to report. We took pictures of us wearing our boat shoes for Sebago (that's me up above in the blog pic). You can see all the pictures at Mixtape Atlanta.

Saturday:
Saturday night we played a gig for the Chattahoochee River Keepers. It was in the backyard of an expensive house right on the river. What a cool setting! Actually, that turned out to be true...it got cold after the sun went down!

Opening up for us was an R.E.M. tribute band called R.E.M.ake. Wow! They sounded exactly like R.E.M. I played with them on Finest Work Song and Can't Get there from Here. It was all old stuff (Document and earlier)...really took me back to high school! Mark Bencuya played on a couple of tunes--I think South Central Rain and Rockville. He's awesome. It's understood.

Yacht Rock's two sets were solid. Mark Cobb was with family on a trip to Vegas, so Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums with us. He was super solid. Every song felt good. Plus, he helped me load out at the end of the night.

I screwed up the solo in Africa AGAIN! Same spot, but this time the processor on my computer got overloaded, and it sounded like my sound went underwater. My fingers were right, but I'd forgotten to tap the space bar at some point to clear up delay and reverb that might have continued on from another sound. That was crushing. I screw up WAY too much.

Peter asked me to show him the synth thing in Lido Shuffle that I can't quite play. He didn't say it, but I'm guessing he'll practice and eventually take over that part.

We closed out the night with Takin' it to the Streets. One of my favorites.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Rain and the Jazzoo

Yacht Rock was supposed to play a pair of gigs yesterday--the Sandy Springs Festival and Jazzoo at the zoo (duh).

The Sandy Springs gig got rained out. We showed up and it was pouring. Then the rain stopped. It's on, we thought. As we were loading our stuff on to a golf cart to take into the festival, the golf cart driver got a message that the gig had been canceled. So...back in the truck! We walked over to the stage to see what we would be missing. Twas a nice little ampitheater in Sandy Springs. By the time we got back to our vehicles, the rain was coming again, so I drove home in the rain. It kept raining for a few more hours.

Two nice things about that gig getting cancelled: 1. We still got paid. 2. The squeeze of trying to pack up, sprint to the zoo, and set up again was eliminated. Instead, I went home and ate supper, and then left around 6 PM.

I loaded into the zoo around 6:30. It was still raining, but miraculously we were able to drive through the back of the tent and unload there. How sweet was that! Very sweet, I tell you.

The crowd was thick at the Jazzoo. Lots of rowdy drunk people, probably due to the free alcohol samples at the different booths within the tent. It was a good gig, though. The stage was high enough to keep them at bay.
The sound was weird on stage. You know those gigs where it seems like you can't hear your amp well, and you keep bumping the volume up, but you never really get anywhere until it's wide open? It was one of those--probably because we were in a tent with an asphalt floor, and no wall behind the stage (just a drape). Eventually, I got to where I could hear my monitor, but if I stepped away from it, I heard nothing. This proved to be no fun when it came time for Taking it to the Streets. Trying to play when it felt like I was un-miced caused me to overblow and get tired. On Baker Street it was a little easier because the alto is easier to hear. I don't know why--could be that it cuts a little more, could be because it's higher, could be because the bell is closer. I don't know.
I went back (beginning this past Thursday) to an older alto mouthpiece of mine that is a little less open. I was playing on a wide open piece and it sounded great when I was jamming a ton of air into it, but it wore me out. The older piece is a little more closed, and I can get the same sound without feeling with less effort. I'm going to have the open mouthpiece refaced to see if I can bring it down to something I can get more use out of.
When we were playing Baker Street, Mark Dannells was playing a rippin' guitar solo with one foot on the monitor. Dannells always does this--it's his standard guitar hero move. Towards the end of his solo, he must have shifted his weight onto it because it slipped out from under him. He fell flat on his back, but amazingly NEVER MISSED A NOTE! That guy is awesome.
Speaking of awesome, Mark Cobb was once again on fire. He is really sharp right now. Mark's so creative that even though we're playing the same songs night to night, I can hear within the beat what he's thinking about (musically) on a given night. The fills turn into a question--"Do you hear me? Do you hear what I'm telling you?" You know it. Mark Cobb is driving the band right now.
One crappy thing--the drum set was a rental, and we used the part of one of my gig bags to deaden the bass drum. As soon as the gig ended, the rental guys jumped on stage, grabbed the drumset and ran out the door. It's going to take a couple of days to see if I can get my stuff back. Argghhh! I brought my EWI home wrapped in my t shirt.
I'm playing my parts, particularly the keyboard stuff, with a feeling that the end is near. Kind of like the tour is almost over. It'll definitely improve the band to have two full time keyboardists, but I'll miss the challenge, and I think it'll feel really weird to go back to doing almost nothing on alot of these songs. Nobody's said exactly how it'll all shake out. We'll see.

Thursday business

Thursday was another day that didn't look too bad when I checked my calendar.

I went by Music and Arts to buy a new saxophone stand. I have a couple of Hamilton stands that I've been using, but the bumpers at the bottom don't cradle my horns well, and I've tried to bend them and get them to work, but it's never been what I wanted. The older ones have a V shaped bumper--the newer ones are pretty flat, and they don't work that well in my opinion. It started to bug me, so I moved on. I had a Hercules stand that was holding an old saxophone up at home, and so I switched one of the Hamiltons out for that. I went and got another one so I'd have two in my bag.
While I was buying my stand, I overheard the clerk working say that he is now the manager. If my memory is right, that's the fourth manager in four years. Ahh, retail! I'll have to get the scoop on what happened to the other guy. Anyway, when he got around to me he mentioned that they brought on a new woodwinds teacher for Wednesday. No big deal--they'd asked me about coming in on Wednesdays and Thursdays but I declined because I teach from home on those days. So I asked who it was, and he said it some Fulton Co. band director. She's primarily a clarinetist, but is willing to teach beginner saxophone. Ok...and then the guy tells me straight out that the store will be funneling potential clarinet students towards her (just like I presume that the reason I have so few flute students is because they funnel the flute students to the end of the week when a there's a flute teacher at the store). What the hell is that? If the idea is to have a woodwind person there every day of the week, shouldn't the schedule be the determining factor in who ends up with the student? Maybe I'm making too much of this, but it's been my experience that having a mix of flutes, clarinets, and saxophones keeps my schedule much more full. I have fifteen students at the store right now. Seven are saxophones. The other eight are clarinetists.

On to Yacht Rock.

It appears my tenure as the second keyboardist is coming to a close. Mike Bielenberg will be coming on next Thursday to replace Brandon Still. I've known Bielenberg for probably ten years, and he is an excellent keyboardist and a really creative guy. Good news for Yacht Rock for sure. I think there are a couple of more random gigs for which he won't be available, but it sounds like he's our man for the future.

Last night was pretty good. Not the crowd disaster we had last week, where the rain kept everybody away. This week's group was pretty good. I'd say about average, numbers-wise. Lucky for them MARK COBB IS BACK! After about four of five shows where he was not quite on the ball, he was back in a big way, and it was really cool. Tempos were good, the grooves were good...he's back to being awesome. I love it. When he's playing well, it makes everybody else in the band play better. For me, his playing determines whether or not we're happening, musically.

Mark Dannells played some great stuff. I remember this one wrong note he played, and he bent the hell out of it to fix it. Even when it was wrong, it sounded so good. I'm a big fan if solos that sort of trip and recover--too safe is no good. I'm not saying totally-suck-and-get to the end; but the note that makes your face go ouch! and then you figure out a way to make it work--that's cool. That note was a great example.
I crashed one Magic. I got behind on the chords, and it took me an entire verse and chorus for my head to get up to speed. I hate it worse because Nick was standing next to me while I was making a mess. It reinforces the need to find another keyboardist! Fair enough. I need to be more consistent if I'm going to keep up with the level everyone else has set.
Yacht Rock has two gigs on Saturday with an hour and a half to go from one to the next. We're going to need a roadies and a police escort to make it.

Man on the Run

It's been pretty wild the past two days.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I played a duo gig with Louis Heriveaux. It was a three hour gig, but we probably only played an hour's worth of music. If that. Super easy. The rest of the time, we just sat there and talked (while some guy gave a presentation). Super easy. Now for the bad news...in the process of opening the door to my truck and switching hands, I dropped me tenor. In the gig bag, but it got a little messed up--the right hand is not sealing and the bell got bent (easy enough--I bent it back). Nothing that can't be repaired. Mostly I'm just feeling like an ass for being casual and dropping my horn.

Today was another two gig day. I played a trio gig with Tyrone Jackson and Tommy Sauter in Gwinnett from 6-9. The toughest part of that was the traffic (which was terrible with all the rain, and trying to be out there at 5 PM). After that, I jumped in my truck and boogied down 85 (again in the rain) to the 10 High for Yacht Rock. We played well, but most people stayed away. Let's hope it's because of the weather! I would like to elaborate, but it's 4:15 AM and I'm going to bed.

No gigs this weekend. What a weird month! All these gigs stacked up during the week, but this will be my second weekend with nothing.

Survival

I made it through Thursday night's double-whammy unscathed.

My first gig last night was a little trio hit at Neiman Marcus in Lenox Square Mall. I never understood what it was for--I think it was some sort of private party for high rolling customers. We (Tyrone Jackson and Tommy Sauter) were stationed in the men's department next to a bunch of extremely high priced Tom Ford clothes. Nothing much to report other than our self-amusement.
I need to learn some new tunes. The three of us have played these sort of gigs for years now, and so I know what tunes we know in common, but since the two of them are more "on the jazz scene" than I am, I'm not picking up newer tunes as quickly as they are. I usually bring charts of things I want to try, but I was traveling light due to the fact that I had to run out the door when the gig was over.
Speaking of which, when the gig ended, I boogied on out of there (I had a half hour to get from Lenox to Va. Highland, park, get in, pull my horn out, turn everything on, change clothes, and get on stage). Unfortunately, a security guy who looked like one of my cousins stopped me and said I had to check in with "LP" before leaving. LP? I was totally confused. All I could think was "Latin Percussion." Finally it dawned on me, so back down the escalator, back through the labyrinth to "LP" so some lady could look in my gig bag. Then they wanted me to go out through the employee's entrance, which would have put me in the tunnel (the tunnel faces where Tower Records used to be in the Around Lenox shopping center). Bad! I was parked right outside the front door! She finally let me go back out the front, so back up the escalator, past my cousin the security guard, and away I go. All that B.S. cost me eleven minutes that I needed.
I got to the 10 High at 10:22 PM. The gig starts at 10:30. I made it, but just barely. I could have used those eleven minutes!

The Yacht Rock gig was pretty sluggish. Both of our front guys are out this week, so Ganesh sang for Pete and Greg moved off bass and sang for Nick. We had Donny come and play bass and sing. He did very well. The feel of the show was pretty uneven...it felt like we had a bunch of subs. Personally, I had no disasters, other than I Just Wanna Stop, which was an audible that I didn't want to hear. If you follow this blog religiously, you may recall that we played that tune for two back to back shows in July (a 10 High and Andrews gig), and I never got comfortable with playing the string part. I was always a chord behind. So hearing "I Just Wanna Stop! ...two, three, four!" was not good. I did what I could but it was pretty much the same results as July. I did not fare well with the orchestra, let's say. So it goes. Live to play another day...
The crowd seems to be turning up later and later. For a while we were pretty packed before we started, and then it would thin out as the night went on. Lately it's been getting thicker right around when we go on break.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out my love of curvy Italian-looking women. Viva Italia!

It's Gotta be the Shoes

The dressing room for Andrews Upstairs is up above the stage, and you can look out and see how the room is filling up before you go on. It's a small, hot room with a couple of couches, a mini fridge, and a restroom. We sat up there last night, worried because there was nobody on the floor in the twenty minutes or so before we started. It turns out that we were ok, though, because the bar in the other room was full and people were steadily filing in. By the time we got moving, it was pretty good. Not the most packed ever, but pretty thick. We have noticed that lots of our regular fans have been missing in action, but there are still plenty of new ones turning up, so that's cool.

Musically, it was a pretty solid night. For some reason, other people in the band actually put me in their monitor mixes last night. Usually I am ignored in that regard, but everybody threw a little bit in there, and that was cool. From my perch on the stage, I'm kind of isolated from the overall wash of stage volume, and you really can't hear my speaker except for where I am and where Greg is (more or less right in front of me).
I think the second tune we played was a C major scale. Just for the silliness of it, we played a two octave C major scale. I made it all the way to the end with no mistakes. I don't think the crowd appreciates our humor.
I had a couple of mistakes on the keyboard stuff--nothing major. At the end of Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, I accidentally landed on a sharp 11 chord (a Freudian jazz slip?). Oops. The sound gets so loud in there and it kind of swirls around the room, and it's hard to hear things like strings. On the other hand, I could look at my hands and see my finger on the B natural...
I picked up my alto for Reminiscing, and the first note I tried to play didn't come out at all. I guess my reed had kind of dried out/potato chipped on me, and it didn't vibrate at all. Not good! I desperately drooled on the sucker and it got going again. That sort of freaked me out--I wondered if the tenor reed was doing the same thing.
On The Biggest Part of Me, the headstock of Greg's bass smacked my microphone right at the start of my solo. I think he was more freaked out about than I was--he thought he might have knocked the horn into my teeth. No sweat. It was cool. Once again, I got excited and overblew, but I did play some better stuff than Thursday night (where I overblew and my horn crapped out a little, but I didn't play as many good ideas).
I also had a better flute solo on Lowdown than Thursday night, although the Thursday one wasn't a bunch of crap. In general, when I can hear myself really well I play better (and don't overblow), and playing flute on the front corner of the stage, I can hear the mains so well that I can clearly know what I'm doing.
We have a history of adding a bunch of breaks on Somebody's Baby, and Mark Cobb has been delaying the downbeat coming out of each break by a little bit more. I got to laughing about it so much that I screwed up some of my piano parts.

Things did come to the breaking point with the volume of the room. The constant complaint we hear from friends that come see us at Andrews is that the sound is DEAFENING. Greg finally went back to the sound man and ordered him to back the volume down (I think the demand was thirty percent less), and it made a huge difference. The room volume gets so loud that the front line mics start to pick up the noise and create a feedback loop. And really, overall it's just too loud even before that starts happening. This isn't KISS, it's smooth 70s, and too loud isn't cool--it's uncomfortable. So the second set was not as violently noisy, and we played better. Hopefully it will stay that way in the future. I've said it before--the sound guy can kill the band.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Yacht Rock as an official endorsement. We are somehow hooked up with Sebago! Our free boat shoes arrived yesterday. Mine are the old school brown with the white soles. What's next? A cocaine endorsement?

Practice and Performance

When it comes to performing, I am of the belief that you prepare (practice), and then you go out there and go for it.  If it works, great;  if you crash, hopefully you recovered.  Either way, you accept it as was you've got at that moment, and when the moment's over, it's time to start thinking about the next one.  I play around town quite a bit, and adopting this philosophy has really helped me to avoid spending useless time analyzing what when wrong on any particular gig.  

I play a steady gig with several volunteer musicians, and as soon as the last song has finished, everyone is chirping about who screwed up and why.  It seems very amateurish to do that.

Last night Yacht Rock had alot of finger pointing after the show at the 10 High.  Things got a little tense.  Let it go.  

Friday

I'm sure I'll be crashing soon.  Beth is out of town from Wednesday to Saturday, so it's just Jack and me right now (and Reggie, of course).  I fell asleep in Jack's bed after reading stories Wednesday night, and then he woke me up around 7:30 Thursday morning.  Thursday night I didn't get to bed until after 3 AM due to Yacht Rock, and then I was up again this morning at 7:30 trying to get him ready to go to school.  I'm probably already asleep and just don't know it.

Yesterday might have been one of the best in recent memory.  I helped out a student by transferring/transposing some music to Finale and emailing her a PDF, and then I got busy practicing.  I managed to find time to hit all my horns.  I think my self worth must be tied to how much I can practice;  yesterday was a high point!  Even after all that, I still had time to get outside with Jack for a little over an hour.  

Last night's Yacht Rock was pretty good, though I think we're ready to move on to some new songs.  Mark Cobb played lots of crazy stuff in the first set.  I think he must've been checking out his JoJo Mayer stuff this week.  The second set got a little tense on stage, resulting in a brisk rendition of "Little Jeannie", but no blood was spilled, and I think things will eventually be ok (for a week).  At some point in packing up I dropped my sunglasses.  I can't find them.  If you picked them up, please bring them back to me.

One strange note-Melkonian ran his fingers through my chest hair on the break.  That was weird.

We had a killer thunderstorm pass through here last night.  There's lots of trash in my yard.  I need to get out there and get working on it before I have to go get Jack at school.  I think my gutters are full of those fuzzy oak tree things.  Also, my grass is growing as we speak, so I'd better get out there before I have to rent a combine.