Rickie Lee Jones (and some Gadd)

The usual Monday stuff...laundry, vacuuming.

I got a CD in the mail that I haven't heard in a while--the self-titled album Rickie Lee Jones from around 1979.  You probably know it by the first track-Chuck E.'s in Love.  Interesting how much this stuff I hear in the female singer/songwriters of Decatur, not to mention someone like Norah Jones.  I love it, though.  Some of my favorite late 70s stuff, including some great horn stuff by Tom Scott, Ernie Watts, and Chuck Findley.  Anything where the saxes are playing in unison really gets me excited (Steely Dan does this alot, and I thank them for every note of it).  Love that sound.  Steve Gadd is also on this one (ahh that fill in the middle of Chuck E.'s!!!!!!!), and I'm in love with everything from the 70s that has him on it, so this one does me good.  (Here's a great Steve Gadd clip from YouTube from some clinic--he seems pissed about having to demonstrate something yet again, so he starts off like he wants to die, but about 2 and half minutes into it, he's lost in it and going nuts!)

Rickie Lee Jones has some cool things in her blog.  I can relate to the idea of bringing the music to life at the gig, and how sometimes you want to share it with the audience, and sometimes it's more of your own thing.  I think it's safe to say that most non musicians think that you show up to the gig and the magic happens, when in fact some nights you just can't get it there.  The notes are right and nobody's messing up, but it just isn't happening.  I bet on half my gigs I drive there worried about it not happening...what if I can't summon the spirit?  What if I try as hard a as I can, but the notes just don't connect?  I dread those rides.  It's a kind of fear of failure, but not failure like I'll play wrong notes;  more like the failure that I'll play the right notes, but it still won't be right.  What do you do then?

It's Saturday Night!!!!

So it was.  After a nice day at the pool (and tuning up my lawnmower and leaf blower), I headed out to a pretty reasonable Platinum gig.  The crowd came to party.  About the only thing I could say bad about it was that the sound in the room is pretty terrible due to the acoustics.  Looks nice, sounds bad.  A night for ear plugs.

I played alto tonight for something different.  Mainly it was because we opened with a David Sanborn tune (Chicago Song).  Maybe it's because I almost always play tenor on that gig, but alto sounded weird on some tunes like Respect.  It wasn't as difficult to shift gears to a fifth away like I thought it would be.  

Stars and Stripes

Yesterday was pretty rough, evidently.  I worked in the yard yesterday (along with the usual phone calls and emails and a random saxophone lesson) for a good chunk of the day.  After that I edited and uploaded a piccolo sample to my website (go to davidfreemanmusic.net and check the "instruments" page--click on "piccolo", or just click here).  A funny thing about recording...I recorded four passes of piccolo, and the first one was the best one!  First one was pretty good;  second one was a little worse, third one was a little worse;  fourth one, I really tried to nail it because I had a student walking in the door--technically it was good, but my face was starting to tire.  The first take ended up being the keeper.

I read stories to Jack and put him to bed around 8:30.  Thinking I would watch to see if he got up and wandered around, I laid down for a couple of minutes...and woke up at 7 this morning!

Memorial Day

My friend Nick married Elliott yesterday. Congratulations!
I played flute for the wedding ceremony in a sextet of trumpet, violin, flute, acoustic guitar, harpsichord (keyboard), and vibraphone. Nick wrote arrangements of several Y.O.U. songs, a Beatles song, a few classical things, and a Monty Python tune. It was some pretty intricate stuff, but we made it through ok.  The performance fried my brain.  
I was also invited to play on a few songs at the reception. We did a few Yacht Rock songs, as well as some Y.O.U. stuff. That went pretty well, considering the swapping of instruments and singers from song to song.

More than anything, it was a nice chance to hang out with my friends (away from a gig for a change) and show off my wife.  Surrounded by a bunch of other musicians, I felt almost normal!

Highlands, NC is a beautiful little town in the mountains. Beth and I had a wonderful time.  I am tempted show a picture of Beth after sampling the wine, or a picture of me feeding Mark Dannells wedding cake, but you will have to imagine it.  Or you can email me and I'll show you.

Wedding Weekend

Last night (Friday), I played a wedding.  Sunday night I am attending a wedding.  Due to my attendance, I am unable to play someone else's wedding.  However, I have no gig tonight (Saturday)!  Everybody's getting married on off nights to save money!  Weird, weird, weird!

Steve Cunningham filled in for our regular guitarist, Dave MacDougal.  I've probably known Steve around twelve years--we used to teach at the same music store.  The last gig we played together was probably one of mine at Sambuca about nine or ten years ago.  He's even better than I remember.  If you get a chance, you should check him out!  Wow!

Hittin' it Hard

After several days of messing around with my website (davidfreemanmusic.net or davidfreemanmusic.com), I've finally got the horns back in my face for some good practicing. I'm preparing for a big wedding this weekend in North Carolina, in addition to my in town stuff (practicing for certain lessons and keeping the Yacht Rock stuff under my fingers). Things are in good shape, I think.

It's the last few days of the school year, which means many of my students will be taking some time off. My gig calendar looks pretty good through the summer, so I think things are going to be ok. I've also got multiple things that I'd like to achieve by August, so here's hoping that everything lines up.

Itchy

Another wild weekend!  

Thursday was a two gig night.  I first played for the opening of the Hotel Palomar in midtown--me and a DJ and a percussionist (and later on we were joined by the duo Days Ahead).  After that I bolted over to the 10 High for Yacht Rock.  We had a strange cruise.  The crowd had very few familiar faces, and at some point that night a few people turned on us.  The night ended with someone throwing a cup at the stage.  Not cool at all.

Friday was a period of recovery and working on my website, davidfreemanmusic.net, a little more.  I also mowed the yard and attempted to control some of the brush in our backyard.  I was probably exposed to poison ivy.  It happens every year...you'd think I'd be able to identify it at this point, but no.  My shins are starting to itch, so I think my fate is sealed!

Jack had his final T-ball game Saturday morning.  From there I raced (in the rain!) to the Yacht Rock gig at the Dunwoody Beer Festival.  The Tupperware Party played a set at the end of the rain, and then it cleared off enough that we could get set sail in Dunwoody.  I think we made a ton of new fans.  We sold out of captain's hats in about 2 minutes.  

Sunday I played my church gigs.  In between, Jack and I attended Ingrid Bencuya's 6th birthday party.  Happy birthday Ingrid!  Mark Bencuya loaned me a couple of videos.  I checked out Weather Report at Montreux 1976 and the story of Stax Records.  The Stax thing just about killed me!  What a story!  You gotta see that one.

This week should be pretty low key, which is a good thing because we're gearing up for Nick and Elliott's wedding.

Is it really Sunday?

My new favorite kid show is "Penguins of Madagascar."  It's on Nick.  You've got to try it.

Last night I played a wedding reception until 11:30 at the History Center (and nearly strangled myself out of boredom), and then joined the last night of 500 Songs for Kids at Smith's.  Lots of standing around, punctuated by brief periods of deafeningly loud monitors.  It was fun, though, and a pretty good hang.  Mark Cobb and I hung out of a little bit afterwards, and I ended up walking out the back door at 3:45 AM.  Ouch!  

I'll be headed to bed early tonight.  

Thursday

Thursday!  It's here again.  Time to race through another wild weekend of gigs. 

I've had enough time to get some work in on every horn this week, so (at least mentally) I feel ready to go to work.  

still going

Greetings.  What a day yesterday!  Beth called not long after I got up reporting water in her car (it was raining).  Of course, I was expected to fix the problem immediately!  So, I eventually diagnosed that the drains for the sunroof were clogged and the excess water was draining into the headliner.  I worked on cleaning out the two tubes that carry the water to the outside (basically, I tore apart the interior of the front corners of the car).  I had to stop so I could go teach.  When I got back, I had to pick up Jack at a friend's house (Beth was at ASO Chorus rehearsal).  We boogied home so that I could clean house and get the laundry done while she was gone.  I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed the house, and got the laundry cleaned and put away.  That left me just enough time to read three stories and get Jack to bed before he crashed.  After he went to sleep, I ate supper and finished working on the car (including the worst part--putting it all back together).  I got to bed at 3:15 AM.  Hopefully the car is done so I don't have to hear about it anymore.

On the gig front, I played a whole bunch last week, and I've got a bunch of stuff this week.  That's good, because we're just about out of money.  Attached is a nice shot of me at the Star Bar playing with YOU.

Yacht Rock performed at 500 Songs for Kids this past weekend.  It's always a ton of fun to watch other bands do their thing.  Their music careers, I'm assuming, have been much different from mine.  I have been a hired gun from the day I started--call me, and I'll come play with you.  Most of these guys, I'd guess, have always been in a band (with a certain amount of exclusivity to that).  I wonder if I was fifteen years older if I would have spent more time as "the sax player in the band," instead of an add-on.

Website Builder

I noticed while trying to contract musicians for a wedding ceremony in North Carolina that most musicians are difficult to find.  By that, I mean that if you are in search of a trumpet player in Asheville, and you type "trumpet Asheville", you don't get alot of useful results.  You might find private lessons, but not a link to somebody who can play your gig.

This spurred me into getting a website up and running.  I purchased a domain name (davidfreemanmusic.com) and found a host (who also provided me with the free domain davidfreemanmusic.net).  I started last night trying to get something out there, but I do not speak enough computer language to know what I'm doing.  davidfreemanmusic.net  is there, but it's really just a place holder until I get around to making a good looking website, and optimizing the search engines so when somebody looks for "saxophone Atlanta" they can actually track me down.  Good luck to me!

Lessons

I have a student who is dragging through to his final lesson before he quits lessons for good. He comes in, refuses to play through his scales or anything in his book, and reminds me that he will after mid-May, he will never put an instrument up to his lips again. I cannot figure out for the life of me why he continues show up and waste my time. What is the rationale for spending the money so I can babysit the kid for a half hour? 30 minutes in a week is not quite 0.3%! What's the point? Can you improve on anything if you do it less than 1% a week?

I have another student who has quite an attitude, makes no effort to improve, and then makes comments like "I'm not paying you for this!" (actual quote!) when I act silly (entertaining myself) during his time. He lost his book about two months ago, but hasn't replaced it. He now expects to come in and use my copy every week. I'm guess I'm letting him push me around, but I think to myself that if I can remain calm for the thirty minutes I am with him, it will just about pay for a tank of gas.

The majority of my students practice a little (not enough, but a little). A handful practice everything I give them. The remainder (maybe six or seven?) show up, and have not done any work on their own. They even count the thirty minutes a week they spend with me as their practice time. A major waste of money! So I wonder, should I get rid of them, or continue to babysit them and take their money if they want to give it to me? Sometimes I think that if I got rid of every student who was wasting my time and their money, I would be teaching three students a week! Would that be better or worse?

Here's hoping the parents will pay a little more attention. If the kid ain't working on it at home, he's not making progress. Thanks for the money...I think.