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.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

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

Busy Beaver

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm under the gun.

Yacht Rock is playing the entire Thriller album for Halloween, and we're desperately trying to throw the tunes together. Last week we tackled the first two (Wanna Be Startin' Something and Baby Be Mine). This week is The Girl is Mine and Thriller. Even though we have two keyboardists playing multiple keyboards, there are still parts for me on EWI. So...I'm trying to get those together. Mostly it's about getting sounds--writing out my parts is no big deal, but I can spend a long time comparing what I think the sound is to the actual record. It is super tedious.

Friday Yacht Rock is going into the studio to record a Christmas tune, and I need to do some homework to prepare for that. We have to be at the studio at noon, so there's no chance I can learn it tomorrow before the session. From there, I'm leaving to go to a gig at Lake Oconee, so Friday is shot.

This is worth noting because I have a Yacht Rock gig Saturday where I am the second keyboardist, and I have to learn three songs for that. That will take some time, as I am very slow.

In addition to all that, I am missing a Platnumb gig this Saturday, and I need to give my book to John Hancotte on Friday afternoon to take with him. The book has to be ready before I leave for Yacht Rock tonight, because I won't have time to do it before I leave tomorrow morning.

If I make it to Sunday, I'll really need to kick in gear! Monday night, we (Yacht Rock), have a rehearsal where we are going to try Thriller all the way through.
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

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

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

Beth at 40

My beautiful wife, Beth, celebrated her birthday today.
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.

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.