Saturday/Sunday

I made it through the big gig week of December with a Platnumb gig Saturday night. It was a debutante/charity ball in Gainesville. I can't say whether it was for the debutantes or charity. What struck me most was how the mothers of the debutantes took such great pains to try and hang with the teens. It was very uncomfortable from my perspective--moms trying to be one of their daughter's friends and rock out to the band and get crazy. Very forced. I was kind of embarrassed for them.

The heir to the saxophone spot in Platnumb has been named. It's a very strange situation--I have been asked to sub the gig to the same guy (as much as possible) so that when I leave the band, it's a smooth transition. I didn't know I was leaving the band.

Sunday night was my usual church gig. Nothing to report from that.

My big mission this week is to get my synth stuff ready for the Starbuck hit Moonlight Feels Right. We're playing it this Friday at the Variety Playhouse show (and at gigs from there on). Bencuya and I spoke about how to best reorganize the necessary keyboard parts so the two of us could cover it. We left it as a future mission, but when the song turned up on the setlist last week, his statement to the band was "We're skipping it because Dave doesn't have his parts together." Ouch! It sounds like I need to get movin'. We talked about it again yesterday, and it doesn't sound like there will be a reorganizing of parts--basically, I need to check and see what Brandon played, and do that!

Yacht Rock Thursday (10 High) and Friday (Variety Playhouse) this week.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Rosanna Knoblauch

Two nights of Yacht Rock, and two times I have screwed up the Rosanna synth solo (my handwritten chart is pictured). I figured it out (too late) after the gig last night. We have also been playing our version of Christmas Vacation (done in the style of Rosanna), and I play a similar decending line for the synth solo, and now I can't get it out of my head when I'm trying to play the original solo. I've developed Chuck Knoblauch syndrome over it.

Thursday evening I also did a trio gig with David Ellington (piano), and Delbert Felix (bass) in Neiman Marcus at Lenox Square Mall. It went pretty well. I guess it was some sort of high end shopping spree. We didn't see much foot traffic, but the three of us had fun. Here are the mp3s for your listening pleasure:

Thursday night's Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High was sparsely attended. My old friend Mike Andriola showed up with a crew of people. There was also a girl right in the front who was super duper drunk, and I think the band watched her every move through the second set--she was like a time bomb about to explode on the monitor. So drunk, she couldn't even keep her eyes open.

Friday night was a private party for a law firm downtown. We were on the 50th floor of the Deloitte Building (191 Peachtree)...lots of cool views from that height. Our gig was in the executive dining room. Hardwood floors, windows, and sheetrock. We got loud. I played my solos on the dance floor out in front of the band, and that was kind of fun. On my solo on Biggest Part of Me, people on the dance floor actually moved away from me. It could've been the volume, or the blistering number of notes. It's kind of funny in a way.

An asian lady came up to me in the middle of a set and asked if we played anything with more soul. I said no. She said, what about the black people here? (nice stereotyping!). I said, black people like this stuff too. She was not swayed by my argument, so I laid my best line on her: I'm just the sax player. In other words, f*** off!

This is unrelated to my Rosanna issues, but here's a weird EWI thing: last week when it froze up, I just started pushing buttons to try and figure out what was wrong. On the EWI, you can select how you want the thing to react to breath pressure--it can translate into volume, velocity, aftertouch, and some other stuff. When I had messed it up, I had set so that it was all or nothing--either it was as loud as it would go or off. I thought I'd fixed it, but I noticed last night that when I would blow, the faders on my computer program would move up and down. It didn't do that before, so I tried something else. The something else would register that it was sending signal to the computer, but no sound. Later it dawned on me that since I had changed it so the faders would move up and down, those sounds now had the faders in the all the way down position--so basically I need to reset my levels now. Ahh, technology!

The good news tonight is that I'm playing a Platnumb gig. The bad news is that it's 9 PM to 1 AM, in Gainesville, so I'll be home at 3 AM again. Boo.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Delbert Frickin' Felix!

Last night I played a quartet gig with Louis Heriveaux (piano), Delbert Felix (bass), and Marlon Patton (drums). It was one of the best jazz gigs I've played in a while. The band was so good!

Louis is awesome, and I'd never played a gig with Marlon--he was everything I'd heard about. The big story was Delbert Felix, of whom I've known for years. Delbert was in Branford Marsalis' band for a several years in the late 80s/early 90s. I pretty much wore out the two Branford records he's on: Random Abstract and Trio Jeepy (which I had on cassette, and could probably sing the whole record!). I'd met up with him a few years ago at a jam session where he said he liked my playing alot. We played Triste that night. It was a highlight of my professional life.

It's a great thrill to call Delbert for a gig and have him accept. I mean, IT'S DELBERT FRICKIN' FELIX!

Here are the mp3s:

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Backun Bell

You may recall that about a month ago I uprgraded my clarinet with the addition of a Backun barrel. It is wonderful; it makes me love playing clarinet. Of course, Backun is also known for his bells. Often times you will see pictures of clarinetists with the Backun bell and barrel. So, I had to know: would a better bell make a difference? I mean, I can see that the barrel is next in line behind the mouthpiece, and that its location would have an effect on the tone, resistance, and tuning. The bell, however is way down there at end. Really? It'll matter?

The answer is yes. It's effect is more pronounced on longer notes (notes in the right hand), but overall the clarinet is much freer feeling without being strident. I'm very impressed! If you have the opportunity (and funding), these are definitely worth checking out!

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Catching Up

Whoops. It's been a little while since I added to my blog.

So...

Friday was a Yacht Rock gig at the Westin in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs. It was a holiday party for an insurance company. Methinks they were a little stiff. Not very much into the party, and evidently very slow eaters. When our scheduled time ended, they suddenly wanted us to keep playing. Peter negotiated a price, but when he asked for the money up front, they balked. Instead they ended up renting our PA for another hour (while we tore down our instruments). Not bad. Drunk rich women still do nothing for me.

Saturday was a Yacht Rock party in a tent in Druid Hills (kind of near Fernbank). This one was a holiday party at a guy's killer house. Unfortunately, we were out in a tent in the backyard. The load in was up a treacherous flight of stairs, and the tent was fairly cold. In fact, it got so cold that my EWI froze up! It would only play one super high note. I brought it home and hooked it all together to see what was up, and as it returned to room temperature, all the notes started working again. Whew!

Sunday we spent most of the day in Peachtree City with my in-laws (it was my father-in-law's birthday party). From there I left to play my church gig in Buckhead, then went home and worked up four songs for a Monday morning Yacht Rock rehearsal. I got to bed after 5:30 AM.

Monday started before 10 AM, which means I am really tired. The rehearsal went well, and I taught, and now I'm done.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thursday

So...just in case you were wondering, I'm still alive.

Not much to report since last week. Due to Thanksgiving, I was laying low (also I was gigless). Yacht Rock was back on last night. It was a pretty decent show. We've had some where the first set is solid, but the second set is sloppy. I thought yesterday's excursion was pretty even by comparison.

We started working on our Christmas songs last night. If you've heard our commercial, you know what I'm talking about. We tried both tunes (Mele Kalikimaka and Christmas Vacation), and it turns out the harmonies in Mele are gonna be tough to sing live! The other was rough in soundcheck, but pretty solid on the gig.

We also played Human Nature, and I covered Bielenberg's parts. I was pretty pleased with myself for figuring that tune out. Not that it's super difficult, but I don't have a very good ear, and I don't have much confidence in what I'm hearing. To top it off, I was playing keyboards on it (actually on both tunes), and it always takes me longer to get comfortable.

Saxophone-wise, things felt good. I didn't feel like my horns were hotter than usual, but I could definitely hear them better than before. The tenor reed I used last night was one of those once-every-ten-boxes kinds of reeds--free blowing, but it still has enough backbone to allow me to go all over the horn easily.

We're playing tonight in Dunwoody and tomorrow night in North Druid Hills. A three day cruise...

It's safe now, so I will officially mention that we are playing on the Rock Boat for the first week of January. Yacht Rock...playing on a boat.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Down Time

I'm really enjoying the down time I've had in these few days after Thanksgiving. I have no gigs this weekend, so I'm practicing. Specifically, I am practicing slowly. There are two ways that I am doing this.

First: I am playing things slowly and really focusing on getting a good sound and connecting the notes with the air. I'm not worried about maintaining any technique. I want to really think about the sound of the instrument.

Second: I am practicing without an end time. Since these few days are pretty wide open, I am taking a slow pace in my work. You can't practice in a hurry--that only works against you. Instead, I am taking my time and enjoying myself.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Turkey Eve

Yacht Rock survived Turkey Eve at Andrews Upstairs last night. The big news was that our old buddy (and second keyboardist) Brandon Still played with us. It was super cool hanging out with him. He's having an awesome time with Blackberry Smoke. They're headed to Europe for twenty dates.

We played really well in the first set, but the second set was pretty sluggish. I was glad when it ended. Also, I don't think the saxophone was loud enough in the house. That sort of killed the gig for me.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

XTC/NWA

I played last night at the Earl after I finished teaching. My friend Geoff Melkonian has an amazing R.E.M. tribute band called The R.E.M.akes, and they sound just like R.E.M. The final song of the evening was Can't Get There from Here, which has a saxophone part. It's pretty easy stuff.

Following us was the XTC tribute band NWA or Nigels with Attitude. It's a couple of Yacht Rock guys (Mark Bencuya, Mark Cobb, Nick Niespodziani, Kevin Spencer), plus a couple of guys from Sheryl Crow's band (Peter Stroud, Tim Smith). The talent on stage was staggering. I can't say I know anything about XTC (in contrast to the R.E.M. stuff, which I'm all over), but the music seemed really complex in the number of interwoven parts. Those guys nailed it. In particular Mark Cobb might have never played better--the complexity and fire required for this gig are right up his alley, and I think his focus really made the whole thing come together.

We've got Yacht Rock tonight at Andrews Upstairs (Brandon's back!), and then I am DONE.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

White Plains, NY

Yacht Rock had our first ever fly gig this weekend--we traveled to White Plains, NY to play a 40th birthday party. Except for the lack of sleep, it turned out to be a really fun weekend.

Our flight up was scheduled for 8:30 AM, and I'd bet nobody in the band got more than five hours of sleep before it (I would know because we were all emailing back and forth right around midnight). I fell asleep before the plane had even left the ground, and finally woke up right before we landed.

Nick and Pete rented a van and drove all the equipment up, and we met up with them at the house where we were playing. The set up was in a tent on their back porch. After setting up and checking, we went back to the hotel and crashed for a few hours. Then, back to the gig.

The gig itself was pretty good. Nobody got too silly or sloppy. We made a bunch of new friends and got lots of verbal offers to play in the area.

I went back to the hotel and slept HARD until 9 AM this morning. We got up, went back to the airport, and flew home. It was pretty uneventful.

My tenor rode in the van, and I carried my alto and EWI in a gig bag. I lucked into some key clamps via eBay, and so I tried them on my alto. They're not something I'd use day to day, but I figured on a trip like that where I had my horn in a bag and it could get jostled around a little more, it might be worth it. I like the idea. I don't know if they really do more harm than good, but there's definitely some peace of mind in it. We've got some more traveling coming up in early January, so I'm going to go ahead and order a set of clamps for my tenor, too.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thursday, eh?

Yesterday (Thursday) was another two gig Thursday.

The first was a trio at Neiman Marcus in Lenox Square Mall--some sort of private party for big spenders. The trio was myself, David Ellington on piano, and Tommy Sauter on bass, sandwiched in between glass cases of expensive jewelry.

Once again, I had a lot of difficulty with the time. It felt to me like it was all over the place, and at times it made playing uncomfortable and frustrating. Here are the mp3s:

I ran from Lenox over to the 10 High for Yacht Rock. In honor of our last night with sub (and favorite Canuck) Kevin Spencer fronting the band, we had Canadian Tuxedo night. Since I was already dressed in a regular tuxedo, I represented for America! (in other words, I didn't change into denim). Dig this fine picture of Gordon Lightfoot, a fine Canadian in his own right, and sporting a damn fine tux. We broke out his tune Sundown last night, and we watched Strange Brew as the warm up. The winner of the Canadian Tux contest won a bottle of maple syrup.

I think we had a pretty good night. We did the same set we'd played last week on Thursday and Friday, so there were no surprises. The only wrinkle was the fact that we played the gig on borrowed gear because all of our equipment left on Wednesday morning for a gig in New York. We managed just fine. Bencuya and I managed to borrow the more or less identical keyboards, so the sounds were pretty much the same. I was super tired and super hungry by the time we finished, though.

Tomorrow's flight to New York leaves at 8:30 AM, so I'll be leaving home around 6. Ouch! No sleep for me.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com