Enthusiasm Tempered with Indifference

I played a last minute trio gig tonight at the Westin Buckhead with David Ellington (piano), and Kevin Smith (bass).  It was some sort of awards dinner thing (my specialty!).  I don't have much to say about it other than the crowd ignored us and we ignored them.  They were really loud, and I couldn't always hear very well what we were doing.
We tried several of my tunes...some were more successful than others!

www.davidfreemanmusic.net

A Worthless Blog Entry

I ended up with nothing for this past Friday or Saturday night.  It was good and it was bad, as my self worth is closely tied to my gigs.

Sunday night I did my usual church gig.  After watching the football game, I got started on a new pleaserock.com project focusing on The Beatles, titled Please PleaseRock Me.  Several songs have horns (either in the original, an excellent cover version, or because we want them to fill up the sound), so I'm pumping out horn arrangements.

This week just got a little busier.  I just picked up a last minute gig for tomorrow night, so I cancelled students and a rehearsal.  Thursday is Yacht Rock at the 10 High.  Friday is Yacht Rock in Nashville.  Saturday is Yacht Rock back in Atlanta.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Not Much to Say

Hey wow, it's been almost a week since I last blogged.

Not much happening this week, musically speaking.  Monday and Tuesday was the usual teaching muck.  I tried really hard to be good and not spew sarcasm.  Some lessons were more successful than others in that regard!  I did teach a handful of students who actually pay attention to what I say, but the majority are not practicing enough and not taking my suggestions.
Wednesday I taught from home, which was a little better, but it's still teaching.

Thursday night was Yacht Rock at the 10 High.  A pretty good show overall.  We had "Good Luck Ganesh" holding down the drums while Mark Cobb is enjoying the weather in southern California.  The on stage sound was a little different from usual--Ganesh doesn't play with the same volume, and that altered the balance.  It's still good, just different.  Anyway, I couldn't hear Bencuya very well (compared to other weeks), so that was disappointing.  Dannells was not quite on target--we had fun, but he didn't have much to say.
For myself, I played pretty well.  I had one nasty wrong chord in Jive Talkin' in the verse.  It was of my standard ways of screwing up:  my hands are in mid-flight on the way to a F chord, and the voice in my head goes "B flat!", and my hands jab a B flat out instead, and I'm wrong.  Again.  Like an idiot.  Who is that guy who keeps telling me the wrong stuff?  Same thing happened on the boat on Reminiscing.  We finally got set up, and I was not happy with the stage situation and just wanted to play well so that I could bury the feeling that I was dragging the band down.  Right when we got to the first thing for me to play, right as the air is making its way from my lungs to the mouthpiece, right as I am about to play my part which is CLEARLY in B Major, the voice in my head says, "It's in C", and I played several notes a half step away from reality.  I was so mad I could've thrown my horn across the room.

A Half Step Away from Reality could be the name of my biography.

What else...I played the solos to FM, Caribbean Queen, and the riff for Who Can it Be Now? for about an hour Thursday afternoon, and none of them was perfect on the gig.  FM was better than it has been, but I always flail at it a little.  Caribbean Queen was good up until I missed the high Bb towards the end.  One of those situations where I got a little too excited and didn't aim the air correctly.  Same thing with Who Can it Be Now?, which usually shows up in the last few songs of the night when my reed is drying out and the alcohol is fully functioning.
The keyboard playing went really well.  Other than my Jive Talkin' schizo moment, I was pretty on target.  Strangely, I did nothing to prepare--no frantic practicing this week.  The set list didn't come out until the last minute and I was forced to wing it.  That usually results in some anxious moments, but all my stuff was there, and even, and I was makin' the changes, I mean I was actually kind of loose on Peg and Kiss You All Over (and thank god there's no recording because what I played probably only sounded good to me!).

The crowd didn't seem any different from the previous week, but we ended up with a good bit more money at the end of the night.  It could've been Ganesh, but it might have been turnover.  The new time still seems to mystify our audience--people are turning up at 10 thinking they have time to get situated, but we're already halfway through the set.

Last night's set and the week before really make me feel like I did a crappy job playing on the boat, not only from a musical standpoint, but also for the show.  I know we're on our home turf and it's easy and comfortable, but the contrast between what I didn't do out there and what I do here is kind of depressing.  I wonder why?  Equipment?  The vibe?  Sleep deprivation?  Whatever.  I can do better.  I would suspect that's why a couple of my songs got cut at the end of the last night at sea.

I'm off again tomorrow night, and hopefully I'll actually get something done.  Next week is another stack of Yacht Rock--the usual Thursday, then Friday in Nashville (Mercy Lounge), and Saturday back in Atlanta playing with the Schooner (Yacht Rock B band).
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Friday/Saturday/Sunday

It's been a busy weekend for sure.

Friday night we played Andrew's Upstairs.  We sold it out again--such a strange feeling (still) to see a line of people waiting to see a gig that I'm on.  The gig itself was pretty good.  I was much more tired than the night before, so I don't think I was as sharp, but I can't recall any major disasters.  It doesn't sound like FM is going to make the cut.  We played it again (debuted it at the 10 High the night before), and people don't give much of a reaction.  That's a bummer.  I love playing it, and I'm pretty good on the string part (and getting there on the sax solo), but I guess songs with long rambling jazz solos don't appeal to these people.  Perhaps Steely Dan is overrated.
Andrews video made a video recording (I would say "taped" except for the lack there of) of the performance.  As usual, I'm kind of curious as to how it sounds, and then I'm also scared that my performance will not get good grades.  With any luck, the soundman's love of reverb and delay will cloud any of my questionable efforts.
Other than that, we raised $600+ more dollars for Haiti.  I can dig that.

Saturday night, I played a Platnumb gig in Knoxville.  A very strange gig--it was a 2009 holiday party, even though it's now 2010.  I believe somebody said they were a bunch of pawn shop owners.  That made sense--lots of very tacky people.  We played at the Marriott in Knoxville, which looked a lot like a multi level bomb shelter.
On this gig I played sax and EWI.  We had a one hour soundcheck where we rehearsed (not really a soundcheck).  For the entire soundcheck and the first TEN songs of the night, nobody noticed that my EWI was not in the PA at all.  Not in any monitor and not in the front of house sound.  I kept playing in between songs to see if maybe it was really faint (the way the sax was in the front of house--not inspiring, by any means).  So ten songs in, he finally realized he'd never checked it and turned it on in the front of house, but not my monitor.  My monitor was off the entire night--the aux knobs were up on the board, so I would bet that he forgot to turn on the amplifier for the box.  Nice.  I'm really just bitching to bitch here--I could've said something.  It was more frustrating, however by the fact that nobody else on stage ever mentioned the fact that I couldn't be heard.  If listening is part of music (I would say that listening is all of music), and if playing music with other people means you need to hear what they're playing (and you do, as best you can), then the lack of musicianship on stage is staggeringly low.  It's like trying to have a conversation with someone who doesn't even know you're talking to them.

Steve Florczykowsi played bass with us.  One of his heroes is Will Lee (of Letterman band fame, and about a billion other banda), and he is getting more like Will all the time.  It was totally awesome--the kind of performance where you say, "Yeah.  That's what we're looking for."  He was fun, he was dancing, he was playing great.  He also had on a pair of red plaid pants.  I had on a pink afro wig.
Steve and I rode up together, and we bolted out of the gig in 10 minutes flat.  We got back to my house at 3:30 or so.  He had to get back to Snellville and then be a church gig at 9 AM.  Ouch!

Tonight (Sunday), I did a House Live gig with Jeff (DJ) and Wayne Viar (percussion) at the Georgia Aquarium for KIA.   It was pretty fun.  This gig usually gets really boring after 30 minutes or so, but tonight's gig was much more creative.  I could hear myself really well, and I think because of that I was able to play lots of good ideas.  I don't think I started to run out of gas until about the last 30 minutes.  I brought soprano, alto, tenor, and flute to this one.

This week is really slow--just the Thursday night at the 10 High.  After the madness of the past two weeks, maybe a couple of nights off would be nice.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Back to Earth

Yacht Rock made a somewhat triumphant return to the 10 High last night.  It's good to be back in familiar territory.

When I got there, I got a parking place right next to the door (awesome!), and it didn't take me 10 minutes of wiggling my monster truck into place.  Things immediately got weird, though.  Some homeless guy was poking around between cars, and some lady started yelling at him that the police were on the way--she was convinced that he was looking to make a break in.  Right around that time, the sound man pulled up and we explained to him what was going on.  I was watching the guy as I was telling him the story, and I turned back to face the soundman just as he was pushing a clip into a pistol.  Great...shoot out at the 10 High.

We debuted three tunes last night.  Two (All Night Long and Caribbean Queen) are not my favorites.  I'll just leave it at that.  The third was Steely Dan's FM, known for its famous saxophone solo.  All three went pretty well.  I'm still trying to get comfortable.  FM is one of those tunes where the solo needs to be pretty much spot on, and I'm most of the way there, but I wouldn't say I'm quite nailing it.

Overall, the gig went really well.  Bencuya recorded it, and I think the tape will show that the shedding I put into it on Wednesday night and Thursday day made a huge difference.  Bencuya said he did not play well at all, but everyone I talked to in the crowd said it was great--one regular said it was the best we've ever played.  I'll take it.  Nick told me on the break that his voice was not working, but he performs at such a high standard that even if he wasn't feeling it, it still sounded great.  Dannells explored the major sixth on a minor chord.  I can dig that, gettin' all dorian on me.  I kind of bit it on Caribbean Queen (the tape will show that, too).  All this stuff with synths...we can't cover everything, and it's going to take some time to figure out what must be covered (and what cannot), and who can grab it.

We managed to raise about $220 for Haiti relief last night.  Tonight's the same deal--we are donating a dollar for every person that pays.  I guess that means we had 220 people last night?  Actually, the crowd was pretty good last night.  We were concerned due to the B band playing our gig the past two weeks, plus an earlier start time, but by the end we had a pretty decent crowd, and they stayed to the end.  We even did an encore for the first time in a weeks (Total Eclipse of the Heart again, just like on the boat).  It's great fun.  All respect to Brandon, but it was nice to get my gig back.

I am thankful to have a gig like that where I can focus on something else.  My head is not good these days.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Rock Boat X

Wow!
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

FM

This week, Yacht Rock is headed out of town on a cruise.  We're actually headed out to play a gig on a boat!  In anticipation of this event (Rock Boat X), we added a few new tunes.  The big one for me was FM by Steely Dan, which features a humongous tenor sax solo by Pete Christlieb (who also did the solo on Deacon Blues).  Here's a look at what I wrote down.  The stuff at the end (where they band is vamping an Pete's going nuts) is a little weird because I was writing it down at 2 AM, and it wasn't easy to notate what he was playing.

When we played this tune in rehearsal, I got a massive adrenaline rush.  I mean, those first four measures are familiar to everybody with ears.  The opportunity to play it for real was spine tingling.  Plus, I was sightreading it on four hours of sleep!

As with my Maneater post, you can click on anyone of the above jpegs to view a much more readable version.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

NYE

So that was 2009...

Yacht Rock played a private party for Six Feet Under at Paris on Ponce last night. I love playing that room! Not only is the load in super easy, but there's just the right amount of space for us (and for the crowd). I can always hear well, and nothing ever gets too loud. Last night's crowd was pretty cool (with no Skynard requests!), so it made for an all around great evening.

It's tough to say who played best last night. Mark Cobb played possibly his best show ever. He just came back from NYC last night, and I think being up there for a week really energized him. Mark Dannells was his usual top notch self. I know it's unfair to compare players, but when I hear him play the gig, everything he does sounds exactly right. He also had on a nice new suit (and he helped me load out). We added Maneater last night, and Mark Bencuya's sounds were soooo spot on it sounded like they'd been lifted directly from the record. Wow!

Over on my side, I had a very good night. I spent a good bit of time shedding the piano part to You're So Vain, and it felt way better last night. I'm slowly getting the passing chords worked in there, so it's less of A minor, F major, A minor, and more of the actual part. A year ago we played Don't Go Breakin' My Heart at our gig, and I crashed really really bad on the string part. I was thinking about that last night while we were playing it again. A year of playing that has made a huge difference! I guess another way to think of it is that it's only taken me a year to get comfortable on it.

Saxophone-wise, I gacked a high F# on Who Can it Be Now. A little too tight in the embouchure. No excuse for that. Everything else was pretty comfortable. As I mentioned, we added Maneater, which was a little nerve-wracking. It's such a well known solo, so it has to be right. I'm not to the point of owning it, but I got it right last night. One thing that I probably didn't worry about enough was the stuff at the end where they're tagging the chorus. I probably need to get a little closer to the fills on the record.

Diligent readers of the is blog probably remember this post about my EWI freezing up on a cold gig. In frantically trying to get the thing to work again, I started pushing buttons...never good! In doing this, I changed the setting of what the EWI tells the computer about the breath pressure--the faders moved when I would blow. That was no big deal, but it totally messed up my settings in Logic. I lived with it for a while, but I decided that some things (specifically my horn section sound) didn't sound as good (the horns were all equal, and so it lost the trumpet dominating the top). Yesterday afternoon I got the EWI set back to the right number, and to wipe out the fader issue I reverted back to my saved sounds. All was good.

We soundchecked Nights on Broadway, and it dawned on me that my saved sounds did not include the synth bass that I play. Agh! I tried a different sound last night that I dialed up really quickly, but it didn't sound good in the context of everybody else. Oops. That was my only major malfunction. I'll get that fixed before next week.

Next week we're actually playing on a boat. The Rock Boat. It should be a bizarre experience.

www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Mercy Lounge, Nashville TN

Yacht Rock played the Mercy Lounge last night in Nashville, Tennessee. Nick and Mark Bencuya picked me up at my house and we ran up there and knocked it out. The Best Western was pretty old, and the lounge was called "Pick's." It looked like a pretty unhappening place, and we mocked it relentlessly.

Mark Dannells was in LA and Mark Cobb was in NYC, so we had Michael Wilkes and Ganesh Giri Jaya subbing on guitar and drums.

We loaded in and soundchecked, and the soundmen could not have looked less impressed or enthusiastic. I'm guessing they've probably seen everything in Nashville, and a cover band full of freaks was just another night.

Six of us (Pete went out with his family) piled into the Pleaserock van and headed out in search of food. The first place (Mexican) had an hour wait (an hour wait on a Tuesday night?). We went across the street to Ru San's, but after waiting for a waitress at our table for over ten minutes (while I enjoyed some awesome techno music), we bailed in favor of anything quick. Eventually we ended up at an Arby's. On the way back to the Mercy Lounge, we got totally lost, and Greg Lee yelled at me for calling him on the phone from the back of the van.

The gig itself was ok. I think we played pretty well, but there couldn't have been more than seventy-five people in the room, so we got no energy. Maybe next time will be better (I mean, they did like it!), but the attendance made this one a big loser in the money department.

Bencuya pointed out that no band of which he has been a member ever enjoyed each other's mistakes so much. So true! The break between sets and the ride home are full of, "...and then I f***ed that up..." or "what were you doing?" and everybody laughs at it. It's funny, but at the same time, it's noted that everybody's listening. No coasting. You're not getting away with it!

The other interesting thing (listening-wise) is that difference between what the subs and the regulars play (and how they play). I was really aware from the first note of where Ganesh was with the pulse. The way a drummer relates to the groove is a reflection of his personality. Where Mark Cobb is much more on top of the beat, Ganesh is a good bit further back. One is not better than the other--it's just the contrast between hearing the two play the same song.

Wilkes was good, but none of Dannell's Barishnikov-esque footwork. One thing I noticed is that Wilkes really boosts his rhythm guitar parts on songs that seem guitar driven. It got really loud sometimes.

We had planned to crash Pick's, but we got back to the hotel after 2 AM. The van left at 8:15 AM.

Tomorrow night we're playing a private party at Paris on Ponce. It should be pretty easy. I've got to learn Maneater tonight.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Monday

Maybe I was too harsh on the Diana Ross medley. Today I'm thinking that I'd rather deal with that crap than a crew of disinterested students. At least I can get up and walk away from the Diana Ross thing when I get sick of it. And I don't feel bad about checking my email in the middle of it.

Last night I played my regular church gig at the CTK. It was me, the pianist, and two vocalists. I spent a good chunk of the gig fiddling with the EQ of each channel. It seems that along the way I'd taken on the idea that if a little is good, a little more is a little better. Now it's gotten a bit extreme. Last night I went back to flat and started listening to it again. The cuts on the EQ are now much more subtle.

Tomorrow night Yacht Rock is playing the Mercy Lounge in Nashville. Road gig!

www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Diana Ross Medley

Platnumb is playing a New Year's Eve gig where they are backing a vocalist (not of the band) in a Diana Ross medley. I am transcribing what a keyboard player played with his "brass patch." It is very painful. Doing this sort of thing and listening to this medley really pisses me off. If I get to the point where this is my career, I quit.

You'd think if the Diana Ross impersonator was really a pro, she'd have charts for this sixteen minute mash up. I hope Platnumb makes a lot of money doing this.

Diana Ross should sue them for playing this.

I should sue Diana Ross for allowing this to happen.

www.davidfreemanmusic.com