Just another Thursday Night

Last night's Yacht Rock gig was very plain.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd or the absence of Mark Cobb, but the energy in the room was a bit low.  The playing was fine (more so in the first set than the second).  It could very well be that we were just flat.

For me, it was a pretty decent night.  No equipment problems last night, which leads me to believe that I have solved the mystery of my laptop.  It seems more "awake" and responsive...that seems like a strange thing to say about a machine!  What I mean is that when I bump the space bar to wake it up (so I can check what number is my next sound), it comes back up much quicker than it has in the last year.  One other thing that seems to be working better:  some of my sounds have a lot of delay (think the synth solo in Rosanna), and it seems like those delays start to add up over time and eventually overload the processor (and make my whole rig sound like it's underwater).  Hitting the space bar clears that up.  Last night, that was never an issue.  It could be the order of the songs, but I think at least some of it has to do with whatever it was I reset (the PRAM).

It was not a heavy saxophone night.  I did have a little hiccup in Silly Love Songs where I kind of stopped thinking for a second and messed up the little sax section thing.  I also got a little sloppy in Baker Street.

Before the gig we were watching episodes of The Midnight Special and heard a couple of songs that we perform on a regular basis.  I heard a fair number of things that I need to improve upon, specifically in the area of my keyboard playing.  When I first took on the role, I was just trying to get through the song, so I simplified things and eliminated things.  Now that I'm a bit more comfortable, I need to relearn them a little more accurately!

I have a busy week ahead.  Next Friday we are performing an entire set of Bee Gees stuff at Andrews, and the rehearsal is set for Wednesday morning.  I have gigs Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.  Next Saturday I am performing on sax and keyboards with the Schooner (Yacht Rock B band), and there are a couple of songs I will need to learn for that.  No sleep and all the pressure I can handle!

One more quick note:  this week (Monday night to be exact), I made the decision to relinquish my position as saxophonist for a local cover band Platinum.  Platinum is an excellent band comprised of friends whom I have known for over ten years.  We have been extremely successful  and I have enjoyed performing with them.  However, my commitments to other gigs have made it difficult to play with them regularly;  I have been sending a sub to four out of every five gigs.  It seemed foolish to hold onto the gig when I obviously could not be there, and though the band was extremely patient with me, I could understand their desire to have someone in that spot consistently.  Though I'm sure we will miss each other, in the long run this is the best decision.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Sharing Music

I've been thinking the past the couple of days about the personal risks of sharing music--not sharing like "I'll burn you a copy", but sharing like "hey, I really like this song, please check it out."

In speaking with a friend, I made mention of a song by David Gray that I like.  My friend blasted the song--hated it!, but the lasting result of our exchange is that I feel like I've exposed myself as a person with inferior musical taste.  I'm not sure why.  I like the song and I like David Gray, and my opinion is just as valid as anyone else's.  Music is such a personal thing--when I'm saying I enjoy a song, I'm saying that it means something to me;  it speaks for me.  I have great respect for my friend's musical opinions--maybe I don't know what I'm talking about after all.

A strong response condemning that song feels like it is also a condemnation of me.  How can I not flinch at the next opportunity to talk about music?
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Yachting on Monday

Yacht Rock did a rare Monday night gig tonight at the Capital City Club in Brookhaven.  It was an extremely low key event, so much that I don't have much to say other than it was pretty loud and the room was (and is) acoustically awful.  We played a handful of tunes we hadn't seen in a while (Sailing and Too Hot) and a couple we wandered through at soundcheck that didn't even make it on the gig (I Keep Forgettin' and Human Nature).  I hope to see them again.

Perhaps the only excitement at the end of the night was the argument a few band members got into with the valet.  When Pete loses his cool, you know you've crossed the line!
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Downtown Yacht Rock

Yacht Rock played downtown at Ventanas last night for a private party.  If you're familiar with the space you're probably asking "Where?"  The put us in a tent out on the balcony (this is a picture pretty much from where I was on stage, but inside a tent).  It actually fit pretty well, and the fact that we were in the tent meant the room was nice and dead (and we could lay into it without offending anyone).  The gig went very well.  We had Ganesh Giri Jaya subbing for Nick on the front line, and he did an excellent job.
It appears that I have solved my computer problem.  My laptop screen was freaking out the other night (it went all Poltergeist on the Rock Boat, too), and after scouring the internet for a solution, it was suggested that I reset the PRAM.  I won't pretend that I know what that is, but the idea in resetting it is that some power management things get out of wack over time, and you reset that to get everything cleaned up.  For me, it involved popping out the battery and then holding the start button down for five seconds.  No problems now.

The "after party" for the gig was at Mark Bencuya's place.  His family is out of town for the weekend, so all of us (no Nick) went down in his basement to listen to the board tape from the Beatles show.  WOW!  It sounded as good as we remembered it.  The next gig is March 31 at Smith's Olde Bar.  If you're alive at the  end of March, you need to make sure you're there.  There's no other good excuse.

I am skipping my usual church gig to go to Mark Cobb's baby shower tonight.  We have another Yacht Rock gig tomorrow night (a Monday nighter!).
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Lots of Music Crammed into a Couple of Days!

The last few days have been stuffed to the gills with music!  It's fun, but it also feels like a roll out of bed, grab the gear I need for the next gig, and head out the door.

Wednesday night was the inaugural Please Pleaserock Me gig, which is a Beatles tribute put on by the same guys who do Yacht Rock.  We packed a whole bunch of people into Smith's Olde Bar and beat 'em over the head with good stuff.  Here are some pictures:

The next one is March 31.  I hate to say it, but you're stupid if you don't attend.

Before the Beatles gig, I had a terrific jazz gig downtown for some sort of weird doomsday convention.  Some of the vendor booths had things like new/improved body bags (where you can suck the air out so the bodies don't decompose as quickly!), and decontamination tents and showers.  Weird stuff, and I'm sure they were hoping to book a jazz trio like us.

As usual, I recorded it, so here's the evidence:  

Here's a picture of Louis Heriveaux (piano) and Kevin Smith (bass) at the gig.

Last night (Thursday) was Yacht Rock at the 10 High.  Very strange stuff.  My laptop was doing this weird thing where the screen looked like it was going to explode--there were horizontal lines across the screen that were fuzzy like they'd had too much coffee.  Then the whole screen got kind of crazy.  I shut the computer down and rebooted, and it seemed ok.
About halfway through the first set, I looked back and noticed it was doing it again.  All the sounds were coming out fine, but the screen was freaking out.  The display eventually went to sleep, but I couldn't get it to come back on.  I played the rest of the first set with no problems, and figured I'd deal with the computer on the break.
So...I thought I'd restart my computer and the screen would be ok.  I shut it down, but the screen didn't come back on...big problem since now I can't get back to Logic for my EWI sounds.  Hmmm.  This is bad.  I shut it down.  I wait.  I turn it back on.  Still nothing.  Just a dim line across the bottom.  Very bad.  I'm thinking that I can midi into the keyboard in front of me and limp through the rest of the gig.  I'm not panicking, but I might as well.
As a last resort, I unplugged all the crap from my computer and gave it a hug and asked it to work one more time for me.  Then I slowly opened it in my lap and pushed the start button.  It worked fine the rest of the gig.

Mark Cobb is taking a leave of absence from the 10 High until after the birth of his son.  I wish it wasn't going to be so long.  Cobb makes the gig for me.  He's so good!  A portait of the man, the myth, the legend (and some Pete):

Tonight's gig was with the Yacht Rock Schooner (the B band to the Yacht Rock Revue) at the Wild Wing Cafe in Alpharetta.  Not a bad little gig, and great for me because I only play sax and flute, so they stack all my songs in the first set.
That band is getting better.  It is very strange to play with them, though, because I'm very used to the parts that Bencuya and I play, and sometimes those parts are significantly different in the Schooner. Did y'all listen to the same song I did? Anyway, it's cool.

Here's a picture of their leader, Ganesh Giri Jaya, looking cool as hell:  

Here's a picture from the stage:  Hooray suburbia!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Bach Partita excerpts

Here's the flute stuff I recorded the Monday night.  My blog wouldn't let me put two different media players in the same post.  www.davidfreemanmusic.net

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Bizzay!

As you can tell by the fact that I am not around updating this blog as often as I used to, things are crazy busy right now.  Here's a quick off the top of my big bald head recap:

Friday was a House Live gig (me on saxes and flute, Wayne Viar on percussion, and Jeff Burnisky as DJ), playing some sort of private function downtown.  I recorded it so you can get some idea what it sounds like  (though you can't hear the DJ very well--poor microphone placement on my part!).  Here's a picture:

This was a fun gig, and we ended up getting free food at the place across the street!  Baja something...it was good!  Here (hopefully) are mp3 clips:

Saturday was a benefit for the daughter of Blackberry Smoke drummer Britt Turner.  Yacht Rock played a couple of songs at the Peachtree Tavern.  I've never been in there before!  I probably will never go in there again!  Here's a picture (that's me in the background between the guitar and bass):

Sunday night was my usual church gig.  Nothing new to report there.

Monday night I recorded a couple of solo flute things.  You can find them on my website here.  It's Jesu and the two Partita excerpts right above the picture.

That's that!  Tomorrow night is the first Beatles tribute thing at Smith's Olde Bar, brought to you by the guys from Yacht Rock.  The rehearsals sound good, so I'm predicting big things!  As a warm up, I am playing a private jazz trio gig downtown.  I should be flat worn out by tomorrow night.
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Technical Difficulties

Last night's Yacht Rock adventure was (for me) plagued by gremlins, or technical difficulties, or "AAAAA!  MY SH** IS F***KING UP!"

My first major issue dealt with my saxophone effects pedal.  There was way too much noise in the channel--a flat ton of hiss.  I'm not sure why, but I tried swapping out cables and that didn't cure it, and I tried bypassing my effects pedal (plugging the sax directly into my mixer) and that cured it, so I think that maybe the output jack has gone bad.  I won't know until I can set it up at home and check it out.

I put the pedal away since I assume it's messed up.  I was checking it with my tenor, so I ran from my receiver directly into my board, which cured the hiss.  Strangely, though, the gain was jacked way up.  I assumed that the gain from the pedal had been helping me up to this point, so I didn't sweat it.
We started the gig, and the first or second tune we played, I had an alto solo, and when I switched on my alto, my monitor squealed and screamed like I was committing audio suicide.  What the hell?  I kept trying to back it down and find a workable spot, but the thing kept going nuts every time I would turn it on.  I played the solo with no microphone as a result, and the soundman came running over--"I'm not getting anything!"
A couple of songs later, I had a tenor solo, which was inaudible.  I was really confused.  You have no idea how difficult it is to troubleshoot your gear while you're playing a gig--anything you try and anything you touch is a potential land mine that could detonate without warning.
Back and forth this went...alto was too loud, tenor was basically off.  I finally figured it out right before the end of the first set.  I have a separate wireless transmitter for each horn (both going to the same receiver).  The transmitter for the tenor had the pad turned on, making it something like 20 db lower (or, if you set the gain on your mixer to accommodate that, your non padded alto sound is 20 db "airhorn in your face" louder).  Ahh!
Now I'm wondering if maybe my pedal was ok, but I had the gain cranked up so high on my board it made it hiss like crazy?  Maybe.  I need to get that sorted out ASAP.

I got the sax straightened out.  Sort of, anyway.

In the second song of the second set, Lido Shuffle, my EWI went insane.  It sounded like I hung a note--if you're not MIDI inclined, I guess that means that the sound kept going (full blast) even though I wasn't playing it, and I would normally smack the spacebar to clear it.  I have no idea why this happened to me, but the EWI sounded like it hung four or five notes at the same time, which made for a horrible cluster of audible crap.  Worse was that I smacked the spacebar and it would not go away.  I tried again and it would not stop.  Meanwhile, my big keyboard solo was approaching, and I needed to cure this in about three seconds, but it would not go away.  I tried turning off the EWI.  It would not stop.  I finally turned off my mixer--the only way I could get the sound to stop.  Turning off the mixer meant that I couldn't play the solo, though.  Not a cool moment.  I kept banging on the spacebar and eventually my laptop reset and things were OK.
The rest of the gig was fine.  Everything worked normally.

Playing-wise, things were sloppy.  I made it through FM without any casualties (though it was one of my almost inaudible tenor moments), and the string part was fine.  In I Can't Go for That, I split a high G on alto that was super gnarly and super loud, and I held on to it for as long as I could.  It's a spot where the vocals and I trade, and Nick didn't even sing.  Good thing--after all my equipment issues for that set, I wanted to beat the hell out of something.  Biggest Part of Me suffered from my usual problem--when I go out front to play, I can't hear as well as I can when I'm right in front of my monitor, so I overblow, and I end up fighting my horn.  Pretty stupid that I'm still having that issue.  I need to accept that the PA in the room will take care of me.  I guess it's more the fact that it sounds like my mic isn't on, and I'm going for it, and so I end up pushing too hard.  I've got to convince myself to back it down about twenty percent.  My horn would work a lot better if I did.
I can't remember anything else.  We played I'd Really Love to See You Tonight (with me playing the piano part) and that went pretty well.  I had one wrong chord, but I was cool with everything else.  I just need to relax on that one a little more.  It's faster in my head than the speed at which we actually play it.

I have a House Live gig tonight, and Yacht Rock tomorrow.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

For the Love of Practice

I got a ton of practicing in today.  It was wonderful.

Half of my students today were either sick or randomly absent, which left me a couple of hours open this afternoon.  While dealing with the ones who were there, I had this thought:

 if I could teach my students to love practicing the way that I love practicing, I bet I could love teaching.

www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Andrews Upstairs

 

Yacht Rock was back in Atlanta for a Friday night gig at Andrews Upstairs.

Andrews is transforming from a live music venue to a DJ, and they have done some remodeling to accommodate more people.  The stage has been radically transformed--the multiple levels and nooks and crannies have been removed.  It made for a tight fit for the seven of us!

We played well considering the stage setup.  I was all the way stage left;  then Bencuya, then Greg, then the Cobb with Nick and Pete directly in front of him, and then Dannells jammed in the opposite corner.  It was a tight fit, but we made it work ok.
Being next to Bencuya made me a bit apprehensive.  If there's one guy who would know when I was not playing something exactly right, it'd be him.
I think the next time we play Andrews (and maybe just in general), I'd like to split my sax line off from the rest of my stuff.  In general, I'm only playing saxophone when I'm soloing, and it'd be cool to be able to put some in front monitors without them having to listen to my keyboard and EWI parts all night long.  It feels like I'm playing into a pillow because there's no sax anywhere on stage (except my amp way over in the corner, and even that's pretty turned down).

I am not gigging tonight--I'm preparing for Beatles rehearsals next week.
www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Cabo San Lucas

Yacht Rock played in Cabo this week (February 2-4, 2010).  I had a gig Monday, February 1, so I stayed up a little later than usual and slipped out the door at 3:30 AM to pick up Nick and make our way to the airport.
We flew to Denver and then on to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where we landed to a light rain (and massive flash flooding!).  After dropping our stuff in our rooms, we went to lunch, and then spent the remainder of the day acting like rock stars on a day off in Cabo!  (mucho tequila).
The actual gig occurred the following day (Wednesday).  We played a private function for the Young Presidents Organization--I believe they were all young millionaires.  They were into it from the moment the doors opened and enjoyed every note.
The band played pretty well considering the circumstances.  The keyboards were not what we'd asked for, and we played standing up (I'd asked if they had piano benches or drum thrones, and I guy came back with a bar stool).  The sound guys (all ten of them!) were pretty inept, and the language barrier made for double the frustration.
I brought two saxes, flute, and EWI to the gig, so that part of my set up was normal.  I was unable to route my saxophone through the amp they supplied, so we ran it separately to the front of house, and the guys never quite turned it up enough.  The keyboards were a Yamaha Motif on the bottom and a Roland Juno on top.  Both were nice keyboards, but I was not familiar at all with navigating either one.  More importantly, I did not have a game plan for finding sounds and taking notes.  I fished around on both to find some things that might work, and they kind of did, but I wish that I was more adept at setting myself up in a situation like that.
I played pretty well.  Other than a poor choice for one of my keyboard patches, I made it through.
Thursday was a travel day.  We left the hotel around 10:30 AM local time, flew to Denver, and then flew back to Atlanta.  We landed just before midnight.  Another great adventure!
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