David Freeman Music

The one and only Mark Cobb came back to the 10 High last night.  He's been on hiatus with the birth of his son.  His playing was inspired.  I love what he brings to the gig. Greg Lee was out due to the birth of his daughter this week, so Greg Partridge filled in on bass and did a terrific job.  His playing was super smooth--it was like he'd been playing with us for a while.   Ganesh Giri Jaya came by and contributed Greg Lee's vocals.  It never ceases to amaze me how Nick, Pete, Greg (and Ganesh when he's there) are able to reassign harmonies at soundcheck and then remember them at the gig.  Very impessive! No problems last night.  I fiddled with my alto mouthpiece earlier in the week--it turns out the table was not flat!  That's why the thing would feel different as the reed dried out.  The altissimo, for instance, would be great at the beginning of the gig, but later on it would be really tricky.  I thought I was moving back...

Tuesday night Yacht Rock played a private party for the Georgia Young Republicans at 8 Traxx Disco (formerly Andrews Upstairs).  It was the most boring party we've ever played.  I have no idea how many people were expected to show, but my guess would be that there were maybe 150 people there.  It was brutal.  Too bad, too, because we were actually playing well (until we got bored).   Mark Cobb played with us again (he is officially back) and he was on fire for that first set.  It was everything I've been missing. The massive embarrassment of the night goes to me for forgetting to play the sax part on Careless Whisper .  I think it was in the third set and I just spaced out...I was mentally plotting out what I needed to play on keyboard and got caught not paying attention.  From the laughter onstage, Nick must have given me some kind of big lead in, but I never heard a word of it.  Good thing there was no one there to witness it.  All...

Last night I played a quartet gig with Tyrone Jackson , Kevin Smith, and Marlon Patton.  It took me well into the second set before I finally got comfortable--I'm not really sure why.  I warmed up before I left home, but I just had a really difficult time getting my head and hands in sync.  I think that at least part of it was that I was (once again) overblowing, and I got handcuffed by trying to play full-bore from the first note, which left me nowhere to go.  Once we got into the second set, I felt like things calmed down for me and I played a little better (though my reed at that point was indicating its intent to die on me!).  The first set was rough...lots of dumb mistakes.  I tried to read charts that I didn't really need to look at ( Song for Bilbao, Turnaround ), and I guessed wrong on the endings of a couple ( Naima, Punjab ).  By the time we stopped for a break, I was beat from my reading miscues, but I'd made so many mistakes I kept looking ...

Saturday night I was fortunate to pick up a jazz gig for a corporate reception downtown--1,200 industrial-organizational psychologists.  I was informed that they were workplace psychologists--"we study why people are or are not happy in their jobs"--which I thought was kind of funny considering how difficult they'd been at my job!  Let's just say the event was not well run, and for a two hour event there was a good four hours worth of bullshit. The band tonight was Tyrone Jackson on keyboard and Kevin Smith on bass.  We also had an old man play clarinet with us (who was pretty dang good!), and the former president of the organization sang and played piano (not so good). We played mostly my tunes, plus a couple of Pat Metheny songs, a Joey Calderazzo thing, and an Ellis Marsalis favorite.  We had a great time playing! Here are the mp3s: Leigh was our handler for this event.  She made sure I didn't strangle anyone. davidfreemanmusic.net

The Yacht Rock Revue was boarded by the Yacht Rock Schooner last night and held hostage in on own ship.  Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad...Nick, Cobb, and Dannells were out last night, so Kevin Spencer , Ganesh Giri Jaya , and Shannon Pengelly filled in.  It wasn't really that different--Cobb's been out for a while, and I've played the last few Schooner gigs with Kevin and Shannon. The 10 High changed the start time to 10 PM, which made for happier patrons (who still rolled in around 10:15 PM).  I think it was better for our collective psyche, too, to have some people in the room while we were playing. We ended up with a pretty solid crowd;  it was pretty much as packed as last week, which is to say it was fairly stuffed, particularly around the bar.  They were definitely rambunctious and fine looking people (women)! No gear troubles to report, though I think that I should probably move up to some harder alto reeds.  The reeds I am using right now are ...

Tonight I did a House Live gig at Ventanas (again!).  Nothing new to report...we ate at Baja Fresh across the street, the weather was nice, the views were great, the gig was easy...how about some pictures? This is what Reggie looked like when I left.  Note the agony in his face. Here's Wayne and Jeff at Baja Fresh eating chips.  We ate three baskets of chips while we waited thirty minutes for our burritos. My burrito. My bowl of salsa. The chips. The cup. Wayne eats. Jeff eats. At one point during the gig, a helicopter came in for a landing on the roof.  They might have been giving rides.  I went up there on the break hoping to score a ride, but there was no helicopter. Weird picture, ain't it? The Baja Fresh guys were up there providing food...we could have eaten for free!  They were set up right next to us. The view while I awaited my helicopter ride. If there'd been a helicopter parked here, I would've been in it.  Maybe nex...

Sunday was a killer. If I were to guess, I'd say that I fell asleep on the couch Saturday night somewhere around 2 AM.  At 5 AM, I was up seeking caffination and a weather report.  It was Easter gig time! My first Easter gig of the day was outside at 6:30 AM.  Here's a picture of the congregation in the parking lot.  This is some sort of strange Marietta ritual!  The past two years, the temperature at start time has been 36 and 38, so 60 degrees this morning felt wonderful. Here's a picture of Graham Kuhn (piano/vocals).  I'm not sure why were taking pictures at a church service, but we did. Tuning was a little sketchy, but over all it was way better than in years past.  I played sax and flute on this. When that one was over, we packed up and moved into the church gym.  Kevin Wyglad, Graham, and myself were the band for the overflow mass from the church's 8:30 service.  We ended up with a couple of hundred people in there.  I h...

Last night I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner in Suwanee (for the first set). It was a tough situation;  the Wild Wind there had morphed into a sports bar for the purposes of the Final Four (R.I.P. Michigan State) with every TV on the game (they even had a screen over the stage with a projector TV going).  The soundman was about an hour late to setting up.  We were also asked to wait until halftime of the second game before going on. The end result was that the band was flat.  I think it was safe to say that there was very little interest in playing music that night, and it felt like it.  There was no crowd and thus no energy from a crowd.  It was really bland. As we trudged through the set, I was mentally diagnosing what was wrong.  My conclusion was this:  at this point in its existence, that group of musicians does not play for each other--the play for the gig.  By comparison, I would say that on any given night with Yacht Rock, I...

Friday night Yacht Rock played our monthly gig at the room formerly known as Andrews Upstairs, but now called 8 Traxx Disco.  In addition to changing the name, they also asked that we start an hour earlier than usual so that the DJ might commence spinning after midnight (and presumably "take it to the next level"?) We were supposed to begin at 9:30, but there was no one there, so we waited until 9:45.  At that time, there were still very few people there (the main level of the room was completely empty).  People finally started trickling in somewhere around 10:30 (our usual start time!).  Nice move.  We played until 12:15 or so before giving way to the DJ.  The club had requested that we clear the stage in fifteen minutes so that the DJ might set up and get going, but fifteen is impossible for me--thirty minutes is possible if I'm flying, and forty-five minutes is my average.  When we started tearing down, our crowd dispersed, and by the time we wer...

Thursday night was a really good night of Yacht Rock at the 10 High.  It was much more crowded than it has been, and the band played really well.  All my equipment even worked!  Weird, huh? Pete said that Dannells' and my dancing was a "swirling hurricane of physical friendship." More tonight...we are at whatever used to be Andrews Upstairs (now 8 Track Disco?), beginning at 9:30. www.davidfreemanmusic.net

Last night was Please Pleaserock Me at Smith's Olde Bar.  It went very well.  Most of my charts are almost right. Back to Yacht Rock for the rest of the weekend, and then Easter church gigs.  Stay tuned! www.davidfreemanmusic.net