There's a lot going on this week/weekend, and I'm right in the middle of it.
Wednesday night, we played Please Pleaserock Me, which if you don't know is the Yacht Rock guys (plus Jason Pellett on trumpet) playing Beatles stuff and songs from their solo records. It's pretty fun. The gig is really easy for me...basically, I have horn section charts and we just read 'em down. For some reason, I couldn't really get me head into what we were doing. It wasn't disinterest so much as the blahs. The gig went fairly well, and we had a decent crowd.
Thursday night was the Yacht Rock Revue at the 10 High--our usual Thursday nighter. The place was packed, which is always nice!
I still had the blahs heading into this one. The first few songs were a little "are we really playing?" Mentally, I had not yet arrived. Thus, I missed the return to the intro on Grease. Nice. It took about half a set to find a groove.
Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums (and Dereck Murphy sat in a couple). I couldn't really get into what either was playing. Everything was too laid back--not enough kicking ass!
Mark Bencuya played a really terrific synth solo on Hey 19, reminiscent of his solo on I Wanna Be Your Lover from the Reagan Rock prom. Other than that, it was business as usual.
After the gig (at 2 AM!), I met up with a guy over by the Dekalb County Jail and purchased his Roland Fantom X6. I am one step closer to being like Bencuya!
Speaking of which, Bencuya paid me the compliment of the year in telling me how much I have improved as a keyboardist. Brandon Still left us last July to join Blackberry Smoke, and Bencuya says that in listening to the recordings from last fall and then listening to the latest stuff he can hear a huge difference in my ability. Great news! I'm glad it's making a difference.
Friday night, the Yacht Rock Revue played at the Park Tavern as part of the Summer Concert Series. This is our favorite place to play right now--the stage is a good size, the sound is impeccable, and the crowds are always enthusiastic. We did our thing last night and they loved it.
A few personal highlights: I played piano on You're So Vain, and it was the best I'd ever played it. I was rockin'! It was awesome. I had a great time playing the clav part on Peg behind Mark Dannells' solo--while I was playing, I imagined Bencuya listening to it 6 weeks from now and wondering what in the hell I was doing! I played organ on Footloose and fell in love with the overdrive knob on the keyboard. I was extremely audible, let's just say.
Mark Cobb was back, and he was on fire. I LOVE playing with Cobb. He was killin' it. He made the entire band better.
We're singing the national anthem Sunday evening at the Braves game, so we tried it tonight. It went pretty well. I got a little off. We practiced it in the dressing room and it was solid, but I wandered around in the middle. Gotta fix that before we step on the field!
I am with the Yacht Rock Schooner tonight. Debuting Arthur's Theme (Best that You Can Do). Oh yeah!
davidfreemanmusic.net
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday Quartet
Tonight we tried a new tune of mine (twice).
Here's the audio:
Here's a few photos of the very hip backdrop:
Saturday, June 26, 2010
The Loft
The gig was for Have a Heart Foundation. While we were setting up, a few speakers told their stories to the audience. It was pretty incredible stuff. While I was plugging stuff in, a woman told of how her son died in the hospital and gave away his organs (and he helped something like thirty people because of it). The next lady got up and said that she was walking around with THAT GUY'S HEART! Wow. Amazing!
The sound on stage was not very good. I don't know if it was because of all the concrete or the fact that the stage was hollow or just bad mixing, but there was this low-mids ring that roared through every song. Once we got up to volume, it was difficult to hear very well because it was so prominent (at least to me) on stage. My other thought is that sound guys these days are so used to hearing two guitars, bass, and a thrashing drummer that they don't quite know what to do with a band like us.
Ganesh got tripped up again on the beginning of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and Kevin Spencer took a wrong turn (vocally) on Ride Like the Wind. We spoke on the break about how the mind really starts to mess with you on stuff like that. It's the same thing for me in the breakdown of Lonely Boy--because I messed it up a week ago on the Schooner gig, now the voice in my head REALLY goes crazy as we approach that section and I can't shut it up. I start analyzing what I'm playing, and suddenly I'm paralyzed and can't remember what I'm doing. I wonder how many times I have to play it correctly (on a gig--practicing it doesn't fix it) before I can get past that. It's a hurdle that must be cleared. Same thing with Sailing--we really need to play that song about a dozen times so that I can erase the fear of the intro. Playing it on my own a million times (which I have done since the Variety Playhouse disaster) will not cure me.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday
Last night was extra exciting for me--it was my big debut playing Lonely Boy with the A band. Up til now I've only played it (twice) with the B band at Wild Wing Cafes way outside of the perimeter. Since Nick was not there (Kevin Spencer subbing), we were able to add it to the set list. It went really well, if I do say so myself! The spot in the breakdown where'd I'd messed up last weekend came and went without a hitch (as we approached that part of the song, I was suddenly very aware of how much I was sweating!). No problems, though. I was pumped. It was fun.
On saxophone, I had one of those "do no wrong" kind of nights. My solo on Biggest Part of Me was definitely one of the five best attempts I'd ever had at that song. Everything I played sounded right and logical, and I had no technical hang ups. I felt like I could have gone on another five minutes and still played meaningful stuff. It was very cool.
It's worth mentioning that Mark Dannells played some really terrific stuff in his solos on How Long. Later on in the evening he had a "so bad it's almost good" note in Ride Like the Wind. You've got to go for it!
Kevin dared me to do something to destroy Baker Street, so the last time through the sax part, I played my part a half step higher than the band. I assure you, it sounded unbelievably bad. Don't try it. It'll make your toes curl. We loved it.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday
Once again, I played very well with these guys backing me up. I could hear really well, and I just went for it on every song. It was really fun. The band sounded really good. Shannon Pengelly in particular played some really rippin' stuff, especially on the second solo on Peg. Yeah, man!
After my set, I stayed because they had free Sam Adams. I drank at least a six pack. I was very entertaining.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday and Sunday
I found this clip of us playing Careless Whisper at the Reagan Rock prom .
Saturday night I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner (our b band), covering the second keyboard part as well as the sax/flute duties. Also subbing in were Mark Bencuya and Greg Lee. I asked Greg if it was difficult to sing without playing bass at the same time--I remember Sting saying that some songs are very difficult to perform if he is used to playing at the same time. He said no--it was difficult to sing songs he's never sung before!
Since it was the Schooner, we got to play Lonely Boy, which as you might know is one of my personal favorites. It's a fun song to play, and I like the fact that I get to be an essential part of the band on that one. The usual mode of operations is for Bencuya to handle the most essential keyboard part; I am am much better suited to string parts and things of that sort which cannot derail the band when I suffer the inevitable disaster. Lonely Boy is a rare moment when I get to be "the man" and Bencuya's responsibility is in the strings.
So...last night? Three mistakes--nothing horrible. In the first verse, the piano fills in between the chords in the progression with a repeated A. I started thinking about it too much and tripped a little bit. The other two mistakes were a bit uglier--between the guitar solo and the final verse is a break down to just the piano. I was sailing along just fine, and then I started thinking about the chords (up until then I was just playing, and not consciously thinking). Once my brain (and its annoying little voice) started in--right in the spot where I REALLY wanted to be perfect, I was toast. It was kind of like the GPS on my phone, which is messed up and tells me to turn right as I pass through an intersection. "You are currently playing an A minor triad, though the chord here is really F# half diminished." This little monologue caused me to play and E Major triad and then a cluster of some sort, instead of B sus to B. My apologies. Just like my Sailing episode, I can play it just fine twenty-nine out of thirty times. You caught me at number thirty.
That was a little disappointing, but nothing that crushed my soul.
I got into some pretty good sax solos last night--I wonder why it is that the Schooner inspires me to better stuff? My guess would be two things: #1, we are on a small stage and nowhere for me to move, so I focus more on playing and less on showmanship; #2, we are on a small stage and I can hear my monitor well, so I tend to not overblow.
One thing I've noticed in the past (and again last night) is that the drummer tends to end songs in the middle of my phrases. I think in eight measure phrases, and I assume that everybody can hear the "sentence structure" of what I'm doing. On more than one solo last night, things were brought to a halt on the third measure of a phrase--it feels like I'm stopping in the middle of a word! Very strange. I don't know if he cannot hear me or maybe is listening to something else, but ending in the weird spots like that is very uncomfortable.
Tonight's church gig was a medley of frustrations. When we were setting up, the hand drummer informed me that he turned himself way up because a member of the congregation said he was inaudible. I'll check it out, I said. Once the mass began, I was making my adjustments (one of which was cranking him up even more because I could hardly get any sound from his microphone). When I walked past the band to go hear how things sounded in the middle of the cathedral, I noticed he was playing his drum with two fingers. No wonder he cannot be heard! The solution is not to turn him up, but for him to play a little harder. I was flabbergasted. He usually wears headphones--he's hearing the main outputs from the board--so how can he be unaware of whether or not he can be heard? I have his microphone so hot it was picking up more of the piano than him. If you want to be heard, you've got to give me something to work with!
There were multiple vocals solos last night that came without warning. Is it really that difficult to turn around and say "I sing a solo on verse two." Can you give me a heads up? Do you want me to bump you up or not?
The evening was too amateurish for me to tolerate.
The clincher came at the end of the mass when the priest gave away gift certificates to two dads--one with the youngest child and one with the oldest. I had the youngest child, and then a man in the front row volunteered that his child was younger--still in the womb! So, of course, being a Catholic church, the father of the unborn (and thus younger than my five year old) won the prize. Ain't that a bitch? That guy should be ashamed of himself--as my wife pointed out, the only thing that guy's done at this point is impregnate his wife, and there's a big difference between that and fatherhood. Afterwards, the priest said to me "you almost got it!" I should have kicked him in the nuts--he doesn't need those to be a "father."
davidfreemanmusic.net
Saturday night I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner (our b band), covering the second keyboard part as well as the sax/flute duties. Also subbing in were Mark Bencuya and Greg Lee. I asked Greg if it was difficult to sing without playing bass at the same time--I remember Sting saying that some songs are very difficult to perform if he is used to playing at the same time. He said no--it was difficult to sing songs he's never sung before!
Since it was the Schooner, we got to play Lonely Boy, which as you might know is one of my personal favorites. It's a fun song to play, and I like the fact that I get to be an essential part of the band on that one. The usual mode of operations is for Bencuya to handle the most essential keyboard part; I am am much better suited to string parts and things of that sort which cannot derail the band when I suffer the inevitable disaster. Lonely Boy is a rare moment when I get to be "the man" and Bencuya's responsibility is in the strings.
So...last night? Three mistakes--nothing horrible. In the first verse, the piano fills in between the chords in the progression with a repeated A. I started thinking about it too much and tripped a little bit. The other two mistakes were a bit uglier--between the guitar solo and the final verse is a break down to just the piano. I was sailing along just fine, and then I started thinking about the chords (up until then I was just playing, and not consciously thinking). Once my brain (and its annoying little voice) started in--right in the spot where I REALLY wanted to be perfect, I was toast. It was kind of like the GPS on my phone, which is messed up and tells me to turn right as I pass through an intersection. "You are currently playing an A minor triad, though the chord here is really F# half diminished." This little monologue caused me to play and E Major triad and then a cluster of some sort, instead of B sus to B. My apologies. Just like my Sailing episode, I can play it just fine twenty-nine out of thirty times. You caught me at number thirty.
That was a little disappointing, but nothing that crushed my soul.
I got into some pretty good sax solos last night--I wonder why it is that the Schooner inspires me to better stuff? My guess would be two things: #1, we are on a small stage and nowhere for me to move, so I focus more on playing and less on showmanship; #2, we are on a small stage and I can hear my monitor well, so I tend to not overblow.
One thing I've noticed in the past (and again last night) is that the drummer tends to end songs in the middle of my phrases. I think in eight measure phrases, and I assume that everybody can hear the "sentence structure" of what I'm doing. On more than one solo last night, things were brought to a halt on the third measure of a phrase--it feels like I'm stopping in the middle of a word! Very strange. I don't know if he cannot hear me or maybe is listening to something else, but ending in the weird spots like that is very uncomfortable.
Tonight's church gig was a medley of frustrations. When we were setting up, the hand drummer informed me that he turned himself way up because a member of the congregation said he was inaudible. I'll check it out, I said. Once the mass began, I was making my adjustments (one of which was cranking him up even more because I could hardly get any sound from his microphone). When I walked past the band to go hear how things sounded in the middle of the cathedral, I noticed he was playing his drum with two fingers. No wonder he cannot be heard! The solution is not to turn him up, but for him to play a little harder. I was flabbergasted. He usually wears headphones--he's hearing the main outputs from the board--so how can he be unaware of whether or not he can be heard? I have his microphone so hot it was picking up more of the piano than him. If you want to be heard, you've got to give me something to work with!
There were multiple vocals solos last night that came without warning. Is it really that difficult to turn around and say "I sing a solo on verse two." Can you give me a heads up? Do you want me to bump you up or not?
The evening was too amateurish for me to tolerate.
The clincher came at the end of the mass when the priest gave away gift certificates to two dads--one with the youngest child and one with the oldest. I had the youngest child, and then a man in the front row volunteered that his child was younger--still in the womb! So, of course, being a Catholic church, the father of the unborn (and thus younger than my five year old) won the prize. Ain't that a bitch? That guy should be ashamed of himself--as my wife pointed out, the only thing that guy's done at this point is impregnate his wife, and there's a big difference between that and fatherhood. Afterwards, the priest said to me "you almost got it!" I should have kicked him in the nuts--he doesn't need those to be a "father."
davidfreemanmusic.net
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Yacht Rock plays pool
Yacht Rock played a post-rehearsal dinner party at a place in Buckhead called The Pool Hall. A pretty grungy place it was--no door to the men's room--you just walk around the corner and there's a urinal. Nice! The back room had four pool tables (only three functioning last night). It's the kind of place where trash is dropped on the floor and picked up at the end of the night.
The stage was approximately thirty feet wide, but only about eight feet deep, so we set up shoulder to shoulder. I assume Mark Bencuya played the gig, though I never saw him when we were on stage. Actually, the set up was not bad. I could hear everything ok. I'm not sure how it sounded to someone walking the length of the stage. You probably got a good shot of whomever you were standing near.
We played the same set list that we'd played the previous night. Not much saxophone--I think I played sax on two songs in the first set and one in the second. It was mostly keyboard with some EWI thrown in.
We had to load out down a hallway next to the bar because going in or out of the front door was impossible. That worked great for us--the hallway spit us out right in front of our vehicles. Greg Lee helped me pack up.
While we were waiting for the gig to begin, we hung out at Bencuya's car, listening to the board tape from our gig last Saturday night. Pleasantly surprised were we! Everything sounds good. Nice to know that sound guys took us seriously and gave us their best shot. When we played the Variety Playhouse last December, they acted like we were on our first gig--too much telling us what to do (instead of the other way around). This time, they were much easier to deal with.
After that, we did play pool. Mark Dannells and I were doing well in our first game against Greg Lee and Mark Cobb, but not so hot in the second game. We were unable to finish because of the gig, however, so the Dannells/Freeman combination remains unbeaten!
davidfreemanmusic.net
The stage was approximately thirty feet wide, but only about eight feet deep, so we set up shoulder to shoulder. I assume Mark Bencuya played the gig, though I never saw him when we were on stage. Actually, the set up was not bad. I could hear everything ok. I'm not sure how it sounded to someone walking the length of the stage. You probably got a good shot of whomever you were standing near.
We played the same set list that we'd played the previous night. Not much saxophone--I think I played sax on two songs in the first set and one in the second. It was mostly keyboard with some EWI thrown in.
We had to load out down a hallway next to the bar because going in or out of the front door was impossible. That worked great for us--the hallway spit us out right in front of our vehicles. Greg Lee helped me pack up.
While we were waiting for the gig to begin, we hung out at Bencuya's car, listening to the board tape from our gig last Saturday night. Pleasantly surprised were we! Everything sounds good. Nice to know that sound guys took us seriously and gave us their best shot. When we played the Variety Playhouse last December, they acted like we were on our first gig--too much telling us what to do (instead of the other way around). This time, they were much easier to deal with.
After that, we did play pool. Mark Dannells and I were doing well in our first game against Greg Lee and Mark Cobb, but not so hot in the second game. We were unable to finish because of the gig, however, so the Dannells/Freeman combination remains unbeaten!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday
Last night was the usual 10 High gig for Yacht Rock. All in all, not a bad gig! The crowd wasn't interested in what we were doing, and I think that kind of wore on us after a while.
We went through some of our Reagan Rock stuff again. Still got it!
davidfreemanmusic.net
We went through some of our Reagan Rock stuff again. Still got it!
davidfreemanmusic.net
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Full Tilt!
I did a gig last night with Full Tilt at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead, for the same people for whom I had played Sunday night.
The first set (the "dinner" set) was totally bizarre. The keyboardist and bassist are a duo, and they would play the keyboardist's original smooth jazz tunes--the rest of the band was ignored or just expected to wander along with them. Very strange. The keyboardist would tell us the key, but most of the time it was not the correct key. We finally played a standard (Wave), but they played it in C instead of D. Fly Me to the Moon was on the setlist, and when we got to it, the bass player didn't play anything--the keyboardist played left hand bass. It was a very frustrating hour and a half. Lots of glissandi. Bad news.
After we came back from the break, we went into the dance set, and things were much more normal. What a relief! I don't think I could have taken another hour of dinner music.
Here a few more Reagan Rock prom pictures from last weekend.
davidfreemanmusic.net
The first set (the "dinner" set) was totally bizarre. The keyboardist and bassist are a duo, and they would play the keyboardist's original smooth jazz tunes--the rest of the band was ignored or just expected to wander along with them. Very strange. The keyboardist would tell us the key, but most of the time it was not the correct key. We finally played a standard (Wave), but they played it in C instead of D. Fly Me to the Moon was on the setlist, and when we got to it, the bass player didn't play anything--the keyboardist played left hand bass. It was a very frustrating hour and a half. Lots of glissandi. Bad news.
After we came back from the break, we went into the dance set, and things were much more normal. What a relief! I don't think I could have taken another hour of dinner music.
Here a few more Reagan Rock prom pictures from last weekend.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday Quartet
I played a quartet gig at the Intercontinental Hotel last night. Unfortunately for us, it was an outdoor gig--yet another opportunity to sweat profusely! Other than the heat and humidity(which was only bad for the first hour), things were pretty good.
The band for this one was Tyrone Jackson on keyboard, Fuji Fujimoto on bass, and Kinah Boto on drums. For whatever reason, I felt like I was struggling to light a fire under Kinah. I played with all the intensity I could muster, but I don't think he had much to say about it. I felt at odds with the band--the more I tried to lead them in the direction, the more I was pulling against the vibe of the group. Should I have laid back more and gone with them? I don't know. I didn't say anything to him because I would rather not tell him how to play; rather I would expect him to listen to my playing and follow me (at least when I was playing). Ultimately, the fault lies with me. Either way, I was kind of frustrated.
davidfreemanmusic.net
The band for this one was Tyrone Jackson on keyboard, Fuji Fujimoto on bass, and Kinah Boto on drums. For whatever reason, I felt like I was struggling to light a fire under Kinah. I played with all the intensity I could muster, but I don't think he had much to say about it. I felt at odds with the band--the more I tried to lead them in the direction, the more I was pulling against the vibe of the group. Should I have laid back more and gone with them? I don't know. I didn't say anything to him because I would rather not tell him how to play; rather I would expect him to listen to my playing and follow me (at least when I was playing). Ultimately, the fault lies with me. Either way, I was kind of frustrated.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Yacht Rock at the Variety Playhouse, Day 2
My previous post was probably a bit dramatic...I'm not dying, or folding, or in need of therapy. Last night was the Reagan Rock Prom at the Variety Playhouse--our second night there, this time playing music from the early 1980s.
Writing in my blog about my disasters and frustrations is cathartic. Once I put down how disappointed I was about Friday night, I felt much better and was able to focus on kicking ass Saturday. I let it go.
So here we go...I got up around noon on Saturday and started cramming for the gig that night, mostly going over a couple of tunes that were bugging me: the Top Gun anthem, True, and Hello. I headed over to the Variety Playhouse, set up, soundchecked, and practiced some more. It was really hot and muggy in there, but I assumed they hadn't begun cooling the room yet.
As we got closer to show time, we heard that the air conditioning was not working! It was unbearably hot. Everybody was sliding around on their instruments, and we were sweat soaked by the time we STARTED! The crowd was awash in runny mascara and hairspray. Everybody was uncomfortable. At intermission, Pete and Nick spoke with the head of the venue, but he was totally unapologetic about it. The argument from our end was "the first thing anyone will mention about this event was how awful the heat was." His argument was "people are enjoying themselves and nobody's complaining, so deal with it." Nice. Way to work with us, dude.
I played much better. I had fun and felt really in control of what I was doing. It was a disaster free night! That said, I did have a few funny things happen with my EWI set up. In the second song, I was playing keyboards and I tried to wake my laptop up, but it would not--it had come unplugged and the battery had run out! I plugged it back in and hit the power button, thinking it would wake back up, but instead it made the Mac start up chord (through the house PA during the song!!!!) Oops! I didn't think about that. Once I got it booted up, things were fine.
Towards the end of the first set, I started hearing weird noises coming from my amp--a low rumbling noise. I woke up my my computer and noticed a sound was still playing. Weird....I hit the space bar to kill it, but it came right back on. I played something on EWI, and then there were two sounds playing (one much softer). My laptop is screwing up! But no--it dawned on me that it was so super hot and super muggy, the EWI was playing itself! I picked it up and fingered notes, and it played without me blowing into it! The heat and humidity were so much that it was activating the breath sensor. I turned down the sensitivity and everything was fine. How crazy is that?!
We all looked like we'd played in the rain--everybody was soaked! Even an hour after we finished, sweat was still rolling off of me. When I got home two hours after the gig, my shirt was still wet. The heat was nearly unbearable.
Here are pictures:
davidfreemanmusic.net
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