Thrilled in the Rain

Last night the Yacht Rock Revue played a sold out show at the Park Tavern.  When I parked the attendant asked if I had tickets "to the concert"--I guess they were turning people away before they blew money on a parking spot.  I said, "I'm playing the concert."  Way to be a dick, Freeman.

Atlanta got a good bit of rain yesterday, so it was 200% humidity.  Charts and set lists were damp before we'd played the gig, and you can probably imagine how my reeds felt (and how my fussy EWI liked it).  It remained hot and humid for the entire show, and at various times I noticed it pouring outside the tent.  Other than one of my cases getting a little wet, my gear was fine.

The first set was all regular Yacht Rock stuff (70s stuff).  No problems.  All my sounds worked, though I was constantly paging through my sounds on my laptop to make sure everything was still there.  It's going to take a few gigs to get my confidence back on that.  I thought I had all that EWI stuff sorted out!

Playing saxophone in that tent is like playing into a pillow.  I'm mic'ed, so I know it's going into the sound system, but it still never feels like I'm there.  I know part of it is the distance from my monitor (which is the only thing putting my sound out on stage), but it's hard to tell if I'm even in the mains.  I guess you have to play and trust that someone will come tell you if they can't hear you.

This was my first gig playing Little Jeannie on the keyboard.  I had always played the horn part and left the synth part out, but I think I can get both going now.  I worked on it in between soundcheck and the gig, and I got about seventy percent of it correct.  I guess that's embarrassing...I mean, if I played a recital and got seventy percent of it, I'd probably quit.  Maybe it was more like eighty percent.  It wasn't terrible, I just simplified some stuff for the moment.  I worked on it a little more today, so in another few gigs it'll start to be comfortable.

We played Baker Street pretty early in the night, and the crowd really dug it.  It's funny--I have the hook of the song, and people cheer like I'm playing something amazing.  Last night was particularly that way--I mean, I took a curtain call during the second verse!

What a Fool Believes is still not right for me.  I changed synth sounds again to try and get something that sounded right but still had a little grit to it.  Last night's problem was a balance between the strings in my left hand and the synth in my right.  I couldn't hear the synth at all--I have it turned down because two sounds ago it was sticking out too much.  Geeze!  I can't believe I can't get it together...actually, I can.  I'll try it again tonight.

So...on to Thriller.

After all my moaning and groaning about not really being that interested in playing the album, it was a lot of fun.  I spent yesterday right up to when I left trying to incorporate some parts that Mark Bencuya asked me to pick up (a string part and a synth part).  I also redid my stuff for The Girl is Mine.  That was the one that was making my amp distort.  I moved it all to the keyboard and it sounded better (and did not distort--I switched from a flute sample to a flutey synth).

I had charts for all my stuff, so I just followed my charts...except that I could barely see them.  All the lights were over the crowd, pointed at us, so when the guitar player would move around, it would block my light...and I had sunglasses on.  No biggie.  I did fine.

I would have turned in a pretty good performance except for the frickin' bridge to Lady in my Life, where I sucked real bad.  This was a Bencuya request--the synth part on the bridge has GOT TO BE THERE.  I said I could do it.  I worked on it.  I was ready for it.  We played the tune, and the bridge snuck up on me.  Agh!  The bridge!  I looked down at my chart, and (of course), I couldn't see it.  Then I found it, but I was kind of frazzled and didn't have my hand in the right spot on the keyboard.  Disaster.  I played something synthy...it'd be like if you cut the paper up and threw it on the floor--it sounded like that.  I played the right notes with the right sound, but in the wrong order and wrong rhythm.

Everything else came off without incident.  We played a few Yacht Rock songs to fill out the night until the 11 PM curfew--Africa, I Want a New Drug, and Easy Lover.  I was pretty pleased with my performance--except for that damn bridge!  I want a do-over!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday stuff

Yesterday (Thursday) was WAAAAY better than the previous week.

I began the day by running a slew of errands.  First, I took a few mouthpieces and put them in the mail--some to be returned, and some to be refaced.

A few weeks ago I replaced my old beat up Vandoren 5RV clarinet mouthpiece with a new 5RVlyre Series 13 mouthpiece (which plays much more in tune for me--I have always been sharp, even with a longer barrel).  Anyway, I ordered three mouthpieces to try, picked one, and sent the other two back.  A few days later, I got a call saying that they'd accidentally refunded me the money for all three, and so they needed my credit card to charge me for the one I kept.  Fine.  A week later, the two mouthpieces I rejected showed up in the mail again, along with a bill for them.  So...I called, they straightened it out (I hope), and I sent them on their way yet again.

While at the post office, I also sent out two Dukoff alto mouthpieces to Will Grizzle for refacing.  One was a new guy, and one was an old guy that I messed up by tinkering with it.  Oops.  Will can straighten it out (I hope).  I've never kept a single mouthpiece that I've had Will reface, but I keep hoping that it's me and not him.  Since his claim to fame is working on David Sanborn's Dukoff, I thought I'd take another chance on him.

I also picked up this beautiful wig for the show tonight:

Oh yeah.

I got home and tried to troubleshoot what I thought was a cable problem, but what I now think is a buzzy tweeter in my powered speaker.  It only buzzes when I use the EWI to play flute, and only on a certain note in a certain volume range.  I think I've figured out something that will work--turning it down and then playing louder to get past that "spot" of distortion.

Somewhere in all of that, I was forced by Mark Bencuya to start thinking about next week's Beatles show.  He was calling to check the key of When I'm 64...in C#.  I agree.  It got me wondering how I can arrange that little clarinet choir for one clarinet, one alto, and one trombone (or trumpet).  We'll see.  I'm thinking trombone will cover the bass clarinet part, and the alto will hopefully stay beneath me on the other clarinet part.

The gig last night...(finally!)...much better than last week.  I really wanted to have a good time and kick butt, so I tried to force some enthusiasm at the beginning of the gig.  That worked.  I was having fun and playing well (cue the music!)...until...I had AN EWI PROBLEM!!!!!!!  I know--who'd have guessed that the EWI would trip me up?!    Here's how it all went down:  we were playing great until we got to Peg.  I play the intro thing (Tom Scott on lyricon, I believe):

When I cued up that sound, I got nothing, and the tunes was blowing by, so I used another sound until I could get to the verse and have a look.  I looked at the screen and it was lighting up like it does when the thing is receiving MIDI info, so I was really confused...and here came the second verse thing, so I had to play something for that, even though it was the wrong sound...and then back to the computer.  It turns out that the sound source (in this case it was the EXS 24 sampler) was missing from the channel strip.  Hence, no sound.  That sucked really bad.  Peg was a disaster.  When we got past the synth part, I didn't have the phasey clav thing set up on my keyboard, so I had to stop and do that, and then my head was splattered all over the wall and I kept playing wrong notes.  It was not a pretty moment (and I'd been kicking ass up to that point!).

On set break I learned that the 10 High is now carrying Newcastle in bottles, so I had a big ol' bottle and felt much better about myself.  No one even mentioned my disaster--evidently the bass rig was malfunctioning at exactly the same time my EWI stuff was taking a dive.

The second set featured Mark Cobb sitting in for My Love is Alive.  That was cool--we rocked it.  I luuuuuuuuv me some Mark Cobb, though Ganesh held his own.  He even got 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover right after weeks of pysching himself out about it.

We skipped Lonely Boy.  I'm just going on record to say that I disapprove.  I guess the trade off was Mark Cobb on My Love is Alive.  I can live with that, I think.

It took me forever to load out last night.  I don't know why.  I was dragging.

I will now madly cram for Thriller.  Wish me luck!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thriller rehearsal

Yacht Rock is dusting off Michael Jackson's Thriller for a performance this Friday night at the Park Tavern.  Yesterday we wandered through a quick rehearsal of it.

We originally had learned the entire record for Halloween of last year (perhaps you will recall this).  We also played it on The Rock Boat this past January, and haven't thought about it since!

Video from the boat:



I'm pretty lukewarm about playing it.  I made charts of everything I have to play, so I just read it down.  I have no love for it.  I bet that I'll have more fun playing the clav part to Peg in the first set.

Anyway, rehearsal was fine.  Bencuya assigned me a few parts that I need to grab before tomorrow night, and I need to tweak a few of my laptop sounds that didn't do what I expected them to do.  I also discovered that my cable from my computer to my little mixer is going bad--I had some crunchy static that went away when I used my crappy emergency cable.  It's always something!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday

It's been a slow weekend.  I had no gigs at all last week or this weekend except for my Thursday night thing.  Even so, I've been busy with lots of stuff --teaching is coming back since school started, plus I have been cranking out charts trying to get ahead of the next couple of weeks' gigs.

Today (Sunday) was my bookend church gigs--one at 9:30 AM and one at 7 PM.  I was a little more awake than last week.  The morning gig went well--it was more of the regular service, so a bit less bombastic than last week's thing.  No choir and almost no pipe organ.  Same stuff for me, though--show and blow.  Afterwards the next service began frantically setting up, and they wheeled out tympani.  The big show must be at the 11 AM!

Sunday night's gig was the usual story--not much happening.  I dedicated my performance to adding the interval of a perfect fourth to the lines I was playing.  I fell asleep during the homily.  The hot (female) usher was there.  I started breaking in a new soprano sax reed.  The pianist played more wrong notes than usual.

Here's a picture from last Friday's Yacht Rock gig at Andrews Upstairs/8 Trax.  That's me up at the top of the picture.  You can get a pretty good idea of how tight the stage is.

I've got a busy week coming up.  Stay tuned.
davidfreemanmusic.net

E.D.

I have not been that bored on a Yacht Rock gig in a long time.  I could tell early in the night that we were all pretty flat and there would be nothing that could pull us out of it.  At that point it became a dreadfully long march through almost two full sets of music.

Musically speaking, I was able to neither achieve nor maintain...!

Increasingly I find it difficult to play with musicians who aren't listening well.  I thought last night I would be able to push past it and focus on the people who were, but I couldn't get away from it.  There were multiple spots where the soloist would wrap up his solo and most of us could hear it, but we would keep playing.  The opposite happened to me, where I was just reaching the top gear on my solo, but the song ended.  Am I misreading the signals?  I don't know.  My feeling was that some of us were just going from point A to point B, and the hell with the in between.  

All I know is I can't play when I know it doesn't matter.

Oh well...we survived.  Here's hoping for better music next week.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday church gigs

Yesterday (Sunday), I did a couple of church gigs.  The first two were new gigs at a nearby church.  Pretty easy, straightforward stuff--I just showed up and blew over the top of what was going on around me.  For these particular services, around was a choir, four singers, two lead singers, piano, two guitars (acoustic and electric), bass, drums, and three piece horn section.  The only bummer was that I had to be there at 8 AM.  8 AM!  Geez.  I slept during the sermon on the second service.  I also slept at the pool after that.

Sunday night was my usual church gig.  Nothing great to report.  My face and hands were really tired.  I was glad to get home, where I immediately crashed on the couch.
davidfreemanmusic.net

Saturday in the Park

Saturday night I played a really relaxed wedding gig with Constantly Awesome.  The four guys that comprise that band used to be a terrific original band called Y-O-U.  They are also the principal members of Yacht Rock.  I played melodica (theme to The Office), flute, alto and tenor saxophone, and keyboard.  It was fun and easy.  Why can't they all be like that?

Someone has posted a video from last night's gig.  You can hear me playing the synth and string parts that I worked on Thursday.  Weird...I didn't like the way the synth sound worked with the rest of the music when I was on stage, but now that I hear it on the video, it sounds right.  Maybe I need to live with it for a few gigs.

davidfreemanmusic.net 

Oh What a Night!

The Yacht Rock Revue played four sets at whatever they're calling Andrews Upstairs last night.  The first two sets were a private party for Groupon, and then they opened the place up to the public.  The Groupon people were pretty lame--they just sat there like it was a concert!--but we had 500 presales for the public part of the gig, so we nearly had a stampede when the doors opened.  Since there were only about 75-100 tickets left, I'm pretty sure it sold out before we started.

Mark Cobb returned to the band for this gig.  It's been a few weeks since we played with him since he no longer plays the 10 High gigs on Thursday nights.  I think we were both excited to play.  He was on fire, especially through the first three sets.  Awesome stuff!

Mark Bencuya is still my hero.  Sitting next to him is the best part of playing Andrews--I pick up so much from watching him play.  I feel bad that he has to listen to me!

By the time we reached the midpoint of the public gig, we could have made the crowd do anything we wanted.  They were loving everything we did.  It was insanity!  We were able to keep it going.  Nick did an amazing Bono impersonation during Don't You Forget About Me.  We probably would have caused a riot if we'd stopped right there.

The only bad part of the gig was that so many people stayed after we finished, loading gear out across the dance floor was a major pain.  Usually people clear out, but last night most people hung out for another hour.  We need roadies!
davidfreemanmusic.net 

An Awesome Thursday

We played a terrific gig Thursday night at the 10 High.  Everybody was in a good mood and everybody played well (with a few rough moments).  It was as much fun as I've had at the 10 High in weeks!

1.  Lonely Boy:  I nailed it.  The first song of the night rocked.

2.  What a Fool Believes:  All day I practiced the synth and string parts.  In particular, the second verse is difficult for me to coordinate.  I think I did pretty well on that.  There might have been a stray note in there, but one the whole I'd say my work paid off.

In addition to this, tonight was the first night that I used Mainstage (part of Logic Pro) with the EWI.  It was awesome!  The sounds were good and the program worked without any hiccups.  It makes me wish I'd changed my stuff over a couple of months ago.

A great gig!
davidfreemanmusic.net 

Helicopter Rides and Gigs

I had a House Live gig at Ventana's last night.  The people who hired us wouldn't pay for staff from the sound company;  wouldn't pay for a stage;  wouldn't pay for food.  We soon found out is because they'd spent all their money on HELICOPTER TOURS OF THE CITY!!!  For three hours we played and watched the helicopter come and go.  Wayne and I got close--we were in the line at the top of the stairs, ready to get on the next helicopter, but then some other people showed up and we thought we should let them go (and Wayne got a lil chicken--I think the danger that we would get busted, not the helicopter part).  Anyway, we did NOT get in the helicopter (though I added lyrics to lots of our improvisations that dealt with our misfortune).  Next time?

The actual helicopter in which we did not ride:

I've spent all day trying to get my hands to play both the synth part and the string part of What a Fool Believes.  I don't think I'm ready, but I'm going for it tonight.
davidfreemanmusic.net

Trio

I played a lot of bullshit tonight, but I looked damn good.

Tonight was a weird trio gig at the Marriott Marquis downtown.  It was supposed to be 6 to 9, but at some point I was informed it would begin at 6:30.  No big deal;  we hung out.

When we finally got started playing, I don't know if it was because Kevin was exhausted from a long weekend or we were in a dead spot in the room or what, but it felt like we were playing into deep space.  I mean, the room just ate our sound and took all the energy with it.  There seemed to be nothing I could do to kick us into gear.  Thus, I played a bunch of crap, trying to force some excitement.  Maybe when I go back and listen to it tomorrow, I'll think differently, but it felt like I wasn't making any sense.  My reeds felt stuffy and my hands wouldn't work.

My contract said dinner/awards, so we played about an hour and twenty minutes waiting for the awards ceremony that never came.  When people started leaving for the night, we took a break.  The second set made it about fifteen minutes--during the second tune, I had my eyes closed while I was playing, and I opened them to find my client two feet in front of me.  What the hell!

She told us we were finished (at 8:30 PM), but then asked if she could "borrow" Tyrone to play a song in the hospitality suite--they had a grand piano up there.  He returned after 9 PM.  It's always an adventure.


davidfreemanmusic.net