The Blur

Let's see...it's Saturday!  A recap:

Thursday:  I left home at 8:45 AM for a rehearsal for my Saturday Schooner gig.  There was lots of traffic!

I was set up shortly after 10 AM.  Unfortunately, most of the rest of the band rolled in between 10:30 and 11 AM.  Boo.  This was mostly a vocal rehearsal because the usual front man (Ganesh) is out of town for the weekend.  Vanessa is filling in for him on my gig (Greg Lee is subbing for him on Sunday).  They spent most of the time ironing out harmonies and making sure Vanessa knew the songs she was supposed to have learned.

As far as my parts went, Eric Frampton (the opposing keyboardist) was impessed, and that was good enough for me.

From there, I moved a few blocks over and loaded into the 10 High for the Yacht Rock gig that night.  I got everything set up and ate lunch, and then drove to Buckhead for a jazz duo gig.

Tyrone Jackson and I played an open house for a law firm at their new offices. Nice place!  They ended up jamming us in a corner, and people were pressed up against us, drinking and showing off their wives.  Loud, they were, so much so that I didn't bother recording most of the gig.  Here's what I did take:



Lots of bluriness in the tune memory department!

Here's some pics from the law offices:

Cake!

From there I moved back to the 10 High where we celebrated the Great Mark Bencuya's birthday by playing our usual gig...not much of a party!  It was fun.  The first set was really good.  Then we went on break and drank...I think Jen (our bartender) is trying to kill us with huge shots.  Somewhere in the middle of the second set, we were all completely obliterated, and the gig became a silly mess.  When it (mercifully) ended I was fairly sober, but then I was totally exhausted.  I managed to get everything back in the truck and get home.  Sleep!  I got home around 2 AM.

Here are some pics.  Let the Mark Dannells Love Fest begin!

Friday:  Friday started with me learning a tune for that night--Heart Hotels by Dan Fogelberg.  The studio recording has piano, rhodes, strings, and a lyricon solo played by Tom Scott.  I accidentally discovered a live version that had the one and only Michael Brecker playing the string part and the solo on tenor.  Sweet!  I was totally into that.

I worked on that for a little bit, gathered my clothes, and headed to the Park Tavern for our last Summer Series gig (Yacht Rock)--Mustache Rock!  After setting up, we did a photo shoot for some new promotional stuff.  Here's a cool sampling from our Beatles suits, courtesy of Mark Cobb's iPhone.

I'm wondering why Bencuya and I are standing behind the tall guys.

We soundchecked Heart Hotels.  It went pretty well.  I'm trying to record myself more these days because I tend to tense up when I know it might be analyzed.  Here's a couple of short videos of the first and second solos:

Stop looking at Renee's ass.  You're supposed to focus on the saxophone.

Bencuya asked me to pick up the piano part to help fill it out, and I learned it at the gig--a major accomplishment!  Going into it, I was pumped about being Michael Brecker, but after that, I was more into trying to nail down the piano part for Bencuya. I think I did!  Hopefully he heard it.

A video of the surroundings!

How about some pics:

The Main Street Exiles opened for Yacht Rock--for me, a set of mostly tambourine, plus the solo on Miss You and the sax part on Honky Tonk Women...pretty easy stuff.

The Yacht Rock set was pretty good.  The crowd was significantly smaller than the past few--I don't think it sold out.  I played pretty well.   The only brain fart I was in not being able to remember the horn part to I Want a New Drug.  It comes around three times, though, so the first time was not so good, second time was ok, and the third time I got it.  I played the whole gig thinking about how I was doing on the recording--Bencuya always records the Park Tavern shows--only to hear afterwards that it was not recorded!  Good and bad.  Take my word for it--I played pretty well.

So that was that.  Today's the big keyboard day with the Schooner.  I'll be glad when it's over.  My head is swimming with questions like "Is it F/Bb, or Bb/F?", and my fingertips hurt just thinking about it.

Oh well--it's happening...let's see what I can do!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Monday and Tuesday

Sunday night ended with a thud.  After kind of nodding off on the way to my evening church gig, I somehow managed to maintain consciousness long enough to get back to the couch, where I crashed.  I slept quite well (and for quite a number of hours).

Monday evening I played a House Live gig with Wayne and Jeremy at Ventanas.  It was pretty easy--we (Wayne and myself) are in groove, so the boredom and bullshitting come much later in the gig.  I have no idea who we played for--I think there were forty people there--and no helicopter rides.  Boo.  We were so quiet, I didn't even use a microphone for the flute (or saxes).

We ate at Baja Fresh (pregame meal?).

My alto and soprano reeds both felt terrific all night.  Sounding good on both horns really inspired me--I felt really free and relaxed, and came up with some pretty good stuff.  Jeremy played some good stuff (either by luck or on purpose), and looped some good spots so I could solo without the lyrics and other things getting in the way.

I got home, ate a bag of popcorn, and passed out on the couch.

Tuesday morning I was up pretty early to play a Yacht Rock gig.  It was a corporate event for IHC, which owns Holiday Inn (among other things).  The gig was pretty easy.  We loaded into a big conference room on the 20th floor (I could look out and see the building next door where my dad finished up his commercial real estate career!).

We played maybe twenty-five songs--maybe.  It was something like two thirty minute sets.  No problems.  Nothing was loud, and nobody got drunk.  We were done before 2 PM.  Nice!  If not for the crazy security guard who evidently didn't want anyone loading anything out through her loading dock, it might have been a perfect gig.

I taught a few lessons this afternoon, took a nap, and practiced piano until my hands hurt.  I'm still pushing hard to learn all this stuff for my Thursday morning rehearsal.  I think I'm going to be ok.  So much for me freaking out Saturday.  I think I've investigated all the parts I need to learn, so tomorrow I can play through all these new tunes and try and build up some consistency before I have to play them in front of other ears.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Work, Work, Work

Greetings.  I wonder if I should hire an assistant to take notes and compose my blog for me!  I can't find the time right now.

Thursday was a two-fer gig day.  My first gig was in the lobby of the new Marriott attached to the Georgia International Congress Center down by the airport.  It was a four hour House Live gig with Jeff and Wayne.  Pretty easy stuff...

When that ended, I hauled butt to the 10 High to play the Yacht Rock gig.  Surprisingly, it wasn't too tough, and we collectively had a good night, though Greg was unable to play the gig due to illness.  There were a ton of people there.  It was fun.

Friday, I saw David Sanborn at the Ferst Center at Georgia Tech.  It was so cool.  The last time I saw Sanborn was when I was in high school, probably twenty years ago at this point.  He's still got it!  I do think he needs to move past the Ray Charles tribute stuff--two albums is enough!  How many more shuffle blueses do we need to hear?  The band was Joey DeFrancesco on organ and Byron Landham on drums.  The playing was cool, but I was most turned on to hear older stuff like Straight to the Heart and The Dream in that format.  Great stuff.

Saturday I did a solo wedding gig at Barnsley Gardens up in Adairsville, Georgia.  The ceremony was in a really pretty pine chapel.  I did some recording while the room was empty.

Here's some flute stuff I recorded in the empty room:



After the ceremony, I jumped on a golf cart and rode out to the Ruins to play the cocktail hour.  Solo saxophone for this one.

I got home, ate supper, and collapsed.  I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and started practicing keyboards for next weekend's gig.  I have a bunch of stuff to learn.  There will be no sleep!  Actually, I went back to bed at 3:45 AM, and then got up just before 7 to get ready for my church gig.  Easy stuff.

I've been playing the rhodes part to Hey Nineteen this afternoon at about half speed.  My hands are starting to hurt!  Good thing I have another church gig to go to to break the afternoon up;  otherwise, hello carpal tunnel!

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Dark Side and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart

Please Pleaserock Me played Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles) in its entirety last night, and opened the show by playing The Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) synched up to The Wizard of Oz, thus fulfilling the stoner myth of The Dark Side of the Rainbow!

Is it wrong of me to have enjoyed the Pink Floyd so much more than the Beatles?  I know it's sacrilegious to put anything in front of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but Pink Floyd means so much more to me personally.  I lived on Pink Floyd in high school, so any chance to play their stuff resonates with me much more deeply.  

The Dark Side went over well.  I played well, though at one point I guess I was pushing my horn so much into the microphone that I nearly knocked the stand over.  Oops!  Got a little excited.  I tripped a little bit on the timing of the Money solo--I just can't hear seven beats in a measure, I guess.  Other than that, things were solid.

Sgt. Peppers was almost a letdown--The Dark Side was continuous (we stayed in time with the record and movie all the way to the end of the album), and all the breaks in between songs on the Beatles I think led to feeling like it wasn't as monumental of a moment.  It went well, though.  

So...a big crowd!  Good stuff.  I also drank four or five Newcastles.  God save the Queen!  and Sting...wasn't he from Newcastle?

davidfreemanmusic.net

Canzonetta (Gabriel Pierne)

Here's  Canzonetta by Gabriel Pierne in its entirety.



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Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday

Ahoy!

Saturday's first gig was an afternoon spot at the Midtown Arts Festival for Main Street Exiles.  We played, strangely enough, in the parking lot for the old Loca Luna, where I spent many a night sweating (and sometimes freezing) while playing salsa music.  The club has moved, but the parking lot remains!

We played pretty well.  It was fun to be on the big stage, and I liked being able to walk off the back when I wasn't playing.  The crowd was ok;  it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to stand in a parking lot in direct sunlight in the low 90s.  It's still hot in Atlanta!

We had a good time.  Once it was over, I drove home and loaded equipment into my truck and headed on to my second gig, a Yacht Rock gig for the Chattahoochee Riverkeepers.  Before you ask, I will go ahead and say that I have no idea what they do to/for the river.  From what I can tell, they're rich and they like to eat barbecue.  I know I have supplied a link to their website, but this doesn't mean that I've actually looked at it.

Anyway, the gig was at some guy's house.  He lives right on the river.  It's a beautiful house, and you can walk past his pool and his garden and look out over the water.  Very nice.  Last year when we played, it was right after the river had risen dramatically (they showed us the high water mark), but this year it was just hot and still out there.

Before the Yacht Rock sets, I sat in on Can't Get There from Here with the REMakes.  I was playing the hell out of the sax part (I hadn't thought about the sax part on that in many months, but I just reached back and pulled it out of my ass).  It was like I'd taken over the song and it was all about me--I was front and center on stage, dancing and playing.  The song ended, and I met the sound guy at the side of the stage;  he'd waited through the entire song to point out that he wasn't getting any signal from my microphone, which means that though I looked good, I was practically inaudible.  Nice.  Dude could have easily grabbed the empty vocal mic next to me and told me to play into that;  instead he waited til the song was over to attempt a solution.

On to the Yacht Rock set.

I played really well.  I was almost annoyed with myself--why couldn't some of this good stuff have come out of me on Thursday night when Bencuya was recording?  I mean, even little keyboard fills that I attempted sounded like I was doing something good.  What's up with that?

We played until right up at midnight and then quit right at the noise curfew.  I loaded out and was home about an hour later.  I got home, unloaded all my stuff, packed up my stuff for my church gig, loaded it into the truck, and went to bed.

My first church gig went ok.  I think Chuck is making an effort to be a little more organized, but he still calls audibles in the middle of the service (or, like this past Sunday, in the middle of a song!).  It's getting better, though.  There were no major disasters this time.

My second church gig was very different from the previous week.  We had five vocalists, so I was back on my usual stuff, adding the whipped cream and cherry to their efforts.

Monday morning was another rehearsal for this Wednesday night's gig.  After we play The Dark Side of the Moon, we are playing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  We have already learned the material, so the rehearsal was mostly about vocal parts.  Easy enough for me.

Tonight I started work on a new clarinet piece, titled Canzonetta by Gabriel Pierne.  Here's some video of what I've got so far:



More work awaits!
davidfreemanmusic.net