House Live, Indy Jones

I got back from the latest Yacht Rock trip, swapped out gear, and headed off to Ventanas for a House Live gig. It was supposed to be a three hour gig, but an hour of overtime was added.  Yay for the money, boo for the brain!  After about two and a half hours, I couldn't find ANYTHING.  Four hours was tough.

To make matters worse, my soprano was not working correctly.  The bar behind the right hand (the three right hand fingers pick up the bar, which closes the key about the top right hand finger) was messed up…or the adjustment screws for hitting the bar were messed up.  Anyway, my soprano was not happening.  I fiddled with it some, but I didn't play it much because of that.  I just had the horn worked on a couple of weeks ago, and I can't imagine why it's so far out now.

After a night of sleeping in my own bed, I had a recording session today for Indianapolis Jones.  I played tenor on one tune and bari on another.  Cool stuff!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Hamburgers, Fireworks, and Golf Tour

Yacht Rock went on the road last weekend on a string of highly profitable private gigs.

Friday:  Savannah!  We stopped somewhere along the way at a hamburger place, right across the street from the first Chick-fil-A.  Not the greatest hamburger.

Anyway, we crossed the bridge and played a gig at a golf club in a permanent tent.  This one was for Lawyers and the Women Who Love Them.  I'd say they were a pretty bland crowd (as you'd expect), but the gig was easy--two sets and we were out of there.

They did some kind of speeches/awards thing before that, so we hung out in a conference room/meat locker.  You could go outside to thaw but the bugs seemed to massing for an attack.

Fireworks over the river!

Saturday:  Columbus, GA.  We crossed the state to get to our next gig, stopping in Macon to eat a hamburger (my third day of this meal) at a nifty restaurant downtown.  Macon looks like it can't decide whether or not it's going to close up shop.

Columbus was a huge wedding--600 guests and 8 PM til 1 AM for us.  The venue was really pretty--daddy brought his checkbook for this one, and the people were really cool (except for the fat girl from Wisconsin) and really good looking (except for the fat girl from Wisconsin).  We had bad band food (but no burgers).  Later on, Greg and I sampled the desserts and discovered just how good chocolate covered bacon can be.

The gig was four sets--50 songs all together.  We did a couple of songs as an encore before it all ended, and they probably would've given us anything we wanted to keep going beyond that.  Thank you, but no.

Sunday:  Florence, AL.  We got up late and boogied over to Florence to play a 10th anniversary party at Turtle Point Yacht and Country Club for The Healing Place, a charity for children.  You can read about it here.  Any gig would be easy after the marathon in Columbus.  We loaded into a tent, set up, soundchecked, and ate BBQ.

fireworks over the golf course!

The first set was no problem--low key and low energy.  Before the second set was to begin, we got word that bad weather was headed our way, so we packed up everything and moved indoors with just a few pieces--drums (no toms, one cymbal), bass, guitar, one keyboard for each of us, one sax, and two microphones, all running through one monitor back towards us, and one main speaker.

It looked like it could be rough, but the "throw and go" of it gave us the adrenaline boost to make for a really fun gig.  Plus, when we finished, we were mostly loaded out!

No rain until we got to the hotel, but it was quite a show when it passed through town.

Up early on Monday and we headed home!  We left Nick so he could play a round.  Keep your base wide!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Three More

Yacht Rock's only got three more 10 High appearances.  We played last night to an OK crowd.  Almost there!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Salsa!

the empty dance floor

Obviously, you weren't there…I mean, NOBODY was there…but we had a pretty good salsa gig last night at Kat's Cafe in midtown.  For the most part, we got it right, and the handful of people (eight?) who did show up were genuinely appreciative and danced well.  We had fun, and played well for no full rehearsal!

 Linda Chicana by David B Freeman

See you next time!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tito Puente Jr

I had the pleasure of playing with Tito Puente Jr at the Atlanta Jazz Festival last night.  Leading up to the gig, I was really excited, then not excited at all, and then we got on stage and it was exciting again.

Very cool…just the sound of two trumpets (Karl Liberatore and Paul Garrett), trombone (Eric Alexander), tenor sax (Will Scruggs), and me playing full blast mambos for an hour and a half was incredible.  Tito brought his rhythm section guys, and they were naturally awesome (and the keyboardist had a piano AND a suitcase rhodes…nice!).

At one point, we stopped so they could introduce the band, and the music director handed ME the microphone to introduce the horn section.  I HATE TALKING ON THE MIC!!!!!  I was so petrified that I have no recollection of what I said.  It was horrifying, and it took me almost two songs to recover from the adrenaline.  I was informed by my son this morning that I was on the video screen while I was speaking, which makes it doubly embarrassing.

Karl and Eric took a few rippin' solos, and we all got to come up front and take a solo.  I also got to take a flute solo on Oye Como Va, which was pretty neat.

We had a blast!  It was great playing with old and new friends.



davidfreemanmusic.net

Twofer

I played two gigs today.

Gig number one was a little salsa trio--a party celebrating the first communion.  Did I mention in an earlier post that we had a rehearsal?  We got together in a rather rough part of Decatur at the home of someone NOT playing in the trio (I don't know how that happened, but it made me think driving away afterwards that I probably should have told my family where I would be in case I didn't come back).  Anyway, we sorted out keys, transitions, forms, endings--you know what I mean.

Yeah, well, fuck everything I just mentioned.  The transitions, the form, fuck it all.  Kind of frustrating.  What else?  Well, how about the gig was 2:30-4:30.  I got there at 1:50.  The second guy in the trio showed up at 2:26, so I sat in these people's living room for a half hour pretending to do stuff on my phone, occasionally assuring the homeowners that the band was "right around the corner."  Fun.  And hey, the gig's outside, and it's 90 degrees, and the gnats will fly up your nose while you're trying to solo, and your flute will slide all over your sweaty face.

So…we started 15 minutes late and nobody cared.  Good thing.  It was rough stuff.  We played about forty-five minutes, took a break, and then came back and finished it out.  The people at the party loved us.  I'm so confused.

At 4:30, I ran like hell.  As I was racing down GA400 on my way to Inman Park for a wedding, I got a call saying my keyboard stand had died, so I made a detour to Marietta to pick up my spare.  More fun.

Remember how I said we'd never play the Trolley Barn again?  We played it again.  I think they were much cooler with us than last time--I don't think there were any noise violations.  This gig turned out to be pretty decent for a wedding…very talented crowd…geez…some super hot women.  Cool people all the way around.

I don't think, musically, that I had any disasters.  Also, it was in an air conditioned building, which I enjoyed very much.  It's too hot to play outside.

davidfreemanmusic.net

CD Release at the Park Tavern

this will make sense later

The Yacht Rock Revue had a great show at the Park Tavern last night.  We had a really big, enthusiastic crowd--it was a lot of fun!

I played pretty well…I tried the strings on Night Fever with a harmony underneath it, but I didn't like it at all.  The kinks of live performance…

We released a couple of recordings at the show.  Yacht Rock Revue:  Live at the Georgia Theatre (you can buy it here), and our original songs (Can't Wait for Summer and Good Thing), which you can find on iTunes here.  Yay for us!

In other news, I sucked real bad on Whatever Gets You Through the Night.  My reed could not stand the humidity, and I grabbed the mouthpiece too hard.  Boo for me.

Peter Stroud sat in with us on Can't Wait for Summer and Still the One, and then snuck up on stage at the end of the night to duel with Dannells on Go Your Own Way.  Awesome stuff!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Georgia Link

Funny thing about being a sax player…my brain automatically thinks mouthpiece (Otto Link) whenever I say or hear the word link.  Ha!  I just made a (hyper)link for my link.

Yacht Rock played a private party in Centennial Olympic Park for Georgia Link, which is a lobbyist group.  We played on the stage, almost across the street from CNN.  Usual easy stuff…no problems from the audience, and we played well.  We were fortunate to have the gig as an opportunity to run down the things from rehearsal again before the big Park Tavern show tonight.  With that said, I fared a lot better on the things I'd ruined the other day (Sara Smile and Night Fever).  Bring on the next gig!

Anyway, this gig was a long one…three sets, so it stretched out from 7:30-11 PM.  We were there all damn day.  Still, I was home earlier than I would've been if we'd been stuck at the 10 High, so yay for that.

Here's one of Dave's faves...

 Whatever Gets You Through the Night by David B Freeman

davidfreemanmusic.net

Dogs on I-20

The Yacht Rock Revue played a gig for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on Monday night, out at the Ritz at Lake Oconee.  Super sweet gig!  We played one ninety minute set (8:30-10 PM), and they set us up with rooms for the night (as in individual rooms at the Ritz).  Holy cow!  We also ate steak and asparagus and some kind of banana custard desserts.  Good stuff.

the view from my room

So…the Ritz has a dog!  A chocolate lab named Dooley who spends the day next to the concierge.  Awesome dog--I tried to bribe him with my apple core to come to 346 so we could hang out.

Tuesday morning, we stopped at a McDonalds for coffee, and there was another cute dog parked out front who looked a lot like the Reggie Dog.

my dog Reggie (picture for physical comparison)

We straight to a rehearsal…me, not so great.  Ugh.  I sucked real bad on my big two measure string solo on Sara Smile.

In other news…Yacht Rock has released a live album!  I'm not sure if I'm proud to be on it, or terrified that somebody might hear what I'm doing and maybe realize it's, uh...not so great.  I did hear the sax solo in the van a few weeks ago, and it was a little bleah…a tuning optional kind of thing.  Big surprise.  This was right around the time I got fed up with my alto mouthpiece and switched, but the solo is on the old piece.  Hmm.  Anyway…here's a link--you can purchase it (the CD, not my old mouthpiece) for $10!

There are lots of gigs this weekend!  Stay tuned!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday=Chart Day!

My AM church gig did not happen yesterday, which was fine because I was busy all day being chart man.  Mostly I was cranking out Finale versions of some of my hand written salsa lead sheets, so I will be able to read them a little easier on the gig.  Following that, I had a few tunes to work out for an upcoming Yacht Rock rehearsal.  I also updated a handful of Beatles charts for an upcoming gig.

My usual PM church gig went off without a hitch.  One of the singers turned around to see if her mic was working so I pushed the fader all the way up.  That failed to satisfy me, though, so then I took the panning knob on her voice and the panning knob on the shaker microphone she was using and ping ponged them back and forth on the quarter note for an entire verse and chorus.  I wonder what that sounded like out front…

davidfreemanmusic.net

Police Ball

Yacht Rock played the Atlanta Police Ball.  Just like last year, there were no actual police involved.

This was another easy corporate/private gig.  The sound on stage was outstanding.  I didn't even need ear plugs.

davidfreemanmusic.net