The Usual Sunday

I got home from the trip to Athens at something like 4 AM, unloaded the truck, and went to bed around 4:30 AM.  Ouch.  I was up three hours later to chug some coffee and head out to church gig number one.

Church gig number one was the typical circus that I've described in the past few weeks.

The service began a half hour later (10 AM), and last week I asked if rehearsal would be a half hour later.  Yes was the answer I got.  Of course, I showed up at 8:30 this week and they were knee deep in the music, making me look late.

Other than that, it was the typical one song of this, one song of that, one song with a choir I'd never seen before, one song with handbells.  I didn't get any preparation emails earlier in the week this time, so there was nothing I could have done differently.

I've been wearing my glasses to this first gig so that I don't have to force my contacts into my face so early in the morning, and once again I noticed how much I need my peripheral vision--a little cue, or eye contact with someone.  That's too bad.  My eyeballs aren't in the mood that early in the morning.

I don't know if it's by design, but when I began this gig we were playing a lot more gospel sort of stuff, and now it's turned more towards the contemporary christian stuff--less tenor and now more soprano.  Less blowing for me (and more sneaking around in the music).  It remains to be seen how this will play out.

I went home and went back to bed.

Church gig number two was also the same as it has been.  Fewer singers than past weeks...drummer plays too softly--he should take off his headphones and balance his volume to the rest of the band acoustically...drummer should mic the suspended cymbal...some of the regular music has changed with the liturgical calendar, which is nice after playing so much of the same thing all summer/fall...my infatuation with the tight clothes usher is waning...

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Melting Point

Yacht Rock played in Athens at The Melting Point last night.  A great gig!  The sound was wonderful and the room was really cool.

We met up at the office and headed out of town, stopping along the way at our favorite gas station.

The stage was kind of small, but we were able to make it work.  The sound was great!  It was a really good volume on stage, and I really dug that I didn't have to turn up that much because I could hear myself in the house.  Yeah!  The sound guy--Mike--was very good and paid attention to us.  All the solos got a good bump in volume.

I got kind of worried when I set up and we tried my line and got nothing--same thing as at Andrews!  Mike fixed it, though.  It was a problem on his end.


Ganesh played drums with us.  Danni covered for Greg Lee.

My only major flub of last night was the breakdown on Lonely Boy.  It was a reverse brain fart!  I was going along and not really thinking about what I was doing, and right at the break where everybody but me drops out, I started consciously thinking about what I was doing, and then I had NO IDEA what I was doing.  Damnit!

Mike Bielenberg filled in for Bencuya.  He did very well!

Pete and Nick covered the stuff that Bencuya and Greg usually sing, and they were perfect.

Dannells played some great stuff on Doctor, My Eyes.  He started the first solo with this AWESOME bent note.  I wish I could do stuff like that.

Great gig, great night!  I even took a nap in the van on the way home--woke up back at the office.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Main Street Exiles at the Star Bar

Main Street Exiles played a gig last night at the Star Bar, opening for Nine Inch Neils.  The opened for us.

NIN were really good.  Much like Yacht Rock, they are able to use the kitsch factor to win the crowd over.  I mean, they got the whole Star Bar to sing along to Sweet Caroline, I Am I Said, and Song Sung Blue.

Our set was kind of rough.  We jumped up on stage, line checked, and started playing.  No monitors or anything.  Tony decided to leave the bass cabinet on the opposite side of the stage from where he usually is, so I flipped and stood next to Freddy.  We used a different drummer (Donovan Babb, who played very well).  Cox's microphone kept coming unplugged.

Chris Cox

Here's the problem with all that--the songs are really loose to begin with, and Cox needs everyone to be in the right spot so he can be loose, and we need to be able to hear Cox clearly in order to know where he's going in the song.  Instead, all I could hear was Freddy's guitar (which sounded great, but...), and the drums.  I didn't hear anything of me through the monitor.  Sometimes (in between songs!) I could hear it in the house.  I think I was playing everything right.  Cox got kind of frazzled and lost his place, and we kept dealing with drunk people putting their jackets over his monitor (at one point I saw the drunk guy take off his suit jacket and put it down, then untuck his shirt, then take off his belt, and I thought...ooooooohhhh, this is fixing to get weird!)

Anyway, it was kind of rough.  No disasters where we had to stop, but plenty of moments where everybody had to tread water for a second before going into the next part.  

Afterwards, the sound guy told me that me sax mic "stopped working altogether" towards the end of the show.  I would have thought that's something worth mentioning during the gig.  Even better, isn't that something worth trying to fix?  I hope most of it was there.  I could kind of hear the solos in the mains, so I think I was ok.  

That's what kind of night it was.  Once we got paid (pretty quickly), everyone went their separate ways.  I wasn't the only one looking to get out of there.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Turkey Eve

Yacht Rock played Turkey Eve at Andrews Upstairs/8 Traxx Disco Wednesday night.  Sold out!  Very cool.

The sound continues to be a problem in that room.  When I arrived, the stage looked like a tornado had just passed through.  Cords were everywhere and a monitor was face down.  The sound guy was kind of putting it all back together.

I was not a fan of the sound guy.  Right from the start, I made a recommendation about where to put one of the monitors (in front of Greg and Bencuya), and he continued moving it further to the side (right where I set up my keyboards).  When I said something like, "That's not going to work," his response was "That's the way it's going to be."  I bit my lip and helped Ganesh load in gear.

Once I started dealing with my own equipment again, I set my keyboard stand behind the monitor in question, and the sound guy moved it, insisting to me that we keep an open path across the stage.  Moments later I saw him pick up Ganesh's kick drum and move it.  I don't think it's cool for the sound guy to ever move the band's equipment without permission.  He excused himself with "We're all trying to make the gig happen."

So...I climbed off the front of the stage, unplugged the misplaced monitor, and moved it to where it should be.  Then I could set up properly and still leave the open path.

Once we finally got down to checking the sound, my line had some sort of issue where he was not getting enough signal.  I checked the line by running it into my amp and it worked fine, which made me think that the problem was on his end, but instead of him troubleshooting his part, he had me reroute my signal to accommodate him.  I was not thrilled.  Because of that, I had no independent control on stage (because all my adjustments affected what I was sending him).

Everybody else seemed fine with this guy, so it must have been me.  He told us he'd been there since 10 that morning "fixing stuff."  The guy last month had spent several hours "fixing stuff" too, and it had sounded pretty good.  I'm kind of curious as to how much stuff needed to be fixed, since we're the only band that plays there.  I would presume that everything was basically the same as we had left it.

Pre-show, we were hanging out in the dressing room, and the sound guy came back and mixed himself a drink, which I thought was weird--hopefully he's not getting hammered, and hopefully he's not using our booze to do it.

The gig itself was typical of Andrews, which is to say kind of numbing.  On the second song of the gig, Bencuya's microphone clip fell off the mic stand while he was adjusting it, and he sang a verse and chorus holding the microphone in one hand and playing with the other.  The sound guy was on stage and off constantly, dealing with bad cables and god only knows what else.  Dannells played a terrific solo on Peg, but nobody heard it because the microphone on his amp was evidently not functioning.  Early on in the gig I could hear my sound in the house, but once he got it dialed in, I felt like I vanished.  Things like Hey Nineteen and Africa felt like I wasn't in the PA at all.  It's never a good feeling.  Pete said he couldn't hear me at all.

Speaking of Africa, I was playing the solo without thinking, and for some reason as I was playing I began thinking consciously about what I was doing, and couldn't remember the last note of the solo.  If I'd continued playing and NOT thinking, I would have been fine, but since I started thinking, I played a HORRIBLE last note.  Stupid me, stupid me.

We played Baker Street, and maybe it was just an optimum reed and my throat was really relaxed and open, but I have never played a saxophone that loudly.  I was kind of impressed with myself.

Overall, I played pretty well.  I don't think I embarrassed myself in front of Bencuya very much (except for the end of Africa--he yelled his approval at my last note).  I was better than last month.

After the gig, the room emptied quickly--not like Halloween, when we had to fight through the dancers with our equipment.  The DJ in there is still pretty bad; it doesn't seem to crush her ego too much when everybody leaves after our show.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Church Gigs

I did my two church gigs yesterday.

The first one continues to not quite be organized.  Yesterday was better...we finished the rehearsal early, but then the leader said "Oh, we forgot to go over the offertory song!"  No big deal--he passed out a chord lyrics sheet with chords.  As the soundguy was rewiring the piano microphone (with the lid on the grand piano wide open), the leader said to me "Take the melody," except that I usually put my music on the piano, so I was trying to see it up on top of the pipe organ (which I guess was kind of futile anyway since there was no music, only words and chords).  Then, as I figured out the key of the first song, it segued into a second song with which I was not familiar.  "I've got to have you on melody for this part."  OK.  A couple of thoughts:

1.  If this is going to be an instrumental song and you want me to play the melody, why are you giving me lyrics and not sheet music?

2.  If you knew you wanted to do this particular song, why not alert me earlier in the week?

In performance, the leader started the song by himself, and I kept looking at him to try and gauge what might be a cue to play the first melody, but got nothing.  Finally, he looked at me.  First melody?  Second melody?  We went into the second, which was the one I really didn't know.  Thanks.  So, I stood there for the part I did know, and then fumbled the one I didn't, and the way we did it in rehearsal was not the way we did it during the service.

My other frustration on this particular gig was a song we did with a prerecorded track.  The track had full instrumentation, including an entire woodwind and brass section.  No room for me!  At one point there was a trumpet melody--maybe sixteen measures--and I played the melody on soprano in unison with the track.  The leader aked that we do it again so I could take another shot at it.  He wanted me to "play around the melody."  Umm.  So in the actual performance, I ended up kind of destroying the trumpet part because I couldn't help but play on top of it.  Unison would have sounded better.


My second church gig was the same as it always is.  What else can I tell you?  I said the prayers in different accents.  The hot usher was ushering.  I've decided she's not really hot, but dresses in tight clothing (which I mentally applaud).  The drummer (for the third week in a row) played a ride cymbal with felt mallets sofly and unmic'ed for an entire song.  It's funny that he's wearing headphones to hear the mix, but doesn't hear that the cymbal is not showing up there.  I kind of wanted to put a microphone on it, but if I do it will probably pick up more of the piano than the percussion (just like his hand drum microphone does).  The Colts lost to the Patriots and I was watching on my phone, and when I finished, I noticed one of the church busy-bodies watching me watch it.  I kind of wanted to give her the finger.

I think I'm going to go back to my straight soprano sax neck--the curved neck has different intonation, and I just can't find the right spot where I can reach all the notes.  I like the angle of the curved neck, but the straight one has a better sound and better tuning.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Band in the Bubble

We played the infamous (for me) frozen EWI gig again last night.  Fortunately, the weather was much better, and I had no equipment issues.  It was still a little chilly when we began, but this party was full of people that dug the band, so as soon as we began people came out to the tent and warmed it up.

I kept waiting for my EWI to freak out.  One thing I did notice--when I would switch it on, it would get stuck on this "screen."  It would make no sound.

I would then turn it off and turn it back on and get the normal screen.

After the tent got pretty warm, it would turn on directly to the normal screen.  Weird, huh?

Mark Cobb was pretty amazing last night.  He was super groovy.  When he's that "on" everybody sounds better.  Awesome!  I remember thinking "Goddamn he's good!" about three songs into the night.

We played three sets and we done by 11:30.  Actually, I had shut down all my stuff and taken the reeds off both mouthpieces when it was decided that we would play one more.  Yikes!  It turned out to be just EWI and keyboards (Rosanna), and there ended up being enough time for my computer to reboot.

Here's a video of  Dannells and me dancing at the House of Blues in Orlando a couple of weeks back.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Cold Beer

Yacht Rock played a gig last night at Sweetwater Brewery--a surprise 40th birthday party.

The low last night in Atlanta was somewhere in the low 40s.  Pretty much as soon as the sun went down, it got super cold.  My hands were hurting by the end of each set (we began around 9:45 and finished at midnight).  Painful.

not pictured, Mark Cobb (on his phone)

I was really concerned about the EWI freezing up--it happened last year (actually, it's the same gig we're playing tonight!).  No problems, but it was in my head.  Instead I had to deal with the ol' "acoustic instrument played outside when it's 48 degrees" thing--you know, push the mouthpiece in an extra quarter of an inch!  Not fun.

The musicians' union should have some sort of rule about not playing outside when it's this cold at night.  Really--if Sweetwater had just added sides to the tent, it would have made all the difference in the world.  I guess they weren't thinking about me.  Would I have to join the union to get them to enforce it?

ahh, Mark Dannells!

I ate a lot of ham before this gig.  They had ham.  It was good.  I'd forgotten how much I like it.

Tonight's another outdoor/tent situation.  The frozen EWI gig.  Think warm thoughts!

P.S.  Things like this happen to us.  It's completely out of our control.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday Again!

Yacht Rock played at the 10 High last night--our usual house gig.  We fared well.

I run my saxes, EWI, and two keyboards into a small Mackie mixer.  From there, the main goes to my powered speaker, and the aux channel goes to the house.  That way, I have independent control from what I'm giving the sound guy.  If he wants more, I can give it to him without disturbing what I've got coming at me.

The Nord keyboard that I am using is going into the third channel on my mixer, and because it's a quarter inch cable, the gain knob does not come into play.  This has always bugged me--the first two channel quarter inch inputs can be affected by the gain.  This matters to me because the output on the Nord does not by itself put out enough signal to reach unity gain (I'm sure the non musician people are drooling by now--sorry!).  Last week it dawned on me that if I could get that line to end in an XLR plug, I could use the gain, and then I could bring the level up to where it needed to be.  Aha!  I was going to go into a DI and then out of that to an XLR, but instead I bought a cable that was quarter inch on one end and XLR on the other.  It worked perfectly!  The Nord sounded much better!  I'm using a Nord Electro 2, and the piano is really thin and bright, and being able to bring the gain up fattened up the sound a bit.  Coolness.  That way, my piano can be heard a bit better on stage.  Actually, the sound was fat enough that it made the EWI and my Roland Fantom (top keyboard) sound thin.  Hmm.

I don't know if it was luck, but there were lots of saxophone songs in the first set last night.  I had Summer Breeze, Heart Hotels, Couldn’t Get It Right, Lotta Love (sax AND a flute  solo!), Little Jeanie, Heart of Rock and Roll.  Pretty cool!   Every song was either all keyboard or saxophone.  It was fun.

I had a really soft tenor reed...same one I played at the High Museum Tuesday night.  It sounded ok, but I just needed a little bit of resistance to blow against (and I'm not a fan of resistance!).  It would close up on me really easy.  Later on as it dried out, I could do a little bit more with it, but I remember at the High thinking that I should pitch it but I didn't, and last night I had the same thought (and didn't pitch it).  That's kind of stupid of me.  I hate to get rid of it because it sounds good, but it's so flexible that I probably should.

The crowd was not bad.  I kept waiting for the second wave to show up in between sets, but it never came.  We still did well, though.

Mark Dannells played some great stuff on Easy Lover last night.  I kept waiting for him to fall into his little five note lick that he goes to, but he avoided it and sounded good.  Mark Bencuya played an awesome solo on Lowdown--kicked my butt.  I couldn't get anything going on my flute solo.

We had Kiss You All Over on the list last night, and I couldn't for the life of me remember how to get into the song.  On the record, the strings, piano (me), and kick drum all start together.  Bencuya had kicked in the strings and Nick was setting up the tune with a monologue, and I kept trying to figure out if Ganesh (who was playing drums last night) was going to to give me some sort of cue.  Finally, I just started in with the piano chords.  Everybody laughed--I guess they thought I was showing up Ganesh--but I really was just trying to figure out how to get in!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Bach Partita

I recorded myself last night practicing the Bach Partita in A minor.





I had a couple of goals in doing this.  First, I wanted to listen away from the flute and hear if what I was doing musically was working.  For instance, all that stuff on the second page of the first movement--say 2:45 til 3:30--not making much sense to me now that I hear it.  My articulation in the fourth movement is still pretty crappy, I must say.  I'm also trying to breathe more quietly (but still take in air), and it seems like it's getting better.  Sometimes I catch myself faking a breath but not really inhaling--maybe I'm resetting my embouchure?  I don't know.

My other big plan is to confront the psychological issues of knowing that I am being recorded.  For some reason it doesn't bother me on my little jazz gigs, but stuff like this is different.  I can feel myself playing for the recording.  The voice in my head begins writing a critique before I'm finished the first phrase!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Kick it Up for American Water!

I played a private gig for a bunch of public water commissioners last night at the High with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  I guess that's how you'd describe them--CEOs of water companies?  Tyrone asked the bartender for three bottles of water for the band, and the guy said, "Not tonight!  These are tap water people!"

We were in a different room from last week, but the same acoustics applied.  We tried to get them to let us set up across the room,

but instead they set us right against the tables so they could use the keyboard later on in the night.

The gig began with solo saxophone, which seemed kind of dumb because the rest of the band was right next to me.  I thought it'd only be a song or two, but it somehow stretched into an entire HOUR of solo saxophone.  The crowd finally made their way to the tables and sat down, and we transitioned to trio.  From there, we played about an hour and fifteen minutes.

I don't think any of us played particularly well.  The combination of trying to keep the volume down coupled with the numbness of sitting around too long before the gig made us all play like we were kind of bored.  There was no energy, so we kind of dragged each other through the gig.



We took a break for the speeches and the little show they'd prepared.  Very weird.  The piano player wrote lyrics(a1-a4 on the player above)...when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, one guy popped a karaoke CD in the player and sang Proud to be an American (a5).  I guess putting a nationalistic bow on the bullshit always works.  Who knew water was so patriotic?

The three of us sat on the opposite of the room, howling with laughter and cheering them on.  After our patriotism had been inflamed, the crowd dispersed.

davidfreemanmusic.net 

Sunday

I did my usual two church gigs yesterday.

The first gig was even more chaotic than usual.  The band accompanied a group of adults called "Triumph" (they sounded like an amateur theatre group) and a children's choir.  On top of that we had our own usual stuff to do.  The first song was kind of a wreck--it was one of those songs where the meter of the song changes with the words (basically it was in three with an occasional bar of four), and the drummer kept turning the beat around because he couldn't get a clear answer about where on the lead sheet  the phantom bar of four was located.  The bass player transcribed the audio for the song earlier in the week, only to find out that we weren't using that version.  It got pretty tense there for a minute.  I laughed it all off--good thing I'd gotten plenty of sleep for a change!

I hate to be apathetic about the gig, but I figured out a while ago not to put too much preparation into this gig--they mp3s they email out earlier in the week are usually more of a reference for the vocalists than the band, and I have yet to play a Sunday where (at the least) chord sheets weren't provided.

One of the singers asked if we had rehearsals.  "No."  "Don't you get stressed about it?"  "About what?"

The Triumph thing was kind of amusing.  I asked which instrument to play (choices being soprano sax, tenor sax, or clarinet) and the director said "whatever will make it sound country."  Thirty seconds later we were into it--a gospel blues thing.  Ahh, tenor!  Country?  Huh?

One of the singers bitched that all she could hear was saxophone.  What's wrong with that?

The bass player asked if the audio for the children's choir matched the chart he'd just been given, and the choir director said, "I never heard a recording of this."  Jeez!

So...it went like that.

The second gig was the usual.  Not much to report.  I spent a fair amount of the gig hitting "update" on the ESPN gamecast of the Cowboys game.  They won.  I was able to provide up to the minute updates to the guitarist.

davidfreemanmusic.net