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

Quartet!

I played a GREAT gig last night!  My jazz quartet was hired to provide a quartet for a corporate networking function at the Marriott Marquis downtown.

Tyrone Jackson is one of a kind.  He is super awesome!  One of my favorite keyboardists and one of my favorite people.
Nadav Spiegelman is a younger guy on the scene.  He has a beautiful bass sound and plays really melodic solos.
Chris Burroughs has an incredible sense of time--he is constantly shifting gears and reacting to everything and everybody.  Fantastic stuff!

Here's the audio:

 David Freeman Quartet-May 18, 2012 by David B Freeman

I had a wonderful time!  Hopefully we can all play together again soon.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow, Nor Hail...

I loaded up my gear in my truck for the trek to the 10 High last night, and the sky was grumbling.  I thought maybe I'd be able to get away before it struck, so I jumped in and took off.  By the time I got to I-75, the clouds were really dark and low, and most were poised just south of me.  It looked like I was definitely going to have to go through it, but if I could go really fast, maybe I could get out from under it before my gear got wet.

Just south of Delk Road, the sky was creepy and dark.  All of the sudden--POW!--a big piece of hail hit my windshield, then another, then another!  Aghh!!!  Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the most ferocious hailstorm I'd ever seen--and all my gear was getting pounded in the bed of my truck!  The interstate was completely covered in ice, so much that you could no longer see the lanes.  People were pulling over and slowing way down, while I tried to weave through them at sixty miles and hour, fishtailing madly on the ice.  I needed an overpass to get under, but every one I came to was already packed with people waiting out the storm, so on I drove!

I stopped screaming long enough to look down and see that I was doing eighty.

I finally found an open overpass, so I pulled over.  The bed of my truck had a bucket's worth of ice in it.  As I grabbed the first cases and moved them into the cab, a car came flying up behind me.  A guy jumped out and screamed "THAT WAS FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!"

In a few minutes, I had all my gear reconfigured, and the hail had switched to rain, so I headed out again. By the time I got south of West Paces Ferry, the rain had stopped, and it the ground was dry when I got into the city.  Crazy weather!

Yacht Rock was at the 10 High again.  We had a better crowd than the previous week, though it looked bad until just before we started.  It definitely helps when the door guy isn't stealing money.

The first set was ok.  I played pretty well.  Monkey was having a bad night.  We went on break, and I gave up.  The second set, I busied myself by adding Hot in Herre (an homage to Chuck Brown, and an attempt to piss Bencuya off) into every song, sometimes transposed and sometimes not, and almost always between songs.  It actually sounds OK in the verses of Power of Love.  When I had an organ sound dialed up, I tried the beginning of Bustin' Loose, but he ignored me.  I wished I'd brought seven band aids.  Dannells was drunk enough that he started singing along.  No worries until he actually takes off all his clothes.

That was it.  Another night of being subversive and annoying.  No rain at load out.

davidfreemanmusic.net