Yacht Rock

We cruised through Yacht Rock last night. I would say it sounded pretty good, but I'm biased.

I think I played the piano part to for I'd Really Love to See You Tonight about three and a half hours Thursday afternoon. My fingers were sore, but I got it right at the gig. That and All Out of Love were my two biggies that I needed to spend some time on. All Out of Love got cut, so you can assume I would have nailed it.

We played Thriller as a sneak peak of the Halloween show. It never fails to impress me how many people know all the words to every song. I'm getting to the point where I feels like I don't remember anything, but the people in front of me did everything but the frikin' dance!

The soundcheck for last night consisted of Human Nature and P.Y.T. I think we're in good shape. I don't have much on either one. The last song we need to work on is Lady in my Life. There's talk about tucking a saxophone solo in that one. Sweet! All play and no work for me on that!

We had an excellent night. The crowd was better than it's been in weeks, and we cashed in on the fact that we were a 7 piece (Bielenberg was on assignment). Strangely enough, there was an abundance of parking spaces, which made me think we'd be doomed. It was not true.

The sound man added his pitch shifter (and probably some other effects) to Mark Dannell's solo on Peg (might have been about the fourth song!), and really messed him up mentally. I think he thinks Hans (the sound man) is looking for an opportunity to destroy him. Dannell's was doing well up til then, and it seemed like after that he just wanted to get through it.

What else? We finally played I Keep Forgettin' again, and Nick and Pete (probably Nick) decided to insert Regulate into it. Boo. I hate it when we do that. I get to play the rhodes part (Bencuya on clav), and so I practiced it alot, and then I had to give it up half way through. I will point out that, once again, the crowd knew the words. These people are well rounded.

Oh yeah...did I mention that Dannells wrote a bridge for Happy Birthday? We played it TWICE for our buddy Jim Stapley, celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday last night. Keep up the good work, Jim.

The encore last night was Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. It got PAINFULLY loud. I could feel myself going deaf.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thriller on my Mind

Thriller is killing me. I don't want to hear it anymore.

Yacht Rock had a rehearsal for Beat It and Billy Jean Monday night. We also checked a couple of the ones we'd previously worked on.

I spent tonight plowing through what seems like one million sounds looking for the right sound for a three measure solo in Human Nature. Fortunately (for my back and my sanity), I was able to find that obnoxious synth that I need for the chorus of P.Y.T. pretty quickly. I'm interested to hear what Bencuya came up with for the "Alvin" sounding vocoder thing at the end.

Tomorrow night we are doing Yacht Rock as a seven piece--Bielenberg has a gig somewhere else. I'm back on keyboards. I spent some time earlier today going over parts, and I'll do the same tomorrow. The only one I've never played before is the piano part on I'd Really Love to See You Tonight. I feel like I've got it, but I need to play it about 650 more times so I can feel confident about it. You only get one shot at the gig.
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Victory!

What a weekend!

Thursday was our usual Yacht Rock gig. We added two more songs to our Thriller project, and I think they both went fairly well. It's always hard to tell. You figure out your part ahead of time, but you don't really know if it'll work until you hear in the context of everything else; at that point, you really know if you need to change your sound, volume, or scrap something in favor of another part. With Thriller, it seems like there are more things that two keyboardists and the EWI can physically perform, and so you have to make sure you're grabbing the parts that will be missed the most. That cool part that you had never heard until you really started analyzing the track probably won't be missed as much as the big synth pad.

Friday began waaaaaaaay too early (noon) with a studio call for Yacht Rock. We gathered at Open Sky Studios (in Avatar) to work on a Christmas tune--another mash-up of a Yacht Rock song with a Christmas tune. I don't think I'm at liberty to say what the two tunes are. Also, Dannells wrote a bridge to Happy Birthday. It's in four.
From Open Sky I headed on to Lake Oconee for a gig with Platnumb. A strange corporate gig in a conference room at the Ritz. A weird one for sure. Everyone in the audience was at least 50. We had barely started the first tune (Breezin') when they asked us to turn it down (as in, turn off the P.A.). Then they asked us to stop all together. We returned after they ate, and the gig turned into corporate cabaret. They just sat and stared at us as we paraded song after song before them. At some point in all this, somebody requested Brick House, so we jumped into that, and EVERYBODY got on the dance floor. It was really weird. But, that beat what we were doing, and they stayed out there for the rest of the set. When we came back from the break, there were fourteen people left in the room, and we played for them for another hour.

Saturday morning, Jack had a 10 AM t ball game. It was pretty cold.
When I got home from that, I worked on some stuff for my Yacht Rock gig that night (mostly the strings for All Out of Love by Air Supply). I also pounded on my synth solo for Lido Shuffle (and adjusted my sound for that).
We played in the back of Paris on Ponce in the room called Maison Rouge. It is an extremely neat place...it looks like a nightclub from the thirties. We played one and a half sets. It was super easy. The GREAT news is that I finally NAILED the Lido synth part. I was so pumped I wanted to stop the show and high five everybody in the room. It was so cool!
I think I may have finally won over Bencuya. He's been the main proponent of two keyboards for the gig, while I think everybody else is either on the fence or ok with me doing it. After the gig, Bencuya said he thought we sounded better/just as full as we did two nights earlier with two keyboards. How great is that! That really made my night. His opinion on this subject carries more weight than probably anybody else in the band, so I'm really excited to hear him say that.
Did I mention I nailed the synth solo?
Saxophone-wise, I could hear myself fairly well, and so I had a good night. Good reeds on both horns, though I realize that one of my alto reeds is probably dead. At least, it feels dead compared to the one I played last night.

Tonight is my church gig. I also have to check out some Thriller stuff. It turns out we're only adding two songs tomorrow night for the rehearsal--Beat It and Billy Jean. There probably won't be much for me in either of those.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Busy Beaver

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm under the gun.

Yacht Rock is playing the entire Thriller album for Halloween, and we're desperately trying to throw the tunes together. Last week we tackled the first two (Wanna Be Startin' Something and Baby Be Mine). This week is The Girl is Mine and Thriller. Even though we have two keyboardists playing multiple keyboards, there are still parts for me on EWI. So...I'm trying to get those together. Mostly it's about getting sounds--writing out my parts is no big deal, but I can spend a long time comparing what I think the sound is to the actual record. It is super tedious.

Friday Yacht Rock is going into the studio to record a Christmas tune, and I need to do some homework to prepare for that. We have to be at the studio at noon, so there's no chance I can learn it tomorrow before the session. From there, I'm leaving to go to a gig at Lake Oconee, so Friday is shot.

This is worth noting because I have a Yacht Rock gig Saturday where I am the second keyboardist, and I have to learn three songs for that. That will take some time, as I am very slow.

In addition to all that, I am missing a Platnumb gig this Saturday, and I need to give my book to John Hancotte on Friday afternoon to take with him. The book has to be ready before I leave for Yacht Rock tonight, because I won't have time to do it before I leave tomorrow morning.

If I make it to Sunday, I'll really need to kick in gear! Monday night, we (Yacht Rock), have a rehearsal where we are going to try Thriller all the way through.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Saturday Night in Commerce

Last night Platnumb played a wedding reception in Commerce, GA (way up I-85). It was actually pretty fun. They hired a full horn section. The biggest news of the night was that I tied my tie a different way--half windsor instead of four in hand.

I gave up on a reed last night. It was a weird one. It felt mushy but it had some resistance. I started working on it by balancing the sides. That improved the response, but it was still mushy. The altissimo was not reliable--it'd do that thing where it would sound like I'd overblown it. I tried taking some wood off the back, but it was about the same so I gave up and threw it out. My next reed is better.

I'm into some reeds that I soaked too long. Lately my reed break in procedure has been to soak reeds for an hour or so, let them dry for a day (maybe play on the a little), soak them again for another hour, let them dry for a day, and then start trying to figure out what I've got. This box of tenor reeds was accidentally left soaking for about twelve hours (I fell asleep). I dried them off and thought I'd let them dry long enough before putting them back in the plastic sleeves, but the next time I pulled them out they were blackened with mold. Oops! I soaked them briefly in Listerine to kill the mold and left them out to dry some more. Hopefully they'll bounce back from all that water and won't start too soft on me.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Thursday

nothing happened. if you saw me there, you'd know.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Three Day Trip

Here's the round up of this past weekend's Yacht Rock trip. I made notes along the way. Here they are.

Thursday:
We brought on Mike Bielenberg tonight as the new second keyboardist. He did very well. I think the band enjoyed hearing all the parts. Between Bencuya and myself, we have to drop parts from time to time (for instance if I'm playing a sax solo), so having the extra hands there keeps them going.

I was back across the stage, tucked in between the bass cabinet and Mark Bencuya's gear. It's such a gift to be able to sit and watch him play. He has great command of the vocabulary of this music. It's awesome. I didn't have nearly as much to do, so I tried to steal anything I could from him.

Mark Cobb had a good night. He was solid as a rock.

I had a problem with the power supply for my MIDI wireless. I solved it with batteries. Trip to Radio Shack!

Jimmy Fallon is having Christopher Cross on his show for a "Yacht Rock Party." We are encouraging fans to contact Fallon through NBC and let him know we're out here doing it already.

In the middle of the first set, the effects pedal that I use for my sax died. I trouble shot it and figured out that the power supply was falling out of the socket. Not enough that the unit got no power, but not enough that it would pass on signal. I would have never guessed it, but while I was checking to make sure everything was plugged all the way in, the menu scrolled, stopped, scrolled, and stopped. I found another spot on the power strip, and I was back in the game.

Friday:
Friday, I drove around to get a new power supply. I went to the nearby Radio Shack seeking 9 volts and 500 mA, but they didn't have one. They sent me to the Radio Shack by the big Chicken, which they claimed had seven of them. That store had none. He informed me that Radio Shack didn't even carry that power supply. I went to Guitar Center, and the guy at the counter told me the voltage had to be correct, and you had to have at least the number of mA (but you can go over). Evidentally, the mA is how much your thing draws, and so if your power supply can give more, you're ok, but if it can't give it enough power, you're in trouble.
So...I bought one and brought it home, but it didn't fix my problem.

I loaded in to Andrews Upstairs at 7 PM. Nobody else showed up until after 8. I need to adjust that! I was completely set up before I saw anyone else.

We had a good crowd--I think it was probably sold out. We made good money, and the crowd was into it. I think we as a band wonder how long the crowds will continue to come. So far so good!

Bielenberg had a prior commitment, so I played keyboards as well as my other stuff.

Alyssa Olson sang Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, Physical, and Magic with us tonight. She did very well, and the crowd ate it up. Don't Go Breakin' my Heart and Magic have been two of my worst songs (keyboard-wise), and tonight I did well. That was a relief.

I remember at one point playing keyboards and watching Mark Cobb groove it and thinking about how cool it is to play in a band with these guys. Everyone in the band is so good on his instrument, and everyone gels so well. It's really neat to be a part of this.

We came back from the break with Africa, and I screwed up two measures of the solo. I jumped an octave too low, and that threw me off for a couple of seconds. I want a do-over!

My saxes felt really good tonight--good reeds on both horns. Unfortunately, it was not a big sax night.

We've had some issues with the sound at Andrews the past couple of months. Too many effects (too much reverb on a drumset that's supposed to be really dry), and volume (everybody in the audience complains that volume is unbearable). Things were noticeably better this month.

No much else to report. We took pictures of us wearing our boat shoes for Sebago (that's me up above in the blog pic). You can see all the pictures at Mixtape Atlanta.

Saturday:
Saturday night we played a gig for the Chattahoochee River Keepers. It was in the backyard of an expensive house right on the river. What a cool setting! Actually, that turned out to be true...it got cold after the sun went down!

Opening up for us was an R.E.M. tribute band called R.E.M.ake. Wow! They sounded exactly like R.E.M. I played with them on Finest Work Song and Can't Get there from Here. It was all old stuff (Document and earlier)...really took me back to high school! Mark Bencuya played on a couple of tunes--I think South Central Rain and Rockville. He's awesome. It's understood.

Yacht Rock's two sets were solid. Mark Cobb was with family on a trip to Vegas, so Ganesh Giri Jaya played drums with us. He was super solid. Every song felt good. Plus, he helped me load out at the end of the night.

I screwed up the solo in Africa AGAIN! Same spot, but this time the processor on my computer got overloaded, and it sounded like my sound went underwater. My fingers were right, but I'd forgotten to tap the space bar at some point to clear up delay and reverb that might have continued on from another sound. That was crushing. I screw up WAY too much.

Peter asked me to show him the synth thing in Lido Shuffle that I can't quite play. He didn't say it, but I'm guessing he'll practice and eventually take over that part.

We closed out the night with Takin' it to the Streets. One of my favorites.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com