Turkey Eve


Yacht Rock survived Turkey Eve at Andrews Upstairs last night. The big news was that our old buddy (and second keyboardist) Brandon Still played with us. It was super cool hanging out with him. He's having an awesome time with Blackberry Smoke. They're headed to Europe for twenty dates.
We played really well in the first set, but the second set was pretty sluggish. I was glad when it ended. Also, I don't think the saxophone was loud enough in the house. That sort of killed the gig for me.
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XTC/NWA

I played last night at the Earl after I finished teaching. My friend Geoff Melkonian has an amazing R.E.M. tribute band called The R.E.M.akes, and they sound just like R.E.M. The final song of the evening was Can't Get There from Here, which has a saxophone part. It's pretty easy stuff.
Following us was the XTC tribute band NWA or Nigels with Attitude. It's a couple of Yacht Rock guys (Mark Bencuya, Mark Cobb, Nick Niespodziani, Kevin Spencer), plus a couple of guys from Sheryl Crow's band (Peter Stroud, Tim Smith). The talent on stage was staggering. I can't say I know anything about XTC (in contrast to the R.E.M. stuff, which I'm all over), but the music seemed really complex in the number of interwoven parts. Those guys nailed it. In particular Mark Cobb might have never played better--the complexity and fire required for this gig are right up his alley, and I think his focus really made the whole thing come together.

We've got Yacht Rock tonight at Andrews Upstairs (Brandon's back!), and then I am DONE.
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White Plains, NY


Yacht Rock had our first ever fly gig this weekend--we traveled to White Plains, NY to play a 40th birthday party. Except for the lack of sleep, it turned out to be a really fun weekend.
Our flight up was scheduled for 8:30 AM, and I'd bet nobody in the band got more than five hours of sleep before it (I would know because we were all emailing back and forth right around midnight). I fell asleep before the plane had even left the ground, and finally woke up right before we landed.
Nick and Pete rented a van and drove all the equipment up, and we met up with them at the house where we were playing. The set up was in a tent on their back porch. After setting up and checking, we went back to the hotel and crashed for a few hours. Then, back to the gig.
The gig itself was pretty good. Nobody got too silly or sloppy. We made a bunch of new friends and got lots of verbal offers to play in the area.
I went back to the hotel and slept HARD until 9 AM this morning. We got up, went back to the airport, and flew home. It was pretty uneventful.

My tenor rode in the van, and I carried my alto and EWI in a gig bag. I lucked into some key clamps via eBay, and so I tried them on my alto. They're not something I'd use day to day, but I figured on a trip like that where I had my horn in a bag and it could get jostled around a little more, it might be worth it. I like the idea. I don't know if they really do more harm than good, but there's definitely some peace of mind in it. We've got some more traveling coming up in early January, so I'm going to go ahead and order a set of clamps for my tenor, too.
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Thursday, eh?


Yesterday (Thursday) was another two gig Thursday.
The first was a trio at Neiman Marcus in Lenox Square Mall--some sort of private party for big spenders. The trio was myself, David Ellington on piano, and Tommy Sauter on bass, sandwiched in between glass cases of expensive jewelry.
Once again, I had a lot of difficulty with the time. It felt to me like it was all over the place, and at times it made playing uncomfortable and frustrating. Here are the mp3s:

I ran from Lenox over to the 10 High for Yacht Rock. In honor of our last night with sub (and favorite Canuck) Kevin Spencer fronting the band, we had Canadian Tuxedo night. Since I was already dressed in a regular tuxedo, I represented for America! (in other words, I didn't change into denim). Dig this fine picture of Gordon Lightfoot, a fine Canadian in his own right, and sporting a damn fine tux. We broke out his tune Sundown last night, and we watched Strange Brew as the warm up. The winner of the Canadian Tux contest won a bottle of maple syrup.
I think we had a pretty good night. We did the same set we'd played last week on Thursday and Friday, so there were no surprises. The only wrinkle was the fact that we played the gig on borrowed gear because all of our equipment left on Wednesday morning for a gig in New York. We managed just fine. Bencuya and I managed to borrow the more or less identical keyboards, so the sounds were pretty much the same. I was super tired and super hungry by the time we finished, though.
Tomorrow's flight to New York leaves at 8:30 AM, so I'll be leaving home around 6. Ouch! No sleep for me.
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Keyboard Percussion

Jack on keyboard percussion...
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MP3s of Quartet Gig

I had an interesting conversation with Mark Cobb yesterday. He has been doing some very creative things to shake up some of the older Yacht Rock tunes. Many songs have been on our setlist for over a year now, and in order to keep them fresh, he has been slightly altering the groove and/or the tempo. His creativity keeps things fun for all of us.

Here's the mp3s from my quartet gig last Thursday night. It was Louis Heriveaux (piano), Tommy Sauter (bass), and Wayne Viar (percussion). We played in the Day Hall at the Botanical Gardens, a room acoustically similar to a high school cafeteria. You can probably hear the difference in saxophone tone in the second song for the out head--the volume was enough of a concern that I stuffed a towel in the bell of my horn and kept it there for the duration of the gig.
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Wild Wing


Yacht Rock played the Wild Wing Cafe in Alpharetta last night. It was the smallest stage we've ever boarded. Mark Cobb took the night off, so Ganesh sang and played drums.

Everything that I crashed on last night went well tonight (i.e. Love Will Keep Us Together and Magic). I was also a little more comfortable with the transitions from instrument to instrument on A Lotta Love (I'm playing sax, flute, and keyboard on that one). I even got some strings happening on Lowdown with a little help from a sustain pedal. Yay for me.
Kevin Spencer fronted the band last night, and he was twice as good as the night before (though I guess he wrote down some of his schtick to say in between songs, and he was obviously reading it in some parts!). Ganesh played great--impressive that he can sing lead and play drums at the same time. Mark Dannells played well. He did something really slick in the middle of the second solo on Peg that made me stop in the middle of playing piano--it was that hip. I don't even know how to describe it, but I'd never heard him do it before. Fantastic lick. Alyssa came out and sang some with us, and she sang even better than the night before.

Unfortunately for Mark Bencuya, the sound man got confused about which keyboard was playing what at any given time, and I ended up louder than God for most of the night, with Mark's stuff significantly lower. I got so loud at the end of Doctor My Eyes that my organ covered up the guitar solo. Oops. I had ear plugs in...it seemed loud, but I couldn't tell what was going on out front. I guess it wasn't my fault per se, but I feel bad that his stuff didn't come through as well because I was hammering away on the other side.

There's lots of talk about the B band doing the Wild Wing the next time we play there. I hope if the main guys are available that we do it again. To me, it was not any different than playing the 10 High, and the money was just as good. I don't really get much (energy-wise) from the crowd in either place, so as long as the vibes on stage are good, I am not concerned about who's in the room. We'll see...

I have a Platnumb gig tonight. Time to reload!
www.davidfreemanmusic.com
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