David Freeman Music

Here's the flute stuff I recorded the Monday night.  My blog wouldn't let me put two different media players in the same post.  www.davidfreemanmusic.net www.davidfreemanmusic.net

As you can tell by the fact that I am not around updating this blog as often as I used to, things are crazy busy right now.  Here's a quick off the top of my big bald head recap: Friday was a House Live gig (me on saxes and flute, Wayne Viar on percussion, and Jeff Burnisky as DJ), playing some sort of private function downtown.  I recorded it so you can get some idea what it sounds like  (though you can't hear the DJ very well--poor microphone placement on my part!).  Here's a picture: This was a fun gig, and we ended up getting free food at the place across the street!  Baja something...it was good!  Here (hopefully) are mp3 clips: Saturday was a benefit for the daughter of Blackberry Smoke drummer Britt Turner.  Yacht Rock played a couple of songs at the Peachtree Tavern.  I've never been in there before!  I probably will never go in there again!  Here's a picture (that's me in the background between the guitar and bass): ...

Last night's Yacht Rock adventure was (for me) plagued by gremlins, or technical difficulties, or "AAAAA!  MY SH** IS F***KING UP!" My first major issue dealt with my saxophone effects pedal.  There was way too much noise in the channel--a flat ton of hiss.  I'm not sure why, but I tried swapping out cables and that didn't cure it, and I tried bypassing my effects pedal (plugging the sax directly into my mixer) and that cured it, so I think that maybe the output jack has gone bad.  I won't know until I can set it up at home and check it out. I put the pedal away since I assume it's messed up.  I was checking it with my tenor, so I ran from my receiver directly into my board, which cured the hiss.  Strangely, though, the gain was jacked way up.  I assumed that the gain from the pedal had been helping me up to this point, so I didn't sweat it. We started the gig, and the first or second tune we played, I had an alto solo, and when I switched on my a...

I got a ton of practicing in today.  It was wonderful. Half of my students today were either sick or randomly absent, which left me a couple of hours open this afternoon.  While dealing with the ones who were there, I had this thought:  if I could teach my students to love practicing the way that I love practicing, I bet I could love teaching . www.davidfreemanmusic.net

  Yacht Rock was back in Atlanta for a Friday night gig at Andrews Upstairs. Andrews is transforming from a live music venue to a DJ, and they have done some remodeling to accommodate more people.  The stage has been radically transformed--the multiple levels and nooks and crannies have been removed.  It made for a tight fit for the seven of us! We played well considering the stage setup.  I was all the way stage left;  then Bencuya, then Greg, then the Cobb with Nick and Pete directly in front of him, and then Dannells jammed in the opposite corner.  It was a tight fit, but we made it work ok. Being next to Bencuya made me a bit apprehensive.  If there's one guy who would know when I was not playing something exactly right, it'd be him. I think the next time we play Andrews (and maybe just in general), I'd like to split my sax line off from the rest of my stuff.  In general, I'm only playing saxophone when I'm soloing, and it'd be cool to...

Yacht Rock played in Cabo this week (February 2-4, 2010).  I had a gig Monday, February 1, so I stayed up a little later than usual and slipped out the door at 3:30 AM to pick up Nick and make our way to the airport. We flew to Denver and then on to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where we landed to a light rain (and massive flash flooding!).  After dropping our stuff in our rooms, we went to lunch, and then spent the remainder of the day acting like rock stars on a day off in Cabo!  (mucho tequila). The actual gig occurred the following day (Wednesday).  We played a private function for the Young Presidents Organization--I believe they were all young millionaires.  They were into it from the moment the doors opened and enjoyed every note. The band played pretty well considering the circumstances.  The keyboards were not what we'd asked for, and we played standing up (I'd asked if they had piano benches or drum thrones, and I guy came back with a bar stool). ...

Tonight I had the pleasure of playing a trio gig with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  It was a meeting of the minds...Tyrone's piano playing challenges me like no one else in town.  I usually come out of gigs with him feeling like my brain is mushy! This gig was no different.  Right from the start, I was totally focused on what he was playing to me, and it stayed that way for the whole night. www.davidfreemanmusic.com