David Freeman Music

Saturday morning, Peter, Bencuya, and I met at Mark Cobb's house (at the insane hour of 6:30 AM) to gather our equipment and ride to Amelia Island for a wedding reception.  We scooped up Nick at the Jacksonville airport.  Good thing we had some down time before the gig--we napped HARD. The wedding reception was very easy.  We were playing under the name Constantly Awesome , with myself added on as an extra player.  I more or less functioned as lead guitar, which meant that by the end of the night I'd taken saxophone solos over songs like I Love Rock and Roll , Talking in Your Sleep , and Highway to Hell !   Here are some pictures from outside the venue. Sunday morning we piled into the van and drove the six hours back to Atlanta so we could play the Sandy Springs Festival.  It was awesome!  Probably three thousand people showed up to a really nice outdoor venue and soaked up every note.  The weather was perfect, and the sound was right on t...

It's been a week since my last post, faithful reader(s?), so please accept my apologies.  I have been super busy. Here are the highlights: Monday, April 26 , I did a four hour trio gig with Louis Heriveaux (keyboard) and Kevin Smith (bass).  We were on the patio outside of Opera (DJ was inside).  Unfortunately for us, that meant that we played the smoking section of the gig under and open-sided tent!  Yuck.  It was also a cool spring evening in Atlanta, so I had some pitch problems and Louis' hands got cold.  Here's the audio evidence: Forty-five minutes from the end of the gig, the client came by and extended us another hour.  Ouch!  We were on fumes by then.  Listening back, there's some good playing, though.  Other than pitch, the other problem we had was that the crowd liked to talk to us, sometimes during songs.  We were appreciative of the fact that they were listening (and loved what they heard), but come on! Tuesday,...

Fear not, readers, for I am not dead or incarcerated.  I am so busy that I have not had any time to write in my blog. Monday was a five hour jazz trio gig (and a rehearsal in the morning). Tuesday was a Yacht Rock roller disco gig at Masquerade. Wednesday was a Please Pleaserock Me gig (and a rehearsal in the morning). Thursday through Monday we (Yacht Rock) are on another boat!  This one is the Kid Rock "Chillin' the Most" Cruise. More consistent blogging will resume next week. davidfreemanmusic.net

Yesterday I drove up and down I-75. Yacht Rock played the Atlanta Steeplechase (which was located in Rome, GA!).  I woke up super early (for me) and drove down I-75 into town to meet up with the rest of the band.  We drove back up I-75 to Rome to play the gig. The event was in a private tent at the Steeplechase event.  Unfortunately, the weather was terrible--rain and lightning throughout the event.  The band played well and the food was ok (BBQ sandwich with bottled BBQ sauce).  We rumbled through, stopping for each of the races.  Evidently horses don't like music. First came the "release the hounds!", and then the race horses came through. It is with great sadness that I must report that my aviators were retired today.  The left lens has popped out a couple of times, and I think it's time that they be recycled.  A sad day for Yacht Rock. Afterwards, we loaded up (in the rain) and then spent an hour on a farm road inching our way back to...

Yacht Rock last night at the 10 High was a thin one.  We couldn't have asked for better weather (which lately has meant better crowds), but last night was slim picking.  I was outside on the break, and there was nobody even walking on North Highland.  The entire area was a ghost town. We played pretty well, particularly in the first set.  The second set descended into boredom, which for us means that we started twisting and pulling on the ends of songs, making them into strange concoctions of noise.  It was a relief to finally get to the end of the set and be done with it. All of my stuff worked well.  My new laptop gave me no problems--it did exactly what I expected it to do. I did have a few moments of terror, though.  Fifteen minutes before I left home, I set it all up to double check that it would work perfectly, and that's when I found out that my MIDI to USB convertor was not talking to the computer.  AAHHHHHH!  I downloaded a drive...

Yesterday I bit the bullet and purchased a new laptop--a Macbook Pro.  I put my old version of Logic on it and brought my "Yacht Rock" sounds into it, and it works.  Success! My plan is to upgrade Logic later this year to the most current version (with Mainstage).  I am currently using Logic 7 (which predates Mainstage).  What I'll do is get it all set up on my desktop, and then transfer it over once I'm satisfied that it will work on the gig. Hopefully this means I can breathe easier for the next couple of years!  This year has been a tense one for EWI playing! davidfreemanmusic.net

David Ellington (piano), Kevin Smith (bass) and I played a trio for the Robotics convention last night.  It was a very easy hit. After a string of gigs with really poor saxophone playing (both at my own things and Yacht Rock gigs), I think I was better on this one.  My articulation had gotten very heavy, and it made everything I played sound laborious and slightly out of sync.  Maybe I got lucky, but I tried to be lighter with my tonguing, and that seemed to make it all flow better.  I hope it will translate to my alto playing, which has been the main offender. We had an Elton John impersonator play two songs in our set.  He was outstanding.  Unfortunately, none of the robo-dorks was around to see him.  He played for us and his handlers! This recording is definitely better than the past.  I found a group of presets in Waveburner that really works well.  Further evidence that I don't know what I'm doing.  There's some weird distor...