On the Run!

So...I've been out on the Jillian Michaels Wellness Cruise (she of The Biggest Loser TV show).

Yes, she really is that tiny.

This might be my favorite cruise of all the ones we've done this year (The Rock Boat X, Kid Rock's Chillin' the Most Cruise, and Zac Brown's Sailing Southern Ground Cruise).  The other three cruises were music oriented cruises, which meant that we were always out hanging with other musicians, being seen, and partying hard until dawn.  This one was a boat of people who we trying to get their lives together by getting in shape mentally and physically, and they couldn't have cared less about us.  As a result, I spent lots of time in my room (we had our own cabins this time), asleep--like ten or twelve hours a day.  It was great.  I needed the rest.

We played three shows--Thursday night, Friday night, and Sunday night.  Playing on the deck of a cruise ship isn't bad--I usually don't even notice the motion of the boat, but  the wind was a problem with all the microphones up.  I didn't have a windscreen on my sax mic, so I made one out of a paper napkin and gaff tape.  It worked great.

The time that I wasn't asleep was spent out and about.  We stopped on Friday at Norwegian Cruise Lines' private cay (Great Stirrup Cay) in the Bahamas...nice!

Saturday was all day in Nassau, Bahamas.  Again, nice!  I hung out with the one and only Mark Dannells. A good time was had by both of us.  It was almost like a date.

We began with coffee.

Not much else to report from that.

We got back into town Monday afternoon, and I went straight from the airport to a House Live gig at Ventanas.  It was kind of tough.  I wasn't tired, per se, but walking off a plane and onto a four hour gig was  harder than I thought it would be (especially when the first hour is solo saxophone!).  I survived.  Wayne played some cool iPhone synth stuff (and I played drums).

Tuesday was an unpacking and teaching day.  I spent most of Tuesday night fixing charts and writing charts for the Lovett show.  As fate would have it, he wanted to add Thriller (the song), but my Thriller chart was in my cruise gear (not at home yet!) because we played that album on the boat.  Nuts!  I had to retranscribe the song and put it in Finale.  I went to bed around 5 AM.

Wednesday morning I had a mega rehearsal with Ben Lovett for his upcoming Halloween show this Sunday night.  It should be great!  His music is cool.  You can hear some of it here.  I played some stuff on his record last year.

I left straight from there to go to Sixthman to pick up my gear from the cruise (all of our equipment went down to Miami last week to get on the boat--now it's back!).  I grabbed my stuff, went home, put it away, took a shower, taught a lesson, and left again for a House Live gig at the Aquarium!

It took me two hours to get to the Georgia Aquarium last night.  Two hours!  What the hell!  I heard different things...all I know is that I was stopped outside of the 285, and I freaked out and got on Northside Drive and made my way, and it took 2 hours.  I heard multiple accidents and high water were the culprits.  Anyway, I got to the Aquarium right at 7 PM, and Wayne and Jeff started without me.  No biggie.  What could I do?  I requested that Jeff send a helicopter, and he said no.

The gig was for CAT (as in Caterpillar).  Usual stuff...House Live.  This one was actually really fun.  We were on the loud side, which made it easier  to play (and hear the track).  I think I've finally got my articulation for improvising worked out on flute.  It's taken me this long to figure out how to have that lose feeling in my face, tonguing lightly, but still have the focus to make a good sound.  It's different on every instrument, for sure, and just because you can do it on tenor doesn't mean you can do it on flute, even if you are a competent flutist!

The usual Wayne Viar lovefest:

Tonight is just our usual Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High.  It feels like I haven't been there in six months.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Liverpool and Newcastle

Please Pleaserock Me (Yacht Rock guys playing the Beatles) played last night at Smith's Olde Bar.  There may have been twelve people in the audience.  Attendance was really bad.  When the curtain opened, there was nobody in the standing area in front of the stage except me.  I was able to take some good pictures because of this.

This particular PPRM gig focused on the stripped down quartet music of the Beatles, due to the fact that our gear was on a truck headed to our next gig.  Therefore, we played on borrowed amps and gear that was not needed for Yacht Rock.  For me, the quartet music meant that I had even less responsibility than usual--some tambourine, a cowbell, and three saxophone songs for the entire night.  Therefore, the night was pretty much an excuse to drink as much free Newcastle as I could.

Some gigs are like that.

I used my bent saxophone neck on my soprano last night.  I've noticed that I hold the horn almost vertically  when I play--holding is out is not as comfortable--so I thought I would experiment with that neck.  I can't decide whether or not I like it.  Obviously, my airway is probably more open because I'm not looking down.  My straight neck is an F series (Yamaha), but the curved one is an M series.  I wonder if the trade off between the two is equal in terms of sound production.  The F has a bigger bore and is more freeblowing (also because there's no bend), and the M is a smaller bore, maybe more focused because of that, and my head is up.  We'll see.

One other experiment from last night was with earplugs.  I know I should be wearing them more often, but I can't get a feel for how I'm playing when I have them in.  I mentioned this to someone else, and he said that the trick is to put them in before you start playing.  If you wait until midway through the gig, it'll drive you crazy.  I don't know.  I wore them last night, and it felt like I wasn't playing with the band.  It was like I was playing along to a CD on crappy headphones--too much of me, not enough of everything else.  I used those musician's earplugs, and I'm wondering if I just use the silicone flange and not the filter if that will be the right amount of bleed.  I think I'll try that.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tuesday

Tuesday was the Baja Fresh/Ventanas redux.

Not much else to say, other than the gig was four hours long.  Very long.  Two hours of House Live is good.  Four hours is very long.

I played really well, though.  I felt pretty inventive.  I didn't run out of gas.  I played a little bit of drums (with Wayne soloing on some iPhone app--it sounded really good!).

The gig was for Air BP--I'm guessing their jet fuel division?  Everything was green.  It made for good pictures.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Monday House Live

Monday night was a House Live gig with Wayne and Jeff at Ventanas.  I should get reserved parking spot or something.  I'm there all the time!  How about a free helicopter ride?

Anyway, usual stuff...not much to report.  I decided not to bring my soprano because the gig was only two hours, and I don't have any good soprano reeds.  I am fixing that right now--I soaked a box of reeds, and now they are drying on my desk.  I'll play them this afternoon and see what which are my best prospects at the moment.  The remainder will dry for a few more hours before I put them back in their plastic sleeves and in my reed box.  My flute face is kind of out of shape because I've been so busy doing other stuff.  After a couple of hours of it, my embouchure was definitely getting tired.

Monday during the day, I did a horn section rehearsal for an upcoming gig (Halloween night at Smith's Olde Bar!) with Ben Lovett.  Ben's stuff is really cool.  I recorded some of his stuff for his latest album last year--I really don't remember.  I met up with him one night after a gig and played bass clarinet for a few hours.  The next night was a big mid-seventies Elvis brass thing.  

Anyway, we (Tom Gibson, trombone and Paul Poovey, trumpet), got together and played through the charts.  It sounded pretty good.  I think the show's going to sound good.  Here's hoping it's a packed house!  You can listen to one of Ben's tunes here.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Saturday Night and All of Sunday (and some of Monday!)

Saturday night I played with the Yacht Rock Schooner at the Wild Wing Cafe in Suwanee.  It was really good and really easy.  I just show and blow on the sax and flute stuff.  I had pretty good reeds on both saxes, and I reached way back and pulled the flute part for Diamond Girl out of my butt.  Impressive!

A funny acoustical thing:  as we got going and got louder, the a few of the bass notes started resonating in my tenor, which caused a random low frequency feedback.  For instance, the first chord of the verse on Peg is a CMaj7, and when the bass would play a low C this low roar would begin cycling between my mic and the monitor.  Awesome!  Not really!  The sound guy couldn't figure out from where it was coming, but I knew.  Not that I said anything...

Sunday morning's church gig went pretty well.  We had to contend with a middle school choir.  They were pretty funny because they're all of that age where they're full of themselves.  It was pretty entertaining to watch their body language.

On the break (the sermon!) we went down in the basement in search of doughnuts.  I'd never been down there.  It's quite a complex, complete with rows of music offices, and video production studio (manned by three humans), a small recording studio, and rehearsal rooms.  The doughnuts were ok.

Sunday night's church gig was about average.  My soprano reeds are done!  I desperately need another box.  I need to find time to go to the music store.

Sunday afternoon and evening (and Monday morning) were all taken up with creating charts for my Halloween gig with Ben Lovett.  Big rehearsal tomorrow!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Friday into Saturday

Last night Yacht Rock played a private party on the senior quad at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  We all met at Avatar, loaded the van, and waded through the Friday rush hour to get up there.

Three hours later, there we were, pulling up next to the stage in our van (with a U-Haul).  We set up, soundchecked, and ate.  Then we were off!

The gig posed two main problems for me.  First, the cold weather made my EWI react differently.  As you probably know, the thing senses breath and translates that into volume.  When the weather is hot and humid (aka "Atlanta"), it's necessary to turn down the sensitivity, or the thing plays itself.  These leads to really annoying problems like the accidental transmission of MIDI data to my laptop.  Boo.  Last night's cold and dry (aka "winter") isn't any better or worse, but I need to reset the thing to account for the cool, dry air.

The second problem, is of course, the tuning of wind instruments when the outside temperature is somewhere below 50, as it was last night.  Since I'm usually picking a saxophone once or twice a set, the thing is ice cold, and thus 20 cents flat (at least later on in the night).  So...push in!  The problem is that while I'm playing and the horn heats up, the pitch rises, so I start solos flat and nasty, and end up trying to play one handed and wrestle the mouthpiece into a better spot.  Again I say--boooo!  Then I put it down, and the next time I have to play, the whole process begins again.

Soundcheck:

Other than that, it was pretty easy.  The crowd was fine...what can I say about college seniors at a small private college (population 1,600).  They've already got the expensive attitudes.

The sound was great, by the way.  Everything on stage sounded good.  However, I think the general opinion was that the back corner (behind Bencuya) was sinking, and the longer we played, the more it appeared that I was uphill from him.  Weird.

We returned to Avatar at 3:45 AM to discover that Mark Dannells' car window had been shattered and his very nice Egnater 1x12 extension cabinet had been stolen.  Again, what can I say...people who do stuff like this need to be reprogrammed.  Dannells cursed the surrounding neighborhood at the top of his lungs for a good five minutes.  We hung out until the police showed up and filed the report.  Anyone with ANY  information should contact the Atlanta Police Department immediately:  (404) 614-6544.

Saturday, Please Pleaserock Me played the Decatur Beer Festival.  It was pretty good.  After all the gigs we've played at Smith's Oldest Bar and Park Tavern, it was nice to be on a stage where we (the horns) weren't shoulder to shoulder.  Special thanks to Greg Lee for deciding what should be in our monitor mix.  He had his own mix (and monitor), but he insisted on having the monitor guy put what he wanted in our box.  Not too cool.  This is not my first wedge, and I know what I want to hear.  Between Greg's monitor, Dannells' monitor, and the live sound on stage, I'm not sure what we would have missed if we'd only had the horns in our mix.  Maybe Greg can explain that some time.  Guest blogger?

davidfreemanmusic.net

Thursday!

Let's begin with a couple of things from the Braves game this past Monday:

a few pictures:

a video of the National Anthem:

Acknowledge and move on.

Thursday began at the Ritz (as it should).  We got up and drove back to Atlanta, and went ahead and set our gear in the 10 High so as not to deal with it later.  Smooth move.

Thursday night we met up again and carpooled over to Ventanas for the Creative Loafing "Best of Atlanta 2010" party.  We played a one our set on about half our usual gear (I was on one keyboard and saxophones--no EWI,  Bencuya brought his Wurly and left both his keyboards at the 10 High).  Who could tell the difference, anyway?  It was fun and easy.  The Red Bull and Vodkas were free.  I did the best I could to keep up.  

That show wasn't too bad.  I couldn't hear a single note I played (on keyboard), as there were no keyboard amps.  I played by sight and hoped it sounded correct.

On saxophone, I had to chuck my tenor reed--it just wasn't happening.  

Sometimes you just have to give up  on it.  It was dull and dead and kind of mushy, even though it was fairly new. I do work on my reeds to balance them and make them play as efficiently as I can, but at some point I think you have to throw them away if they're not working.  I can always hear  (even in a reed that's not there yet), whether there's something in there, or it's just a crappy piece of cane.

We moved over to the 10 High (after a brief spot on the red carpet).

The set there was pretty good.  It didn't get very sloppy, so it was pretty fun.  I kept my amp turned down--it occurred to me that every week I push the volume up higher and higher, and I'm blowing out my left ear. I think I'm seeing (hearing) the light.

We started the set with Heart Hotels.  I've got my keyboard part down.  My Michael Brecker part is still a work in progress--because it's usually the only spot where I improvise a solo the entire night (pretty much every other solo is whatever was played on the record) I tend to go crazy and try and play an entire gig's worth of notes.  I need to relax.  They're major seventh chords!  Calm down!

Perhaps you've heard this beautiful mashup of Imagine and Jump.  Here's a version by the great Mark Dannells!

davidfreemanmusic.net