On a Parking Deck

Yacht Rock played one of our strangest gigs…we played some sort of tenant appreciation party for an office building in Buckhead.  9 AM load in.  Yuck.

The tent was supposed to be constructed at 7:30 AM, but as of 10 AM they were still trying to put it together.  It made for a throw-and-go.

We began at 11:30 AM…not much of a gig, but I can't imagine anyone getting too excited about eating BBQ on an incline of a parking garage, with seven polyester-clad guys playing seventies music at the top of the ramp.  Maybe that's how they imagined it.  If so, then it was a complete success.

belt loop

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Nancy Grace Loves Me

I played a trio gig at CNN Center in a room that shares a wall with Nancy Grace's studio.  I was told explicitly by some giggly girl to please turn my saxophone down (still looking for the volume knob), because if Nancy hears saxophone (why me?), she'll come out and shut down the whole party.  Yikes!  This led to endless jokes about my volume knob and Nancy's love of half diminished chords (she likes tension), and later on, our shared affinity for Joe Henderson tunes.

We survived without Nancy cutting us down;  I plugged up the bell of my horn.  Whatever gets the job done.  The crowd was a good bit louder than us through the entire night--it turned into one of those "take the money and run" gigs, where our collective interest in playing ebbed and flowed.  That said, I felt really good about what I played.  Check it out:

 David Freeman Trio - September 25, 2012 by David B Freeman

I'm trying to focus on playing more vertically within each chord.  It's pushing me into some different places.  I think I like it.  I'm not explicitly arpeggiating each chord, but I'm more conscious of playing from chord tone to chord tone.  It's tough to explain.

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Support the Arts!

Sometimes, supporting the arts doesn't mean writing a check.

Yesterday, one of my friends gave me the most amazing gift.  His family's grand piano, which they are not using, came to live at our house.    How cool is that?!

This marvelous gift allowed us to give away our upright to a family with kindergarteners who had just begun piano lessons.  May we all become better pianists!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday

My AM church gig was going really well until we got to the big song with the choir and the band playing full blast.  We train wrecked it over and over again.  It was so bad, it was like the train wreck in Presumed Innocent (and I, afterwards, ran from the gig like Harrison Ford).  Every time we got to the refrain, what I was hearing and what I was seeing from the conductor would be at least an eighth note apart.  Bad, bad stuff, and it happened over and over again.  Verses were fine, refrains were embarrassing.

We got a standing ovation from the congregation.  It must've been an amazing mix by Matt!

I went home, switched out gear, and headed to a Yacht Rock gig in Smyrna.  Weird…it was a block/neighborhood party;  there was a stage under a tent in a cul-de-sac.  I'd be curious to have heard the proposal at the homeowner's meeting.  Anyway, it turned out to be a good event with perfect weather.  We played really well.  It was super fun.

A really funny dog named Jackson hung out by the front of the stage when he wasn't chasing tennis balls.

Mark Dannells' amp died, but he lived.

The cops showed up, but no arrests were made.

Takin' it to the Streets and Baker Street were both on the set list.  That was cool.

We finished right at sunset (after two encores).  Load out was quick, and I was home twenty minutes later.  Can't beat that!

davidfreemanmusic.net

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

I played a latin jazz/salsa gig with Jerry Fields last night at a mansion behind the governor's mansion.  Nice place!

The gig was super easy.  Lots of soloing over simple forms and standards.  I heard that the guy wanted Ricky Martin…I'm not sure if that meant Ricky Martin songs, or Ricky Martin the guy.

The gig had Jerry on congas, Nelson Vega on bongos on vocals, David Ellington on piano, and Chris Riggenbach (with whom I'd never played) on bass.   He was great!  We were also visited by about a dozen slugs during the first set, which descended from the vines above us.  They were everywhere--I accidentally stepped on a few;  Jerry squashed one on his phone.  By the end of the second set, they were gone.  I don't think we killed them all--they just went on their way.

Ellington and I joked around through the entire gig…just like we always do.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Coke Trio

I had a little trio gig at the World of Coke--background music for a corporate dinner thing.  They wanted to speak, too, so I brought my meager PA (two speakers, two sticks, and twenty-five feet of cable).

Upon arrival, I learned that it wouldn't just be remarks for the crowd--they were presenting awards, so the PA got really complicated really quickly.  We were in the atrium;  the band was situated on one landing, the podium on the other (stairs between us), and the audience down on the floor.  Yikes!  Forty-five minutes to come up with a solution, test it, and get set up to play music.  The distance between the speakers, plus the distance up to the landing were a major concern.  I finally got it sorted out by daisy-chaining my speakers.  Glad I brought a boom stand as a place to keep the microphone.  This was not was I was expecting.

OK, so that was settled…here's the audio from the gig.  It's Tyrone Jackson on keyboard and Kevin Smith on bass.  I felt really good about my playing tonight.

 David Freeman Trio-September 20, 2012 by David B Freeman

We played for an hour, and I finally declared a break--no one from the client's camp would give me any kind of timeline for the event.  The break worked out to be about right, though--they were ready to get started.  I got the important old white guys set up with the microphone…one of them actually asked me to turn down the echo!  I wanted to say, "Unfortunately, we are in a room of glass and tile, built like a four story bucket.  There's nothing to eat up the sound.  It's an acoustical problem I cannot solve for you.  Please forgive me, the World of Coke, and the city of Atlanta."  Instead I barked, "IT'S THE ROOM!!!" Oops.  At least I didn't cuss.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Organ Quartet!

I had the pleasure of playing the Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta awards dinner last night, as I have the past four of five years.  I'm getting the hang of it!  It's very cool for a corporate gig--the feed us, comp the parking, know their show, etc.

This year, I decided to change things up a little and do an organ quartet instead of piano, bass, drums, and saxophone.  The band for the evening consisted of Randy Honea on guitar, David Ellington on organ, and Marlon Patton (with a broken left leg!) on drums.  We'd never played in this combination before.

The quartet played a half hour for dinner, seven walk-ups for the big award winners, and one tune to send them away.  I didn't record the walk ups or the last tune, but here's the dinner part:

 David Freeman Quartet - September 19, 2012 by David B Freeman

Good stuff!  See y'all next year.

davidfreemanmusic.net