The Blahs

I was really flat last night. Not flat pitch-wise, but just flat energy-wise. It was really hard to get in a groove last night.

Thriller is tonight. It's sold out (actually over-sold by the promoters). It should be fun. I'll be glad to finish it.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

"It's all free throws"

One of our regular Yacht Rock fans was so pumped by our performance of a few Michael Jackson songs last night, he told us "it's all free throws now!" to which Nick replied, "What if we're Shaq?"

Last night was a strange one. We had two keyboardists on deck, so I was mostly just playing saxophone solos, as well as a handful of minor synth parts. I was also back in the corner of the stage, so most of what I heard was Mark Bencuya's keyboards, bass, and drums. It's a much different sound than the other side of the stage.
A couple of the guys had off nights, and it affected the vibe on stage more than just "oops." Also, Nick is worried that he might have picked up a cold. He had a doctor's appointment this morning to try and see if he could hold off the plague until Sunday!
Bencuya threw the synth solo for Love Will Keep Us Together at me. It's been a while since I've played that one. I did ok wandering through it, but I didn't get it note for note. Also, Bielenberg didn't know the string part for Don't Go Breakin' my Heart, so I got to go over there and play it on his keyboard (when he finally got out of the way at the end of the first verse!). He has a Roland Fantom. It's really nice! The keys have slightly more weight than my Triton. There's more of a solid feel to what I was playing. Bencuya has one too.
Not much else to report. I tried to study what Bencuya was playing. When I'm the other keyboardist, I need to be familiar with what he's doing, and I can't always hear him clearly. I learned some more stuff last night. He's still awesome, by the way.

I added a new page to my website: equipment! I even included a cell phone picture someone took of me last night.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Wednesday Yachting

Yacht Rock played a "blender" for Juice Studios Wednesday night at Magnolia Hall in Piedmont Park. It was a pretty low key affair--mostly people mingling and networking. We were the band on the other end of the room. It was a really easy gig. No problems (though I think we were all pretty underwhelmed by the sound company). I was standing next to the mains while soloing at the end of Reminiscing, and I checked after the song to see if my microphone was on. It was like that.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Backun Barrel

I upgraded my clarinet yesterday by buying a better barrel for it. It's a ringless Backun barrel. I wasn't looking to change my sound as much as I was trying to expand it, and the better barrel did just that.

I ordered four barrels to try--two by Clark Fobes and two by Backun. I tried the Fobes barrels first and then the Backuns. It was nice, nice, yeah, WOW! This one really seemed to make my clarinet go. I can get more air into it, and yet there's less back pressure. Just what I was looking for.

I'm off on a four day cruise (Yacht Rock).
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Yacht Rock on Ice

Yacht Rock played an event for the University of Virginia alumni last night. Outside. In the cold. In a tent with almost no sides.

We thought we would die. We were sure we would freeze and be left to die in the cold at the horse farm in Buckhead.

But no! Although I did sit in my truck with the heat running for an hour before the gig started, we were ok once we got up and moving. The first couple of songs I was blowing on my hands, but beyond that we might as well have been indoors.

A couple of cold weather problems...both saxophones were pushed in about a quarter inch past usual. Other than that, they felt good. I had no trouble with reeds, and once I got the mouthpiece in the right place, the pitch across the horn was not as way out as I thought it would have been. Even the flute (pushed all the way in) felt normal.
The display on one of my keyboards was very slow in changing. The keyboard itself was fine, but the display lagged behind. Weird.

Kip Conner (soundman for Shawn Mullins) ran sound for us tonight. It was really nice. He did a great job of bumping solos up last night. It you were in Buckhead last night, you probably heard me. I was that loud. It was great.

Ganesh sang with us (Nick was out of town). He did a great job.

Mark Cobb played well. He used his small kit, and he played the hell out of it. I played keyboard facing him. It was fun to watch. I think he set a personal record for "Pat Boone Debbie Boone" on a gig.

Mark Bencuya quoted Rhapsody in Blue in Hey Nineteen, I quoted The Hustle in Lowdown and Baker Street in I Can't Go for That, and Mark Dannells quoted Black Dog in the second solo of Peg.

I played keyboards as well as my usual stuff. No problems to report, other than a wrong chord I played twice (geez! twice?!) in Reminscing. Should have been GMaj7, but I played Bb9 twice. Sorry.

Big week ahead. Thriller as well as some regular Yacht Rock gigs. It will be good, but I will be sleeping next Sunday.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Jazz and Toyotas

I had no gig tonight. No biggie. I played an early afternoon trio gig with Louis Heriveaux (keyboard) and Tommy Sauter (bass) at Stonecrest Toyota in Lithonia. I even drove a Toyota truck to the gig. Here's the audio if you want to check it out:

I clearly had some trouble with my reed in the first couple of songs (the first tune we attempted was I Mean You; the last was Cherokee). Where's the first note? On Turnaround, I will eventually get the end of the head right. I can do it in private, but not in public, evidently. Also, the head on Ladybird? What the hell? I don't know. I bailed on it pretty quick, that's for sure. On the way out I attempted to substitute Half Nelson, but I obviously haven't thought about that one in a while. No dice. While I'm criticizing myself, how about not playing so sharp, Freeman? Are ya deaf?

It is strange to me to hear this trio play. On the gig I want to scream sometimes because the time feels like it goes to hell about an hour into the gig. From there on out, we three do not agree, and it drives me crazy. When I hear the audio, it's never as bad as I remember. My anger is not justified.

T ball, Jack's birthday party, and a Yacht Rock gig await me tomorrow. Time for bed.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com

Yacht Rock

We cruised through Yacht Rock last night. I would say it sounded pretty good, but I'm biased.

I think I played the piano part to for I'd Really Love to See You Tonight about three and a half hours Thursday afternoon. My fingers were sore, but I got it right at the gig. That and All Out of Love were my two biggies that I needed to spend some time on. All Out of Love got cut, so you can assume I would have nailed it.

We played Thriller as a sneak peak of the Halloween show. It never fails to impress me how many people know all the words to every song. I'm getting to the point where I feels like I don't remember anything, but the people in front of me did everything but the frikin' dance!

The soundcheck for last night consisted of Human Nature and P.Y.T. I think we're in good shape. I don't have much on either one. The last song we need to work on is Lady in my Life. There's talk about tucking a saxophone solo in that one. Sweet! All play and no work for me on that!

We had an excellent night. The crowd was better than it's been in weeks, and we cashed in on the fact that we were a 7 piece (Bielenberg was on assignment). Strangely enough, there was an abundance of parking spaces, which made me think we'd be doomed. It was not true.

The sound man added his pitch shifter (and probably some other effects) to Mark Dannell's solo on Peg (might have been about the fourth song!), and really messed him up mentally. I think he thinks Hans (the sound man) is looking for an opportunity to destroy him. Dannell's was doing well up til then, and it seemed like after that he just wanted to get through it.

What else? We finally played I Keep Forgettin' again, and Nick and Pete (probably Nick) decided to insert Regulate into it. Boo. I hate it when we do that. I get to play the rhodes part (Bencuya on clav), and so I practiced it alot, and then I had to give it up half way through. I will point out that, once again, the crowd knew the words. These people are well rounded.

Oh yeah...did I mention that Dannells wrote a bridge for Happy Birthday? We played it TWICE for our buddy Jim Stapley, celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday last night. Keep up the good work, Jim.

The encore last night was Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. It got PAINFULLY loud. I could feel myself going deaf.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com