Mucho Cartage

I got paid (in theory) big money this weekend for all my cartage.  Not really, but it was a weekend of many, many horns (and my "bag o' crap" percussion).

Friday:  I had two gigs.  The first was a quick quartet gig downtown at Ventanas, so I hired Louis Heriveaux, Kevin Smith, and Marlon Patton.  Awesome gig!  Those guys make my stuff sound like we play together all the time.  It was very relaxed, but focused at the same time.

I was particularly impressed with Marlon.  I do way more trio gigs than quartets, so I really noticed his input the most.  He was super creative and read everything down without any problems.  Could he be the Mark Cobb of my jazz world?  I'm thinkin' yes.  Listen to his stuff.  Fantastic.



The jazz gig was two horns--tenor and soprano.

The second gig was Beatles (Please Pleaserock Me) vs. Rolling Stones (Main Street Exiles) at Smith's.  I played on both.  The Stones went first.  We used the full horn section for what we could, and it sounded pretty good--really, we could stand to be a lot sloppier, but it's probably never going to happen.

The Beatles set was good, but really long.  It felt like we were up there for a couple of hours.  I guess it was because we played thirty two minute songs!

It was super loud.  I was two feet from a sixteen inch crash all night, and my left ear was fried.

The Smith's gig was four horns--tenor, bari, flute, and piccolo, plus miscellaneous percussion.

Saturday:  Please Pleaserock Me managed to snag a corporate party gig!  We played at 200 Peachtree (the old Macy's downtown location).  It's a really neat room.  I'd never been in there before.

It was a rather daunting gig, going into it--four hours of Beatles?  Did we have enough stuff?  By the time we finished eating, the gig had gone down to three hours…and then we dragged the breaks out a little, and we had enough stuff.  In the end, we padded it out with a couple of Yacht Rock tunes and everybody was happy.

For me (and I'll speak for Jason, too), it was a low intensity gig.  Particularly in a situation like this where people were dancing (and the focus was on the early 4 piece Beatles stuff), there wasn't much to do but drink beer and pick our noses.  Occasionally we would have to get on stage and clap two and four on the bridge of a song, but it was hard to get in the groove of playing because we'd be on for one, off for two.  I took lots of bad pictures (posted immediately to Facebook) to pass the time.  It was mostly a hang with friends.

Mark Dannells!

Bencuya is my hero

Cartage for this one?  Nyet!  Four saxophones, piccolo, flute, clarinet, and the bag o' crap.  I played some "lead guitar cowbell" on Hard Day's Night that probably deserved a fine.

new wig?

Ouch!  Bari down!

Sunday:  The usual church gigs.  Church gig number one:  tenor and clarinet (though I have to bring flute and soprano because I never know what I'll need).  Church gig number two:  soprano and flute.  In between there was a pretty good nap.

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My Life

My Life practice rig!

This past Wednesday, we (Yacht Rock/Please Pleaserock Me) had a big rehearsal--5 Beatles tunes (I Want to Hold Your Hand, Back in the USSR, Ob-La-Di- Ob-La-Da, Taxman, and Revolution) and 2 Yacht Rock tunes (My Life by Billy Joel and Thunder Island by Jay Ferguson).  The Beatles stuff was easy--I make charts and play them, plus it's lots of tambourine and clapping.  I was really pumped about playing My Life--not only is it a big song for me personally, but once I started listening to it, it sounded like piano PLUS rhodes (and synth on the main riff).  So…Bencuya plays piano, but I double him on the rhodes, which turned out to be a terrific challenge.  I have to BE Bencuya for a couple of minutes there.

Pete's facial castanets for Thunder Island

Anyway, I practiced it like crazy.  We played a couple of times at rehearsal.  I was fine.

We weren't going to play it last night at the 10 High gig because Mark Cobb was not there, but Ganesh said he wanted a shot at it, so we did do it.  Awesome.  I did well.  Plus, it went over really well--everybody was singing along (which is always a cool feeling).  We probably got two keepers out of that (Thunder Island was good too, but I just play organ pads, so it was no biggie).

Speaking of the 10 High…the first set was good and inspired, and then we came back from break and not one of us could have given a damn.  It was a pretty boring second set.  I sucked on the sax solo to Caribbean Queen.  Such is life.  I wore my new suit, so at least I looked good doing it.

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Super Bowl Sunday

I did my two church gigs.

The first church gig was a circus.  The usual sound guy was not there, and we had all kinds of trouble with the headphone mix (except for me, of course, because I do not wear them).  Static, instruments disappearing, screaming acoustic guitar.  All there.

We were asked to stay and play half of the next service, which featured the adult choir, the children's choir, and the "orchestra" (which was really the church's community band).  It was chaos.  We had so many tunes stuck in the music books, and some were for the second service and some were for the first, and nobody was sure what belonged to what.  We rehearsed everything (but without the adult choir, children's choir, or "orchestra") that morning, but not in any kind of order--more of "Hey, can we play through this one?" kind of thing.

My second church gig began a half hour after the Super Bowl.  From my position, I counted sixty-eight people in attendance.  The band was about the same.  After the first song, I had comments from the band--"can't hear the singer."  They probably didn't notice that I was dealing with the fact that nobody had plugged in the piano mic!  Once I got the stuff up and running it was fine.

I had good cell phone service in the church, and didn't miss a second of the game.

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Pat Boone and Debbie Boone Were There

Yacht Rock played the Taste of Dunwoody party at the W Perimeter last night.  It was probably not the best venue for us and the event--we were jammed into a pretty tiny ballroom (I guess it's the only one in the hotel, come to think of it).  They had tables with local food samples lining the walls all the way around.

Everybody was back for this gig--Nick was fronting the band, and Mark Cobb was kicking it in the ass!  It was a really relaxed event--we were loaded in plenty early, soundchecked, and then hung out in a suite on the top floor until it was time to eat.  We ate, we played, we drank.  Gradually, we took over the party.  I don't think the local food people were too thrilled that we sucked all the attention away from them.  Before the end of the first set, it had become a concert.  In fact, it seemed like most of the vendors bailed before the end of the night.

I played really well.  I'm (thankfully) still in a good groove.  We did most of the same stuff as we did Thursday night, so I was really comfortable.  I was loud, though (I guess we all were).  I could really hear myself slapping off the opposite wall.  I kept thinking "maybe I should turn down," but then I thought better of it.

Mark Cobb pushed us along the whole night.  Ganesh played faster tempos than he usually does on Thursday, but Cobb leaned forward.  Some of it was just flat out fast.  It was good, though.  I like it.  He also set a personal record for playing the "Pat Boone Debbie Boone" fill in the first set.  All over the place.

Nick had four people ask if he was wearing a wig.  Nobody asked me.  Does that mean my wig looks bad, or really good?

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Molly

Last night's Yacht Rock gig was a little different from the past month--no Nick (Kevin Spencer in his place) and no Mark Cobb (Ganesh in his place).  It was still pretty smooth, but the banter is not of the same quality!

Just like last week, I prepared for the gig like it was some kind of exam.  This week's big addition to my performance was playing all of my parts to Baby Come Back on keyboard.  Impressive, non?  Mais oui.  Bencuya's over there having a good time with the rhodes part, so I'm playing strings.  On the verse, I'm playing piano;  on the choruses, I'm playing clav (with the strings).  Then on the bridge, I'm playing the synth part, complete with the big pitch two octave pitch bend.  Who's the man!  I mentioned my newfound keyboard prowess at the end of the first set, and Bencuya mentioned that he heard everything I played, and it sounded great.  I think he was trying to make up for the fact that he repeatedly mentioned how bad I (and he) sucked at the holiday show on Greatest American Hero (Believe it or Not)!  The recording from that show needs to disappear.  Damnit!  I guess when you suck real bad, you suck real bad.

Hmm…past that, let's see.  My tenor reed was really soft, and when I stood up to play the solo on Takin' it to the Streets (which we dedicated to Egypt), it completely closed up.  Not good!  I relaxed my embouchure and got through it, but it felt bad.  Too bad, because it sounded good.  I just couldn't push it.

On the break, I was standing there talking to Pete and some guy walked up and tried to sell us drugs--"Molly"--which I was later informed is high quality Ecstasy.

Second set was fine.  I started Lonely Boy, and I guess I hadn't set the gain on my mixer correctly, because it was SUPER LOUD!  Holy crap!  I played one handed once the band came in and turned knobs with the other.  Other than that, it was the most relaxed I've ever played it.  I even anticipated the spot where I (mentally) freak out and forget the chords, so yay for me.

Somebody stole Dannells' set list, so he and I shared mine.  While we were in between songs, the girl in front of us pulled his list out of her purse and checked to see what we were going to play next!

Things were going so well…then we started Jive Talkin' and I noticed that my laptop had died.  I'd forgotten to plug it in, and it'd been running on batteries the whole time--until now.  I thought, "I'll play the synth solo on something else," but I knew I'd need the EWI for the song after this (Peg) too, so I got up and walked across the stage, through the merchandise booth, and over to the corner where my cases were (the band playing the whole time).  I missed the first synth solo, got my power supply, walked back, plugged it in, woke up my laptop, and was back in time for the second synth solo.  Talk about stupid.

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Wedding Ceremony Music

Mark Dannells and I are unveiling our new flute and guitar demo!  You can hear it on my website.

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Video Roundup

Here are a few videos from the Variety Playhouse show a few Fridays ago:





Here are a few videos of me from last night:





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