Trio at Ventanas

I played a trio gig tonight with two of my favorite musicans:  Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  We had a background music gig at Ventanas.  Great gig!

I feel really out shape, jazz-wise.  Too many Yacht Rock keyboard parts!  I need more time on the horn…sure wish I had more gigs with these guys.

Everybody thought we were playing somebody else's stuff ("Is that a Bob James song?").  That's a compliment, right?  My stuff's not total BS!



davidfreemanmusic.net

On the Move

Friday night, it was late…I played the first set with the Yacht Rock Schooner at 37 Main in Buford.  That place gives me the impression that there is NOTHING ELSE to do in Buford--it's always packed.  The crowd was good, the band was really good.

I couldn't hear anything that I was playing.  I guess that's what you get when you don't show up to soundcheck.  I tried the old trick of playing a few notes in between songs--not very reassuring!  I think I could hear myself in the mains;  maybe not.  My position was an arm's length away from the speaker and I couldn't tell.  I had no monitor of my own, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't in any of the monitors on stage.  I think I was more or less inaudible.  Ugh.

The band was really solid--they really had a good groove going.

There were several beer bottles on the lip of the stage in front of me, and I noticed when we started Baker Street that I nudged one when I bent my knees, so then every time the hook came around, I tried to knock the other ones down.  I think I hit five.

Saturday, the Yacht Rock Revue played a wedding reception in Columbus.  Some guy heard about us and hired us sight unseen!  He also had something to do with hooking up the gig in Washington DC.

This was a fun gig to me, mostly because Mark Cobb really felt like playing--he gave the whole band energy.

We had Kevin Spencer subbing for Nick (on vacation).  He did a great job filling in.

First dance was Just the Way You Are.  I'm getting closer on the solo, but I sound a little sharp.

 Just the Way You Are sax solo by David B Freeman

Lately I've been coming up with some new stuff to play on Reminiscing.  It's funny how that kind of thing comes and goes.  I feel pretty good about that song, but (for instance) on Taking it to the Streets, I have nothing to play.  I just play bullshit through the entire end.

We played Break My Stride for the first time in a year and a half (I think).  I was sure the chorus started on G.  I insisted!  and I was wrong.  It starts on F.

Another oldie that came back was I'd Really Love to See You Tonight.  I was a little shaky in some spots.  That's almost the norm for me on that one.  I try and play it casually and then I screw up.

Other than those, I played well the entire night, and then we did Taking it to the Streets for the encore.  For some reason, I was pedaling on C instead of G.  My embarrassment kind of crushed my good feeling about the night.  Damnit!  How long have I been playing that wrong?

Church gig number one got the day off.  The "orchestra" (the church concert band) is playing.  I slept in.  It was great.

Big week this week…a couple of jazz gigs and a couple of Yacht Rock gigs.  Stay tuned.

davidfeemanmusic.net

Too Many Dudes

We (Yacht Rock) played at the 10 High last night.  It was pretty obvious that we were shut out by the football game.  The crowd never showed up, and the gig was lost to indifference pretty quickly.

I played well.  We had Ganesh on drums, K Spence on vocals (in for Nick), and Shannon on guitar, so the set list was all really safe stuff--things we've been playing forever.  There were some strange guitar chords in the middle of Sister Golden Hair and the intro of Hey 19, and we did the radio edit version of My Life…speaking of which, that was a game of musical chicken--the vocals went one way and the band went the other, and at some point we (the band) had to jump when it was finally obvious that the vocals were not coming back to us.  Thankfully, we'd heard that mistake before--almost predicted it.

Lido needed more bass in the intro.

Everything in the second set was pretty normal and pretty plain.  Shannon got a fiery solo off on How Long, and I thought for a second we were going to pick up the energy, but it was just a flicker!  I stumbled a little bit in the Africa solo, but nothing catastrophic.

Anyway…it was the 10 High.  Too many dudes--always a sign that we're going to make no money.

There's always next week!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday stuff (Technical Difficulties)

After a couple of weeks away, I was back at my church gigs this morning.

Church gig number one changed up the morning rehearsal time--instead of meeting at 8 AM, we got together at 8:30.  When I walked in, there was a service going on in the main sanctuary, but I found everybody downstairs.

It was a quick and painless rehearsal--a couple of traditional hymns (flute), and a couple of gospel things (tenor).  No problems.  At 9:15 we went running upstairs to set up.

This is the second week of V Drums--this time with a substitute soundman!  Woo!  I guess all the microphone cables for the entire band had been patched incorrectly at the stage, so there was no time to troubleshoot the electronic drums that were not making electronic drum sounds.  Hmm.  We entered into a stand off of sorts--sound man was busy up in the balcony trying to find his inputs;  drummer continued to bang on very quiet drum kit.  I said, hey, let's stick a vocal mic on his XLR--maybe it's a bad line…maybe it's the DI…maybe it's the quater inch cable going into the DI.  I was ignored.

Suddenly it was 9:30 and we started.  In the headphones:  a ton of bass, a ton of piano, some vocals.  No guitar, no drums.  I didn't like the sound of that, so I went without headphones--better, but I could hear the drums, and the slap off the back wall was at least a sixteenth note behind the band.  I didn't like that either!

Other than the technical difficulties, it was a good show/service.  I had good reeds on my tenor and clarinet, and my flute face was good.  I think we played pretty well, and our leader was happy.  We also played the second service.  No problems there, either.  Yay!

I went home and fell asleep on the floor, listening to a Michael Brecker masterclass from 1986.  Good stuff.  Here's hoping it all soaked in.

Church gig number two was pretty good, too.  Good soprano reed, and my flute playing was comfortable.  I had a pretty good mix in the PA, too.

Right before we started, the previous service's leader told me that the piano microphone was going bad (I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a short in the mic/preamp setup).  Sure enough, I soloed it and it sounded like old vinyl.

Band leader said, "When we flip the switch, the crackling goes away."  The switch was for the ground.  Aren't you disconnecting the ground pin in the XLR and thus eliminating the phantom power that you need to power the microphone?  That was my thinking.  We flipped the switch and then we got no signal to the board, which makes me wonder if my theory was true, and if so, why was that an option on the preamp box?

Anyway, the hell with that.  I unplugged the cable, stuck a vocal mic on it, and stuck it on the soundboard through one of the holes in the piano frame.  Worked fine, and I like the sound of it better than that stupid crackly microphone.

The band sounded pretty good;  vocals were pretty good.  Not a bad gig at all.

I've got another pretty easy week ahead, but I'm looking down the calendar at a week from Saturday--I'm playing second keyboard with the Schooner at Dixie Tavern, and I have a couple of parts to learn.  I did this about a year ago (read about it here).  I'm feeling much less overwhelmed this time--pretty sure I'm gonna kick ass.  It's a good challenge.

P.S.  I'm still thinking about the car crash we saw in Dallas a couple of weeks ago.  I wish we'd stopped to check on them.  The taxi we were in slowed down--I regret not getting out to see if everybody was OK.  I would have wanted someone to do that for me.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Tailgating

this guy proved once again that the toughest job in the band is the front man/lead vocalist

A few guys from each of the Yacht Rock bands joined together to play at the Shepherd Center Society benefit at The Tailgate.  In other words, we played under a tent in one of those abandoned lots around the Georgia Dome that becomes a parking lot whenever there's a football game.  The band was Pete, K Spence, Monkey, Bencuya, Dani, Ganesh, and me.

Matt Reed (guitarist and big UGA fan) organized the music.  He said load in at the 2, so I was there at 2 (backed my truck up to the stage--nice load in!).  Unfortunately, I had to sit through the opening band.  Witness:

This was one of many fine hits, others of which were Sweet Child of Mine, Here I Go Again on My Own, and some other crap.  I think STP was in there.  The only thing missing was Stacy, babe.

The odor from those two porta-potties directly behind the drums was robust.

By the end of their set, I was thinking bad thoughts, evil thoughts.  I wasn't so much thunderstruck as annoyed that I'd shown up so early.  I was thinking "Matt Reed, why did you do this to me?"

We threw our stuff on stage around 3:30 and started at 4.

hey look!  Vince Neil on sound!  nice heels!

The sound guy refused to move the bass cabinet across the stage because everything was already "wired up."  Like electricity?  Like it all sounds perfect just the way it is and we can't move anything?   he mic'ed up that Ampeg 8x10 cabinet with an SM57.  On purpose.  In fact, Dani and I tried to scoot the cabinet a foot closer to the drums (also a foot further AWAY from me), and sound guy started yelling at me from across the stage because I'd knocked the 57 (and the one foot tall mic stand it was on) over.   Like it hurt it.

Dannells played Matt Reed's guitar rig and seemed rather uncomfortable about it.

Kevin got a new shirt?

So whatever.  We set up our stuff and played.   Not a bad set!  It was kind of a greatest hits package--What a Fool Believes, Ride Like the Wind, Baker Street, Brandy.  Dani played the entire thing like Larry Graham on crack.  I played a couple of good solos (Reminiscing and I Can't Go for That), and a moderate amount of crap on Lowdown.  Half the PA shut down at one point due to a power failure.

We finished and everybody loved us and we played an encore and maybe the governor was on the way to congratulate us.  We raked our gear off the stage.

hipsters invaded my truck!

protect thy pants

The next band up was Ponderosa.  They were pretty awesome.  I felt like a fraud.  It made me question my career.  We had to leave quickly.

davidfreemanmusic.net

The Park Tavern

Greg Lee, dancing machine

Yacht Rock played the Park Tavern last night.  We had a pretty good night--it never quite reached the insanity of a few of the previous Park Tavern gigs, but it was fun and the crowd was pretty into it.  For some reason, it was a much older crowd than we generally see.  It was like our usual crowd sent their parents, and this was a safe gig--there are tables for sitting and it ends before midnight.  I think seating and bedtimes are important to that demographic.  You could throw restrooms in there, too, except that the Park Tavern restrooms are not user-friendly.  It's news when the men's room does NOT flood, and the women's room always has a line.

Our Beatles tribute, Please PleaseRock Me, opened the show.  It was pretty good!  I was on and off stage for most of it, playing tambourine and cowbell.  The first song had tambourine--I realized this (standing offstage) about halfway through.  Do over!  Damnit!  The last four or five songs had horns (Greg Lee, Paul Poovey, and myself).  We were really crammed up on stage and it was tough to hear, but I think we were pretty good.  Paul said his trumpet was sliding all over his face, which made Penny Lane especially challenging.  Is it ever going to cool down?

A quick change and we were back as Yacht Rock.  I was determined to suck less than the previous night's implosion, and then we decided to do a soft start--a quiet count in, beginning before the break music had been turned off--and just like that, I'd already started screwing up.  Not impressive.  Once I finally started playing, I was OK.  I still rush really bad on Greatest American Hero.  If I would just relax, my accuracy would greatly improve.

I got a little more ambitious about the number of notes I was going to play on Whatever Gets You Through the Night.  It turns out, I can't really go for it and sidestep at the same time.  I think the solos were good, but I had to remind myself--to the left!  to the right!  I bet I could sound like this if I could stand still.  It would also help if I was in the monitor, but that'll never happen either.

Give a Little Bit is back.  I played the solo correctly two nights in a row; a miracle.

I screwed up the end of I Wish for no apparent reason.

The rest of the night was pretty easy.  I played a something wrong in the bridge of Power of Love--like instead of Eb major, I played a C major triad or something gross.  Not my best work.

I think we have one more Park Tavern gig this month--October 17.  It's been a great summer of gigs.  We'll be back next spring.

davidfreemanmusic.net

10 High Failure

Ugh.  Yacht Rock played the 10 High last night.  I was there, but it probably would've been better if I'd gotten up after the first song and left.  My playing was pretty bad (and pretty uninspired), and the more I tried to bear down and get it right, the worse I got.  I just didn't have it.  Bencuya recorded it, so I'll get to relive this collection of near misses in a couple of months.  Great.