My AM church gig did not happen yesterday, which was fine because I was busy all day being chart man. Mostly I was cranking out Finale versions of some of my hand written salsa lead sheets, so I will be able to read them a little easier on the gig. Following that, I had a few tunes to work out for an upcoming Yacht Rock rehearsal. I also updated a handful of Beatles charts for an upcoming gig.
My usual PM church gig went off without a hitch. One of the singers turned around to see if her mic was working so I pushed the fader all the way up. That failed to satisfy me, though, so then I took the panning knob on her voice and the panning knob on the shaker microphone she was using and ping ponged them back and forth on the quarter note for an entire verse and chorus. I wonder what that sounded like out front…
davidfreemanmusic.net
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Police Ball
Yacht Rock played the Atlanta Police Ball. Just like last year, there were no actual police involved.
This was another easy corporate/private gig. The sound on stage was outstanding. I didn't even need ear plugs.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Quartet!
I played a GREAT gig last night! My jazz quartet was hired to provide a quartet for a corporate networking function at the Marriott Marquis downtown.
Tyrone Jackson is one of a kind. He is super awesome! One of my favorite keyboardists and one of my favorite people.
Nadav Spiegelman is a younger guy on the scene. He has a beautiful bass sound and plays really melodic solos.
Chris Burroughs has an incredible sense of time--he is constantly shifting gears and reacting to everything and everybody. Fantastic stuff!
Here's the audio:
David Freeman Quartet-May 18, 2012 by David B Freeman
I had a wonderful time! Hopefully we can all play together again soon.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Friday, May 18, 2012
Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow, Nor Hail...
I loaded up my gear in my truck for the trek to the 10 High last night, and the sky was grumbling. I thought maybe I'd be able to get away before it struck, so I jumped in and took off. By the time I got to I-75, the clouds were really dark and low, and most were poised just south of me. It looked like I was definitely going to have to go through it, but if I could go really fast, maybe I could get out from under it before my gear got wet.
Just south of Delk Road, the sky was creepy and dark. All of the sudden--POW!--a big piece of hail hit my windshield, then another, then another! Aghh!!! Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the most ferocious hailstorm I'd ever seen--and all my gear was getting pounded in the bed of my truck! The interstate was completely covered in ice, so much that you could no longer see the lanes. People were pulling over and slowing way down, while I tried to weave through them at sixty miles and hour, fishtailing madly on the ice. I needed an overpass to get under, but every one I came to was already packed with people waiting out the storm, so on I drove!
I stopped screaming long enough to look down and see that I was doing eighty.
I finally found an open overpass, so I pulled over. The bed of my truck had a bucket's worth of ice in it. As I grabbed the first cases and moved them into the cab, a car came flying up behind me. A guy jumped out and screamed "THAT WAS FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!"
In a few minutes, I had all my gear reconfigured, and the hail had switched to rain, so I headed out again. By the time I got south of West Paces Ferry, the rain had stopped, and it the ground was dry when I got into the city. Crazy weather!
Yacht Rock was at the 10 High again. We had a better crowd than the previous week, though it looked bad until just before we started. It definitely helps when the door guy isn't stealing money.
The first set was ok. I played pretty well. Monkey was having a bad night. We went on break, and I gave up. The second set, I busied myself by adding Hot in Herre (an homage to Chuck Brown, and an attempt to piss Bencuya off) into every song, sometimes transposed and sometimes not, and almost always between songs. It actually sounds OK in the verses of Power of Love. When I had an organ sound dialed up, I tried the beginning of Bustin' Loose, but he ignored me. I wished I'd brought seven band aids. Dannells was drunk enough that he started singing along. No worries until he actually takes off all his clothes.
That was it. Another night of being subversive and annoying. No rain at load out.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Just south of Delk Road, the sky was creepy and dark. All of the sudden--POW!--a big piece of hail hit my windshield, then another, then another! Aghh!!! Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the most ferocious hailstorm I'd ever seen--and all my gear was getting pounded in the bed of my truck! The interstate was completely covered in ice, so much that you could no longer see the lanes. People were pulling over and slowing way down, while I tried to weave through them at sixty miles and hour, fishtailing madly on the ice. I needed an overpass to get under, but every one I came to was already packed with people waiting out the storm, so on I drove!
I stopped screaming long enough to look down and see that I was doing eighty.
I finally found an open overpass, so I pulled over. The bed of my truck had a bucket's worth of ice in it. As I grabbed the first cases and moved them into the cab, a car came flying up behind me. A guy jumped out and screamed "THAT WAS FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!"
In a few minutes, I had all my gear reconfigured, and the hail had switched to rain, so I headed out again. By the time I got south of West Paces Ferry, the rain had stopped, and it the ground was dry when I got into the city. Crazy weather!
Yacht Rock was at the 10 High again. We had a better crowd than the previous week, though it looked bad until just before we started. It definitely helps when the door guy isn't stealing money.
The first set was ok. I played pretty well. Monkey was having a bad night. We went on break, and I gave up. The second set, I busied myself by adding Hot in Herre (an homage to Chuck Brown, and an attempt to piss Bencuya off) into every song, sometimes transposed and sometimes not, and almost always between songs. It actually sounds OK in the verses of Power of Love. When I had an organ sound dialed up, I tried the beginning of Bustin' Loose, but he ignored me. I wished I'd brought seven band aids. Dannells was drunk enough that he started singing along. No worries until he actually takes off all his clothes.
That was it. Another night of being subversive and annoying. No rain at load out.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
House Live
Wayne Viar and I were back at Ventanas for a House Live gig this past Monday. It's been a while! This one was a four hour party, which meant that for sure there'd be at least an two hours of total bullshitting by us.
The gig wasn't too bad. Jeremy did a nice job of setting up little sections in which Wayne and I could play, and then when we would finish he would go into the track. I really we'd be in agony (four hours of this?!), but everything turned out fine.
This has nothing to do with the music, but they had these cool balloons that had controls, and you could steer them around the room. Many times, I was nearly attacked from above by a large, inflatable shark. Death from above!
Here are videos from the middle set:
davidfreemanmusic.net
Monday, May 14, 2012
Ups and Downs
I had two pretty good church gigs yesterday. The AM gig is coming together well--we've figured which voices in the horn charts we need to make the section sound good, and the leader is picking songs that work for us as a band. More importantly, we've added Phil Smith on drums! Super solid drummer. I've known Phil since the late nineties, when he was in love with Kenny Washington. Over the years, he's expanded his focus, and his pop/rock playing has strengthened immensely.
The PM gig was small but mighty, with just two vocalists. No problems, though. If Lopes ever gets around to repairing my soprano (which I gave him two weeks ago to fix), I might play it again on this gig.
In between, I did some less exciting stuff like finding guys for upcoming gigs. I checked in with a local guy I'd used before via text, and he hadn't bothered to save my number and had no idea who was asking. That kind of crushed my ego--I thought I'd played pretty well, but to him it was forgettable. It also reinforces my feeling that I'm completely off the local jazz scene. Bummer. It makes me think that the guys who do play with me are there for the check and not the music.
I also had a random guy ask me about sending him my transcription for Us and Them (Pink Floyd). Occasionally somebody asks after seeing me on YouTube…anyway, I told the guy that yes, I would send it to him. This week, he asked again, so I got out my handwritten chart and put it all into Finale so it would be nice and neat. The dude never sent me an email, so I ended up making a pdf of it, then saving the pdfs as jpegs, then emailing them to myself so I could save the jpegs on my phone, then texting the three pages to him. All that, and I heard nothing in reply. Thanks would have been nice…
The hell with that guy. Here's the chart. Send me an email and I'll send you pdfs if you'd prefer.
davidfreemanmusic.net
The PM gig was small but mighty, with just two vocalists. No problems, though. If Lopes ever gets around to repairing my soprano (which I gave him two weeks ago to fix), I might play it again on this gig.
In between, I did some less exciting stuff like finding guys for upcoming gigs. I checked in with a local guy I'd used before via text, and he hadn't bothered to save my number and had no idea who was asking. That kind of crushed my ego--I thought I'd played pretty well, but to him it was forgettable. It also reinforces my feeling that I'm completely off the local jazz scene. Bummer. It makes me think that the guys who do play with me are there for the check and not the music.
I also had a random guy ask me about sending him my transcription for Us and Them (Pink Floyd). Occasionally somebody asks after seeing me on YouTube…anyway, I told the guy that yes, I would send it to him. This week, he asked again, so I got out my handwritten chart and put it all into Finale so it would be nice and neat. The dude never sent me an email, so I ended up making a pdf of it, then saving the pdfs as jpegs, then emailing them to myself so I could save the jpegs on my phone, then texting the three pages to him. All that, and I heard nothing in reply. Thanks would have been nice…
The hell with that guy. Here's the chart. Send me an email and I'll send you pdfs if you'd prefer.
davidfreemanmusic.net
Dunwoody Beer Fest + 500 Songs
Yacht Rock had quite a long day Saturday. Nick and Dannells flew in from Indianapolis; the rest of us began our third day of gigging in a row. We played the Dunwoody Beer Festival for the fourth time. I think this is the first time the weather's been clear--usually we are huddled under a leaking tent.
Why anyone would want to stand in the parking lot of Perimeter Mall and drink beer in the middle of the day is beyond me. People turn out, though, and we gave them three sets of music (our first set was our Dazed and Confused stuff, so I only played on half the set). No problems. Still no crazy bass feedback, which makes me think The Hamilton owes me some kind of monetary apology. Get it together!
Anyway, we finished and it was still light out. Yay! I went home and unloaded all me gear, and then I started to get really tired. It was tough to turn around and head out to Smith's to play 500 Songs for Kids. We were given Strawberry Fields Forever. No sweat, right? We do a slammin' Beatles tribute! I think I got about eighty-five percent of my part (the trumpets thing, which I played on keyboard) correct, which sadly is one of my better attempts at 500 Songs. Usually, I suck real bad..remember November Rain? This time I only sucked on the first full chorus with brass (the third one if you're counting from the beginning…CHORUS, verse with flutes, CHORUS, verse with brass, CHORUS THAT SUCKED, verse with brass, CHORUS, tag, outro). Right notes, wrong spot. Booooooo!!!!! We backed up a friend on Imagine right after that (me on strings, which I miraculously did not screw up).
Following (my) tradition, I ran out the back door and went straight home, tired and brain dead. Why do these gigs take so much out of me these days? Gettin' old?
davidfreemanmusic.net
Why anyone would want to stand in the parking lot of Perimeter Mall and drink beer in the middle of the day is beyond me. People turn out, though, and we gave them three sets of music (our first set was our Dazed and Confused stuff, so I only played on half the set). No problems. Still no crazy bass feedback, which makes me think The Hamilton owes me some kind of monetary apology. Get it together!
Anyway, we finished and it was still light out. Yay! I went home and unloaded all me gear, and then I started to get really tired. It was tough to turn around and head out to Smith's to play 500 Songs for Kids. We were given Strawberry Fields Forever. No sweat, right? We do a slammin' Beatles tribute! I think I got about eighty-five percent of my part (the trumpets thing, which I played on keyboard) correct, which sadly is one of my better attempts at 500 Songs. Usually, I suck real bad..remember November Rain? This time I only sucked on the first full chorus with brass (the third one if you're counting from the beginning…CHORUS, verse with flutes, CHORUS, verse with brass, CHORUS THAT SUCKED, verse with brass, CHORUS, tag, outro). Right notes, wrong spot. Booooooo!!!!! We backed up a friend on Imagine right after that (me on strings, which I miraculously did not screw up).
Following (my) tradition, I ran out the back door and went straight home, tired and brain dead. Why do these gigs take so much out of me these days? Gettin' old?
davidfreemanmusic.net
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