No Half Steppin'

Sunday means church gigs!

The AM church gig is headed back towards some sort of normalcy.  Rhythm section, horn section, and vocalists (though this week there was a choir instead of five or six people).  The charts worked without any problems.  It's a miracle!  The horns set up on the opposite side because the choir was on a riser in our usual spot.  Sonically, things were worse--not only could we not hear the drums, bass, or acoustic guitar, but stage right we could barely make out the piano.  Hmm.  In ear monitors can't make it to this gig soon enough.

The PM church gig was a little better than last week.  Latest evidence I am headed straight to hell:  during the communion song, the pianist/bandleader played the same wrong note in the melody twice, so when she tossed me the solo, I incorporated her wrong note as a chromatic passing tone.  Did you catch that?  I did it again.  And again.  How about in the opposite direction?  Yes.  This sent me off on a little chromatic crusade to add half steps in between the diatonic notes of the melody wherever possible, rising and falling.  Wee!  Nobody said anything afterwards, so I guess file that under self amusement.  Oh well.

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Johnny Loves Esther!

Congratulations to one of Pleaserock's finest, Esther, on her wedding last night!

Yacht Rock played the reception.  After a good week of practice (and a couple of more "back to normal" gigs), I think I may be coming out of my funk.  I even got Africa right.

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Ping Pong

Yacht Rock had a private gig last night at the Ritz at Lake Oconee.  Nice…we spent the night there, and each got our own room.  Here's the view out of mine:

Our gig was really, really weird…like a fall at terminal velocity from the Revival back to reality.  The event was pushed back a half hour, and once we finally started playing, nobody would come into the room.  For a while, it looked like this:

In a desperate attempt by the party planner to bring people to her event, she brought a ping pong table in…uh, ok.  People began to come in finally, but they faced AWAY FROM US SO THEY COULD WATCH PING PONG!  Holy shit!  Then they broke out decks of cards, and people played cards and ignored us.

We had two people on the dance floor, but they didn't even make it through an entire song before they gave up.  That's pretty much how it ended.  Someone went to a guest room and got a clock radio so they could listen to rap while they played cards (while we loaded out).

After the event, I accidentally on purpose charged my room service to the client.  Oops?

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Back to It

I left the Park Tavern around 12:30 AM with the clock ticking, knowing I had to run home, dump equipment, take a shower, sleep, and be at my next gig at 8 AM. 

The ol' AM church gig.  This one was kind of a "welcome back!" service for the main minister and the  congregation--the first one since school started, so it was more full than the previous few weeks.  The band was back to full strength (plus the horns, plus some more horns to augment that, plus a couple of violins).  There were charts and transitions that had been considered beforehand--everything worked!

We played both services…extra money.  Yes.

The PM church gig was ok.  We were light on singers, and the piano pickup was busted, but we made it through without any disasters.  My soprano has a problem (the adjustment screws on the bar behind the right hand are out of wack, and so the F key and the linked key above that--the one connected to the bar--aren't closing together).  Fun.  Quality time with my leak light and a screwdriver.

Easy week ahead.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Revival!

Wow!  Yacht Rock hosted the Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe for the second straight year.  Bigger and better!

I think it was, on the whole, a tremendous success.  Congratulations to everybody at Pleaserock (Nick, Peter, Kristen, and Esther) for pulling this together.

As for me, I think I played ok.  The first couple of tunes were fine, and then I bit it on Sara Smile.  The rest of the set was fine.  The second set had no major problems that I can think of, either, except for some overblowing on the saxophone stuff.  Nothing new there.  At soundcheck, I played the Africa solo probably seventy-five times, and I made it through it at the show, but just barely.  The solo on the outro kind of redeems me these days.

So…I don't know.  I just don't have any confidence in what I'm doing these days.  Music is not fun for me at the moment.

davidfreemanmusic.net

Revival Rehearsal

Yacht Rock had our big rehearsal with all the guys for tomorrow's Greatest Yacht Rock Revival in the Universe.

First up, Elliot Lurie from Looking Glass.  We went through Brandy and Jimmy Loves Mary Ann.  We tried to convince him that our ending for the former would work, but…no.

After Elliot, we ran through Baby Come Back and This Time I'm in it for Love with Peter Beckett.

The guys from Starbuck came in next and ran their songs while we ate lunch.  Their marimbist, Bo Wagner, totally stole the show.  He's still a pretty captivating soloist.  Afterwards, we talked for a couple of minutes (he's going to email me transcriptions of his solos on Moonlight Feels Right and I've Got to Know)--he's a really nice guy.  I showed him my EWI set up and how I deal with the marimba solo ("play as fast as you can in E minor!").

I ate lunch with Walter Egan.  I get the impression that I weird him out.

Walter was up next.  No problems with his songs Magnet and Steel, Only the Lucky, and Go Your Own Way.

Next up was Gary Wright.  Gary was very particular about his songs--wanted to know what parts everybody was playing, what the guitar and clav effects sounded like, and checked the vocal harmonies.  I didn't play much (only played the string part, doubling Gary, on Love is Alive), but his scrutiny definitely made me unsure of myself.

I had Gary sign Brandon Still's keytar.

The last guy of the day was Robbie Dupree.  We rolled through his two tunes, Steal Away and Hot Rod Hearts, with no trouble.  He was exhausted from traveling, so we touched on a few things quickly and wrapped up the rehearsal.

All set for the big day tomorrow!  John Ford Coley, sorry we missed you!

davidfreemanmusic.net

Sunday

I was fortunate that we were able to come home instead of spending the night in Kiawah Island--I was able to make my AM church gig.  I had lined up a sub at the beginning of last week, but they said they would rather not have saxophone if I couldn't make it (I'm not sure if they're being nice or lazy).  Anyway, I showed up and played and things were fine.

Things were once again pretty thrown together--we rehearsed for all of fifteen minutes.  One singer and a couple of single page hymns.  Easy stuff.  We spent more time on break than on the gig.

My PM service was more organized, but just as easy.  Nothing to talk about.  I played fine.  The mixer came unplugged right before the last song, but that was an easy fix.

This is a big week!  Time for Yacht Rock's Greatest Revival in the Universe!

davidfreemanmusic.net