Tuesday night was a fun little gig--Greg Lee and John Hopkins performed their original songs at Eddie's Attic, backed up by most of the Yacht Rock Revue, plus Ben Holst on bass (for Greg's stuff). I played on four of Greg's tunes. Good stuff on both sides--Greg's stuff is cool, and I liked most of Hop's stuff too.
Easy night for me--there were two Indianapolis Jones songs and a Bencuya song on which I was supposed to play, but all three were cut. No big deal though, because from the first couple of notes I played, I could tell it was going to be one of those nights were everything I played worked. Why was that? I think I could hear the saxophone really well in balance with what was going on onstage; since I was fighting to hear myself, it was easy to go for it. I'll be interested to hear any audio or video that comes of it.
To top it off...blazingly fast load out! I had both horns packed up before the gig ended, so as soon as I could step on stage I grabbed my iPad and boogied on out the door.
Sooo...yeah...another Beatles gig! I guess we just played a bunch of Beatles stuff at the Variety a few weeks back, but so much music has come and gone since then, it feels like it was longer ago--which is to say that nothing felt like "Oh yeah, we just played this." It was more like "Is this how we played this?" Hooray for charts.
Two things I took from this gig:
1. Using an iPad for charts. Successful. I could see, the thing didn't crash, the page turn thing was no big deal. It definitely does what I want. I wouldn't necessarily use it on this gig since there's a trumpet player reading paper charts right next to me, but the experiment proved to me that it's now an option.
I forgot that the last time we were here, the air conditioner vents directly over us would occasionally kick on and blow our charts everywhere. The iPad did not move! (duh). We had to hold our charts down with wallets and cell phones. Really annoying.
2. My horn chart for Oh Darling. Nick requested that we put a little more soul into McCartney's tune by adding horns in place of the background vocals (and generally just laying into everything a little more). Also successful. I really liked the horn parts. It sounded better on the gig than soundcheck, so I think in another gig or two it'll really sound solid. This one got an especially good reaction from the crowd, though I think that was mostly due to Nick's outstanding vocal performance.
Octopus' Garden was particularly good tonight.
Kip on sound and Zach on monitors. Looooooooove having our own guys running sound.
Not much else to say. This gig has a DJ before and after. I can't say what the appropriate music proceeding a Beatles show should be, but the mix of 80s pop rock and white suburbanite approved hip hop didn't do it for me. Cranking that same shit up immediately after the gig made me flee like the building was on fire (and the lighting guy punishing me with strobe lights while I was packing up was also encouraging). I was gone in record time.
Next Please Pleaserock Me gigs are February 20 (at Smith's Olde Bar) and then April 24 (at Variety Playhouse). In the mean time, don't forget to come see the Greg Lee Show this coming Tuesday at Eddie's Attic!
I played a solo gig tonight--an hour of standing just outside of a corporate event, I guess calling out to them across the lobby. I think I might have been a just a noisy prop outside of a room, standing among a fake brick wall, fake gaslight, and a fake rain barrel. It's supposed to be New Orleans!
Before I'd even begun some guy asked if I could play Georgia on my Mind on "that thing." Sure--first tune of the night. Once I began the gig, I of course played Georgia for several minutes. When I was finished, I went into Stella by Starlight, and just then the guy came by. I overheard him say (why does no one ever think I can hear them when they're talking about me on a gig?) "That doesn't sound like Georgia on my Mind." So, I hinted at it in Stella.
From there on out, I tucked it into every song--just the "Georgia, Georgia"--the first four notes, jammed into In a Sentimental Mood, St. Thomas, When the Saints Go Marching In (it's supposed to be New Orleans!). He was hanging around outside of the party (in front of me), so I made sure to tease it in case he was listening...but not give him the song. If he'd just asked me, yes, I would have played it again, but I had fun nonetheless by dangling it out there, in case he noticed. Probably didn't. Oh well...something to do for the hour.
Yay for us! The second gig ever by Sazerac, a Little Feat/Meters/Dr. John New Orleans-y kind of tribute band comprised of most of the Yacht Rock guys (Marks Bencuya, Cobb, and Dannells; me) and Ganesh Giri Jaya of the Yacht Rock Schooner. Also on this gig were Benji Shanks on second guitar, and Jordan Shalhoup on tenor sax (of Schooner fame) and Paul Poovey on trumpet filling out the horn section.
I really like doing this gig, especially because I had so much fun doing the horn arrangements. That was at least as cool as the playing (I played bari sax and clarinet in the section).
I'm definitely going to investigate using an iPad for charts in the future. Two big things are pushing me in this direction.
1. I had my basic arrangements written from when the band recorded almost all of these songs. My hand written charts with the horn voicings and form, but not good enough to pass out to other guys in the section. At the first Sazerac gig, Jordan and I played off my first computerized drafts of my hand written charts.
Once this gig was announced, I had to divide the voicings up from the computerized drafts and assign them to each horn, plus transpose them, add articulations, and make sure they were readable. After looking each chart over, I made more alterations.
Following the first rehearsal, there were more edits. After the second rehearsal, a few more edits to just about get the charts perfect.
Each of these five edits was a reprinting--paper, ink, and if they were multiple pages, tape to hold them together. Plus the time of printing and organizing. Twelve songs with three horn parts for each. If I could just send forth a new PDF, that would be better, quicker, and easier.
2. Playing on stage at Smith's, we were situated in a back corner of the stage. It was dark; the stage was too cramped for three music stands. Having charts on an iPad would've made the reading situation easier (it probably wouldn't have saved me from stepping a rest on Give it What You Can, though--that was just my inability to concentrate).
All in all, a great night. Hope we don't wait a year before we do it again!
The Dave and Dave Duo rolls on! Ellington says that since we have two gigs this month (Sun in my Belly and JCT Kitchen) and two next month (same places), we are officially on tour.
JCT is cool, though in the winter we are in the bar, and it gets loud. The gig is still a fun workout for both us, though, and the burger and fries are still delicious (I had made my food decision 24 hours in advance).
The new tune for this gig was Stanley Turrentine's Let it Roll. It sounds kind of like Sugar (also by Stanley), but without the melodic curlicues. I dig it.
Check us out!
We're at JCT Kitchen again February 19 (6-9 PM, and I'll have the burger, medium), and Sun in my Belly February 27 (7-9 PM).
In between now and then, I'll be playing at Smith's Olde Bar tomorrow night, guiding the horn section for Sazerac's second performance. We play at 10 PM. We load in at 4 PM, in case you want to carry my bari sax up the stairs for me.
Friday, February 6, I'll be playing at 37 Main Johns Creek, leading the horns through some Beatles stuff with Please Pleaserock Me (the Yacht Rock guys playing the Beatles).
Tuesday, February 10, I'll be playing at Eddie's Attic, supplying saxophone, clarinet, flute, and very little keyboard to the Greg Lee Show.
At the end of that week, February 13, Yacht Rock will be sailing the highs seas on the Sail Across the Sun cruise. Ahoy.
Yacht Rock played one of our favorite gigs of the year--the Team Hidi benefit, hosted by The Giving Kitchen. It's a charity event put on by multiple local restaurants--everybody has a table and they let you taste their best stuff. Good food everywhere you look. It's a little hipster-y, but tolerable.
This year the event was in the Georgia Freight Depot downtown. Nice looking converted warehouse with an easy load in and out. I wonder why I haven't done more gigs here--I bet the last time I played here was in the 90s.
No Nick, but we had Ganesh (from the Yacht Rock Schooner) subbing for him--he did a fabulous job.
Mark Cobb, fresh off the plane from Los Angeles and NAMM (the big trade show for the National Association of Music Merchants), played some fiercely good shit.
No Yacht Rock stuff happening this week, but the Dave and Dave Duo (with David Ellington) will be at JCT Kitchen and Bar this Thursday, 6-9 PM. Here's one from last week's gig at Sun in my Belly.
Saturday, Sazerac (a New Orleans-y based band comprised mostly of Yacht Rock guys) is playing at Smith's Olde Bar Saturday night. You should come check it out. There'll be a horn section. I wrote charts. We're gonna kick ass.
The Dave and Dave Duo (my sax/organ duo with David Ellington) had its first gig of the year at Sun in my Belly last night. It's been a while since I've played in an improvisational situation--probably since the previous duo gig!--and since my practice time has been dominated by cranking out charts, I was worried about some rust. No problems, though. I felt totally comfortable. Check it out!
