Blind Willie's Again

Scott Glazer invited me to once again play with his group Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie's tonight. The band also included Mike Ewbank on keyboard, Nick Johnson on guitar, Darren Stanley on drums, and John Sandfort on saxophone. We read some new charts (two I remember off the top of my head: Wah Wah by George Harrison and Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan), which left us chuckling amidst the ensuing chaos. Not a big crowd tonight (at the beginning and end of the night, we outnumbered them), so very few got to see us fake our way through Cream's White Room, with Scott trying to read the lyrics off a phone that wouldn't stay open. Oops!

Anyway, Sandfort killed me again. One of the best sax players in Atlanta. Maaaaaaaaannnn...I was doing my best to keep up with these guys.

UGA Tailgate

This was a last minute call--Yacht Rock was asked to perform at the official UGA Tailgate Party before the championship game in Atlanta Monday night. Between the weather (at one point it was supposed be 34 with snow flurries) and the potentially disastrous traffic, we were bracing for something awful--so much so that we loaded the van and trailer and had it drop us and our gear off in lieu of individually driving and parking. However, school was cancelled, everybody stayed home from work, the weather was ok, and we had no trouble at all.

This gig was a long one--three sets, and we were in a room with no windows, and it felt like it could've been noon or eight o'clock at night the whole time. By the third set, we were all a bit disoriented, but the last set was a little short, and there weren't many people left by then anyway. We loaded out onto Peachtree (waaaaaay easier than the loading dock here), and were driving away forty-five minutes after we finished.

The event staff was really cool, and we were treated very well. Painless!

Too bad the game hadn't worked out in our favor! I thought Georgia had it.

Dark Side/Abbey Road 2018

Yacht Rock spent the weekend in Atlanta, performing Dark Side of the Moon and Abbey Road for big crowds at Venkman's last Friday and Saturday. Joining us were Keisha and Kourtney Jackson on vocals and Rob Opitz on trumpet. Also Ricky Schroder (of Silver Spoons fame) in the audience!

We've played this show several years in a row, so bringing it back up to speed was no problem. This one was an easy weekend for me--just reading my charts off the iPad--so mostly it was a good hang as we eased back into steady gigs for the next five months.

There's not much else to say...I was better Friday than Saturday? You can watch Friday here:

Set 1 (sax solos at around 20:00 and 51:50):




Set 2 (sax solos at around 22:18 and 27:50):




Here are my charts for Dark Side of the Moon. For all those altissimo G#s, my usual fingering (1 3, 1 and side C) doesn't work because I'm blowing so hard, so I use 1 2 3 and side C and aim the pitch down a bit. Try it.

We're going to be on the road a lot this year, so be sure and check us out when we come through your town.

And In the End...

Yacht Rock closed out the year with an Atlanta show at the Park Tavern. I do love that we've somehow managed to play this gig multiple years in a row, finishing by 12:30 AM (thank you city noise ordinance!) and home in our own beds to sleep it off. From the poster, it appears that the party went later than we did--I was home by 2 AM!

In addition to our normal show, we played an unplugged style set upstairs for the VIPs. I think it was ok, but in that cavern of a room, who can tell? Bencuya's toy keyboard had trouble holding at A=440, but he turned down and we did our best to ignore him. The crowd mostly ignored us, too, so...you're welcome?

Our main show began around 10:15 PM (we played straight through to 12:25 AM or so). The crowd of a thousand, maybe more, was surprisingly interested in the music--not the usual drunken shit show we've come to expect from that crowd on New Year's Eve. All around, the band fared well, though I had three random equipment issues pop up:

1. The EWI, on but not responding, at the beginning of Peg. I turned it off and on again and it was fine for the rest of the night.

2. My top keyboard (or maybe that channel in my mixer?), stopped making sound at the beginning of Brandy. The weird thing was that it was registering that it was making sound on the meter on the mixer, but the signal wasn't making it from the mixer to Kip and Zach. The bottom keyboard was fine, though, so the send for that channel wasn't working? I have no idea. I changed sounds, went back to the right sound, unplugged the instrument cable, plugged it back in, and everything was fine. Wuzzup with that.

3. My in ears went dead during the encore, and I played all of Rich Girl with them out, listening to the sound in the tent. When I put them in at the end of the song, things were back to normal.

Other than that, it was a very enjoyable show. Load out around the catatonic dudes and the crying girlfriends was pretty easy (and we had crew guys available to help drag stuff to the parking lot), it wasn't as painfully cold as the weatherman said it would be, and when I started my truck, Michael Brecker was coming out of the speakers. Not a bad way to ring in the new year.

Blind Willie's

I played Blind Willie's here in Atlanta Wednesday night with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo, alongside Marla Feeney (tenor sax), Dave Yoke (guitar), and Marlon Patton (drums). It was good to catch up with Marlon, whom I haven't seen in months, Dave played some nasty guitar solos (in a good way), and I'd never met Marla before. As usual, I was a bit concerned about how rusty I would be reading charts and taking solos (since I don't do too much of that these days), but I was totally comfortable with both. We were rockin'!

Kenyon Carter was on this gig the last time I played it, and he recommended a clip on microphone instead of relying on the ol' SM-58 on a stand, so I tried it, and it made a big difference. The stage at Blind Willie's is just a little too tight to have Scott and two sax players across the front line, so being able to step back just a little and still keep in contact with the mic was a lifesaver. I'll definitely be doing that the next time I get this call.

Last Trips of the Year

Our final weekend on the road in 2017. More airports, more rented gear...

Thursday: Atlanta to New York City for a private gig.

Greg Lee looking dapper at the LaGuardia taxi stand

taxi ride

Our gig was a holiday party at the American Museum of Natural History. Pretty cool spot!

We were in the room with the blue whale suspended from the ceiling.

After soundcheck, we had a few hours to kill, so I went for a run around town. 27 degrees! Also, running down Broadway when all the New Yorkers are trying to go home? Not my best move.

This gig was a very easy one set. The crowd was ok--they weren't nuts from the first note or anything, but there was some dancing, and at least they weren't demanding specific songs. I think we finished around 10 PM, and as soon as I could get all of my gear packed up, we were on our way across town in taxis.

probably as close as I'll ever get to playing at the Blue Whale (it's a jazz club in LA)

Thanks to SIR for coming through with some more good gear. It made everything painless.

Friday: New York to Indianapolis.

The view from our hotel room--we could walk to the airport!

We made it to LaGuardia in good time, only to find that our flight to Indy was delayed two and a half hours by a mechanical issue with the plane. Uh oh! Time to order lunch.

In a panic, all nine of us attempted to jump to another flight leaving around an hour after ours. Nick and Pete made it, but the rest of us were stranded until our plane could be repaired.

One nice thing about the delay: enough first class people jumped on other flights that we all (except for Kip and Zach) got upgraded to first class! Pretty cool, but I honestly didn't know what to do with myself. I think I took just as many naps as I would have in the back.  

more de-icing, this time by the pros in NYC

Earlier in the week, Kip and Zach had driven the van and trailer to Indianapolis, deposited the trailer at Pete's mom's house, driven the van to the Indianapolis airport, and then flown to New York for our gig under the whale. Since Nick and Pete made the earlier flight, they took the van keys, drove to Pete's mom's house, grabbed the trailer, and headed to the gig. We took Lyfts directly to the gig, set up the gear as quickly as possible, ate, changed clothes, and played. A little hectic, but we got through it.

Nice crowd, of course. Enough people know us in Indy that it's an easy sell. The room was sort of a modern construction of a barn...looked beautiful, but didn't sound too great. Cool people, though.

Saturday: More Indy! Lots of time to kill before our gig at The Vogue.

I got up and went for a run. A bit chilly, and pretty windy.

We played a gig in this parking lot many years ago. Nice to hear that the sound guy that day has finally solved the issue of the microphones feeding back.

Main Street, Carmel, Indiana

In the early afternoon, we saw the latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi at the IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum. Lots of middle aged male virgins in attendance. If you knew me in 1982 you'd probably find this hard to believe, but I'm just not into Star Wars anymore. It's like running into your middle school girlfriend thirty years later. I'm not that into going to the movies either, so...I don't know what I'm saying...I guess this was better than sitting in a hotel room all day.

On to the gig! We set up, sound checked, ate, changed, and then it was finally time to play.

this one had been sold out for a month--the crowd was electric

Most of the gig was good, but I had a major blunder--in a panic, I couldn't remember if the Africa solo (when did these six measures become the bane of my existence?) started on Eb or F (I know it in two keys depending on whether I'm playing it on flute or EWI). I guessed Eb, which is wrong, and now that I can think about it logically, I'm an idiot--of course the transposed note would be the higher of the two. Anyway, the first three beats of the solo were a whole step too low, but the correct rhythmic and intervalic patterns, and somehow muscle memory rerouted me back on track by the end of the first phrase. Faaaaaaak. I have major suicidal thoughts approximately once per gig (but I can't!--everybody else in the band, and my family are depending on me to hold up my end of this!), and this was Saturday night's moment.

Also, my solo on Biggest Part of Me was a valiant effort, but I was excited and overblowing, and I don't think my ideas ever lined up to form the arc of a good solo. I must point out, for my own enjoyment, the quote from Michael Brecker's Fuky Sea, Funky Dew cadenza (the Heavy Metal Bebop version) in my cadenza. Thankyouverymuch. Small victory.

Here's the first set, in case you don't live in Indiana.



Sunday: Homeward bound. I sat down for lunch at home around 1 PM, right around when all hell broke loose at the airport. Thank god we made it back before that happened.

Some Things I Remember...

...and Some Things I Do Not. It was a tough couple of days.

Thursday: The work week began with a Thursday morning gig. If you're a normal person, being at work at 9 AM isn't that horrible, but for me, that was pretty rough; with traffic, it took me an hour to get there.

The gig was some sort of 80s party, and we played two sets between 12:15 and 2:45. Afterwards, we loaded the gear back into the trailer and went our separate ways. I sat in traffic for an hour. I got home, sat down at my computer, and woke up in the dark. I remember pretty much nothing else about the gig.

Ganesh subbing on drums 

Friday: In spite of the winter weather closing in on Atlanta, we headed to the airport for our flight to the west coast.

It was the first time I've ever seen de-icing in Atlanta. It makes you wonder how much practice the dude with the hose gets at this. First they spray the orange stuff, and then they spray the fluorescent green stuff. Did Nickelodeon choose the colors?

Our gig was a corporate Christmas party in San Francisco, and the location was a very cool venue called Bimbo's 365, a place with a very hip, Rat Pack sort of vibe. You could easily picture Dean Martin coming around the corner here.

In between soundcheck and dinner, I went for a run along the bay.

The gig was pretty good, I thought. I liked the backline gear that I ended up with, things sounded good in my ears, and there was an excellent dancer in a red dress that kept us awake (the gig was between midnight and 2:30 AM, Eastern Time). I even had a good sax solo on the outro to Africa, something we don't do very often these days.

We took three taxis to the hotel by the airport. After a quick shower, I crashed. This photo was taken at 12:32 AM, and I was asleep seconds later.

Saturday: My alarm went off at 4:05 AM, and Greg and I were in the lobby ten minutes later. By 4:45, we were in the San Francisco airport for our flight back to Atlanta.

I crawled into the plane, got in my seat, and passed out, waking up only when the pilot announced that we were on our initial approach into Atlanta (around thirty minutes out).

Back in Georgia, we dispersed to get our cars and then headed to Venkman's for not one, but TWO sold out holiday shows--an unplugged set and a regular electric set. I felt surprisingly good for both--I guess that was just enough sleep to carry me through, though I did start to get kind of brain dead in the middle of the second set. Both performances were solid/low anxiety.

7 PM show:




10 PM show:




And we're not done yet! See you at the airport this week!