Odds and Ends

Another week without much going on. Yacht Rock did a video shoot for the stuff we recorded in the studio earlier this year; I look forward to lots of shots of me standing at this microphone, doing nothing and trying to remember what I played a month ago.

Immediately following that, we went to Venkman's for another "Unplugged" gig. I was pretty braindead by that point, but I did pull off a good flute solo on Lowdown. We also learned Welcome Back, Kotter. Kinda random (and it took me waaaay too long to get the rhodes part together), but a good 70s learn nonetheless. Keisha Jackson showed up at the end of the night and sang on two songs.

Last night (Monday), I played bari sax with Bumpin' the Mango at Cafe 290 in a horn section full of subs (Joe Gransden's big band took all the regular guys away). I guess it was inevitable that eventually I'd have a crappy night playing this gig--last night was it. I couldn't get my brain to cooperate and count, and then I also had the annoying sax problem of trying to drop my jaw to play a bunch of low notes, only to have no sound come out.

Nobody complained about me being there, though, which means that either I got away with a mediocre performance, or everybody was sympathetic to my pathetic (which doesn't make sense, but I like the way it sounds when I read it). Good hang with Neil Newcomb, who killed it on tenor sax.

Lil Abner

Last week, I got a random phone call from a friend asking if I was working Monday night.

"Nope."

"Cool. I need you for a recording session. We're recording the musical Lil Abner. 8 to 11 PM. I'll email you the book."

And away we go! I was sent Reed 2, which was mostly clarinet and bass clarinet, and a little bit of alto sax. Lotta clarinet. Good thing I've been practicing. Wednesday night, I read through the first act. Thursday, I went through everything twice. Sunday night, I went through a lot of it, and then again on Monday (though I was trying not to wear myself out before the session).

Monday night, I met up with Kevin Lyons and Lee King on trumpet, Tom Gibson on trombone, and Seth Kuehn on Reed 1 (piccolo, flute, clarinet, and alto), plus a string quartet, to rip through the book. The recording was to be used as backing tracks for a high school musical. 

The goal was to record as much of the show as we possibly could in three hours. In order to accomplish this, we flew threw songs, often taking the first take, regardless of any mistakes. In our headphones was a click track and piano track as a guide, and we did our best to keep up.

In the end, we probably recorded almost two-thirds of the musical. I assume that everything we did will go into Pro Tools and be severely edited. A very interesting evening!

Napa

Another one gig weekend--this time in Napa, California, playing the fiftieth birthday party for our friend Pat from Train.

Just like our trip to Utah the week before, we were fortunately able to fly the night before, sparing us the longest-day-of-your-life feeling of flying for several hours, riding in a van for an hour and a half, and then setting up and playing a gig. It also afforded us the opportunity to kill half a day before our scheduled soundcheck. Some scenes from my run around town:

our hotel

On a trip with nothing exciting to tell, here's something--for the first time, I used Lyft. I've gotten in Lyfts that others have called, but this was the first time I've ever opened the app on my phone and requested a car. This particular ride took me to an Indian place for lunch. Doubly fun was the Lyft back to the hotel.

aloo gobi and saffron rice

On to the gig--we played at a nifty little theatre called the JaM Cellars Ballroom. Nice room! The gear was also good, provided by SIR San Fran.

Maybe I expected this gig to be a little more wild, but then again, fifty years old, so maybe not. The crowd definitely liked us, but they were also very polite and quieted down between every song. It was almost corporate in atmosphere.

We learned How 'Bout Us for this one, which was really fun and vibey (especially since we had Keisha and Kourtney with us). Pat came on stage after I Can't Go for That to complement us on how much better we are than Hall and Oates. Everybody got a kick out of that.

Sunday: Another full day of travel. The flight home was quicker, but the guy in the seat next to me smelled much worse. And you annoying old ladies behind me! Shut up! The whole damn back of the plane can hear everything you're talking about.

Utah --> Atlanta Redux

Wednesday: Yacht Rock had a corporate gig in Utah Thursday, and we were fortunately able to fly out Wednesday night. As I've gotten older, it's a lot more difficult to fly across the country and play a gig that night--my brain invariably starts to misfire at some point during the show. It's worth the extra time away from home to not feel miserable on stage.

I picked up Bencuya at his house and we headed to downtown at 4:45. Fighting traffic and weather, it took us over an hour to reach the airport. The plane was also a little late, and we were slightly delayed while the previous flight emptied. We boarded and then sat at the gate, waiting some weather to pass. We finally made it out to the runway, only to abort the takeoff because of wind sheer (that was nuts!--full throttle, then the engines pulled back, then full again, then we basically rolled to a stop).

Once we finally got airborne, it was a smooth flight, and skies were clear across the country.

Memphis, TN

Denver, CO

Thursday: Park City again! We were just here, but since the Sundance festival is over, it's just skiers and snow, and they've had a lot of snow, it appears.

The gig for the evening was on a ranch/event facility. Nice room!

Kind of a clunker of a gig--one of those where people just sit and watch from the dark corners of the room. On this one, people gradually left the room (presumably boarding busses and heading back down the mountain) and suddenly we were playing the gig for just about nobody. Weird.

Anyway, Keisha and Kourtney subbing for Nick (who's on paternity leave), and Ganesh subbing for Mark Cobb. Even with the lack of an audience, I still had a pretty good time playing. Having multiple subs shook up the set list in a good way.

Friday: Park City to Salt Lake City to Atlanta.

Saturday: Brunchfest at Park Tavern. Is Brunchfest a real thing? Not sure. Anyway, it was just like every other Park Tavern gig, but we played in the early afternoon, which was kind of nice--we got it over with and had a night off at home. Incidentally, there was pretty much no food available for us, so I ate the year old granola bar that I'd left in my truck for just this type of emergency.

I guess I was happy to have Cobb and Nick back on the gig--I was pretty into what we were doing on stage. Pretty fun!

Sunday: The ol' Team Hidi/Giving Kitchen fundraiser that we've played for probably six years now. They've changed locations for this event through the years, and I hope they'll do it again, because the present venue sounds bad, has a tiny green room with uncomfortable seating, a shitty parking situation, and a surprisingly difficult load in/out. Plus drunk people yelling into microphones as loud as they can=FML. Run away.

Different Stuff

The last time I wrote something in my blog, I probably mentioned that rehearsals for the musical Footloose were just underway. This week, we finished up rehearsals and performed the show three times, all three without any heart stopping disasters. In the middle of all of that, I also played as loud as I could for a few hours. Dig it:

Tuesday: Afternoon/evening rehearsal. The band was still a bit clunky, but already we were fitting our parts together much better as we learned the music and the flow of the show, as well as the way things sounded in the room.

Speaking of sounds: the audio guys in the theater decided to rectify the amplification problem (2 keyboards, 2 guitars, and bass all coming out of one or two floor monitors) by giving four of us (guitar 1, guitar 2, bass, and me) a headphone amp and four sets of headphones...and one mix to listen to. I was not in the mix, so I pretty much immediately took the headphones off and listened to the keyboards (still coming through the speaker on the floor) and the drums (acoustically). It would've been cool to hear the guitars and bass, but...I guess not. The bass player was unhappy with the mix, so he soon followed me, basically opting to not hear his amplified instrument anywhere. The guitar players I guess were more or less satisfied with the mix.

Another interesting sound thing: both keyboardists were using laptops for their sounds, and evidently the theater purchases/rents the sound files when they get the books. Basically, the second keyboardist is playing lots of woodwinds, brass, and strings (in addition to some synths and stuff), thereby eliminating the need to have a pit full of musicians playing things acoustically. Interesting! All the keyboard splits and everything are laid out song to song and match the keyboard book. I guess I haven't done enough shows to have seen this before, because the music director spoke like it was quite common these days.

Anyway...

Wednesday! We performed the first act for the school in the afternoon, and it went well. After that, we had one final rehearsal for the whole thing. Things felt pretty solid.

Wednesday night, I was back at Blind Willie's, playing with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo. It's always loud, but on this night, it was loud enough that the waitress asked us to turn down. This evening's band included Dan Lawrence on keyboard, Yonrico Scott on drums, Dave Yoke on guitar, and Scott on bass. This gig is usually two saxophonists, but on this particular evening, the other guy was stuck at home with the flu, so I tried to play for the two of us.

I must say that this is possibly the largest crowd (at least at the beginning of the night) that we've ever had, which was kind of cool. Several patrons were in town for the poultry convention (no lie!), so we started the evening off with our rendition of The Chicken.

Thursday: Show number of Footloose was FANTASTIC! The kids in the cast really brought all their energy to the performance, and was so proud of them. Musically, we also came together right on time. I was pumped. Playing a musical at a high school wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

Only little hiccups: one of the laptops was turned down nearly to the point of being inaudible in the first set (fixed it at the break), and I accidentally banged my saxophone into my microphone (which made a super loud embarrassing BOOM in the house), and the second time, I may have also said DAMNIT! near this microphone, but nobody said anything, and I said ten Hail Marys on the way home and we're all good.

Friday: Show number two was equally good. I felt really focused for Thursday night's gig, and it took me a couple of songs to get my head into it, but the kids were electric, and it definitely brought out the best in the band. Also, I did not hit the microphone anymore.

It's never easy to know how much playing you can do before a show and not wear out your face. I remember that a couple of years ago when I played Miss Saigon, I couldn't even warm up at home--I needed to save each and every one of those notes. For this gig, I was comfortable playing for a few hours and at home in the middle of the day and still having enough face to make the gig. It is tricky, though, because if I have the time and the mental capacity, I can sit and play until I can't form an embouchure anymore.

Saturday: Three for three! Another great show, and no microphone contact, thank you very much. My flute and clarinet chops feel great, as did depositing the check for all of this (thank you very much).

I really loved playing this show--I wish I had a few of these every year. Sometimes it feels like part of my musical soul is dying, and this did much to revive it.

This Week

This week in Dave History:

Tuesday: Did I mention that Yacht Rock is recording some original material for an album? I can't remember, and frankly, I don't feel like looking. Anyway, rhythm section (bass, drums, guitar, keyboards) stuff was recorded over the last two weeks, and then I wrote horn parts based on that. My usual plan was to record demo versions at home and submit them to the people in charge.

Monday night, I finally got some specific feedback from the people in charge, and so Tuesday was a very long day of writing more and editing things, finishing just after 3 AM with multiple parts for the three horn songs printed, taped together, and ready to go.

Wednesday: Up at 8 AM to get caffeinated and head to the studio. Rob Opitz (trumpet), Richard Sherrington (trombone), and I recorded three songs, and then I went back and overdubbed more sax parts, and then I put solos on a few songs, sax parts on a song, flute parts on a song, and then another sax solo on another song. Ten hours after walking in, I picked up my horns and walked out of the studio never more braindead in my life.

an interesting set up--the horns were not individually mic'ed, but instead set up in an arc around three microphones (with two more to capture more the sound of us in the room)

Friday: I was invited to play with local horn band Bumpin' the Mango at Madlife in Woodstock. Good times on a small stage! The horn section was literally shoulder to shoulder--it's the only way we could all fit. I played really well (subbing as the tenor saxophonist), and we were finished by 9 PM (we had to hustle off the stage to make room for an Ozzy Osbourne tribute band). Hell yes.

Saturday: Since Yacht Rock isn't touring right now, I was able to squeeze in a musical this week--playing Footloose at The Lovett School. There's only one reed book--I'm playing flute, clarinet, and tenor and bari sax.

I'm not sure how it was done when I was in high school, but it does seem weird to be in a pit orchestra of professional musicians, playing for a high school cast, but...it's a gig (and I do enjoy the challenge of playing musicals)! Rehearsal number 1 was today.

This gig has some quirks:

1. We are situated in scaffolding upstage right, so we are packed in pretty tight. For instance, I cannot see the conductor's "conducting" (right) hand--only the "cueing" (left) hand. Also, there are two electric guitars, electric bass, and two keyboards up there, and all of their sounds are coming out of two floor wedges (actually just one on Sunday, as the other wedge died mysteriously).

2. Straight ahead jazz guys playing rock is...not convincing. Maybe it's just that there are no amps on stage, so there's not much balls to it.

3. In spite of our close proximity, it's hard to hear what everybody's playing, and there's a little delay between the drums and the band, and a lot of delay between the vocalists in the room and the band, and then if we put either in the monitor, it can become blazingly loud...we're having some issues with the mix!

4. The music director (keyboard 1) has played the show with the cast more than the conductor, so he'll react to their lines and start playing and leave the band a fraction of a second behind, making us all fight to find tempos.

5. The music itself isn't very difficult, but getting used to all the cuts in the music is, and sometimes when I turn the page, I can't find the next place in the music. I might need to add some post it note flags or something to lead my eyes to the right spot on the page.

I think it's all going to come together (I guess it HAS TO!). The process of getting the thing going is much different than other gigs that I play, though.

Sunday: Footloose rehearsal 2, and then I raced down to Venkman's to play a Yacht Rock "Unplugged" show.  We haven't seen too much of each other in the last two weeks, but there wasn't too much rust on the ol' machine.

I was very late to soundcheck because of the rehearsal, and then I made some adjustments to my mix after we finished, and then my mix was terrible. I just kinda lived with it since it was my fault.

Nothing particularly memorable about this one, except for Ganesh Giri Jaya filling in on drums. All my horns felt great--definitely a byproduct of all the playing I did earlier in the week. Monkeyboy told some particularly bad jokes. Nick went around the room with his wireless microphone.

Super Bowl Week

Woo! I'd kind of given up on the idea that there'd be a bunch of gigs around the Super Bowl--things just aren't like they were twenty years ago in Atlanta, but maybe it's quality over quantity this time? Nah.

Wednesday: I played with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo alongside Mace Hibbard (tenor), Dave Yoke (guitar), Dan Lawrence (piano), and Will Groth (drums) at Blind Willie's in Virginia Highland. Blind Willie's is an Atlanta institution of sorts, so I thought that maybe there'd be some Super Bowl traffic, but it was just another Wednesday night there. Sal Paolantonio (of ESPN fame) did walk in early in the gig and requested some Allman Bros (we sightread Southbound for him). He left before we finished the first set.

Other than that!...nice hang. Mace killed me on a night when I just couldn't come up with anything to play. Late in the gig, I had one good solo on Hummingbird, but the rest of the night, I was pretty lame.

Sunday: Yacht Rock was invited to play the official NFL tailgate party (or something like that) at the World Congress Center downtown. Due to the proximity to the stadium and the people and all that, this one had some insane security, which also meant that all of the gear had to be rented and checked by the FBI and everything. I sent a saxophone and flute a couple of days early, so we truly walked into the gig with nothing. No soundcheck or anything.

checking to make sure everything is turned on

Some other band opened and played their set, and then there were announcement-type things, which ended with something to the effect of "Thanks for coming, enjoy the game!" at which point, people started leaving. Thank god we only had to play for forty minutes.

start of the gig--maybe 100 people are watching the band

twenty minutes later, the crowd has shrunk significantly

twenty minutes after that...ouch!

And that was that. A dud, just like the game.