Bach Partita

I recorded myself last night practicing the Bach Partita in A minor.





I had a couple of goals in doing this.  First, I wanted to listen away from the flute and hear if what I was doing musically was working.  For instance, all that stuff on the second page of the first movement--say 2:45 til 3:30--not making much sense to me now that I hear it.  My articulation in the fourth movement is still pretty crappy, I must say.  I'm also trying to breathe more quietly (but still take in air), and it seems like it's getting better.  Sometimes I catch myself faking a breath but not really inhaling--maybe I'm resetting my embouchure?  I don't know.

My other big plan is to confront the psychological issues of knowing that I am being recorded.  For some reason it doesn't bother me on my little jazz gigs, but stuff like this is different.  I can feel myself playing for the recording.  The voice in my head begins writing a critique before I'm finished the first phrase!

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Kick it Up for American Water!

I played a private gig for a bunch of public water commissioners last night at the High with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  I guess that's how you'd describe them--CEOs of water companies?  Tyrone asked the bartender for three bottles of water for the band, and the guy said, "Not tonight!  These are tap water people!"

We were in a different room from last week, but the same acoustics applied.  We tried to get them to let us set up across the room,

but instead they set us right against the tables so they could use the keyboard later on in the night.

The gig began with solo saxophone, which seemed kind of dumb because the rest of the band was right next to me.  I thought it'd only be a song or two, but it somehow stretched into an entire HOUR of solo saxophone.  The crowd finally made their way to the tables and sat down, and we transitioned to trio.  From there, we played about an hour and fifteen minutes.

I don't think any of us played particularly well.  The combination of trying to keep the volume down coupled with the numbness of sitting around too long before the gig made us all play like we were kind of bored.  There was no energy, so we kind of dragged each other through the gig.



We took a break for the speeches and the little show they'd prepared.  Very weird.  The piano player wrote lyrics(a1-a4 on the player above)...when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, one guy popped a karaoke CD in the player and sang Proud to be an American (a5).  I guess putting a nationalistic bow on the bullshit always works.  Who knew water was so patriotic?

The three of us sat on the opposite of the room, howling with laughter and cheering them on.  After our patriotism had been inflamed, the crowd dispersed.

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Sunday

I did my usual two church gigs yesterday.

The first gig was even more chaotic than usual.  The band accompanied a group of adults called "Triumph" (they sounded like an amateur theatre group) and a children's choir.  On top of that we had our own usual stuff to do.  The first song was kind of a wreck--it was one of those songs where the meter of the song changes with the words (basically it was in three with an occasional bar of four), and the drummer kept turning the beat around because he couldn't get a clear answer about where on the lead sheet  the phantom bar of four was located.  The bass player transcribed the audio for the song earlier in the week, only to find out that we weren't using that version.  It got pretty tense there for a minute.  I laughed it all off--good thing I'd gotten plenty of sleep for a change!

I hate to be apathetic about the gig, but I figured out a while ago not to put too much preparation into this gig--they mp3s they email out earlier in the week are usually more of a reference for the vocalists than the band, and I have yet to play a Sunday where (at the least) chord sheets weren't provided.

One of the singers asked if we had rehearsals.  "No."  "Don't you get stressed about it?"  "About what?"

The Triumph thing was kind of amusing.  I asked which instrument to play (choices being soprano sax, tenor sax, or clarinet) and the director said "whatever will make it sound country."  Thirty seconds later we were into it--a gospel blues thing.  Ahh, tenor!  Country?  Huh?

One of the singers bitched that all she could hear was saxophone.  What's wrong with that?

The bass player asked if the audio for the children's choir matched the chart he'd just been given, and the choir director said, "I never heard a recording of this."  Jeez!

So...it went like that.

The second gig was the usual.  Not much to report.  I spent a fair amount of the gig hitting "update" on the ESPN gamecast of the Cowboys game.  They won.  I was able to provide up to the minute updates to the guitarist.

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Back to Back to Back

I did two gigs Thursday and one Friday at lunch.

Gig 1:  I played a trio gig at the High Museum with Tyrone Jackson and Kevin Smith.  The usual private event.  Playing in the High atrium always sounds really good because of the natural reverb, but it's also the curse--if you push the volume at all, the wash of sound buries the crowd.  We were asked twice to bring the volume down;  for that room, I'd say that's a victory.

Kevin and Tyrone are just flat awesome.  I haven't had any jazz gigs the past few months, and it's felt like an eternity since the three of us got together.  I definitely want to try and do a new recording with them some time in 2011.

In the mean time, here's what I recorded last night:

I tried sushi (for the first time) because it was there and it was free.  It tastes fishy.  I didn't like it.

We had to go overtime, so I went running out of the High and straight to the 10 High.



Gig 2:  I played the usual Yacht Rock gig at the 10 High.  It went well.  We had Daniel Morrison on drums and Kevin Spencer filling in for Pete (still out on baby duty).  The first set was a lot of fun--we were groovin', and because I'd already played a three hour gig, I was fully warmed up.

We went on break, and I got very sleepy.

The second set was tough.  I ran out of gas.  I somehow made it to the end, got all my stuff back in the truck, and headed for home.

Friend of the band/Bencuya's high school buddy Jim Reindel was putting on a clinic at the 10 High, showing how to hit on every woman in the room and not get beat up.  At some point his moves degenerated into some strange solo dancing.  Notice in the photos how the crowd has pulled away from him.

Gig 3:  I was up early for a Friday--9 AM, and on my way down to the Georgia International Convention Center by 10:20.  Wayne, Jeff and I did a one hour House Live gig for a luncheon--I think it was for the GICC, and they were trying to convince event people to book their events there.  Hopefully none of them noticed that the GICC didn't budget their time well--a luncheon in an hour?  We did 45 minutes of overtime.  Not impressive.

Jeff did not feel well.

On the way home, I stopped at Sam Ash and bought an Apogee Duet.  Earlier this week I tried a Mackie Blackbird, but I didn't like it.  The recordings I did earlier in the week needed a ton of gain to make them work--I mean, a weird amount of gain.  I love Mackie stuff, but I'm not sure about the Blackbird.  I know the Apogee's going to work out great.  Plus, recording guys are snobs, and everyone to whom I mentioned the Blackbird turned up their noses at it.  The Apogee is a much more accepted piece of recording equipment.

I have Saturday off...no gigs.  What to do with myself?!

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GE Part WR17X11705

You're probably wondering what I've been doing this week.  Not playing gigs!  It's been an incredible year of work, and this just happens to be a slow week.

Last night I did some recording for a guy...he sent me the charts and an mp3 and I recorded flute and clarinet parts for him.  I like doing it this way--recording at home.  I think that's the way a lot of projects will come about in the future, especially with guys who are organized enough to have music written out for you.  I always like that!  It's much easier than having someone sing something to you and then say, "harmonize it!"  Better yet is the "just play what you feel."  I could definitely be doing that from home!

It was easy, too.  I just dragged the mp3 into Logic, made a track, plugged in my microphone, and away I went.  Technology is awesome.

My other major accomplishment was in fixing the ice machine in our refrigerator.  That'd be GE part WR17X11705 (the ice auger).  Cost me $25 and a half hour.  If the gigs dry up, that's what I'll be doing full time.

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House of Blues, Orlando

Yacht Rock played Monday night at the House of Blues in Orlando.  It was a very cool gig.  Playing a gig in a room like that makes feel like a legitimately pro musician in a way that playing in hotel ballrooms can never equal.  Even though it was a private event, the sound crew was very cool and very professional, and they know that they are there to help you kick ass.  They will try to give you what you want, be it your own monitor mix, help setting up your gear, whatever.  It's really cool--I mean, most of my gigs, we're treated like servers, so to have a almost a personal assistant was neat (and weird--I'm so used to doing stuff on my own, it's hard to remember to expect someone else to do the heavy lifting!).

Cobb, Bencuya, and Nick in the limo

Going back to Orlando itself was a flash flood of emotions, even though we were on the opposite side of town from where I grew up.  I lived in the northern suburbs of Longwood and Altamonte Springs from sixth grade til high school graduation (except for six months in Miami), and just walking out the front door of the airport brought it all back.  I never felt like a Central Floridian more than when I got there that morning.  It felt like home.

The gig itself was cool.  We flew out of Atlanta at 8 AM;  we were in Florida around 10 AM.  We ate and hung around "Downtown Disney."  Around 2:30 PM I took a cab to the venue and began the process setting up my real estate and finding sounds on the rental keyboard.  We soundchecked.  Everything was fine.  The only drag was that Bencuya and I were using rented amplifiers (Roland KC500), and they sounded really bad--thin and harsh.  I missed my Mackie stuff.  Why doesn't Mackie make keyboard amplifiers?  I wish we'd paid somebody to drive all our gear down the day before instead of renting it.  I hate rental gear.

Mark Dannells opened his bag to find that TSA had removed his guitar cables and guitar strap.  We can only assume they forgot to return them.

Playing the gig was really neat, like I said, because it's a real stage with a real sound crew.  The Flaming Lips had been there a few weeks earlier.  I believe The Who had played there at some point.  I was playing back at my station, keeping my volume kind of low because the amp sounded so bad.  Usually no one wants to hear me anywhere else on stage, and I've kind of given up getting mad about it (the monitor guy actually said something about it to me, and I replied "They kind of ignore me, and I kind of ignore them, and it's fine").  So, we got to Silly Love Songs and Nick was back at my spot playing piano and I was on the front line, and that's when I found out that my keyboards were REALLY loud in the side fills!  Oh crap!  That made me kind of tense...better watch what I was playing!

Here's a video Ganesh took of us from the dressing room, performing Coming Up.  That's me down the lower right hand corner playing EWI.  All those years of marching band, finally put to good use.

Other than that, it was usual Yacht Rock.  No big deal.  They loved us.  Afterwards, we went out for pictures and multiple women asked to pull on my mustache and verify its authenticity.  One lady asked if my hair was real (I put my hand on her head and said, "No--is yours?").  More than one woman jammed her hand in my shirt to feel my chest hair.  Weird weirdness.  A couple of women put their hands in the pockets of some of the other guys.

Bencuya had a woman talking to him mention she was from Columbus, Ohio.  He said, "I'm from Ann Arbor, Michigan," and she walked away.  Yes!

dressing room

I packed up my horns and computer and we all changed clothes.  Somebody stole Mark Cobb's iPod from the front of house desk, so we waited around to see what could be done about it (the House of Blues basically said too bad--I'm not sure how they can avoid responsibility for it.  If a light had fallen and crushed one of my saxophones, would they have said "You shouldn't have put it there"?).

my room

the shower

Mark Dannells!

almost home

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40 Watt!

Last night (Saturday), Yacht Rock played our first gig in Athens--at the 40 Watt!  Pretty cool way to start out!

The club is cool...really, Athens is just cool.  It was like being back in college, but without all the crushing stress of being in college.  Add Athens to my list of places I want to live after I retire.  Maybe it's just that I miss being able to walk around town.  No can do in the suburbs.

Kevin Spencer and Mark Dannells

soundcheck

dressing room graffiti

backstage

Mark Dannells

So...the gig went well.  The sound was great.  It seemed dimly lit, but who's to say--I had sunglasses on.  Despite this wonderful write up in the Flagpole, I didn't play much saxophone on the gig--maybe three songs, and two of those were "parts" songs instead of sax solos.  So it goes.

We were followed by Krush Girls--which was a pair of guys who were a DJ.  Really, it was one guy who was a DJ (of the digital variety, I should point out, for the vinyl purists), and another guy who just made lots of hand gestures.  I guess they were good;  I really can't tell.  I mean, I don't quite understand the hoopla over a DJ--aren't you just the guy picking the next song?

I got home between after 3 AM, and after unloading my gear, I was asleep by 4 AM.  I was up at 6:45 AM to play my church gig.  I was back in bed by 11 AM, and slept until 4 PM (I think).  Got up, ate, bathed, went to my next church gig.  Came home, ate, watched the football game, and packed for the next gig!  And...I have to get up again in 3 and a half hours!

Off to Orlando.

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Friday!

Gina and me

Last night Yacht Rock played a benefit at the Atlanta History Center.  We've played this gig before...not much to say about it.  Us, auctions, natural reverb.

After the gig, several of us attended Gina Niespodziani's birthday party.  It was like a college party--lots of people crammed into a tiny house, loud music, lots of alcohol.  I'm sure it's quite a mess in the daylight.  Happy birthday Gina!

The Mark Dannells!

Hans on sound!

Tonight, we are off to Athens to play at the 40 Watt.

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Thursday at the 10 High

Yacht Rock had a really fun gig last night at the 10 High.  All the regular guys were there except Pete, who's on baby duty right now.

It looked like it would be another thin crowd, but people kept filtering in through the break in between sets.  I think it got MORE crowded during the break, instead of people bailing out.  

Mark Bencuya dedicated Saturday in the Park to Sparky Anderson.

We played Lovely Day early in the second set, and that song got a really good reaction from the crowd.  After Nick made a comment about people liking Bill Withers, we kind of fell into Use Me.  I picked up my alto and played all over it.  The groove was good, my volume was good, my reed was good...I got closer to sounding like David Sanborn than ever before.  It was AWESOME!  Highlight of the night for me.

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Ketel One gig

Yacht Rock played a gig last night for Ketel One vodka.  It was a quick and easy two set gig at the Terminus building in Buckhead--the same place we played a few months ago.

Much of the same...it's still an unfinished office space, all concrete echo chamber.  Very loud.

In looking over the set list before the gig, I noticed that I needed alto on one song in the first set, and alto on one song in the second set, and the rest was keyboards and EWI.  I thought about leaving my tenor at home, but I brought it anyway.  Good thing!  Our encore was a tenor song.

my view

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Ben Lovett at Smith's

Last night was the big Ben Lovett show at Smith's Olde Bar.  Ben is known in the music industry for his young and hip movie scores.  This show was a live production of his solo project, which is of course young and hip.

The show went pretty well, especially considering all of the technical difficulties involved in getting the thing together.  Say what you want about the lack of leadership at the rehearsals or the theatrics over the music, but the guy had a big vision and he went for it, and by and large I think he pulled it off.  In the end, he got a band of fantastic musicians to get on stage with him and play his music (without really knowing if it would work or how they would be compensated).  There's something to be said for that.

Pictures:

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