There and Back

The first crazy weekend of gigs I've had in a while.  Follow along:

Friday:  the final Yacht Rock summer concert series gig at Park Tavern.  Nothing too difficult--we even debuted a few new ones (I Love You by Climax Blues Band and Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton).

Midtown got a lot of rain in between soundcheck and the show, and the tent leaked a little bit in my area.  Nothing could really be done about it, and it didn't hit any of my gear directly, so I waited it out.  One leak created a pretty good sized puddle in between my saxophones, which kind of scared me, but there appeared to be no damage.

Much like the previous month, I wasn't all that excited about playing the gig, but the crowd was really enthusiastic, so it turned out to be pretty fun.  Both new songs went over well, especially the duet (even though I crashed and burned on the outro).   One other new song that we played was Hotel California, which we first played at this year's revival.  Monkeyboy figured out how to play both parts of the outro guitar solo.  Excellent work!  He also tried a new cabinet with his Kemper profiling amp--Ford Fry's 65 Amp!

"It's probably not even on anyway."

Kip to the rescue!

The crowd got a bit testy after the show--a few angry girls who didn't get what they wanted (one insisted the Greg Lee sing Happy Birthday to her;  another asked that we pose for a picture with her while holding her parallel to the floor like a dead fish).  I don't understand why these people think they have the right to demand this kind of stuff of us.

Post gig, some guy said to me, "I loved that there was a flute part, and you could've played with a flute sound on your keyboard, but you played it on an actual flute instead!"  Correct.

One sweet thing from this gig was that we had a couple of guys to haul our gear back up the hill to the parking lot.  Almost all of it went straight into the trailer.

Saturday:  we reassembled on three hours sleep to go play for the PGA tournament at East Lake.  Ouch.  7:30 soundcheck on back lined gear (the van and trailer left town for our next gig).

This one was kind of a blur.  We were tired.  At one point, I was fanning Monkey with Rory McIlroy's face on a stick while he was trying to solo.  That progressed to rubbing and patting his head with it, which then progressed to poking him in the butt with it.  Soon after, I was attacked with Rory's and Bubba Watson's heads while trying to play Baker Street.

Here's a fun video from the event.  You can't even hear me screwing up, can you?  My hands and wrists got a nice cameo, though.



We played one set, packed up, and left town, headed to Charleston for a wedding reception.  Hans and Kip took the van and trailer earlier with our gear plus a PA so we could make it in time for a soundcheck.

timber?

This one was rough.  The coordinator was not our friend.  We were crammed into a small space in a small room.  I fell asleep at the table while we were waiting to be fed.  There was no green room.  At one point we were paraded down a stairwell full of construction tools, out on the front sidewalk, up the alley, and up another back staircase to retrieve two suitcases from a hallway and then all the way back just so we wouldn't be seen by the guests.  We almost didn't get fed at all.  As soon as the gig ended, the room decorators came in and began tearing their stuff down, which made our packing and load out chaotic (to say the least).  One of the butthead decorators parked their box truck in front of the alley, so we had to load out down the stairwell full of construction tools and pile our gear on the sidewalk until we could get the van close enough to load.  Charleston was still hot and humid after midnight.

That said, the room was pretty, that one decorator chick in the tight shorts was really hot, the people throwing and attending the reception were very cool, and the playing was good.  We played the hell out Lowdown both here and at the Park Tavern (with terrific solos by Bencuya both nights).

I roomed with Greg Lee, who challenged me to a Snore War.  Even though he started snoring before I fell asleep, I prevailed (by waking him up with my own snoring).

Sunday:  up early again.  We drove home from Charleston (five or six hours).  After dividing gear, I had enough to time to go home, dump my stuff, change clothes, and head out the door to my church gig.  This Sunday (and next), I picked up the mass before my usual, so I had a 4:30 rehearsal.  Somehow I managed to stay awake for both, though my eyes were rolling back in my head during the homily.

Got home, ate half a pizza, watched some of the football game, and passed out on the couch.

Sun in my Belly

David Ellington and I played another sax/organ duo gig tonight at a restaurant in Decatur called Sun in my Belly.  Great little gig!  We are really enjoying these quieter performances where we can hear really well.  Much more fun than the previous evening's stress (though there was some stress for me with the traffic--it took Dave eight minutes to get to the restaurant, but it took me an hour and forty minutes!).

I'm really happy with my playing on this one.  Check it out:

Quartet for Kids

I played a quartet gig--a dinner/awards ceremony for a local children's hospital.  I think this may be the tenth year I've done the gig.  It's always very stressful for me because they have a very particular script for the evening, and I do my best to drag the other three guys along as we play various people on and off stage throughout the night, in addition to providing music during dinner.  This year the band consisted of Dan Baraszu on guitar, David Ellington on organ, and Henry Conerway III on drums.  Making sure everybody shows up on time and knows what we're doing throughout the evening wears me out.

Our set up was not the best--more or less in a line leading away from the stage.  On the recordings, that's why you can't hear the guitar very well--he's on one end of the line and I (and the recorder) am on the other.   Maybe we can fix that for next year?  More importantly, I think it caused some strange tempo problems.  We were not hearing each other well.



Dave and I will be back in duo form tomorrow night (Friday, September 5) at Sun in my Belly on College Ave in Decatur.  7-9 PM.

Crazy from the Heat

Quite a weekend for Yacht Rock gigs!

Saturday evening, we performed at the Georgia Theatre in Athens.  The theatre broadcasts the UGA games on a giant screen, so we loaded our gear in at half time and uncased most stuff, but couldn't set up and soundcheck until after the game. No big deal, but it made for a pretty long wait.  I think we finally hit the stage around 10:30 PM to a crowd of just under eight hundred.

The first couple of songs were fine, but Maneater was third, and my saxophone and I weren't quite ready.  I had a key stuck shut (which I wasn't aware of), which caused me to play a wrong note at the beginning.  The solos had the right notes, but my reed was soft and misaligned, I was out of tune, and I pinched the reed shut a couple of times (so there was no sound).  In addition to my equipment problems, I'm getting into the bad habit of putting too much lower lip in my mouth, making the pinching even worse.  It only seems to manifest itself on tenor.

On down the line...I learned a new vocal harmony part for Sister Golden Hair that Dustin sang on the gigs he did with us in the midwest, but nobody on stage heard it except Mark Cobb.

Band on the Run...in the orchestral section that bridges the second and third parts of the song, Bencuya, Dannells, and I are playing the same part, but we got off (I was ahead of them).  Oops.

The rest of the gig was fine.  We played Takin' it to the Streets as the encore.  Same kind of embouchure-caving-in problem.  I'm also overblowing like crazy.  My saxophone playing in the band sucks real bad right now.

As soon as the gig ended, a line of thunderstorms blew into Athens.  It looked like we were going to load out in a monsoon, but it let up enough for us to get out.  We spent the night at a hotel in Duluth so we could make it to our next gig comfortably.

Sunday afternoon, we performed before the big NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on a great big stage in the winner's circle.  Biggest room we've ever played!  Our performance was scheduled for 5:30 PM, but we loaded in before noon, which meant that all our gear sat in direct sunlight for hours.  I was not thrilled.  Some stuff (guitars, saxophones, my laptop and EWI) stayed under the stage in the shade.  Sun and musical instruments do not mix.  After we checked everything, the sound company loaned us some speaker covers to cover the amps and keyboards, which I think helped quite a bit.  We should've planned better and brought tarps.

the only shade on stage

our gear, moments before it burst into flames

photo courtesy of Peter Olson

While we were sound checking, they were taking VIPs on rides around the track, right past the stage at about a hundred miles an hour.  Crazy to see cars zipping by right off the front of the stage!

The late night Saturday plus the heat made us pretty miserable.  We passed the time in a tent in a parking lot, trading the direct sunlight for no air circulation.  The catered food of pot roast and vegetables was terrible (and cold).  Still not happy!

It got over a hundred degrees that afternoon, so most of us got in the van and cranked the air conditioning.  It didn't take too long before we were sound asleep--I bet that looked weird!  Five us in the van, totally passed out, with the motor running.

potty break

The gig itself was no big deal.  We were still in the sun, but it was only an hour.  We played after the BMX stunt riders and Dave Smith, the human cannonball.  He survived.  It's hard to say how big the audience was or what they thought of us.

the adjusted set list

Same kind of tenor embouchure problems.  Also, we haven't played Ride Captain Ride in a long time.  I have only a vague recollection of my part in the introduction.  It sounded like it, too.  Multiple wrong notes.

A few random shots of the scene:

photo courtesy of Peter Olson

I was very happy when we finally headed for home.

In other news, we did the ALS ice bucket challenge with our own twist.  I am obviously the weak link when it comes to chugging beer.



Here's a video of Bumpin' the Mango (with a high school kid sitting in on trumpet) playing Superstition the night I subbed with them.



Dave Ellington and I played JCT Kitchen Thursday evening.  Here are a couple of videos of that:









You can catch Dave and I this Friday night at Sun in my Belly in Decatur (2161 College Ave NE, Decatur, GA 30317) between 7 and 9 PM.

Dave and Dave

David Ellington and I played a duo gig at JCT Kitchen on the west side of Atlanta tonight.  I think we've done about six or seven of these sax/organ gigs now.

Good gig, though it was really hot for a while.  We were in the shade behind the fake silo, and then I was in the sun and Dave was in the shade (and my horn got really sharp).  Finally, the sun slipped behind the lofts across the parking lot, and then we were in the dark.

Check out our sounds:



JCT gig number four.  Next time I intend to order something other than the cheeseburger.

Wednesday

Yacht Rock played a run of the mill corporate party last night.  The optimistic plan was that after the dinner and awards, everybody would stick around to party and dance the Wednesday night away.  Worst case scenario, the awards end and everybody leaves the room.  For the most part, that's what we got.  It didn't help that the bar station was out in the pre function area.  We played to around twenty-five people (fifteen of which were seated around two tables in the back of the room).  Our handler was super cool about everything, though.

Other random things...I packed my stage clothes except for shirts, so halfway to the gig I had to turn around and go home;  I was forty-five minutes late to load in, but still set up in time for soundcheck...the load in at the Intercon in Buckhead is terrible...we did the ice bucket challenge, and it got me, though my hat took the brunt of it (you can watch it here:  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154573597075096)...Ganesh subbed for Cobb on drums...I made the twitter feed!

Bump City

Monday night, I had another opportunity to sub on bari sax with Bumpin' the Mango at Cafe 290.  In case you don't know, BtM is a funk/soul band in the style of Tower of Power--five horns, rhythm section, and a vocalist.  It's awesome fun!  I love the music and the band.  Rarely do I get to hang out with a bunch of other horn players these days.

It was a great night!  I got to stand next to John Sandfort all night--one of my favorite sax players in town.  Fantastic stuff.

Can't wait to do this one again!

Park Tavern

Yacht Rock was back at the Park Tavern a month after our triumphant Revival (July 19).   Pretty huge crowd!  Presales were just about a thousand people, so I think we came close to the maximum.  They were really into it, too, which made for a really fun show.  I was kind of lukewarm about playing this gig, but the energy from everybody made it pretty exciting.

 It was really hot, particularly for the first set.  Even with my fan, I was soaked by the time we took a break;  so sweaty that it made playing flute on Lowdown especially difficult, as a I couldn't keep the flute in one spot on my face.  The second set was better.  Maybe the heat of the day had finally dissipated enough.

My performance was mixed.  I played well in the first set until the end, when a few weird notes began to creep into some chords on Go Your Own Way.  Basically I kept hitting E instead of F, which made my Bb triad a #4 and my F major triads major 7th chords, neither of which is accurate or appropriate for Fleetwood Mac.  All apologies to Lindsay...

In the second set, I was doing just fine until Lido.  In the the synth stacking buildup thing before the last chorus, the voicings keep inverting.  One hand failed to invert on the third time;  when I tried to address this situation, the other hand fell apart.  Not impressive.  It sounded like I was playing with mittens on.  Some of this flailing carried over into Rosanna, which also had a few ragged moments.  Fortunately, the gig ended with that.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Either everybody's vocals were really pitchy, or it was me.  I'm pretty sure it was me. I think I sang like shit all night long.  Like crazy all-over-the-place, quarter-tones-all-night.  Sucked real bad.

After setting everything up and running sound all night, Kip was still cool enough to help load out (he helped me load in, too), which got me out of there in good time.  Thank you!

I heard the Atlantic All Stars version of Pick Up the Pieces with the terrific Michael Brecker solo on the way home.  It reminded me of all the things I don't do on solos--take your time, play clear ideas, don't overflow.  On Biggest Part of Me, I think I made it through about eight measures before everything went to hell.

Enjoy.  It's worth a couple of listens.  The arrangement is super duper too.




Gigs this week!

Monday:  subbing on bari sax with Bumpin' the Mango (Tower of Power style horn band) at Cafe 290,  8:30 PM.

Wednesday:  private gig with Yacht Rock.

Thursday:  the Dave and Dave Organ Duo (with David Ellington) at JCT Kitchen, 6-9 PM.

Saturday:  Georgia Theatre in Athens with Yacht Rock, 9 PM.

Sunday:  Pre Race Party at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Yacht Rock, 5:30 PM.

Weekend Roundup

Uhhhh...Saturday evening, Yacht Rock played a wedding at the History Center.  I would rank this among my least favorite load ins--you either run everything up through the door off the courtyard (into the elevator), or you compete with the catering truck to get stuff through the loading dock.  Either way is a drag, with a cranky elevator in either situation.  I forget about it because we don't play here very often.  It's a beautiful room, but getting up there is a pain.

We got upstairs only to find out that the stage was the incorrect size (I believe 16x16 instead of 16x24), so we were a bit snug, but it didn't really matter.  We were able to get everything on stage in our usual configuration.

The gig was pretty good.  The bride and groom are big fans, and so everybody knew what they were getting into--captain's hats were distributed and away we went.  A lovely crowd, hats or no hats.

The first dance shredded my throat--Sam Cooke's You Send Me.  The backing vocals are really high (up to a screechy E!), at the top edge of my falsetto.  I made it through, but I couldn't have done it again.

Sunday...I haven't been writing about my church gig recently, though I'm still playing it.  There hasn't been anything to say.  This Sunday I was asked to sub at the mass before my usual one, which was a nice change of pace--reading charts and playing with different people.  I wouldn't mind doing this one again.  Strictly flute on this one.

My regular mass was...regular.  On the first tune, the microphone inside the piano got loose and landed on the strings--an interesting noise, I guess.  Other than that, it was business as usual.  I played flute and soprano sax on this one.  Evidently I did something cool on soprano during one of the communion songs, but I have no recollection.

In other news, here are video playlists from from two gigs this month.  First up is my duo with David Ellington at The Optimist.



The other is a trio gig with Dave and Henry Conerway III on drums that we played this past Wednesday.  Check 'em out!



One more thing!  Yacht Rock is back at the Park Tavern this Friday evening.  Come see what we're up to!

Beatles OTP

The Yacht Rock guys (plus Paul Poovey on trumpet) brought our Beatles tribute out to 37 Main in Johns Creek last night--our first time at this venue and one of the only times we've ever played the Fab Four beyond Smith's Olde Bar.

Pretty good show overall.  The whole room felt acoustically controlled--the PA was loud, but there weren't a lot of reflective surfaces to bounce sound.  It felt like we were playing pretty hard, but the stage sound never got very loud.  It was fine with me--I could everything on stage without it getting washy.

This is a new 37 Main (the other is on Main Street in Duluth).  Nice place!  Good size room, good food/hospitality, good staff, easy load in.  I'll take it!  The only weirdness I can think of is the air conditioning vent that was directly above the horn section, causing some tuning anomalies and a constant fight to keep our charts on the music stand.  The other peculiarity was that the hazer (for the lights) was inside the drum riser, and the haze came out of a hole right in front of me.  Occasionally I would disappear in a cloud of smoke.  Magic!

Lots of cool lights on the back wall.