1st Day of Summer: A "Brown Bag" Wine Tasting at Java Monkey with TAAG + 2

It was a nice warm evening, not too sticky just yet;  perfect for another round of neo-mainstream jazz with The Adrian Ash Group holding court on the Java Monkey patio stages.  Nice work if you can get it, indeed! Days like this, the day after the summer solstice, are certainly inspirational.  With the wine tasting being a brown bag affair, what you see is what you get!  That's what we offered as well;  Adrian and I were joined by the guitar wizard Randy Honea and saxophonist William Hollifield.  On this occasion, the results were bold and forward-thinking, yet surprisingly straight ahead.

I hadn't met William before.  He's a tenor terror, no doubt - gotta check him out if (when) you get the chance.  He knew everything we called and more.  Highlights included a terrifically straight-ahead All the Things You Are.  It's funny how on that tune, no matter who I'm with, we want to trade fours after the solos.  With it's slightly odd form, the bars turn themselves around and then the drummer is playing over the first four measures on the second go-round.  I always find that a bit unsettling, but we usually just keep on going.  In this case, we let Adrian continue alone the second time through.  William had a great, warm tone and an adventurous melodic sense;  never straying too far from the tonal barrier that outlines our mission: presenting jazz to the great unwashed and unsuspecting masses of Decatur.  He even quoted me (my puny phrase was echoed back to me - that's about the coolest thing that's happened to me since the last time somebody quoted my lonesome lick!) - no mean feat, I was slow and steady, with not much in intentional "outsidedness" going on.  It was surprising that he did it, at any rate.  These young lions with their big ears!  His set-ups of the tunes were a great lesson in composition;  wonderful miniature exercises in coyness around the melody and playful jabs at the harmonic heart of the piece.  Yeah, that's it!

Randy - I'm always trying to figure out what he's playing and how he's doing it!  I think I overheard William posing the question of "Metheny or Scofield?" to Randy, which his reply was "Scofield."  Perhaps "Sco" with a twist of "Frisell" for added zest.  He gets this shimmering Leslie rotating speaker kind of patch with his vintage Line 6 Pod setup that keeps the comping tight yet washes over all of the upper partials until we're ready to come back down to earth for the restating of the head.  It's a beautiful sound to check out..  I want to be him when I grow up!  Adrian keeps our energy going throughout, calling the tunes and pushing me to stay on the front of the beat.  He has chops galore, and a strong sense of forward momentum.  I always wonder what he's thinking, as he is a bassist.  His solos build in such a logical fashion.  A great benefit to be able to play another instrument (or 2 or 3, actually).

Another tune that we don't play enough but was a stellar call: Equinox - how appropriate, and I didn't even put it together that we had just experienced the solstice.  How come nobody, I mean nobody, wants to play it in C#m?  Well, I get it.  It's a weird key.  That was indeed the key that Trane wrote it in.  He wasn't afraid, was he?  I mean, Giant Steps is in B (or is it Eb?).  Like Red Clay being in C#m also.  It's all the Real Book's fault, I tell you!  Aside from my silly concerns, it was a fine moment where we met with the crowd for a fertile celebration of modal minor blues.  Nobody was harmed during our gig.  Even the policeman coming through didn't give us any flak - noise ordinances only occur when there is noise!

Sunday Church Service at Mt. Pisgah in Johns Creek

Crawled into bed, let's say a 5:30 am, after getting Spencer up to go potty.  The truth is, it was more like 5:45.  Had 2 alarms set for 6:50, so it was about an hour of real sleep.  Hey, happy father's day to me!  Had to be at Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Chruch for an 8:00 am rehearsal.  I was looking forward to meeting up with an old comrade Tom Knight.  I haven't spoken or seen him since he found great success playing with Atlanta's own http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLC_(band) (very informative wiki site - Sabina bought CrazySexyCool back in the day, so I am duly impressed!  he's done countless other sessions along the way, including recordings with the great young bassist Adam Nitti.  Tom always held himself up to a higher level.  I distinctly remember him practicing in GSU's Music Building (circa 1990) Room 300, where the big band and many of the combos rehearsed.  he would play to a Dave Weckl play-along cassette tape (maybe it was cd back then, I guess it would make more sense)!  He was getting through it, minute by minute.  We had a "band" called The Stud Muffins: Sam Skelton: tenor sax 9sorry to incriminate you, Roomie!);  Tom McGill: bass guitar;  Tom Knight: drums;  and myself on guitar!  Yes, of course I was mainly a guitarist back in the day.  We had a most happening repertoire (the sky was the limit with Sam, it was just however the rest of us could hang that gave the public our music...).  We used to play Mike Stern's Chromazone (dig that, I hung in there for the most part).  This YouTube version is killin' - the album was what we were going off, which is understandably slower.  The album version has Bob Berg playing but with a righteous Michael Brecker solo that will tear your head off!  So New York, you'll be worn out and have the itch to just hang in your parlor and do nothin' after you dig what he throws down.  You know, I can't find it on youtube just now - it's on "Time and Place" (cool bass transcription here, along with that live with Berg video hosted once again).  The big marketplace displays it here.  Worth reaching into your pocket for that last track, plus Gossip has another nut-flinching Brecker throwdown.  No Notice and After All are also killer tracks.  I digress, we played a few times as a quartet.  It is still my top brush with greatness encounter!  How's that for progress?  Just kidding.  I knew Sam & Tom would be eclipsing me in the near future.  Maybe that's why I wanted to play bass more.  I could stand a chance down the road.  What I would consider giving for a picture of us back in those "early '90's GSU" days...

The gig went well, although it could have been more smooth.  Tim Johnson, aka TJ, the leader was excellent, and very detail oriented.  The rhythm section read their charts off of iPads.  Mine was low on charge and skipped pages at random - Tom was my witness!  He had a cool iPad mount for his drum area.  I gave up on the iPad and tried to put together all of the paper charts; opend the folder and all of the music that had been in the left pocket fell to the floor!  Crackers!  During the break, we went downstairs to sit in Tim's office.  I was trying to find a writing utensil to fill out my tax info for payment.  I rested and chatted with the crew, sipping on a cold water of Tim's that tasted better than anything should.  Then I realized I needed to get the paperwork done.  Found a pencil in the office next door and wrote down all of my info.  Then I noted that I was alone down here - oh no!  They've all darted back upstairs!  I get up there and heard them going through the opening of the second service.  Blimey!  The walk of shame to me to my seat, where I tried in vain to find the charts on the iPad.  After the first tune, Tom tried as well.  We couldn't do it, and it was low on charge anyways, with no extension cord to plug in the charger.  I had to read off the paper charts.  A sad occurrence that tainted the gig.  Still, it was rather tremendous, the dynamics and power of this mighty band!  I got past the negative stuff and enjoyed the music.  I was in awe for many of the numbers.  What a great gig to have every Sunday.  Maybe one day.

Horn player conducted some of the more complex numbers -
he cuts the checks too, so gotta play the right notes!

Tom Knight in his element.  I'm not worthy!

Plugged into a Super Redhead.  Nice tone for my monitoring pleasure.

TJ

No touchups here - not too bad considering the night I had just endured!

It was Father's Day - after lunch at my Father-in-law's, the boys and I made it out to see Madagascar 3.
Check out Spencer the penguin!

Saturday - Off To Brasstown Valley Resort with Sweetwater Junction

Up early to ready the fem-car for Sabina's blueberry picking excursion over the South Carolina border with the boys and her co-worker Nancy.  The dvd player gave me a scare but worked just fine after relocating the power plug to the front - is there an issue with the mid compartment outlet?  I was quite bleary-eyed, as I had foolishly taken my time getting out of the door the night before, and then consequently basement surfing when I got home.  Silly middle-aged man who never learns the value of sleep...

Sweetwater Junction on this occasion is the standard road weary line up of Brian Molin, Chris Garner, Mark Letalien, and Dan Barker, along with myself.  Brian gets us there and back with no issues - a good time in his trusty hands.  Killer guitar chops at will, ready to slay or smolder.  Chris has the impeccable voice and is a great guitarist as well, acoustic flavor much needed on some of the songs.  Mark is always working the groove, laying down a deep pocket for me to tag along, a sonic hammock if you will.  Dan brings a lot to the band.  I enjoy his 3 keyboard setup, his cool sounds he gets, the way he ends up standing for much of the set, and his good natured hangability.  We made the most of occasion with good camradarie!  Had the opportunity to ride with Mark - shoulda woulda coulda!  Rode with Brian, as he had rented the big van and we needed to practice some harmonizing, which we did.  Only problem there was, Brian rocks the mighty mackie powered mixer with a whopping 8 (count 'em - 8) XLR inputs.  This meant that Dan would be without a vocal mic, and he was singing his parts really well in the van.  It also compromised some other sound issues, like Brian's guitar amp not going through the PA.  Easily solved by turning the amp up to 11 (or 10.5).

Played adjacent to the golf course where I'd been before.  Had to load the gear into carts as they wouldn't allow a trailer down the path.  Other bands have ruined that practice with their careless driving, destroying the Our dances we prepared for certainly set the tone for the festive celebration: Grateful Dead's Shakedown Street;  James Taylor's Shower the People;  Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E;  and the parting song for the end of  the night: Grateful Dead's And We Bid You Goodnight, an a capella/hippie folk ditty/sort of Amazing Grace type spiritual.  The crowd was very appreciative as we eased into the night with our light jazz: Freddie Freeloader;  All Blues (in 4);  Just Friends;  Chitlins Con Carne;  great weather and good stuff for the cocktail hour.  Folks giving us props even as we were still in the midst of the slow stuff.  The dance stuff came quickly after dinner - hippie but oldies for the folks footing the bill.  Gave them a lot of music, as the speeches were short.  Got out of there late, after consuming too many Krispy Kreme donuts (hey, so glad they weren't Dunkin' Donuts)!  Back home in time to catch a few zzz's before a church service in the early morn.

Do you see this view?

String quartet during ceremony and just afterwards.

Detail of string quartet -  great expression that is silently saying "Eat shit bass boy!"

Dan getting down on All Blues.

A rare shot of me from a distance!

Dan & Mark, kicking back.

Friday the 15th: A Double Shot with Billy Martin

Billy Martin, you know, the drummer from Medeski, Martin & Wood!  Sorry, silly reference... I am attempting to allude to Billy as in The Billy Batts Ensemble and then Martin as in Martay and the Partay (first time I've even seen this web site!).  It was a miraculous coming together of events that enabled me to take on this fine double header of divergent genres.

Always look forward to hitting it with The Billy Batts Ensemble, a great jazz, blues, and dare I say soft rock quartet, complete with 4-part vocal harmonies.  As the weather was near perfect, we were ensconced out on the patio.  Even the tables to our left were filled up.  Good to be out there playing the fine mellow music for the distinguished dining guests.  Thanks to Walt, we brought out a couple of new-to-us tunes: The Beatles' Come Together.  I like how we play just a few Beatles tunes and that they are all John songs; the others being Dear Prudence (we stuck that one in as well) and Norwegian Wood (we haven't played that in a while).  Everybody was in the zone.  Young Mark Letalien, drummer & percussionist extraordinaire, kept the groove simmering and percolating while helping to keep our stage levels low for the nearby chatting crowd.  He has a bottomless supply of energy and verve that makes gigs like this an easy task.  I love the double time stanzas we romp though on the Latin-tinged standards.  Other cool tunes we tried: All the Things You Are;  Black Orpheus;  Unchain My Heart;  for our closing number (drum roll please)... In Memory of Elisabeth Reed by Dickey Betts and The Allman Brothers Band.  Well, I thought it was a surprising choice, as we did that one as a Latin groove.  A bit on the quick side for the opening slow vamp, but all in all it was nice.  Always great to play with this group, and we are treated better at this club than any where else, i can safely say!

All was well and good, but i had to scramble out of there to get up to Padriac's in Vinings.  It was oncea gain our bi-monthly night of mayhem for Martay & The Partay.  This night we had Sam Owens pounding the skins, as Brent had another gig.  We played a nice long set, I think about 1:45 long!  Hey, it's rock - how's watching the clock?  We started late, so we had to make up for it one way or another.  It was more of the usual for us as well: Sitting Waiting Wishing;  Hurts So Good;  you know, how many times do people need to hear the same songs they play all day on the radio anyway?  Brent actually did show up, just for fun. He sang lead and we ran through Your Love;  Anyway You Want It;  nothing shocking there.  Hey, guess what - Bill made it out as well.  Another lead vocalist to get us in the groove!  With Bill we did Fire Woman;  Sweet Child o' Mine;  lots of rawk!  But wait, there's more!  David Geer (aka Drunk Dave) was in the house.  Sam was generous to let Dave sit in and pound the living daylights out of his drums and cymbals on Girls Girls Girls and something else that almost destroyed my hearing...  We missed Cliff - hey, Cliff you're not allowed to miss out on our little rock show when it only comes up every other month!  Hope we see you next time and then you WILL get up and sing Bad Co.'s Ready For Love (it was originally a Mott the Hoople tune, yeah, when Mick Ralphs was in a young buck).  We'll be waiting...

Using Drunk Dave's iPhone flash to illuminate my shots!

Brent without the flash help...  sounded great Mr. Frontman!

4th Gig In 4 Days: Retrieving My Car To Join Up With The Flycats in Suwanee

Got my car out of the wrecker yard, $125 later.  How did they unlock it?  Nothing was missing.  I was concerned about the iPod and my crate o' cables and chart book.  At least it was a private impounding, so no points on the record for this.  Made it promptly over to the Hudson Grille to retrieve my rig (brought my bass home with Martay last night/this morning).  Then scrambled back home to unload and reload with my upright and small amp for a brunch in Suwanee.  All of this stressful driving across town made even worse by a heavy rain that blanketed the city for the entire morning.  With The Flycats once again, I got to play in Suwanee at the impressively large Moondance Restaurant & Lounge.  By the way, we enjoyed a marvelous brunch during our break.  The food is some of the greatest breakfast food I've tasted in a long time; on par with the Ritz Carlton.

We played to a small but enthusiastic crowd of late morning diners.  Great selection of old school Real Book tunes: All Of Me; Bye Bye Blackbird;  The More I See You;  What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?;  Sandu;  I Love You;  Blue Bossa (always intend to try to cop the original bass line to this Kenny Dorham standard that Butch Warren laid down on the Joe Henderson album Page One album - it just never feels right, though);  All the Things You Are;  Bluesette;  Fly Me To The Moon;  Days of Wine and Roses;  Comin' Home Baby;  The Flintstones (always a great set closer, even faster than the last time).  My upright sounded really good, I must say.  The Fishman EQ is very well voiced for the upright.  If I'm not having to play too loudly, I can boost the middle of the 5 sliders and get a nice, articulate tone that Gary Peacock might be proud of.  I'm more or less in the zone with these Flycats.  Reece is a truly great friend who really bestows confidence and outstanding bonhomie in myself.  I only wish to do the same for him.  he has a great gift there.  Plus, he gets inside the music and that makes the jazz a fun romp.  Glenn just rips confidently over from his side of the stage.  Plus, he sings very well.  He's very complimentary towards me as well.  Good guys who really do love the old tunes, and it shows in their sound.

Glenn suffered with house PA issues and shorted mic cables.

Trying to look awake after getting 3 1/2 hours of sleep and stressing about my towed car...

Reece is easy-breezy and a welcome comrade to unload upon.