Lake Rabun Reception with Sweetwater Junction

When you're told you are playing a wedding reception at Lake Rabun, a country club image comes to mind.  This time, we were simply next to the lake, in a field just off the road.  Who thinks of these things?  Who sees this spot and thinks that this is a good place to tie the knot and then drink, dine, and dance the night away?  Actually, once the sun sets and the party is underway, it doesn't really matter where you are.  With this particular venue, weather certainly was a consideration.  Given the summer we've endured, this night was perfect.  They lucked out.  If it had rained, this non-walled tent would have been a soggy mess.  As it was, we enjoyed low humidity and very few flying insects.  Hey, not bad for the proximity to water, even some standing large puddles/small ponds.  The stage was woefully small for the 5 of us, particularly with Walt's full-sized weighted-key piano-thing.  I did what I could.  My rig went on top of 2 rectangular "milk crates", borrowed from the caterers.  My pedalboard went on top of Walt's rack.  I stood in the back with no wiggle room.  It's ok.  Hey, no need for a wireless since I can't move around anyways,  No room for my JBL Eon monitor either.  Mark's was aimed in my direction, so I could hear vocals and keys with that.  Our dances were "Free/Into the Mystic" as performed by Zac Brown Band and the old Breakfast Club '80's flashback "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds.  The latter being a choreographed/lipsynced dance/play acted out by the mother as a plea to not forget her.  Everybody was invited to join in so we ended up playing the whole of both songs, unusual for 1st dances.  The father/daughter dance was played from an iPod.  That destroys the vibe when they do that, in my opinion.  Hire a band and then play pre-recorded music.  Actually, I was glad I didn't have to learn that particular tune, whatever it was.  We did well on the 2 for which we were responsible.  We usually play Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" anyways, so that part was already worked out.  Another tune thrown at us was - surprise - "Hava Nagila!"  They (the bride) seemingly and suddenly wanted us to play the Horas.  I had my big book of assembled charts from various sources.  My old Hora chart, entitled "Jewish Dance Medley II" fit the bill.  We've done this as a band before, most recently was last fall (I think) when we had a guest violinist (fiddle player?) scraping out the melody.  Walt covered it admirably.  I don't think Brian found his copy of the chart but he joined in after a couple of go-rounds.  We did successfully increase the tempo, like any good Hora.  They went up in the chairs and it really went off well.  Usually we get a heads up about this particular part of the program.  Lots of stuff we never got around to playing that we usually do.  that was nice, actually.  Our closing number?  That great send off that most wedding bands end with?  Of course!  It was Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On"!  So sentimental.  They really wanted some rock at the end of the night.  Love playing that one.  At one point, I really had John Paul Jones' 16th-note intensive bass line down cold.  I was close.  He really did a lot to give them some R&B funk bottom to their bluesy folk leanings.  A real "whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" band.

 Coming to terms with a tiny stage.

 Money shot of the incredible lake view!

 Bride and groom getting barefoot pics before the service.

 The green room, ours until guests arrive from the ceremony, upstairs above a couple of boats.

 Groom's cake.

 The stage is set.

 View from the road: tent with lake to the left.

 A blurry Brian, taken mid song.

Chris sings effortlessly to the dancing throngs. 

Walt on keys. 

 Mark keeps us laughing.  He grooved better than I've ever heard from him.

 Does this angle make my nose look big?

Bride and groom in foreground.

North River Church of Christ

My drummer/keyboardist/trumpeter/vocalist friend Brent Whiten offered me a gig to play at the Fall Worship Concert Series Premier for North River, a wonderful little (it's actually a much larger house of worship than I realized, with a separate educational facility) church nestled near downtown Marietta, a near-virtual stone's throw from The Big Chicken (quite possibly Marietta's most well-known landmark).  Brent also recruited Marty of MartaY & The PartaY fame, so our little band became the backbone of this ensemble.  Rounding out the performers: Brent & Steven D alternating on drums & lead vocals;  Paul McCracken on keyboards;  Max Watson on tenor sax;  Andy Pilcher on trombone;  Emmanuel Miller on trumpet;  Kamilah Amir on lead vocals;  Nicha on lead vocals;  Janika Jackson on vocals;  Justin Scott on vocals;  and... drum roll please..., the special guest of the evening, Speech Thomas of the world famous alternative hip-hop band Arrested Development on lead vocals.

I may have left somebody out, which is my bad, but this is how it went down.  We got the song list last week.  I learned the tunes.  Some tunes were dropped, others added, I learned those new ones.  Made charts.  Some were wrong.  Fixed the charts.  We rehearsed the night before, on Thursday, from 7:30 till about 11:30.  The next day I got there a bit before 7 for a showtime of about 7:30, but we pushed it back to 8.  It was a whirlwind of activity.  Some of the songs we played were rock tunes that could apply to a Christian viewpoint.  Here is a list of the songs, in the order performed:

Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Won't Let Go
Love Is Here
God You Reign
I Would Die 4 U
Give Him Praise
In Your Eyes
King of Pain
You Are Good
The Hey Song (What's Up?)
Redemption Song
Here I Am To Worship
O Happy Day
(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman
Security
One and Only

If you're thinking to yourself, "Hey, that's a Prince tune up there!", well, you are correct!  We did U2, Prince, Peter Gabriel, the Police, Aretha Franklin (actually Carole King), Joss Stone, Bob Marley, & 4 Non Blondes too!  A lot of fun this one was, and it came along at just the right time in my little ol' life.  It really made me feel good to be a part of this.  After the run-through on Thursday, which was rather long but we had to iron out the usual issues, I decided to play my Tobias fretless on the 1st half of the show.  I really wanted to emulate Sting's fretless on "King of Pain", as it may have been the only chance to ever play this one.  I've never played it before, as it is a particularly though one to pull off.  Brent sang it very well, even the ending refrain where he had to catch that high "B" on "always be...".  I also pulled out the ol' Funk Fingers for "In Your Eyes".  Tony Levin did not use them on the song, studio or live (I believe that Larry Klein played the bass part on all except the chorus, but it'd have to go pull out my cd and check.  Complicated since Peter rearranged the track order on the remastered "So" and my copy of "Hit" is an import, so the song isn't even on that one).  I used them to try to inject some extra funky Afro-centric thumping into the chorus (The E --> F# --> C# --> D section that most people trivialize).  For the most part that worked.  I'm going to sit down with the song and really try to get these FF's to speak properly, since I've had them for so many years and never use them.  Also, listening to the track recently, it's remarkable how sparse the bass track is during the verse, just a low open B.  When we played it, I tried just the low B, but the keyboardist seemed to be needing more structure with the chordal vamp.  I filled it out with the extra passing tones (B --> F# --> G --> D).  it sounded great!  Uh, except that I got a bit too into it and forgot to hold the E at the end of the 1st chorus, I went 1 too many times before realizing we were waiting to start the 2nd verse!  Embarrassing moment "somewhat" averted by not grimacing too much or turning around and apologizing on the spot.  After this tune, I quickly switched to the Stingray, which spoke a bit differently and perhaps more appropriately for "Lord, You Are Good", a blazing stomper featuring the horns and particularly Max on a ripping Brecker-infused solo.

Everybody did a great job pulling this together.  Speech was a welcome "Star Power" moment and his voice was most impressive.  His rendition of "What's Up?". retitled "The Hey Song" was a great crowd sing-along.  "Redemption Song" was probably the climax of the event, so prophetic.  One of those songs that everybody has possibly heard but never thought of playing at a concert with a full band.  Great to perform with all of these people and I can't blather on enough about how it made me feel inside to perform for this crowd of families and children flanking the stage steps.

 Speech during a last minute run-through before the doors opened.

View of the orchestra pit during our soundcheck.  This is where drums & keys lived, 

as well as my bass amp. 

Pics were snapped whenever I could remember to grab the camera. 

Marty getting his delay settings right for the opening number. 

got music?  The stage after doors had opened. 

Brent & Speech coordinate some details. 

Members of the choir. 

 Projectionist & audio mixing engineer position.  Stars projected all over the walls.

Steve led the show with powerful vocals on the U2 songs. 

The North River Horns 

Speech gave a speech about an upcoming conference. 

 Nicha closed the show with incredible gospel stylings.

Brent & Paul reading down the charts.

It's a small world indeed.  Nicha & I used to perform together in "The Creations" 

(aka "Catdaddy & The Creations") circa 2001.  

What do you know, we have a picture from the glory days.  Taken at Houck's (now the Paper Mill Grill), just down the road from these parts.

Catfish & The Creations

shown here: Tanya Smith, Nicha, & John (most likely taken in 2002 by Nicha's then fiancé Frank)

I miss that band.  Fun and super laid back.  Led by Parker Tarvin (aka Catfish, aka Catdaddy). He rallied us together: Arlan Gibson: guitar & vocals;  Ron Roper: keyboards & vocals;  Mitch Flanders: drums & vocals; Donn Aaron: guitar;  myself: bass & vocals;  Jon Ripley (later Jason Matthias): saxophone;  Tanya Smith: vocals;  September (later Nicha, then much later was Monique): vocals.  Catfish would do a mini-set with us during the 2nd set concentrating on Elvis tunes like "Suspicious Minds" but he always wanted to do "I'm Cryin'" by The Animals, "Satisfaction" by the Stones, and for our final encore (!) he would get back up with us for "We Gotta Get Out of This Place".

A Trio of Musical Endeavors

Had a refreshingly normal but busy weekend of gigs.  More of the same, perhaps, for you steady readers, yet somehow we keep it fresh.  Thursday I was at Java Monkey (website forthcoming) once again with The Adrian Ash Group (TAAG for those in the know - I think this band will be producing a fine new website in the near future as well).  We were the quartet of Adrian, Jason Passmore, our most melodic & inventive saxophonist, flautist, & composer, who is in the process of putting the finishing touches on his debut cd as a leader, as well as Guy Fenocchi, our fire-breathing stunt-guitarist, & my lil' self.  We played some good ones, naturally:  "Sugar" by Stanley Turrentine, "Hottentot" by John Scofield, "Listen Here" by Eddie Harris, Guy's new "Blues Descent, Jason's "Love Lost" & "Gentle Breeze", & a latter-day funk stomp by organist Dr. Lonnie Smith entitled "Back Track".  I played my NS WAV through my Fishman Platinum-Pro EQ DI into my Genz Benz 112 combo.  You know, it think it sounded rather uprightish.  An easy boost of the lows & a hard cut of the highs & it was a dark & woolly timbre.  It will never be a true upright tone, but I try to move some low frequency air nonetheless. 

I used to be (in my head) real good at employing that half/whole tone bebop/altered scale.  Here's a link that explains the one I learned years ago: http://guitar.ricmedia.com/Scales/Altered/.  In case the link disappears, as these things can do, here is the pertinent info about it:

Altered Scale Profile:

Numeric Formula: 1-b2-b3-b4-b5-b6-b7-8/1

Notation Formula (key of C): C-Db-Eb-Fb(E)-Gb-Ab-Bb-C/1

Stepping: half / whole / half / whole / whole / whole / whole

Tonal: semi-tone / tone / semi-tone / tone / tone / tone / tone

Harmonized Triads (key of C): Cdim / Dbmi / Ebmi / Fb+(E+) / Gb / Ab / Bbdim

Harmonized Tetrads (key of C): Cmi7(b5) / Dbmi(MA7) / Ebmi7 / FbMA7(#5) / Gb7 / Ab7 / Bbmi7(b5)

I had to stick in the flats as lower case b's, which I'm used to seeing from my home-made charts that I make in Word when I don't want to spend the time to construct a Finale chart.  Well, I brought it up because I haven't been so successful in using it lately.  One good application is to make use of the tritone aspect of it.  I like how, in the key of C, one can go from a C major triad (even though other upper partial tones are highlighted, the major triad is still present) to the tritone chord of Gb.  This give the notes: C E G & then Gb Bb Db, or in order low to high: C Db E Gb G Bb.  Well, it sounds cool as alternating the arpeggios, but better to voice them in different inversions.

Enough of my elementary jazz theory for one blog!  I recently ditched my Samsung Intercept phone for a replacement model (free through Sprint even though I'm only 1 year into the contract): the LG Optimus S.  Have to work with this camera a bit, as these were the first pix I had really taken with it & they kinda sucked.  Still, they give a small blurry yet dark glimpse into our beloved gig at the greatest coffeehouse & wine tasting event in Decatur. 

 Brew Free! Or Die IPA

Fonk brought the charts...

...but nobody could play this beast!

Ade channels his inner child, which we all end up doing at some point in the evening.

So hard to get a group shot...

...but we really tried hard!

We turned around as the back lighting was better than the front lighting,

& my budget phone is not flash equipped. 

Apologies to Jason as I had to ramp up the contrast quite a bit, which,

of course, crushed the black level.  'nuff said.

I think I was really bummed by the quality of shots so I didn't even bother taking pics on Friday, when I was with MartaY & The PartaY at Padriac's in fashionable Vinings.  Fortunately, we had mighty Brent Whiten on drums & lead vocals, so I could relax & know that we were going to put on a seamless show.  Speaking of Brent, when I went exploring for a good link for his web presence I found these pics, taken a few years ago now, when I got with the Brent Whiten Orchestra for a couple of shows at Christmastime in 2007 (I'm always blown away when I realize just how much time has flown by on certain events).  Here they are, taken well before this blog was started:

Handsome and well polished, it was and still is a great event band capable of many tunes that nobody else bothers to attempt.  Hey, while we're at it, I've got some really old pics I stumbled on sitting in a drawer.  These were with Martay as a leader, hiring myself, Steve on drums, & the lovely & talented Tracy Taylor on vocals.  Tracy used to lead a band with Johnny Knapp (if you don't know, he's a veteran pianist with golden ears who played with Charlie Parker back in the day.  That's enough for most of us.  He's still rollin', playing here in the ATLSadowsky preamp that is in Marcus' '75 J-bass.  The bass boost was boomy, probably centered near 120 Hz.  The treble boost was very hissy & more upper mid than high end.  I had the sense that even if the frequencies could have been changed, it just wasn't a musical sounding circuit. This preamp meant that the tone controls operated a bit differently, as boost instead of cut.  To me, some of the heart & soul of a Jazz bass was missing, as I like to use the bridge soloed occasionally with the tone rolled back for that Jacoesque vibe.  I also found it hard to get harmonics on it, for some reason, which is strange since it did come with a Badass II bridge.  Well, it did look cool.  I sold it & picked up my current Japanese Foto-flame J-bass, a passive and completely stock job that I've been happy with.  Anyways, here are those pics from probably around 2003:

I carried that orange with me everywhere I went.

The gig itself?  We played the setlist from the Canton party a few weeks back.  The dancers weren't out in their usual full force.  We played a bit extra 'cause the crowd showed up kinda late and tipped us very well for more music.  Our buddy Cliff sat in with us (finally) and sang Crossroads - we tried to emulate the Cream version, naturally.  I go on record as saying that is perhaps the defining moment of that band, Crossroads from "Wheels of Fire", and perhaps it was Clapton's defining moment as a lead guitarist.  I haven't ever tried to learn what Jack Bruce did on that, but they sounded like they went off course and back on in a uncontrolled controlled fashion, which I like a lot.  All in all, we keep getting better at what we do.  My bass cut out for a horrible couple of minutes during "Fire Woman".  It was my fool wireless, which had either switched channels on the transponder when it fell off of my strap or the cord became ever so slightly unplugged.  I ended up bypassing my pedalboard and plugging straight in to my amp.  Martay was happy when my bass returned, so I was glad to get back into the tune.  Rough.  I haven't had a bad audio issue in a while, so I guess I was due.

Saturday night I was down south in Tyrone for a wedding reception with Platinum Soul.  We were at Glendalough Manor, a place I probably will never return to, but that is a comment I won't elaborate on here.  The stage and the dance floor were a polished hardwood surface that was quite beautiful.  However, in such a large room, the stage could have used another foot or two in all directions.  Poor Gus had to play in perhaps the tightest area he's ever dealt with in this band.  His elbows were hitting the walls.  Not fun at all.  We performed really well as a 6-piece with Dianna Crawford & Chae Stephen plus Glen Perdew on the front line. We were without Anton, as the budget did not allow for a horn.  Highlights for me included the dances of "A Song For Mama", which had all of the power of that Babyface composition, and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (the Marvin & Tammi version, of course - btw, I virtually have it memorized as far as the form goes, since I used to play it with Cid's Full Tilt.  Yes, that's me playing on their demo that you hear, done in a marathon session of 22 songs at guitarist Colin "Doc" Sobers house one night years ago, before I joined up with Platinum.  There was a point to this side track...  I have the "Standing In The Shadows of Motown" book/cassette [hah!] of James Jamerson transcriptions so I copied that chart & that's what i read off of when we play it.  Such a great line that just rips by at that tempo.  How did he come up with those unwieldy chromatic-infused lines?  Would be great to be able to grab a Precision strung with flatwounds and complete with foam under the bridge for that Detroit vibe.  Okay now, where was I...) although I panicked at the very end and for some reason ended the song on Eb (Glen turned around to me with a "what was that?" expression on his face and then held up 1 finger, meaning I landed on the I chord, which oddly enough really doesn't get played in the song, so it was extra ironic).  The jazz set also featured Glen singing "Autumn Leaves" in Gm, and it was just wonderful.  Glen has so much talent.  Another good 1st set tune was the Zawinul/Adderley staple "Mercy Mercy Mercy".  This is just a chance to blow over the Bb to Eb vamp for all concerned.  I even took a solo, on the WAV, & things went pretty well, I must say.  I tried to go with a true upright vibe on it, utilizing an octave motif for my climax & then getting out before I went on too long.  Gus seemed to dig it & gave me a fist bump (hey, I just heard that "fist bump" is a new entry in Webster's Dictionary this year!).  It really made me feel good at the moment.  Anyway, these people really opened up after the Motown numbers and danced the rest of the night.  A great gig...

A light dinner of pasta primavera, with salad as 2nd course.

Wishing for bread or just something else.

The polished stage.

My rhythm buddy Augustus Melton III.  We're the same age, so I recently learned.  We're both III's with sons who are IV's.  We both love prog rock - Rush & Dream Theater!  Always a great hang.  Never a gig when I didn't have a good laugh with him.  So fun to look over there & remember to get that next kick together that he is so good at injecting. 

The grandmother was escorted onto the stage & she really boogied down, to the delight of everybody in the house.

Self portrait - looking a bit worn.

...except for the fact that I may not be playing with Platinum at all after this night.  You know, my heart is broken & I'm still in shock a bit.  There are details here that I can't discuss.  There are details that have been glossed over.  What it comes down to is that I put myself into some questionable situations & that's not a smart move.  I shoulda woulda coulda, ..., but I didn't.  So, I was hoping that perhaps my comrades in arms might come to my rescue.  I don't see that happening.  These things do happen, & as old as I am, I'm still learning a thing or 2 just about every day.  I really felt that I was living my life to play in a band like Platinum.  I sincerely can say that there will never be a bassist who truly loves the broad spectrum of music they perform more than myself.  I put a ton of time into it, & the experience I've gained has certainly opened up my eyes & ears on a performing front.  I always gave 110% on the shows & tried to thoughtfully plan ahead as far as what to bring & what to play.  It was more than just a cover band.  Maybe they will benefit from the change.  In a way, the glory days were with Dave & David, which was back when I was new.  The energy is still there, they aren't losing anything, that's for sure.  Some mistakes I made are forgivable, others not.  Let's move on & new opportunities will present themselves.

After the show, I made good on my promise to my bud Ryan Strickland (brilliant guitarist I've played with before; supremely influenced by Steve Khan & many others - a chordal & improvisational wizard) to show up for his 30th birthday party thrown by his wife Pao.  It was held at their fashionable abode in North Roswell.  I arrived at 1:15 am & stayed until about 2:30.  Some folks were still there when I bowed out.  We watched a Metheny video, listened to a bunch of Scofield, & Ryan opened presents.  One of the gifts I had been planning to give him was absconded (ugh -  the world may never know), but the cd I made for him was welcomed most graciously.  I hadn't seen him in a couple of years, so I'm really glad I was able to reconnect. We've talked a couple of times on the phone, & he a genuinely a great friend, as good as can be considering we don't hang much.

Happy Birthday you old whippersnapper!