Catching up from last Sunday & another Java Monkey session

Once again, I had the honour of filling in for Charley at Mount Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta, perhaps almost 2 miles from my front door to the stage.  A very nice gig to have.  The main bit of detail on this one would be that i once again needed to change my batteries (2 9V) in my Ibenez 6-string.  I've found that I need to have a 5 or 6 at a church service.  It's become standard to have that extended range.  Charts get tranposed, usually down in pitch.  Plus, more often than not, a gentleman is over there on the big pipe organ and he's kicking the big bottom.  Hard to compete with that if I'm playing up an octave!  So I noticed during rehearsal that my bass had suddenly lost mucho volume after unplugging and re-plugging back in (to tuck my cable through the strap since we were standing to read the chart at the piano).  After fiddling with every pot available and trying a different channel in the PA, I knew what was up.  I had a tweaker in my car and there were some batteries available in the rehearsal room - thank you MBUMC!!!  It was a sprint outside and then a quick as can be switch out.  I had a roll of gaffer tape in my car also.  The batteries need to be wrapped in tape to shield them - not sure why but the cavity is not too sophisticated to include a nice compartment to house the dual 9 Volt jobbers.  After all of that, the bass was back in business.  Must remember to change those out when the smoke detector batteries get changed!  The service went well and I felt better than last time.  The new drummer Kenny Reagor (Kevin's twin brother - Kevin played in Limelight) was on the new V-drum kit.  The stage volume was much improved over the past.  There was an electric guitarist, running direct through a new iPod floor unit, who led us through the rockin' opening number.  Unfortunately, he wasn't there for the beginning of the 2nd service, so we missed his headstock "conducting" sweeps that time around.  No DBF, as Yacht Rock was on the road somewhere.

I was more awake than usual, since I didn't gig the night before.  I guess with the battery issue looming in my head, I forgot to take any pictures.  It's not the same without something to post showing you what I saw.  Next time...

Java Monkey was more of the same.  We played some of the covers that we brought in last time, and few other things that kicked my booty a bit - Guy's Blues Decent is one that I've started to dread playing through.   We were joined by our trumpet toting friend Sidney Cox who has been known to busk away on a nearby street corner for ample tips.  He sat in with us on a couple, including his request of Mercy Mercy Mercy.  He carried the beloved tip jar around for suggestive donations - a cool move indeed.  We allowed him to share in the spoils before he departed for his gig.  Sounded great and nice hits along with JP!

Sidney Cox - always welcome as a special guest!

I used the 6'er again as I was in a hurry loading out and it just seemed like the right one for the night.  I try to mix it up between upright, EUB, & the 6, maybe the Jazz once in a while.  Sounded good, not great.  Not sure why.  If I practiced more, that sure could be a plus!  All photos below are from Adrian's collection.  His camera seems to be a better one, doesn't it?

Jazz 'n Blues at the City Club

Last Wednesday I joined up with Sweetwater Junction for what amounted to cocktail jazz background muzak at the posh City Club of Buckhead, located on the toppermost floor of the Atlanta Financial Center near Lenox Square.  We were in the foyer between the long dining room and the bar area.  This was certainly the most appropriate spot to have us, as we played for the cocktail hour (+) and then we played as the crowd walked past us to get to their seats at the dinner tables.  We then also played some very light dinner music as well, before taking a nice long break.  We played again at the end of the program.  I played upright the whole night, which turned out to be the right choice, I would say.  Those guys don't really comment much on what I do, other than to tell me to turn down, which I did.  I set up next to Walt, and unfortunately my rig is almost always pointed directly at his ear.  Wish there was another way to do this.  I would love to be on the other side of the stage from Walt.  Then I could have better eye contact and have more isolation sound wise.  I tried hard to focus on intonation.  My pedalboard was a bit screwy but it worked out great.  I ended up keeping the tuner engaged so that I had control over the volume pedal.  It didn't make sense but that's what I did.  Nice to have the tuner on for the upright, even if it meant that I probably stared at it more than I normally would.  Every note on the upright is out of tune!  What's up with that?  I can see how it is not desirable!  My tone was great and it was nice for us to play at such a low level.  We could all hear everything.
We did the usual mix of easy standards and some blues.  Sadly, no Chevrolet this time.  We did reprise Beg, Steal or Borrow since I had made that chart and sent it out to the fellows.  Check it out:

Simple chord chart, as I like to make.  Makes it very easy to fake your way through the song as long as somebody is singing it just like the record.  One thing we don't do like the record is hold the C chord in bars 7 & 8 and similarly later in the song.  We just repeat the vamp.  Other tunes: Bye Bye Blackbird, St. Thomas, Norwegian Wood, & Karma Police (jazzy Radiohead).  We got in a decent Stella by Starlight.  Funny how many bands end up playing that song.  I remember taking jazz guitar lessons from the legendary Paul Bollenback in the D.C. area back around 1987.  Paul had me learn that song, and to this day it's one of the few jazz standards I can honestly say I know the melody and harmony to extremely well.  Sad but true.  I actually shot Paul an email last year and he replied almost right away.  Very nice that he remembered me.  Of course he would, but it had been a few years!  I still have the old guitar case he gave me for my 335.  I can remember him transcribing a Keith Jarrett solo one day when I was arriving for a lesson.  It was so above my head back then, hey, it still is!  At least I listen to that trio nowadays...

We were allowed to graze from the cheese station and the server brought us salads.  Very nice treatment.  They genuinely liked us and said they would have us back next time.  Gotta love gigs like this one.  We were done by 10:15 but it took a while before we could pack up.

Mark did not want to bring his hand down - can't explain.

A server was kind enough to snap some of us.

Sunset in Buckhead.

The Precision with bridge pickup installed - finally.

Detail of bridge pickup.

4 Quartets in 3 Days

She Caught the Katy (as in the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
 - now I get it!)

Four gigs this longish weekend and all outdoors.  Good weather held up the spirits.

Thursday it was another wine tasting at Java Monkey.  This time it was the delicate Pinot Noir wines.  I didn't have any.  It was a fine, late summer evening for jazz with TAAG.  This time we concentrated on some newer charts of choice covers.  Hey, isn't that how jazz got it's start anyway?  Check these out.  I hope Guy doesn't mind that I'm sharing some of these.  He worked hard on them.

Transcription of the Marcus Miller arrangement of the Billy Cobham fusion favorite.

A very faithful chart of the Randy Bachman-penned Guess Who classic rock tune.
Undun is the correct spelling.

The 1st song on the 1st Charlie Hunter Trio album; his debut as a leader.

I honestly don't know the origin of this one!

Last song on the last Police album, before all of the hits collections, box sets, live albums, etc.

I added in my recently pieced-together chart for The Jackson 5's Never Can Say Goodbye...

Relatively faithful chart of the Jackson 5ive hit song.  I pasted the chord symbols on the chart old -school style - literally cut 'n paste.  The original chords were small, wrong and had the guitar diagrams.  Then touched up the shadows in photoshop.  That explains the semi-grainy appearance.  All in all, a much improved chart for those in the need.

...although we never got around to it.  As you can see, we were a little busy.  I was, with Fred's Life taking special precedence.  It will be a few times before this one starts to gel, but I hope we can get that far together.  It's hard for a band like this to really form bonds when we only meet once every other week, and then perhaps not all four of us or we certainly don't play the same repertoire.  Still, it's all good.  Murder By Numbers was interesting.  Such a strange blues form, at least the impression I always had from listening to it.  That Police song may be the only one that appears to be a live take with no overdubs: 1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 vocal, drums.  It lends itself to this type of fusion very well.  One other tune worth mentioning would have to be Joe Henderson's Recordame - can't recall what was called for the intro;  I was there with the intro figure.  At some point before we got into it, Jason thoughtfully declared to me that we were playing this song.  I was thankful at the time, as I had missed the whole exchange.  Nice to be forewarned after the fact!

I played my 6-string this evening.  I had made the call to Guitar Center about my P-bass.  As it turns out, it would be ready for pickup the following day.  Still, it is not what I would consider a jazz or fusion bass.  It's barely a blues bass, maybe better for the rock than anything else.  Looking forward to hearing it with the new bridge pickup in place.  I did okay on a couple of solos.  I meandered a lot on a few others.  My attention span starts to wander amok and it becomes a-melodic...  Must get it together on the storytelling.  The new charts went over well.  Nice work.

Friday I was with The Sweetwater Junction Quartet.  We played at the Capital City Club downtown and on the patio, just above Peachtree Street & Spring Street.  Nice views of the horse and carriage tours.  It was suddenly coolish outside; autumn just around the corner and rain removing some of the sweltering heat we've been enjoying all summer long.  I never felt the need for a jacket, although I had a long sleeve button down on.  We played very well and it was the first gig with my Precision after having it in the shop all summer long.  The tech John took good care of me and did and admirable job on the insertion of the bridge pickup.  A small amount of finish is missing - we're talking small.  Hard to avoid something like like happening when routing is involved.  One caveat is that I don't have a tone control now.  It's weird, but I kind of like not having one.  The bass is more open, with the 2nd pickup adding more lows and highs for a J'ish style tone with P snot 'n grit!  Gotta love the snotty tone!  It is the best of both worlds, I believe.  It may be the new strings putting a zing in my heart.  Time will tell.  I really love the bass much more now.  The tone is strangely different, even with the neck pickup soloed.  Gotta attribute that to the missing tone control.  

We did a cool version of Beatle John's Dear Prudence (hard to make that song uncool), as well as Beg, Steal or Borrow by Ray LaMontagne.  We also did an odd medley of Cantaloupe Island with solos over the rhythmic vamp of Chameleon.  Other tunes played: Freddie Freeloader, All Blues, and Ornette's Turnaround.  Hey, I almost forgot about the great Taj Mahal blues nugget Chevrolet - great jam tune that oozes street cred out of every pore.  Cool progression that is virtually 1 super long riff that repeats over and over.  Taj Mahal - what a great name!  Of course, his most famous tune would have to be She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride).  Love that song as well, certainly thanks to the Blues Brothers for opening up my ears to it.  I just learned here that The Katy was in fact the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, aka the MKT, later shortened to the KT, which morphed into The Katy.  Now I know, and you do too!  Good trivia to keep under yer hat!

My rig was super clear.  I should be noted that I did successfully replace the tweeter fuse in the Golight cabinet, so I was full range once again with this 15" box.  I upped the amperage from 3 to 3.15 Amperes - I hope that gives the fuse a bit higher of a threshold while not placing the tweeter in harm's way.  It must blow when I'm in full slap mode.  These hi-fi cabinets are a bit finicky.  Still, I love the tone of this little cab.  Small for a 15 yet plenty of headroom, plus the horn for that SWR crispness.  That with my Eden head seems to be a great combination.  We are allowed to graze from the buffet in the bar area and take our heaping plates downstairs to the employee kitchen dining area.  Yummy stuff.  Always different and a very nice perk here.

Walt 'n Brian

Mark always brings his A-game.

I was glad to be here.

Unsuccessful attempt at getting my P-bass in the shot.

A drink after the gig.  My favorite lately is seltzer water with double lime.  My liver is rejoicing!

Saturday was a double header with Martay.  We were at The Taste of Chamblee Festival for the 2nd year in a row.  Chamblee is Marty's home turf.  The weather was perfect for this festival of sorts: sunny & 75!  Backline was provided & the sound was stellar.  We played Marty's recent original Sweet Southern Love, plus a bevy of other choice rockers.  Reprising our lineup from the Canton party, Brent sang up front & Sam played drums.  One of the best received songs was P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing).  My synth effect setting was a little different than usual, & I suppose it was a bit too loud compared to my "normal" setting.  Still, it worked well with the song.  For me, one of the keys to that tune is the space between the notes.  There are plenty of them & I do my best to honor thy spaces well.  It makes it feel like a keyboard part if I don't overplay, which is what I'm after on that particular song.  That and trying to make my vocal harmony sound like a vocodor...

Backstage with Brent & Sam.

Nosy.

Martay gets his tone!

Trace Elliot was Tony Levin's amp of choice for many years.  This stack looked better than it sounded.

These kids today.  Hey, wait a minute, that's one of mine!

Joined by his brother!

Binnie brought the boys to the show and we made the rounds, scarfing fish tacos, pizza & funnel cakes.  I hung out afterwards to check out Reece playing with Heaven Davis.  He was really super solid!  It was a great band!  Shannon & the lads from Yacht Rock Revue started showing up behind the stage.  I hung with Shannon & briefly met Greg Lee for the first time.  Also got to say hi to Sheila & Felix.  Before long, it was time to head north to the next gig in Suwanee.  We were at a very nice subdivision off of Hwy 141, east of 400 & far from just about everywhere.  The party was poolside, but it was not swimming weather.  Our stage area was the steps to the club room.  The executive decision was made to make it the drum riser and have the front line set up down below.  Bill Maher was with us on lead vocals this time.  Bill really sounded great.  We know a lot of tunes with him that we don't necessarily play with Brent.  It turned out to be a perfect mix of laid back songs to ease the party into the night: Baby I Love Your Way, Tequila Sunrise, No Woman No Cry.  I used my wireless & made my way out in the crowd a few times.  The mix was good with the kick drum in the mains, a nice delay setting on the vocals (more than I had originally set it for, but it gets lost when the band is playing), & our instruments thumping just right.  We even broke out the lights, courtesy of Bill.  The guests welcomed us to dine from their feasts of tacos, pizza, you name it.  We were well fed!  It was a great time & a successful gig all around - thanks to JT for sending it our way!