Thursday night we had big plans, but things on this kind of scale take time to prepare. Our goal, perhaps one day, is to pay tribute to Miles' Bitches Brew. A heady mix of too many musicians and oblique melodic motifs along with razor blade editing, analogue echo units, the sound of a big studio room, that bass clarinet, well, it's a tough concept to grasp hold of. Can't say it's ever been my favorite Miles period. In a Silent Way is a more friendly point of reference, fusion wise. Needless to say, we just might be going there next time, as a loosely based Halloween theme.
I wore my NS WAV, using the strap-on attachment - is that fun to envision? It's not as naughty as it seems. It does present a problem with accessablity with the fingerboard and general ergonomics. I want to eventually make it more user friendly, but I'm not sure how to do that. I did better than usual as far as intonation. Yes, it has dots for every pitch, but i just can't see those little suckers when I'm wearing it. Gotta search other blogs about it. Done that before, but couldn't find much help. I think I'm wearing the brace in the wrong area, ie, it should be onone side of me or the other, but I've always placed it against my tummy.
We played some good versions of the tunes we generally like to play. Opening with Recorda Me, for which I played the basic bass vamp that the original Joe Henderson studio recording employed. That is a crazy intro that nobody ever seems to do. It is 10 bars and varies quite a bit. Also, it just doesn't seem to lay under the fingers very well. Hard to commit to memeory. Guy had an updated Murder by Numbers with a nifty section inserted for the blowing changes. I would post it, but he's hinted that he will make further tweaks, so we'll hold off showing it for now. Other tunes were Ina Godda da Vida, Voodoo Child (Chile) (Slight Return), Love Lost (one of Jason's), Cold Duck Time, Fred's Life, & Josie. The rain kept the place a bit on the quiet side, but we managed to have a decent turnout considering that. Funny to see folks sitting out in the elements, with umbrellas for protection natch. Inside we had a real nice crowd for the last set - real nice as they tipped well, giving us a few extra duckets. One man wanted the Notre Dame Fight Song! Hmm, would be nice to have that under our fingers. I was pleasently surprised I could make it most of the way through the lick in Fred's Life with the NS strapped on. Got to practice with it some more and find that elusive sweet spot for future strap employment.
Next time, I suppose we will be tackling some Bitches Brew as promised. Stay tuned for my progress with those charts, which I plan to share since they are rather interesting...
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| Wearing it |
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| Fonk brought the 335 |
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| The Young Dr. Passmore |
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| Adrian in action |
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| He doesn't know I'm catching his smooth moves. |
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| Waiting to play |
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| Waiting some more |
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| End of the night - a small but mighty crowd! |
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