November in Atlanta - 2 Gigs to Recount

We have been through Halloween, that time of year when we, as a family, help to host our annual neighborhood block party.  It was Monday night; the only proper time to celebrate Halloween is on October 31st.  Perhaps a picture is in order:

It was decent weather so that the trick or treating wasn't a drag.  My little sound system held up to play the current crunk dance hits.  We decided that Monster Mash had run its course for this season.  Next year I shall aspire to have a little grill for roasting hot dogs, perhaps with a crock pot for chili.  Hmmm.  Sounds good.  Our neighbor Jack would bring the dogs, and it's not the same without that element around.

The following weekend we headed to Red Top Mountain for a weekend of camping.  Don't tell Sabina, but I neglected to jot this down.  I had 3 sweet gigs booked over the course of the Friday-Saturday run!  Ooops!  My buddy Charely helped to take 2 of them off of my hands, and I believe Dustin picked up the 3rd.  It's too bad, as I would have been back with Limelight for a leukemia benefit in Centennial Olympic Park.  I also would have had a fun one with Martay at Ri-Ra.  The jury is still out about how Martay took my news that i had to bail.  I hate doing that and there's just no excuse.  Still, things come up and I had to be with the family.  We had a nice cabin with 4 beds, so it wasn't roughing it per se.  We made some nice bonfires, did some serious hiking, visited the Etowah Indian Mounds in Cartersville, had a nice lunch in town, and generally just spent the weekend being a family.  It was really nice.  More pics:

There's some background as to why I haven't had much to report lately.  The gigs have been rather far between, but sometimes life takes precedence.  I stepped back into some music this past Thursday with TAAG.  We played well on a number of familiar numbers, including Murder By Numbers.  Hey, while I'm thinking about it, let me throw up Guy's new improved chart, complete with custom blowing section - a cleverly pieced-together cut 'n paste of elements of the structure...

Now that I actually have the updated chart, perhaps I will respect the solo changes a bit more.  Sorry Guy...  You can lead a horse to water...

No more discussion on the Bitches Brew stuff, so I guess that's a done deal.  I'd like us to try to figure out some of the Nefertiti and E.S.P. era that Miles never bothered to perform with the 2nd quintet.  That might be something.  Those tunes are so oblique, but they do have proper changes.

Got through a nice retro version of All the Things You Are, with the Bird 'n Diz intro & outro.  Yes, an uncharacteristic romp through a standard!  Wish we did more standard fare actually. I don't have any other "jazz" gigs, so any time I get to play through some vintage oldie is a nice opportunity.  Navigating through those changes.  We talked about some, but we're always drawn to more of the fusion stuff. We do it again this next Thursday so that we're not gigging on Thanksgiving.

Friday I was with SWJ at the Capital City Club downtown.  Love this venue - the staff is so relaxed and they truly make us feel welcome.  We get fed well, we play well and are never told to turn down, and the money is okay for the hours and other niceties.  Weather permitting, we play on the patio amongst the diners.  Now that it's too chilly for that, we are set up inside in the lounge area near the bar.  It works out well, but we don't exactly have a captive audience throughout the night.  We play a mix of jazz, blues, and soft rock.  The folks who would stop by and sit for a spell seemed to really enjoy us.  I shouldn't sound surprised, but when it's an older couple that may not relate to Unchain My Heart (Ray Charles had a big hit with it in 1961, but my white inclinations always think of it as a Joe Cocker tune - hey, I don't think of Feelin' Alright as a Traffic tune, so that's all I'm sayin').  What wrong with that is they loved the song, and our version!  They told us to please come back!  Right on!

Other highlights were Walt's new tune Crown of Foolishness, a Sting-ish bossa-esque tune in which he sings in French for part of it, The Wind Cries Mary, Song For My Father, Back at the Chicken Shack, Summertime (with my Tony Levin influenced sub-octave dub vibe in full force), and a fine, funky, four-four All Blues, where I always make certain to honour Miles' correct chord changes (you know, the IV chord isn't really a IV chord - it goes from G7 to Gm7, then back to G7).  Love that!  Okay, sometimes I do go to the C7 during the solo sections just to have some relief, but I probably shouldn't.  You never know where the jazz police are!

It helped that we really did keep our volume in check.  I'm always being asked to turn down lately.  I brought the combo amp with the 12" speaker.  It keeps me in check for these kind of gigs.  It just doesn't push the real serious bottom end air that a 15" does, in spite of the specs.  I played the Jazz bass, which works for this really well.  Is there a better multi-purpose bass instrument?  Think of who used a J-bass: Family Man, Marcus Miller, Jaco, Geddy Lee, Flea.  Yeah, the same could be said about the Precision, and I'm loving mine so much lately.  Well, I need to find an outlet to bring the NS WAV out, since I don't think these guys dig it so much.  Maybe an original project - now there's a concept!  We return on the 2nd of December.

The Capital City Club is just a stone's throw from the iconic
Hard Rock Cafe on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta.

We ate so much.  They gave us rib-eye steaks to go with our extensive salad-bar grazings.  It was the good life for a night.  Membership has it's privileges.