The Ides of March at Java Monkey

The Ides of March - always 2 days in front of St. Pat's.
A Java Monkey salutation from their facebook page.

The Ides of March Wine Tasting of Pino Noirs

It was a killer show!  I think we had purpose and attitude, something that can be lacking on jazz gigs every now and then.  I chose to haul out the doghouse, aka Beatrice, given that the weather was warm but not too muggy yet and that I'm wielding the P-bass all day on Saturday.  I really want to work on upright more.  I like the tone I have been generating from it as of late.  I think I've gotten a bit stronger in my attack.  This bass needs some real finger strength, pulling through the string to make it rumble and not being shy about noise and vibration.  It's always been easy to play more delicately and make certain my pitch was happening.  Better still to be loud and proud - play it as if it's the last note you'll ever play!

What did we play?  Tasty Town Blues, Roll Call, Fred's Life, In-a-gadda-da-vida, really, kind of deviated from what is typically called.  We've had more folks checking us out lately.  Discussed how we can't be "rehearsing" seldom-played tunes in front of the curious peeps.  People seemed to genuinely enjoy our set - dudes typing/blogging away into their iPads andthe like, asking questions, taking notes...  I quickly adjusted my eq on the Fishman - settings all quite different than with the NS WAV.  Better to accentuate the mids or even just keep it flat.  I finally settled on boosting the high treble with everything else flat, giving me a little air to compensate for the lack of tweeter in the GK Backline 112 I've been bringing out lately.

By killer show, of course I was alluding to The Ides of March.  I did well, but certain things just don't happen for me on the upright, namely Fred's Life.  Should have opted for an octave lower on that lick.  I kid myself into thinking I don't need thumb position.  I think I've learned my lesson - the thumb helps to "in effect" lower the action so that your fingers can do their fancy "fretting", so to speak.  Tough stuff to make sense of.

Et tu, Brute?