Carrolton's Tent Party for Tanner Medical with Platinum: 2012 Edition

Platinum enjoyed our return to the outer stretches of Carrolton, Georgia for another session inside this expansive tent.  Wear a tux in a tent is intuitively not my idea of a good time.  This tent has to be seen to be believed.  The air conditioning was good and strong, but a wool tux is still a wool tux, and the humidity decided to show up for the day.  I don't mind, really.  I tell myself that the humidity and sweat is good for the skin and helps to keep me from aging quite as fast.  Plus, my lips don't get so chapped.  What is very true, though, is that it does a number on my bass strings.  Wiping them only goes so far.  I think they are rusting as I'm playing.  Not so good.  For me, boiling strings is still a way of life.  I'm not o.c. about it, but I will typically boil a set once before shelling out another $20 or so on a fresh set.  What usually happens is, I will buy strings and then just keep them as a backup until the old set is really showing signs of corrosion.  Ah, there you have it.  My dark secrets just beginning to unfurl.

Good versions of Get Here (I had been working from a Pino Palladino transcription, using my fretless - missed many of the better licks but it is fun to emulate his flights of fancy and I think it made us sound better.  I think Lexxi subconsciously liked hearing me) and Take Me Home Tonight (just as strong as last week).  Not so strong on the medley (?) of Moonglow & Love Theme from "Picnic".  Glen started singing You Send Me (which we did play later) and did an admirable job of steering us into the correct celebratory dance number.  A rare case of him being human and making a mistake.  He really never does.

I brought the upright for the 1st set.  Sounded muffled, boomy, and feedback prone.  Next time I need to run it through the Fishman Pro EQ - that's what I bought it for (I was using the Fishman for the acoustic guitar, which didn't even get played).  That sort of helps explain my not so convincing stare into the camera lens.

A rare shot of Gus' right side!

Anton rapped on Flo Rida's Good Feeling!  It sounded convincing to my white ears.  I'm just trying to keep the groove going and then make sure I stop for the breakdowns.  I played the Ashbory on it last week and I kind of miss the novelty for that tune.

Glen is engaged the entire night with something that I am usually interested in  listening in on.  However, I have no idea what he and Gus were conversing about.  Earlier during our fine tent dinner of grilled chicken with sauteed tomatoes, spanish rice, broccoli, salad, rolls, and mad dessert trays with ice cream on the side, they were talking mini-vans.  I wish I had one now (a Honda Odyssey does get good reviews) - funny how younger people make fun of mini-vans and how they are for old people.  I guess it's still true but the difference is, now I'm old!  Anyways, this is the shot I took of Glen when I remembered to take one.

Award presenter standing in the middle of the dance floor, just in clear shot of the mains (the P.A. system speakers).   Feedback was eager to rear it's ugly head.

Derek waiting for the cue.

Gus getting his rudiments in before we hit.

Gyro running sound - plenty of challenges with mics out in front of the mains!

Can't Make a Sweetwater Junction Show But I'm Here For Billy Batts

Our exclusive hang is and has been the Capital City Club, now located at 7 John Portman Boulevard (it was formerly at 7 Harris Street) in downtown Atlanta.  We were back once again for another turn at our brand of light lounge jazz, classic soft rock, and blues.  We did a substantial mix of Real Book standards: Black Orpheus (ie Manhã de Carnaval. which translates to Morning of Carnival, written by Luiz Bonfá and Antônio Maria and covered by everybody: Stan Getz, John McLaughlin with his sparring partners Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucía, Wayne Shorter, to name a few - because of the "Real Book", musicians call it by the movie in which it was featured: Black Orpheus), All the Things You Are, Summertime, The Way You Look Tonight along with some relatively current tunes: Tutu, Lay Down Sally, Soulshine.  We even played our Phish tune Sample in a Jar, a request from Wilson, the sushi chef tableside in front of us (he shared the goods with us on our 2nd break).  I played my Tobias, whcih I have used before on this gig.  Walt was highly complimentary on my fretless tone and technique.  He hadn't been aware of it before this.  I know I've played this bass with him.  I think it was because he heard me warm up a bit on the Oleta Adams ballad Get Here.  It made him aware of the tone, which I like a lot anyways.  It's a lined fretless, so on first glance and sometimes in my playing, you don't think of it as a fretless.  A beautiful bass, perhaps my sweetest axe, being neckthrough and of serious quality.  I hope to do well on it tomorrow as well.  This gig is always fun and laid back.  We didn't get around to Edith and the Kingpin, for which I learned in the key of D and made a chord chart.  I shall revamp it and post here in the near future.  I was happy for the most part.  I repeated my rudimentary licks a few too many times for my own liking.  Hey, who doesn't?  Oh, that's right...

Working on a nice concise transcription for Edith and the Kingpin - should post it in the near future.

A befuddling, overthought, and ultimately tense night of rather loud jazz at Java Monkey,,,

That may or may not be fair to say.  We were actually in good form for most of the night with Marquinn Mason fronting us with his alto.  His melodic excursions and phrasing bring Phil Woods or even Ornette to mind.  To my ears, he had a large reserve of fresh ideas.  He liked my quote of Freedom Jazz Dance, which I gleaned from Miles back in my GSU days.  I've since learned that Eddie Harris played it without the breaks.  The police came by just before 10:30.  We were encouraged to keep our volume down, as the curfew was in fact 10:30 and not 11:00.  I played my fretless, as I was using it this weekend and wanted to get into the mindset.  It works on a number of levels, and folks seem to dig the tone from the flats - no unnecessary high end to get in the way!  My request for improved lighting paid off and we are not in the dark as before,  Very nice!

Am I Really In Athens?

Platinum "returned to active service" after being relieved of duty for two short weeks.  When a band has two weekend off, it's really been three weeks.  In that span of time, we celebrated Easter and Passover, endured our dog Buddy being attacked by a pit bull that we were hoping to foster, and refinanced our home mortgage.  Derek and his wife welcomed a second baby daughter into their family - congrats!  It feels like a long time has passed indeed.  I scrambled hard to find a suitable sub for Sweetwater Junction, with whom I was obligated to play on this same Saturday.  It's a bad situation for me, in that I want to honor both bands and cannot absolutely prefer one over the other.  I'm hopeful that all worked out well on their end.  I was busy preparing for this job.

We were back in Athens at the Georgia Botanical Gardens, a glorified greenhouse cum event facility.  Nice and humid, with an understated BO quotient.  It was cool and breezy outside; warm and moist inside.  Yum!  At least I knew what to make of the whole deal this time out.  We worked up a few new ones that we may in fact keep in rotation.  Eddie Money's fun romp Take Me Home Tonight and Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly With His Song.  Are there two more disparate pop songs you can think of off the top of your head?  Both were huge hit singles for their respective artists, separated by little more than a decade.  They were fun to play, if only to give us something new to keep it fresh.  The Eddie Money song is challenging in the arrangement where you have to count some unorthodox progressions in the key of B flat minor (Bbm).  Roberta's song was, are you ready 'cause I just realized this, also in the key of Bbm.  Okay, maybe it's in the key of F major because that's the final chord, but I don't always subscribe to that.  It's the only time you hear that major tonality.

I stopped at Guitar Center and shelled out some big $$ for a triple guitar stand.  I've been bringing an acoustic guitar for I'll Be and figured I would typically have 2 basses as well on these jobs.  That's my style anyways.  Jack of all trades - master of none.  Well, I like variety, what can I say.  It makes me feel like a big star if I'm not really one after all.  This time, I brought along the Stingray and my lil' Ashbory.  The Ashbory is nice to have for a novelty, in this case it was the hip-hop chestnut Good Feeling by Flo Rida.  Kevin wasn't quite up for the rap, so we turned it into a mash-up with Glen singing Superstition over the vamp in C#m.  It worked, but I really like the song, so too bad there.  Lexxi replicated the Etta James sample and we made it happen.  The Ashbory filled in nicely, with an octave effect for low C# slides.  Virginia witnessed those slides and seemed to enjoy the visual joke - small bass with a big low sound!  I think it was worth it.  I also brought the NS WAV for the 1st set of jazz and light dinner music.  All in all, it was one of the best nights we've had in a while.  No serious incidents - yay!

Oh, yeah, Tony Staffiero (a link to his web site is here) subbed for Anton.  He even brought a keyboard.  Wish I could have heard him a bit more.  Gotta talk with DJ about that one day.

Partay Rock Is In The House Tonight

Make that Ernie's house: Padriac's.  Of course you know by now, Padriac's is that swanky little restaurant cum nightclub serving up zesty foods and stiff drinks near the heart of Vinings, Georgia.  Ernie is the manager, and he's there every time we have our little 3-piece rock 'n dance combo tucked away against the windows by the front door.  Not much to report on.  I played fretless on the first set.  Hey, that's a great way to freshen up even the most stale of set lists.  Intonation was not bad, considering I felt under the microscope a bit.  I never want someone to say that I shouldn't be playing fretless because I'm out of tune.  I was surprised at the amount of top end I could sense in my playing.  Well, granted I crank all 3 onboard eq's on the bass, but I do string it with (at this point) 3 year old flatwound strings.  Gotta love flats for that reason - they don't lose the brightness that roundwounds do.  You can't lose what you don't have in the first place!  Really, flats have a great tone for bass.  I want to put them on another, maybe even my Precision.  Actually, I want those black tapewound strings for the P-bass.  I hear that those can be even more dead sounding...

Martay with the shirt he bought at the concert the night before.

La Grotta Ravinia Welcomes Sweetwater Junction and Friends

It's a good thing this band is so malleable.  On this night, I was sharing the stage with Brian Molin (the true constant, the Robert Fripp of SWJ), Andrew Black on vocals & guitar, Kevin "KT" Thomas (there are a lot of Kevin Thomases in this world, in case you were wondering - only one as musical as this guy) on keys, and Carlton Owens on drums.  We had never played together in this configuration, but you all know that ain't no biggie!  You just get up there and go for it.  It works particularly well when the bride requests a lot of Grateful Dead, CSNY, Rolling Stones, i.e. things that don't really need to be worked out as far as arrangements go.  We actually rehearsed Eyes of the World more than the official dances: These Arms of Mine, Forever Young, Teach Your Children.  Andrew sounded very comfortable on vocals and guitar.  He is relaxed and professional and even did his best to keep our volume in check.  Nice to have another guitar style in the band as well.  We blended on some of those CSN harmonies, which I thought was an important part of the sound.  Kevin ripped some nice "organic" solos from his Nord - a sweet keyboard that emulates any classic sound very well.  He fit in like he had been with us for years.  I met him through Randy Chapman, I'm certain, but I wish I could replay that historical date in my head!  Carlton was strong as well.  Our only real misstep was the Phish nugget Sample In a Jar, which we played just too fast.  Once it started, it couldn't slow down, for some reason.  Not sure if Carlton had ever played that one before.  Still, the party loved it and we gave them plenty of what they wanted - this after waiting through the dinner and speeches...  As KT put it, we're paid to haul our gear and spend the afternoon and night away from our families.

Patio View

KT's Keys

Brian's Rig

Brian & Andrew

Carlton & Kevin - maybe we all knew each other better than I thought...

I don't know, I just work here.

My rig, atop of Carlton's kick drum case.  Darkened foreground with Tobias & Stingray 5's.
Background with vista of scenic cocktail environs enjoyed by other wedding party.

A Cool Spring Evening for Live Jazz Alfresco at Java Monkey

Been a quiet week, after Easter brought eggs and treats around our Marietta bungalow.  We didn't get around to coloring the eggs until Easter Sunday, but it was a nice afternoon activity after celebrating Passover with the family the night before.  No Saturday gig means laying low, but that can be a good thing.  Time to allow my right hand's blistered index finger to heal!

Once yet again, the fine Adrian Ash Group core quartet held court in the corner on the auspicious stages of Decatur's Fair Trade Coffee, Tea, Beer & Wine mecca Java Monkey.  We were once again blessed to reconvene for some informal jazz and fusion sessions.  The crowd thickened up as the evening wore on.  I was disappointed that the plastic insulating wrap had been reinstated after last week's warmer temps called for its removal.  Ah, well, that's how Spring can treat a struggling jazz musician.

It was a night to honor the great Herbie Hancock, born this day April 12, 72 years ago.  Jason riffed on the electro-jazz '80's anthem Rockit, but the tunes we played as a group were ones we always do anyway: Cantaloupe Island and Watermelon Man.  Herbie has been a prolific and progressive artist, always intriguing.  He is influential in his long boppish lines that always transcend the bar-lines.  He also spurred the mid-80's "Young Lions" neo-traditional jazz movement for which Wynton Marsalis typically enjoys the credit.  Can't believe he's that old!  That reminds me, I need to get busy working on that Joni Mitchell tune Edith and the Kingpin, a featured tune on Herbie's River: the joni letters tribute project.  That's one that is going to be called later this month...

What else did we play?  Back Track;  Doxy (great Sonny Rollins standard); a gloriously irreverent In-a-Gadda-da-Vida (how can that be you ask?) with moi on the not-seen-before-on-this-stage Ashbory Rubber Bass.  I have to say on my behalf that it sounded good (perhaps not great, I'll concede) and that it was an all too appropriate tune on which to whip it out.  Only wish I had snapped a pic.  The guys know me for taking pics at the most inopportune moments, but they probably would have understood this time.  Hey, there's always a next time.  It took a moment to tune (during setup, mind you) as I typically loosen the silicon strings to avoid breakage.  The g-string is prone to snapping in the case - not sure when, perhaps due to temperature shifts.  So I loosen them if I know I won't be playing it for a while.  It fit the proto-metal-grunge feel of this jazz ditty.  Glad I brought her out.

Update - April 18, 2012
How much time do I have on my hands?  Apparently a lot!  While reviewing these pages (I always find a typo or two when I proofread, check the links, insert pictures, text under the pics, etc.), I went to the US Ashbory web link www.largesound.com and learned that Brock came upon a new make of strings that work well on the Ashbory: Aquila Thundergut Bass Strings.  They're made in Italy.  Not sticky and not as stretchy.  About twice the price though.  I shall have to try a pack at some point soon.  Life is short, and so is this bass' scale.  ha!

Also, on this date in mid April, I learned of 2 passings: Levon Helm of The Band and the eternal teenager Dick Clark.  Levon gave Robbie Robertson's songs heart and soul and really placed the listener in the landscape.  Dick Clark introduced so many artists it's beyond my scope.  I can't begin to state his relevance.  Stunning to learn of these important figures leaving us.  Folks I've known ever since I was aware.  You younger critters can relate, I hope.

Aquila Thundergut Bass Strings
newly discovered to be a viable and perhaps more attractive alternative to the
silicon rubber string typically used on an Ashbory bass

A Good Friday With The Jump'n Jukes at Spiced Right

Hey, the title says it all.  It is "spring break" here in Cobb County, meaning this place gets a bit thinner.  That further implies that folks aren't going out for delicious barbecue and such at the local rib joint, in this case, Spiced Right.  Well, we were out to prove that theory incorrect.  I had noticed that traffic had gotten thickerer as the week progressed. Even the wealthy can't afford to stay away for the whole week, or they chose to return just to kick back a bit before school got back into session.

This time I listened to my copy of The Jump'n Jukes' CD Bottoms Up Boogie to get a better idea of what to be ready for on my 2nd sojourn with the combo.  It never hurts to make charts!  I made 1 chart with the skeleton changes for each of the 13 cuts.  We played many of the ones from last time out, plus a handful of the originals: Jump Little Baby, Finger Lickin', Doin' the Best I Can, So Cute, Read About My Baby.  It worked out well.  I did better this time on Freddie King's Hideaway - I was ready for the rockin' riff!

The band, as before, included Steve Sams on vocals & blues harp, Juha Saily on a beautiful Gretsch hollow bodied guitar as well as one open-tuned for slide, Pete Bennie on drums (and percussion!), "Stuff" Jones on electric violin, and myself on the doghouse.  Got a blister on the right hand index finger this time, as I was going for the slap concept a bit more than I should have.  Juha plays upright as well, and enlightened me on the concept of gut strings.  I've thought about those before, so maybe I shall procure a set next time out, just to try something different.  Less volume but easier on the hands - perhaps the pickup would make the volume issue moot (mute?).  Also joining us for the 2nd set, as he did last time here, was Dave Cunningham on tenor sax.  He fits like a deluxe 6-fingered glove!  Ah, just kidding - he sounds good, with a bluesy edge, kind of like Bobby Keys in the Stones.  A welcome addition to the unit.  The theme, as played throughout the night by the cunning violinist, was Pop Goes the Weasel.  It's certainly a great major pentatonic exercise.  How many times can it crop up in a set?  As many times as you like, I suppose...

The front line, as one could surmise, was in fact myself, Stuff Jones,
Steve Sams, and J. Salia.

Pete Bennie laying it down and enjoying the ride!

Got my bowling shirt on for a "blue brothers" effect.

Shades make the look complete.

A different angle on playing low on the neck.

Dave "D.C." Cunningham throwin' down!

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You know, I couldn't resist sticking this one in one more time!
Those boys sure have a way with marketing!