Not much to rave about here. Aside from my performance at Temple Kol Emeth last Friday playing guitar for the Tot Shabbat, I hadn't played out since 2 weeks ago at Meehans. We made good on adding a few new ones: Tutu (a rather polarizing return to form for Miles in the mid-80's, through the multi-faceted Marcus Miller), and Walt's plea for more Metheny with perhaps the big hit every Publix customer surely knows: Last Train Home. Having tried Tutu in the past to generally disastrous results, I made some time to really get the little Marcus Miller licks under my fingers. We agreed to refer to the Live Around The World version to formulate a blowing arrangement. The key to that is the soloist cues the rhythm section to hit the signature riff that gets us out of it and back to the top (F E A D B G F E). Came out nice. Last Train Home is a mind-over-matter exercise in fluid, steady sixteenth notes (on double bass!). For that to work, it is critical to relax and avoid cramping. As good as it may sound to try to do it with one plucking finger, an even alternating approach can only help, as the tune is easily 7 minutes. We also reprised Home At Last. I felt ok about my vocals, as I am working to nail his more recent timbre in some live recordings I have stumbled across.
Here are some recent pics just to give some color here. Not related to the gig but hey, it's a blog and they were in the same week or so...
 |
| A bunch of pics from Zappa Plays Zappa, featuring Dweezil and his incredible band. |
 |
| Dweezil allowed former FZ bandmate Denny Walley up to play some slide on "Willie The Pimp" |
 |
| Spencer with his glow stick getting tucked in. |
 |
| Piggy escaped one early evening but I got him back by the lake behind our house. |
No comments:
Post a Comment