Hudson Grille with MartaY: A Chance to Bask in John "Mighty" McKnight's Deep Pocket

MartaY & The PartaY at Hudson Grille on Peachtree

Last Friday I returned to the scene where my car was towed last year.  Good times, right?  Now I certainly know where to not park, at least.  This time, cutting it close as I dined with the family before they all went to Temple, I lucked out and found a spot in the lot behind the big complex of Brookhaven hot spots.  The PartaY was playing for a birthday party - what a perfect location with perfect weather!  Killer patio setting on a spring Friday night.  Joining the MartaY and myself were John "Mighty" McKnight on drums and vocals and Sheri Hofherr on vocals.  John is a consummate musician and singer.  He was very solid and generated a lot of energy from his side of the stage.  I was on the opposite side of this admittingly small stage, but our line of sight was rather challenged with a support beam, the backline "riser", and the heads of our ensemble.  I could hear him, just couldn't see him.  It worked out okay.  Sheri sounded really good as well.  She sang a song (that I didn';t know but the whole sure did) by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - brought the house down!  It was certainly the most well-received hit of the evening.  Mighty sang One Way Out and most definitely laid claim as one of the greatest blues vocalists in Atlanta.  It's no wonder that he is always working.  I just don't know how he was even available for this night with us.

My cabinet was elevated with some well placed chairs and the said riser.  That always helps me in terms of hearing what I want to hear.  Many times the bass is just too loud for it's own good.  I'd rather hear it well, as long as I have to watch the volume anyways.  We ended up going on late, more like 9:30 as opposed to 9, or even 8 as was mentioned before.  That suited me fine.  As a result, we opted for a very long set.  I think it was 2 1/2 hours, or 180 minutes, but who's counting?  It went by fast, but at the end I was ready to pack it up and head home.  The next morning was T-ball with Spencer and then a trip to Carrollton for the evening.  Always great to rock with MartaY!

Maybe This Isn't As Cool As I Had Hoped It Would Be

Had a nice rehearsal dinner gig on Friday.  It became an eye opening experience.  So many songs I really wasn't ready for.  Finding charts in time on a gig of this scope can be tough.  Organization.  Also learned that I shouldn't be a music critic and a musician.  I'm not here to point out how the night could have been better.  I will try to focus on perspectives that the bass can draw from.  I will try to leave out names a bit more.  Perhaps I can keep a log for my own reference.  I apologize to all those who look for their names.  Maybe they found them and were disappointed in what they read.  Who am I to think I know as well as anybody else?

"New Kid In Town" Highlights Video

Here's a promo that Brent has meticulously crafted from footage shot at the debut performance of New Kid In Town in Toccoa, GA this past April. You can see my Fender headstock and perhaps a glimpse of me if you don't blink. It was great fun. I could only think that we would make the show more substantial with a few more deep cuts and another keyboard-based tune or two. Great job on the video, Brent!

A Night at the High Museum with The Class Act Band

The stars aligned once again, allowing me the opportunity to join up with Judy Boehm's multi-faceted Class Act band.  We played at the High Museum of Art for an awards dinner.  Judy has more music running through her head than many musicians I run with.  She is always working, through gigs, teaching, logistics, practicing.  When I speak with her on the phone, she comments through riffing on a keyboard she just happens to have handy.  She ably leads, along with her husband, multi-instrumentalist/audio engineer/videographer/logistics coordinator Jim, an 8-piece group that gives a virtual non-stop performance with all tunes segued together.  No breaks in the action means no dead spots and a sense that we're well rehearsed.  I don't really even know all of the musicians I played with, but with a little help, I can piece together the details of the guilty parties.

The saxophonist, Ed Blake, was quite together, bringing an impressive arsenal of horns and flute.  He also ripped on a well-thought-out EWI set-up that may rival that of Dave Freeman's; I detected wireless MIDI from my vantage point, but after that, his rack shadowed everything else.  Dave's MacBook Pro certainly streamlines the setup for patches, not to mention presenting up-to-date photos of his boy Jack (our sons are both named Jack - here's to having more in common with DBF in the years to come).  The trumpet player stood in awe during many of the sax solos.  I felt a bit for him.  He had a warm tone on his flugelhorn that helped the jazz set substantially.  Brent Whiten needs no introduction to faithful readers here, but just in case you are new to this water cooler chat area, he plays the drums and trumpet, sometimes at the same time, and sings like Sting, Steve Perry, and Louis Armstrong.  His raspy take during the bridge for What a Wonderful World was completely spot on in nuance and tone; Pops would've been quite proud.  His vocal turn on I Just Called To Say I Love You was easily the scene stealer/show stopper.  I saw people holding their forks in mid-air, seemingly lost in their bite of salad, as they took in Brent's effortless tribute to '80's era Stevie Wonder.  It sounded great and has made me rethink the merit of that tune, never one of my favorites from Stevie's pen but certainly a pop standard that can be very effective when the stars are aligned.  Ed Sanker was his typical professional self - he doesn't mess around.  He excels at that Steve Cropper style of riff-counterpoint that outlines the harmony without simply trudging through another series of barre chords.  Well versed in jazz, Ed played some real Pat Martino inspired lines and certainly copped the George Benson vibe (on Breezin' especially) over the lite jazz we produced.  Nice warm tone, too.  Another thing: the man sings every bit as well as Brent.  He sings these standards and really delivers them.  I think musicians like these may becoming harder to come by.  I mean, I hear the emotion that is being brought forth and I know these guys are digging deep into the song.  It's really quite something to be a part of when it's going down.  Ed, I don't think you'll ever know how honored I am to be supporting you on events such as this one.  I say that as an aside from something I'd written here earlier and since modified, but also as a vocalist who aspires to project as clearly as these lads do.  I've sang Summer Wind and The Way You Look Tonight and it's something I continue to work on.  We had three other fine vocalists rounding out the front line, with Verna Law and Kirk being the names I am able to reconstitute at this point.  They had a lot of fun cutting up and dancing, giving us some extra personality.

We began with jazz and mellow pop.  A lengthy list of easy listening for a black-tie cocktail moment and sit-down supper:  The Girl From Ipanema;  Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?;  Satin Doll (does anybody play the same changes over that one?);  It's Only a Paper Moon;  L-O-V-E;  The Summer Wind;  Come Away With Me;  All of Me (in the key of G - how well do I really know it? - see below for the background on this thought);  The Way You Look Tonight;  Coming Home;  Breezin';  This Masquerade;  The Nearness of You;  When You Say Nothing At All;  The Boy From New York City;  Route 66;  Unforgettable; plus Kenny G's semi-recent black-tie Spyro-lite workout Sax-a-Loco.  It's a lot to keep track of, to be honest with you.  Glad I grabbed the fretless for all of that mellow stuff.  The Stingray was the right tool for the party set: Ain't No Mountain High Enough;  My Girl;  Function at the Junction;  Mardi Gras Mambo;  Hey Pocky Way;  Mustang Sally --> Shotgun (Medley);  Bad Girls;  My Guy (yeah, I flubbed that III7 chord, or is it really a V of vi ie V/vi?  BTW, James Jamerson played upright bass on this song.  Bass players know this already, but seriously, listen to his ridiculous runs near the end as the song vamps out.  It's transcribed in the Standing In The Shadows of Motown book).

When the Saints Go Marching In was performed with all of playing on the dance floor, with Brent on trumpet and Judy on accordion.  We didn't all abandon the stage: Verna kept the beat behind Brent's kit!  What a memorable number that I really wanted to be in (he he)!

The Green Room after the show.

Here's that cute little infraction sheet that I referred to earlier regarding All of Me.  In the key of C, it has enough tricky changes to confuse the wanna-be jazzer.  I suppose it was my own shortcoming, so to speak.  It was hard to remember the E7, Em7, A7, Am7 - for some reason, committing Stella By Starlight or Misty to memory was much easier.  That and the fact that it is almost always played in the key of C.  I've sang it before in C so the key must decent enough for guys to sing in.  Well, Verna sang it and we played it in G.  It was time to think fast!  I made it through rather well.  Think in terms of Nashville numbers and it all works out.

Billy Batts Ensemble Plays To Ourselves at Spring Break, with a taste from Symmetry

The weather was nice, but not nice enough to play outside.  Besides, the food would be coated in pollen by the time it was consumed if the folks who showed up opted for patio dining.  It was spring break week, or one of the big 2, so the crowd was thinner than usual.  Plus, the Braves were on and kicking butt against the Washington Nationals in D.C. (go Nats, but don't tell anybody)!  We weren't particularly inspired.  It felt like the group was a bit ADD and without our daily meds.  We jammed and practiced a few without any concern.  Well, nobody was there so it was a paid rehearsal.  Brian had a cool riff that doubled as a bass line and later morphed into our Latin version of Elisabeth Reed.  We played Come Together but all agreed that I Want You (She's So Heavy) would indeed be the heavy one to play - how to jazz it up?  The parts in 6 could be a jazz waltz.  The blues verses could be Latin a la Chitlins Con Carnes.

We played the usual Just Friends (I'm getting better at the form without the chart, but I still want to think of it as being in C rather than G) and Song For My Father and good news - we didn't get lost on the form once!  Walt and I spoke a long time ago about all of the great Horace Silver tunes that nobody plays.  We need to do some of them - a Horace Medley!  We spoke (a the gig) of finally getting around to learning Radiohead's Paranoid Android (I just got a chart - 8 pages with not much padding - oh boy) as well settled into the far easier Karma Police.  Mark performed a sweet African-infused multi-limbed workout on Unchain My Heart - it changed the song completely, but it still worked.  We concluded with Walt's original tune Fortune Teller, a funky Peter Gabriel-esque bluesy groove in B flat minor that I wish I had learned a bit better.  His CD is a well-produced masterpiece that gathers together his vast influences song by song for an amazing journey: info is over here for Symmetry, the debut cd release by Middleshelf.  The fellows were looking forward to their original gig on Saturday.  I made the choice to not join them; my loss perhaps.

Afterwards, it was social hour with visiting guitarist Jeff Caldwell, in town from Hawaii.  We met in Midtown at the world reknown R Thomas Deluxe Grille.  Good times and great to see an old jamming buddy.  He really is incredible - you will hear from this healthy individual sometime soon...

Jeff and Mark, both former members of Col. Bruce Hampton's Quark Alliance, sitting in front of me at R Thomas...

The Finyl Four Weekend: At Least Some of My Family Made It Downtown - I Went To Nashville

It's been a long, quiet winter around here for me.  I've played a little here and there, but Platinum has suffered like many other society bands.  The corporate shows have really thinned out.  After a few rehearsals, and fairly weak ones at that, we ventured up to Tennessee for a wedding reception.  We had good weather on our side, although perhaps 5 degrees cooler than we would like, as the reception was outside.  Glen rode up with me.  I tried to make it a foursome - the more, the merrier, and - ta da, the less we all pay for gas.  Well, Glen needed to be back for his Church service at 11:00 am - meaning we'd have to leave early.  It's a 4 hour trip, or it's supposed to be.  Going up, we hit the usual traffic slowdown around Chastian Road, just north of Barrett Parkway on I-75.  Then past Cartersville and Red Top Mountain, things got real ugly.  It was slow for miles and miles.  Eventually, we pulled off for a Subway and bent the ear of our sandwich artist.  He hipped us to a better side streets route than Google Maps did, namely 41 - that 41 goes everywhere 75 does, so it seems.  It worked out.  We were running late at this point.  Then we checked our phones and saw that, lo and behold, we were on Central time - the clocks had moved back an hour.  We weren't late after all - the stress factor plummeted!  I secretly thought to myself: good news, and bad news; tomorrow morning is coming an hour earlier now...

The stage on the back lawn of Cheeckwood Mansion (at Cheeckwood Art & Gardens) was open air: no tent.  It's been a while since I've played on a stage that has no roof or back.  The sound is quite dead.  In a very good way, it makes one play honestly.  There is no reverberation, no coloration, and no ringing ears!  I could hear everything well; it just sounded different.  We were the full 8-piece band, with Marguerita in for Dianna (Platinum Soul enjoyed an in town event at Atlanta Athletic Club), plus Junius.  The stage crew set up some lekos on some slimline truss with a nice white truss-sock all around the front of the stage.  Junius had his LED lights as well.  We went over a bunch of stuff at soundcheck: "new" hip-hop medley This Is How We Do It --> The Humpty Dance --> Rump Shaker (single remix);  "new" Hammertime medley Superfreak --> U Can't Touch This;  "new" raggae-fied medley of 867-5309 (Jenny)(Stewart Copeland re-groove) --> Message In a Bottle --> Locked Out of Heaven (choreography version);  When a Man Loves a Woman;  Pour Some Sugar On Me;  Because You Loved Me (Male Vocal Version in Bb, down from Db, yes, I made & utilized a chart)...  I was supposed to sing Gimme Some Loving, but I guess we all decided that the night would be alright if it didn't happen.

The gig was a good one.  We opened with some ice-breaking jazz-pop: Mr. Magic and then Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.  The first set continued on after the dances, fine early fare that we all know: The Way You Look Tonight;  Georgia On My Mind.  The crowd danced and really got into it by the 2nd and 3rd sets.  We gave them what they wanted.  The break music was country.  In fact, it was almost the playlist from another band I run around with: Dixieland Delight;  Wagon Wheels;  Family Tradition.  Those guys are right on the money - that stuff should be at the top of their songlist.  Why those country-fried tunes didn't make the demo is a crying shame; they'd be playing every weekend... but, they don't do much hip-hop ("a good ol' bunch of white boyz" was how we were described at the agency on the day of the "showcase").

I ventured to the front of the stage and heard my bass.  It sounds so different from where I stand near the amp.  Duh!  We all know that, but, boy, I hadn't heard it.  From now on, I have to make a point to soundcheck while I'm out front.  Too many highs and upper mids.  It was gnarly.  I think I will roll down the presence on the SansAmp to start with.  I don't want anybody to lose their fillings!

Hadn't spoken with Derek much lately.  We just don't cross paths.  He has an iPhone now, and has really taken an interest in photography.  He posts on Instagram.  Taught me some cool concepts, namely the Rule of Thirds, where the screen is divided into 9 sections and the subjects are to be aligned to the intersecting "dividing lines" rather than simply centered.  Most phone cameras allow for that grid to be visible.  I set mine up and am attempting to capture some more interesting shots.  We'll see how it progresses.  Thank you Derek for the lesson - you pics looked really nice.

We made it over to the hotel by the airport and slept.  Bleak.  Up early - Glen had to wake me.  Drove to a Starbucks that I remembered passing on the way in.  Got my shot in the dark, which got us home safely.  Made good use of the day by taking Spencer to Stone Mountain Park; we worked on our golf game and rode the ducks.  Ah, the good life.