A Night at The Biltmore: Part I

Nice to have one during the week again.  It had been a while for one of these.  We were treated well; even Lee J came out to pay a visit.  He does a great job and I only wish he could use us more.  I'm certain he feels the same towards us.  During the week, a Platinum gig is most likely going to be a corporate event.  Those are typically easier in that there are no special songs to learn - usually.  Sometimes they want one that is a theme for the compnay (ie Let's Get It Started or Simply The Best).  No problem.  In this case, the problem could have been the venue.  The Biltmore has it's share of acoustical nightmare stories assoicated with it.  This evening was compounded with the issue that we were playing dinner jazz that wasn't really meant to be heard.  

I have to go on record here as saying that I'm a big fan of jazz.  I wasn't always, but I get it.  I love all things jazz at this point.  Here is my issue; it's not a rant, I promise.  Live jazz for a corporate event or even a wedding needs to be dumbed down as much as possible.  :Let's face it, we're not playing for the X or Y generation.  We're not playing for people who disagree on whether Miles' Second Great Quintet was more groundbreaking than his first.  These people don't know who Elvin Jones was, or that Keith Jarrett scats when he solos.  They want to hear something nice and innocuous.  Wallpapaer music.  What bands should play are standards, and the standards should actually become more contempoary as the years go by.  And, yes I began a sentence with and to make a big point, they shouldn't be 12 minute outside excursions with solos from everybody on the bandstand.  The tunes should each be perhaps 5 minutes max.  One soloist per tune, 2 maybe.  Really.  People don't really want to hear the solos.  They want the melodies, the heads.  Get in and get out.  They want songs, not All Blues.  By the way, that is a great tune that eveybody knows how to play.  Too bad it's just a vehicle for soloing.  Ballads are the name of the game in this scenerio.

We did a decent job with keeping the volume down, although Anton was called out early on for being a bit too out front in the mix.  We played On Green Dolphin Street, which is a very nice standard.  I think we also did All The Things You Are, which went over well.  i would like to see us make them shorter and play more tunes, which is hard to do.  It's hard to edit ones self and it's really hard to all collectively be able to play a lot of standards.  I thinking of As Time Goes By, perhaps a Beatles tune like Eleanor Rigby that has been played by multiple jazz musicians in the past, maybe a Norah Jones tune, maybe something like a Jason Mraz tune, maybe a Disney theme tune like Beyond The Sea. you get the picture.  A lot of short tunes, so that eventually everybody will have recognized something if they're listening.  That's my view on dinner jazz. 

  We played well but had to be so quiet.  I mean really really quiet.  Silly quiet.  We did some vocal tunes as well: Virigina's Make You Feel My Love and Dianna's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face went over very well.  Johnny Collins, a recent contact who has begun stepping in for the departing Kevin, excelled on his version of My Funny Valentine.  We had soundchecked Love's Divine and Johnny killed it, but it wasn't played during the proceedings.  We also had Bogey (yes, from the great Bogey and The Viceroy) on hand to lead us along and provide a strong frontline.  He delivered the goods on a fly Fly Me To The Moon.  Great to work with you again, Bogey!  Sweetness trimphed over the decible-sensitive gathering.

As you can tell form the crowd shots above, they loosened up considerably after our break.  It became an all out dance fest, culminating in the show stopper Don't Stop Believin'.  Not much to report, although my cabling and poedalboard were beginning to really bug me.  I was fed up with not having my Rack Rider in my system.  Funny how a seemingly inconsequential unit like a glorified power strip makes a difference.  I guess that's the way I'm wired!  My cables and such were in a disarray, prompting me to always bring an excess of wires just to cover my needs.  I want to make the setup and strike a lot easier.  My pedalboard was getting out of hand as well.  I was looking to simplify it all in the near future.  

The Winnona Riders Play the Fall Picnic: Great Times at Winnona Park Fall Picnic Sept 22, 2013

The Winnona Riders: L to R - Rick Lubrant (guitar, vocals), Bo Emerson (trumpet, vocals), Jonny Hibbert (saxophone), Adrian Ash (drums, various other non-living organisms),
Gerald Simmons Craig (percussion, vocals), John Hancotte, (bass) & Gary Clements (guitar, vocals).
This and almost all of the other pics courtesy of premier photographer Andi Larner and her Facebook posting.
Thank you Andi!

After a long ride in the Suburban from Florida, I got home and then headed back out with some different toys to Winnona Park in Decatur, about 40 minutes or so from my house.  Crazy indeed. A lot of pictures and a whole lot of fun.  This was a true pick-up band assembled from a couple of different groups.  Adrian rang me up to have a go at it.  Interesting to play some upright over some light rock oldies and then some old R&B stuff on electric.  No rehearsal but a set list was provided.  I even worked on some of the tunes.  Fun to play some of these old funky chestnuts, like Dixie Chicken and Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley.  Gerald looked familiar, as did Bo, but I really just met everybody that afternoon for the first time.  I was dog tired from the trip and my family wasn't too happy with me turning around and leaving again.  It was a paying gig and I was grateful for the job.  Plus, we were allowed to eat some seriously good barbecue.  I hope we can do it again some time.

 

 

I took some pics, but they weren't worth much.  This one below of the group from my perspective as we were getting warmed up was nice.  I also took the one above of Rick (bearded guitarist) that I was able to edit into a worthy document.  All of Andi's pics were edited in one way or another.  The horns sounded great.  Bo & Jonny made a nice section.  Bo sang really well too.  Adrian keeps sounding stronger every time I play with him.  He must have some very focused practice sessions in his basement.  Solid!

The Discipline Twins Invade Rosemary Beach Under the Sheltering Sky: A Frame By Frame Account of a Rather Soggy Trip to a Normally Sunny Destination

With a headline like that, I hope you were prepared for something scary.  Funny that Mark and I both brought our King Crimson t-shirts.  This afternoon was so sticky and humid, not to mention a full-on downpour off and on all day and night, that I couldn't help but sweat through my shirt.  Crazy humidity, worse than the ATL.  And we're in an open-air tent.  The best thing for bass strings and musical equipment in general.  Sabina and the boys were seriously considering to come along for a one day vacation - a day on the beach and all that.  So glad that didn't happen.  It would not have been any fun for them.

Sweetwater Junction this time out on September 21st was Chris Garner, Brian Molin, Mark Letalien, Pete Orenstein, and myself.  One big happy.  We met at 9:30 or so at 14th Street.  It was a long ride in the Black Suburban of doom.  Actually, that Suburban is a very nice ride.  State of the art, with 2 drop-down HD-oriented DVD screens.  We couldn't figure out the headphones for listening, but got it to work with earbuds.  Chirs brought some DVD-R burned movies, but the only one that worked in the player was Crazy Heart (starrring Jeff Bridges as country has-been singer-songwriter Otis "Bad" Blake).  It was a good movie that kept me interested, but only chewed up perhaps 90 minutes of a 5 hour trip.  We were pushing it to set up on time.  No worries.  It all came together; finding the tent was a bit of a needle in a haystack, as the entire Rosemary Beach area looks the same and it appeared to be a maze of identical bungalows and such.  Great driving from Brian and Mark and then we were there.

Discipline is a vehicle for joy.

We soundchecked and rehearsed the first dance, I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz.  Sad aside here: I saw the tune on the list but confused it with another Mraz tune I'm Yours.  That tune has perhaps a similar theme in the lyrics ("I won't hesitate no more it cannot wait I'm yours").  Not really the same at all, but in my head I thought I already knew it.  Ooops!  Had to learn it on the fly, thanks to Mark having it on his ipod.  Don't assume - you know what happens when you do!  I decided to play it on The Stick, which worked out well.  It is a ballad, so groove was not a big part of the rhythm, although ballads certainly have a groove as well.  It was nice to grab some chords with my right hand to give a bit of heft to the gentle tune.


After soundcheck, we stacked the cases and wiped them off; they were already very wet.  I guess they needed a cleaning.  Mark and I were given a few gift ponchos.  There's a good joke in there somewhere.  We had some time to grab an early dinner, but the place we chose was only serving snack food - sandwiches and such.  We made the best of it.  I enjoyed some of the best guacamole I've had in a long time.  Decent sandwiches and chips.  And it rained some more.

The gig went well.  This band shifts along effortlessly.  They get hired for the rock, country, jam-band stuff, and the dance hits of today and yesterday.  That's a lot of material.  We did a nice long jazz set for dinner, which I enjoy as much as the other material.  This crowd didn't ask for jams that the folks at Callanwolde did, so we didn't play any Dead, Band, Phish, Panic, or the like.  It was more like Clapton, Van, Petty, Allmans, Stones, you get the picture.  We did throw in Daft Punk's Get Lucky near the end.  The crowd loved it, especially the parents.  We soon were done at an early hour and packed up the trailer to sleep in Dothan.  Not before running onto the beach to see the sea.  I did twice but the first time my shoes got drenched - doh!  That's what I get for trying to touch the water - why did I leave my shoes on?  At least it wasn't my black shoes.  There after, I was Shoeless Joe.  A memorable Waffle House trip the next morning and then we wound our way back north.  I had to be back to scoot over to Decatur for an afternoon neighborhood gig.  It ain't easy...

The stage is set

Nibble & Noshfest: Last Call Makes the Clouds Part at Temple Kol Emeth

Atlanta's premier jangle-rock and assorted one-hit wonder act Last Call was on hand Labor Day to give a brief performance at Nibble & Noshfest - A Taste of Jewish Food & Fun.  Check out the webiste and the facebook page.  It is, among other things, a fund-raiser for Temple Kol Emeth, located in East Cobb.  Last Call volunteered their services, as did everybody involved, to help bring interest and awareness to this annual festival.  Being held over Labor Day weekend, it has traditionally been plagued by rain.  As luck would have it, this year was no different.  It rained both Sunday and Monday during the event hours, at times with quite heavy downpours.

David Falkenstein (guitar, vocals), Ira Kramer (drums, vocals), Karl Rosenblum (fiddle), and myself were joined by Farrel Anne on vocals.  This altered our normal jangle-centric set but gave us a chance to offer up some more recent additions to the playlist.  It also lets us relax a bit and let her take over the chore of fronting the band while we supply the music.  David made it happen!  They (we) all did, actually.  He brought the deluxe system and drummed up a tidy little setlist for us to plow through.

The weather gave us doubts about whether (I couldn't resist here) we were even going to play.  Not much about this event was easy, but once we were on stage it went smoothly.  It was surreal seeing my family there, even my mother-in-law and sister as well.  One thing that came to mind is that we always seem to set up on different sides of the stage and that makes for a bit of inconsistent perspectives.  It is best for the bassist to be near the drummer, and preferably near the hi-hat.  With Last Call, the drums are electronic, so the sounds aren't really coming from the drums.  Plus, we monitor through ear-buds.  If space ever provides us the option, I'd like to try a setup a la The Bears, that band with Adrian Belew and members of Cincinnati's power-pop trio The Raisins.  What a great band, destined to be underrated but they sure came up with some catchy tunes.  Alas, I cannot seem to find an image to describe their stage.  What they do is have the 4 of them in a row - all up front.  Left to right, from the audience perspective, is drums, guitar 1, guitar 2, bass.  The 2 guitars are between the rhythm section as they are the primary lead singers as well.  It may seem to alter the communication of the bassist and drummer, but with adequate monitors that isn't a big problem.  plus it is a power pop band and not jazz.  Enough rambling.  We played well and were only getting used to everything when it was time to finish up.  By then, the clouds had begun to part and the wet stuff was moving out.  Wish I had some better pics to post.  It happened so fast that we all probably forgot to take any!

For Your Consideration: The Billy Batts Ensemble Plays Tutu and other love songs...

Like a fine after-dinner cordial, The Billy Batts Ensemble offers up a relaxing and slightly intoxicating approach in its swing, bossa, balladry, funk, and even R&B.  My son asked me, "What is R&B?"  I guess that term isn't used as often as it once was; it stands for Rhythm and Blues.  That could be switched out for Soul or even what it is thought of as Hip-Hop these days.  At any rate, this band can do it all.  I didn't even list country, folk, or rock, but you know we go there as well.  As a quartet that has the means to return to the well of improvised music with a penchant for not following any rules, this is band that can provide the perfect backdrop to any special event.

The group of Walter Austin (piano, synth), Brian Molin (guitar), Mark Letalien (drums, percussion), and John Hancotte (bass) chose to hit the group running with the Marcus Miller-penned Tutu.  Of course, this was a vehicle for Miles and brought the famed trumpeter/band leader a whole new audience in the mid-80's.  We love to play this slow-burning funk, with the displaced ostenatos and surprise twists of fresh harmonic centers.  It's a fun, modal workout that Miles obviously loved.  We do as well.  How about the crowd, you ask?  They like whatever we throw at them.  The trick is to do it with intensity but at a low volume.  This band burns at low volumes.  At social gatherings, folks want to have live music but wish to keep the volume down.  The trick is the control each musician brings from his previous experiences.  Fortunately, this band has what it takes to keep the levels in check.  That's one reason we have kept this gig at the club for so many years.

Super side note: I only took 1 picture that night.  Just to have a bit of fun, I decided to split it into 2 pics.  More interesting, no?  The original is after the 2 edits.  Let me know what you think.

Mark Letalien helps to keep the volume down with brushes.

Walter Austin leads us through some tasty ballad playing, including Stella By Starlight.

One songbook that is always kicked around is The Beatles.  We love to try their songs and attempt them in a different light.  Not exactly news to the jazz community, but the crowd enjoys them and we do as well.  One we discussed at the end of the session was Paul's magical Fool On the Hill.  As with many of his tunes, there aren't a whole lot of chord changes, but what great chords they are!  It's like with another one we've tried before, With a Little Help From My Friends.  It's almost just 3 chords, but they are turned around in such a way that they take on different roles within the form.  At any rate, I put all of this in here to remind myself to work on these.  I've missed the most recent date in October as the family was at Red Top Mountain.  You could say I was well on the way with my head in the clouds...  Must be prepared for November, if I'm lucky enough to be joining these players once again.

Sourced online - lyrics & chords
Haven't checked it yet, but I do know the bass pedals on the D
while the chords move from D6 (or Bm/D) to Em/D
Something to think about in the meantime.

As an added bonus, I thought I might share some pics that Mark shot on the last Billy Batts show.  He is a private instructor with a very insightful web presence:

http://www.learndrumslive.com/