Subbing for Charley at Mt. Bethel UMC and a Steely Dan Tribute at The Velvet Room

Let's start with the evening, a seemingly one-off night of various musicians coerced into forming rotating lineups and replicating the dense patchwork of Steely Dan music.  I was into this, as it was my first invitation to play at The Velvet Note, a highly respected jazz venue tucked away in Alpharetta.  The gig came about with little more than a week's notice.  Here's a link that should be around a while, for posterity:

http://thevelvetnote.com/the-consummate-steely-dan-jam/

The Consummate Steely Dan Jam

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH

THE CONSUMMATE STEELY DAN JAM

STARRING THE BADASH ALL-STAR TEAM

Do you love Steely Dan as much as we do?  Katy Lied…Gaucho…Aja….Peg…the list goes on and on!  THIS is your chance to spend an exhilarating evening celebrating the music of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker as Steely Dan celebrates over 40 years in music.  This is a feast for the listening ear that grew up on this great music and appreciates live performance.  Scheduled musicians include Will Hollifield on Saxophone, Mac Isseks on Saxophone, John Hancock on bass, Adrian T. Ash on Drums and Tom Olsen on Keys and vocals galore!

Are you a musician who loves to play Steely Dan and would care to sit in?  Contact Bandleader Adrian T. Ash at ashadria@gmail.com

About Adrian T. Ash:  A graduate of the School of Music at Georgia State University, artistic director and bandleader Adrian Ash has been active as a bassist and percussionist in the metro-Atlanta area for over 25 years.  Adrian plays in several different bands in the Atlanta area, including a jazz band, a blues band, a bluegrass band, a few different variety/cover/party bands, A Dave Brubeck tribute band, and a Simon & Garfunkel/Solo Paul Simon tribute band.  His jazz group, Bad-Ash Allstar Team (BAAT), features many of Atlanta’s finest musicians in a multitude of genres.

Jam times:  7:30pm until 11:00 pm           Admission:  $10   Food and Drink Specials!!

**************  SOLD OUT!!  SOLD OUT!!  SOLD OUT!!************

Crazy.  So many folks involved: Adrian Ash (it wouldn't have happened without this fellow, and he learned a lot of tunes in a short amount of time), Lefty Williams (ace guitar, with an especially nice take on Kid Charlemagne), Trenton Sicola (lead vocals after Jeff left, and he was brilliant), George Price (he works as Santa Claus this time of year, but is an excellent guitarist), Mark Michaelson (vocals alongside Trenton, he is a mster of ceremonies and brings a feel good spirit to any event), Arthur Turner (wonderful technique on the piano, he played near the end when we did Black Cow), Reese Boyd (a young gun who slayed it on Bodhisatva and Show Biz Kids), Guy Fenocchi (charted Third World Man which I made an unfortunate blunder in - I woe ya Guy, 'cause that was a great chart for a real nice late-career tune of theirs), Steve Mays (perfect bass lines, and he memorized all of them), Tom Olsen (lots of heart and technique on the piano), William Hollifield (tenor madness, a very skilled player with a wealth of original tunes), Ganesh Giri Jaya (he plays everything and sings well, he ably drummed on some songs he learned just for this, most notably Sign In Stranger), Alan Dynan (Adrian's piano player for many projects, a deft bopper), Mac Isseks (strong sax man), Jeff Fritz (vocals & keys before he had to leave for another gig; also killed it on the drums on Aja), Jason Passmore (woodwinds are his forte, as you well know from reading this blog, Jason and I go back to my Wild Rice days), Frank Capek (great rhythm guitar on Kid Charlemagne, I believe - side note: is he Farrel's father?), um, there may be a few I left out...  It was a case of not really even knowing who I would be playing with from one song to another.

Steve Mays and myself were the bass players, and we traded off more or less every other song.  He helpoed me One neat nugget here is that I played some guitar on 4 of the tunes, I believe.  In fact, I played my Gibson Es-335 guitar on the 1st 2 songs we opened with: Any Major Dude Will Tell You and Bad Sneakers.  Very cool to try to get those parts.  That riff in Any Major Dude is harder than it sounds, especially in terms of getting it to sound smooth.  It's a classic.  I was ready for most of the stuff we tried.  Had to work on several, most notably The Fez.  Too bad we didn't sound that great on  Babylon Sisters, another of my guitar features; I was really looking forward to that one.

There was a lot of comradarie and it was perhaps one of the most organized jam sessions I've ever been a part of.  The Velvet Note is a fantastic club, resembling a comfy long living room.  The manager treated us like stars; she is a true fan of music and made us feel very welcome.  It didn't hurt that we brought some folks in, hey we actually "sold out" the club!  There wasa table near the back that really wanted to hear Razor Boy.  I made a chart for it and was really hoping we could do it.  Love that song, and recently learned that it is indeed upright bass on the track, performed by none other than Ray Brown.  Here's a fun blog to ruminate over regarding Razor Boy.  As I played on perhaps half, maybe 60% of the tunes, I got to hang out for a bit.  One of the best moments was simply quaffing a couple of cold chocolate stouts given to Guy and myself as we found some empty seats near the bar area.  Good to chill with an old friend in the midst of a fun music scene.

Much earlier that day:

I'm tall and my feet are big - size 14, on the narrow side but when they are that hard to find, I'll wear regular (but not wide).  What I'm getting at is Charles has this regular church gig but I get the feeling he is sorely missed when he cannot make it.  Hard to make every single gig when it occurs every week, rain or shine.  Sometimes ya gotta take the vacation.  More often than not, as a musician, ya gotta take that gig that sends your well-meaning self down to the Florida gulf coast, or somewhere else that won't see to it that you sleep a few dozen winks on your steady mattress.  Every so often, but not that often, I get the call from a good friend who needs my services to cover his service duty.  He subs for me in similar fashion, so the feeling is mutual.  That's a very long roundabout way of saying that he has big shoes to fill, even for my 14's.

Crazy 7 page charts with triple staves and hen-scratched notes and me confounding the time signature make for a less-than-ideal rehearsal.  I gave it the ol' college try (thanks Gus, I am in debt to you for bringing that back to the forefront of my conscious).  I tried hard and rehearsed on my own, but it still made me sweat a bit.  These tunes are not cookie cutter songs like I see in other venues, and the leader has big ears (and quite a confident technique, I must say).  Everybody is gracious, especailly my old sparring partner David B. Freeman.  The drummer Phil was very much on my side, going to the trouble of getting in touch with the regular guitarist Dustin Cottrell (out of town with Charley on a gig) to write down the changes for the closing tune.  It gave me a bit of strength.

 We found a good common ground and made the hard stuff coalise into a mellow moment.  My earbuds were empty, as I could not coax any level from the headphone mixer/amp.  Nobody else was using it, so I guess it just wasn't getting any signal.  Next time I should bring a small amp - the DI isn't enough. Still, I gave it my best and I know they were glad to have their regular guy the following week - who wouldn't?

Photo courtesy of David Freeman