Had a fun jazz gig with an old comrade Ryan Strickland. Ryan is an amazing guitarist who I can safely say is a gifted jazz improviser and a master chord guru. He plays voicings that a so musical and hip. You know, a Cm7 can sound a bit run of the mill after a while, but not in Ryan's hands. He knows all of those open and drop 2 voicings; McCoy Tyner would be jealous. As I recall, he gets a lot of inspiration of Steve Khan, another master of chord voicings. At any rate, I used to play with Ryan at a few places in Roswell.
Alpine Bakery and Trattoria
We played a whole mess of standards. I used my ol' upright, plugged into my GK 110 combo and this time I had my nouveau upright pedalboard in tow. Caught some heiness feedback once. The eq is tricky. Thinking i really need a 10-band eq to do this better. Actually I really need a 31-band just to be certain, but that doesn't fit on a pedalboard so easily. I think that is the key to good, loud upright tone, or certainly a critical element; cut out the violating frequency with a notch-like swype, leaving all neighboring frequencies intact.
This time I think it's true - no pictures to post from this gig. Sad, since I don't see Ryan too often. We had a nice gig, but my playing was a bit sterile. Some upright gigs I do, I'm inspired beyond belief. Come to think of it, those were with the Flycats. Reece and Big Lou are very complimentary and inspiring, yes. Ryan is inspiring, but if I'm in a zone where I'm so self-conscious, well, we are all our worst enemies in that regard. I've felt better, but we had some good grooves. I do tend to land on the root a lot when I'm walking, but it sounds funny if I go the 3rd or the 5th. Those bass players are crafty. I don't remember a lot being said after the fact, which isn't always a good thing. Hope to play with the young cat again.
We all got deluxe yummy to-go meals of chicken and pasta. Excellent food at the Alpine Bakery and Trattoria. I enjoyed it on my drive home - it didn't stand a chance!
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