Billy Batts Ensemble Takes On Another Friday With Bossa, Blues, 'n Beatles

We get together and the elliptical nature of time makes it feel as though we just saw each other.  For this evening, Walt suggested a tune for us to audition, an odd one at that: Caramel by Suzanne Vega.  It's a bossa nova sounding number with some cool heavy (for a bossa) rhythm section work courtesy of Bruce and Pete Thomas (no relation to each other, did you know that?), the old bass & drums team from Elvis Costello & The Attractions.  So I got the song, learned the song, made changes to the chart Walt had sent, and really enjoyed it.  We did a decent job on it, although I don't think it is in the best key for Walt to sing it.  Here's my slightly modified chart - it's close to the arrangement of the original:

The form isn't quite right, and the V7 chords are iffy (sometimes it does the bII7 and sometimes it does the V7).  You gotta love the i to the bV7 to the ii - V - what is that bV7 anyway?  It sure grabs your ear.  I want to steal that idea someday.  The bass in this song is just perfect and really carries the tune.  It could be even more bossa with an upright bass and a tenor sax stating the melody.  Cool tune and it made me search out some more of her stuff.  She's had a long career.

The rest of the night wasn't too different than a normal session for us.  Pride and Joy always seems to work, even in this country club environment.  We did play Norwegian Wood and Come Together.  After hearing Walrus Confusion, I'd like to see us try a mash-up like that to stretch our Beatle wings - Beatle Wings!  How about Plastic Ono Wings?  Here's a fun link to check out if you haven't come across this yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE49bsxGTFM

They were writing a song together and didn't even know it!

And here's how we looked on this evening, the 14th of March, 2014...

Up In The Highlands: Old Edwards Inn Lets The Chef Do The Talking While Platinum Keeps The Guests Dancing

The Barn Pavilion at the Old Edwards Inn Farm

The food at this place is outstanding.  We should all know as the chef gave a 10 minute aural dissertation on the finer details of the buffet before it was to be laid out before the guests.  Produce is grown on site, so I was told.  I'm not complaining, really.  We enjoyed a hot meal complete with a sizable fresh salad in our cozy green cottage, located just outside of the venue stage area.  We had a large learning curve with the wall mounted air conditioner unit that was operated by remote control.  We also dealt with one single serve bathroom allocated for 8 band members plus our sound and lighting tech.  Cozy!

Platinum completes our soundcheck and clears the stage of empty road cases

Getting there was half the fun on this warm and beautiful late winter day.  The Highlands in North Carolina is arguably a popular destination point as far as weddings are concerned.  It is not a bad drive, but those 2 1/2 hours from the ATL are a solid 2 1/2 hours.  Those who claim to make it in less time are cruising along at a good clip, which is what we did on the way back.  We did have to deal with getting up the mountain, as in one of the Appalachian Mountains, to reach the plateau where the newly renovated barn pavilion at the Old Edwards In Farm was situated (yes, it's a mouthful, and there doesn't seem to be a more concise description available).  So I rode up the mountain with my cohorts Glen and Johnny snoring away.  Got there with enough time to set up and ready ourselves for the elaborate soundcheck.  Had to go over many tunes, with John Mayer's Say being the one I had worked on the most.  I was to play acoustic guitar on it along with Steven Wright, our newly appointed guitarist for hire.  I had sweated this one out, as the part I was to play was in fact one of two guitars in a very precise, almost Frippian Discipline-esque, repeated pattern.  I finally got it down, with the repeated note, the capo in tow at the 5th fret, the pull offs, that tricky repeated note, the syncopated style, the lower harmony vs. the higher harmony, etc.  It truly feels like a sequence of samples that is not a live guitar per se.  I love playing it, as I now feel comfortable playing it as opposed to the day we first tried it.  We sounded good and by a stroke of good fortune, we really locked in and made it groove.  Anton handled the bass on his keyboard, which gave a fat tone.  Hope we play it some more down the road.

Guitarist for hire Steven Wright

Keyboardist, saxophonist, auxiliary percussionist, and rapper Anton Harris

Johnny Collins on the front line

Gus Melton on drums

The bridesmaids were really into it this evening

Glen "The Human Jukebox" Perdew

Virginia Rece leads us through Don't Stop Believin'

The gig itself went well.  We were on our best behavior and gave the client what they wanted.  Don't we always?  Perhaps not.  One snafu I recall is that for the rehearsal, I had prepared The Way You Love Me by Faith Hill, only to learn that the first dance was in fact I Love the Way You Love Me by John Michael Montgomery.  Of course, a completely different song.  To add to that conundrum, I wrongly informed both Glen and Gus of the same info I was going by.  It's like that classic game of telephone we used to play as kids.  None of us knew the song.  Enough to make a bandleader's blood pressure rise.  Well, of course, we had a few days to get the tune in our heads.  Listened to it on the way up as well.  Also had to go over Chris Brown's huge hit Forever, a big one that I guess I never paid much attention to it was played on the top 40 stations I listen to.  I do listen to more top 40 than I have in the past, mainly  when Jack and Spencer are with me.  On my own, I'm usually tuned into talk radio.  It's important to keep up with the hits, just to not become a dinosaur.

Getting home that night wasn't too eventful, although I guess I took the mountain path a bit on the quick side.  The fellas were nervous but I was always in control.  Just wanted to get home by 2:30 and we made great time.  A cop trailed me for a good bit on the main road leading to the 985 portion, but I guess he was waiting for me to slip up.  He eventually gave up and let me relax.

Driving Slow on Sunday Morning: 2 Weekends at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

Always a pleasure to be a part of the praise band at that little ol' church on Paper Mill.  I don't think I lined up anything in particular to say about these dates.  It's a sight-reading job; perhaps the only one I have, come to think of it.  We do a rehearsal before each service, mainly for the choir's benefit.  The sheet music stands are the type that have wings to widen the viewing area, which is handy.  Some of these charts are 6 pages, so I'm either playing one-handed or balancing a page on my knee if there are even more.  I think I'm getting better at keeping up.  Some of the church jobs I've done before have been a little rocky.  It's been nice to have something this rewarding this close to home.  It's been a nice run.