Then Came the Last Day of May: Live at Atlanta Musicians Exchange & The Ravinia (...where there's smoke, there's fire...)

Adrian rallied those of us willing and able to rally for another performance at the annual Pea Ridge Pop Festival.  It's just a throw down at the AME, the third anniversary I believe.  This time out, along with Adrian Ash on drums and Jason Passmore on alto saxophone, we were alongside Chris Otts on tenor saxophone and Scott Sadler on guitar.  Old cats, new cats.  We played our old favorites including The Chicken, Backtrack, & Cold Duck Time.  One new tune for us was Horace Silver's The Jody Grind.  Anytime somebody suggests any Horace, I'm up for that.  I would do a Horace tribute group if the offer came up.  He was a tremendous composer that always put in a cool twist with interesting chord changes.  The Jody Grind is a minor blues with a crazy turnaround.  I always marvel at those who think in terms of flats and sharps within the same tune.  There's really no way around it on this tune, at least in the concert key.  Here's a nice chart that I wish I had on the day way played it.  Bass players have to start things off with the distinctive groove line, and a lot of these tend to run together for me.  It's nice to have a reference.  Here you can clearly see the 2-bar juxtaposition of the anticipated notes leading into those firmly on the beat.  Good stuff to tuck away.

It was good to see Adrian and his boy.  We all got to hang out and eat some barbecue before the hit.  Lots of shop talk and getting to know each other a bit.  I think we made some wise choices on the song selection.  I played fretless and tried to channel some energy (ie. WWJD?  that's what would Jaco do, in this case).  It was nice to not have keys this time out.  More space for the horns and guitar.  Fun jam with some great players.

Panoramic shot of us hanging out after dinner in front of the Ravinia

From there, I scooted over to the Ravinia on Ashford-Dunwoody, where I had already dropped off my amp and pedalboard earlier in the day.  This was a big celebration event for the Shriners of Atlanta.  We had played at the YAARAB Temple a few months back in their gymnasium (what is that room exactly? - been there many times but could never figure it out).  This time out was quite a bit more formal.  The music began with Glen and Johnny performing the initial dance of John Legend's All Of Me.  After that, we went into our first long set, starting out with The Way You Look Tonight, Just My Imagination --> My Girl, Under the Boardwalk, ... Nothing else out of the blue.

This was the first night we were joined by Ben Forehand on guitar.  Ben is a great player with some very nice gear.  He gets some great tones with glossy effects, but he can play too.  He came very prepared, no charts needed.  Wish I could say that!  He's a big fellow, somebody I look up to!  He seems like he may be the right man for the job, although he is crazy busy and has a major Sunday church gig that takes up most of his day and starts very early in the morning.  Hope he can hang with us.

Tragically, my amp overheated and started smoking.  Everybody saw smoke billowing out of the front of my amp except for me.  I could smell it though.  I made it through the 2nd set, keeping the volume down.  It overheated again in the 3rd set and just died.  I lost my sound completely.  Jason came to my rescue with a direct box and monitor feed in time for the next song.  My amp was fried!  Yuck!  I weighed my options at home.  Luckily I found my receipt from when I acquired it at Atlanta Bass Gallery.  It was purchased in July of 2012, so it had 1 month left on the warranty.  Cool.  I couldn't get this other place to return my message, so I relented and took it  to Wizard Electronics.  They take a while to get it fixed, but last time I called they were waiting to hear back from Gallien-Krueger.  It was the main board and something else too.  I really cooked it.  I think that when I get it back, I may to take it easy on the pre-amp section.  I would think I could run it as hot on the pre-amp as I wanted, but with 3 tubes perhaps I drove it too hard.  I can't seem to find anybody else online discussing this problem.  Maybe it was just my luck.  I have some bad karma with gear.