Jam Session at Java Monkey with The Brett Warren Band

Tuesday was a big day.  It's spring break for Cobb County, so Jack is home this week.  Sabina took days off to be home and we pulled Spencer out of his schooling to head over to Stone Mountain.  Sabina generously picked up year-long passes for us.  We will make it back many times this year.  Hiking up the mountain is approximately 3 miles one way, but Spencer is already eager to try!  What a boy!  They had big fun in the newly opened Geyser Towers, a waterpark/playground/rope tunnel for the youngsters.  This made me very tired, and i ended up amking dinner, eating, and then cleaning the dishes before heading down to Java Monkey for The Brett Warren Band's inaugural "blues 'n jazz jam session" (I don't really know what it was officially billed as).  There were some big players here, including Brett Warren & Lefty Williams on guitar, Kevin Scott on bass, Adrian Ash & Jared Lanham on drums, Spencer Pope on keyboards, Marquinn Mason, who was very complimentary to me,  and another fine player whose name I didn't get on saxophones...  They were killing it.

I met Kevin shortly before he had to leave for The Five Spot, where he hosts another jam session.  He was quite humble and gave me his card, so I looked him up.  Great player.  I played Adrian's Carvin 6-string for the 2nd set, as did Kevin.  It was a nice set up.  I would consider lowering the action, but that's certainly personal preference.  A 6-string lends itself to chordal work, which is tough with higher action.  That's always been my thinking, being an Oteil convert from back in the ARU glory days.  Joining me on the bandstand - wait, a second, I joined them - was Lefty, Brett, Spencer Pope on keys (he had a Nord!), & Danny Paschall on drums, another great drummer!  Lefty had one of those cool new pedal-sized amps powering a 12" cabinet.  It sounded really good!  Wacky technology with tube tone!  He shined on every lick he pulled out - really good.  His band is playing at the 5 Spot with Michelle Malone opening for them!  Anyways, I'm glad I made it to the jam.  I never like to get up for those kinds of things, so it's good to finally get the gumption to join in.

Thanks to Adrian for letting me get up and play his rig, a sweet SWR Workingman's 12 combo and the Carvin neck through 6.  Beautiful and bodacious!  Also, Adrian snapped a plethora of happening pics and posted to his facebook here, from which I borrowed for this page.  All photos taken by Adrian Ash.

1st set with Lefty Williams

Kevin Scott

Lefty

Brett Warren & Jared Lanham

Marquinn Mason, Lefty Williams, Brett Warren, Jared Lanham,
Kevin Scott, & Spencer Pope

So tight they need to be shown twice!

2nd set after Kevin took off.

Danny Paschall & myself, workin' the double chin to great effect!

Some nifty action shots - I like how you can see the frets but not the neck...

Going for it!

A Frolicking Merge of Fun-Lovin' Families at Capital City Club Hosted by Platinum

We missed Virginia once again as she bowed out to allow Dianna to step in, making us a 8-piece band after all this week.  Kevin was the de-facto leader, bringing set lists, calling the shots, cutting songs at will, getting us to the stage on time - someone's gotta do it!  We were sequestered in the grand ballroom in the corner, as opposed to the other side near the bar as we had been the last few times we were here.  It may be a tight fit, but i like it more.  Gus had a cast on his left foot from a basketball injury - he was able to play with it off.  My NS/Stick sounded great in soundcheck, but I didn't play it during the show.  It was a meat 'n potatoes kind- of night, with lots of testosterone fueled '80's rock and dance numbers.  At this point, I rely on the Stick instruments for the simpler hip-hop stuff.  One of the guests identified it as a Stick!  Good eye!  It fell over while on its stand - I now realize that it is bottom and front heavy, with no angled headstock to help it lean back.  Face down on the carpet - it could have been worse.  At least it didn't get stepped on.

My Stingray sounded bright and punchy, although not the best choice for the jazz numbers we summoned up in the opening set: All the Things You Are (with intro & outro), Billie's Bounce (need to revisit that one - I used to have the head in my head and could double it with the horn on the last go-round), Mercy Mercy Mercy, and a fine version of Joe Henderson's Recordame (isn't it really written as Recorda Me?).  Derek broke a D string but managed to get it replaced while we played You Give Love a Bad Name - he made it just in time for the guitar solo!

All in all, as weddings go, it was a lot of sitting around.  We didn't play while they ate, so we were sequestered upstairs in the green room.  We ate well, with chicken tenders, salad, cheese platter, fruit plate, sodas.  As I was loading in, I overheard a server announcing that she was making some expresso and would her comrade like some - I said, "yes please!"  She laughed and said she had me covered!  I forgot all about it until another server brought it to me.  I then forgot about it until Kevin brought it up to the green room.  I figured I ought to enjoy it - I was delicious.  Maybe the best latte I've ever had!  Secret ingredient: a twist of lemon!  I got to thank her later - very nice!

Here are the pics that probably tell you more than any words I summon...

Getting wild 'n crazy in the green room...

Kevin is explaining some new ideas for mash-ups!

Another Beautiful Spring Evening in the Enclosed Patio of Java Monkey

Does that sound a little weird?  It is a bit odd to play in the most perfect weather on a patio that is enclosed by old sheet plastic.  It's like we're cut off from the society at large.  At no point during the night did we have anybody sitting down inside and watching us.  That's a little sad in itself.  I think we should hope for the removal of the plastic for next time.  Also, the lighting was very strange.  Perhaps a total of 3 lights above us and nothing else!  It was never explained but the new lights were installed as we were starting up at around 8 or so.

We were fortunate to have Rob Dama on trumpet, as Jason couldn't make it - playing for George Lopez' party up at Cafe 290.  Rob has a nice, laid back vibe that seemed to fit with us particularly well.  We did some cool jams, plus some lesser played standards including Wayne Shorter's Yes or No and that Jerome Kern ballad Yesterdays all funked up and with the change of

| Dm    B half-dim | Em7b5    A7 alt. | nicely simplified to

| Dm    | Eb7     |

I played upright again.  It sounded ok.  My solos were a meandering mess in all honesty.  I don't work at it and it shows.  I guess I need to devote some time to really transcribing some stuff to get it under my fingers.  I need to have some decent vocabulary or it's just going to become too depressing.

My special cart loading method: inverted sheet music stand supported by amp
to cradle upright bass neck on journey down the streets of Decatur.

The patio is alive, but we're sequestered behind dingy plastic wrap.

A light challenged Rob Dama.

Sweetwater Junction Makes a Demo

It's finally come around to doing the demo for our EPK.  Cool.  We tracked on Sunday at the offices of Party Central, home of Party On the Moon.  There was a bit of an issue with the chosen engineer and the studio equipment.  I think it all worked itself out, but I cannot verify that everybody was happy.  I wrongly assumed we would just track "live" and get 'er done in quick fashion.  It was subsequently decided that we would only be tracking the drums and bass on this day.  I wish I had used a different setup.  My bass sounded big and fat, running through a nice GK MB115 combo.  The playbacks I heard were a bit sterile and clicky.  Ugh!  The engineer could have mentioned something.  He didn't hardly say anything, come to think of it.  We laid a lot down in the time we had.  We had our discussions about tempo, arrangements, and such.  It all went very well. I still don't understand why we didn't just all track together.  We're good enough, I think.  Time is an issue and the studio is going to get busy in the next few weeks.  I hope we aren't too late.

Mark Letalien, my rhythm buddy on this Junction Journey,
getting set up for an afternoon of tracking in a new studio.

"Now cut that out!"

"Yeah John, what he said!!"

"Okay, I can learn to relax for this session."

Brian and Walt were not cutting their tracks on this day,
but they still gave it their all.

Chris Gunther did as well.  We sounded great live in the studio.

Mirror image.

Agent at large.  Actually a good thing.

Back to The Biltmore: The Return of Platinum to One of The Most Reverbererent Rooms in Atlanta

This night we were a 7-piece, as Virginia selflessly took herself out of the financial puzzle.  We did great as a 7-piece, with Lexxi taking on more songs.  She shined on (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman.  We have started playing I'll Be, that ditty by Edwin McCain.  I play acoustic guitar and Glen plays my bass on that one song only.  I finally got the guitar jack fixed (the nut was just a bit too large ie Metric vs. American), but now if the cable is pushed in too far (?), then the signal shorts out.  Ugh.  I pull it out a bit and it's okay.  It's always something with that guitar.  It sounded good, so you never know.  I wanted to try having both cabinets powered up, so I brought them!  A nice big tower of bass.  Nobody commented on my gear, probably because they are so used to me bringing a lot of stuff (relatively).  I also brought some Green Tobasco sauce for the dinner - Anton's suggestion!  Ha!  I actually didn't have any - I liked the Big mac-ish sauce they had for our bandwiches.

I brought the Stick out once again (2nd time) for some of the easier groove (hip-hop) tunes.  Fun to do 2-handed bass parts on those.  It sounded better than the last time, as I simply reached down and cranked the compressor and the low end on my pedalboard.  My low strings were fretting out around the 1st and 2nd frets, and the 10th string was virtually unplayable.  Need to raise the action a smidge.  A little disappointing, considering I just got this from Emmett's careful setup facility.  Oh well, I was thinking of raising the nut side a bit anyways, to get a more pronounced low C# and the like.  I played well in general, so I'm glad for the fact that I don't have any nightmare bum notes to report.

Don't laugh - the Hot Sauce was a big hit at dinner!
Note the guitar - played on the opening song only - Glen played bass!

Springtime In The ATL aka Pollen Made Me Crackers: A Celebration of Light Rock, Deep Blues, and Melodic Jazz at Capital City Club with The Billy Batts Ensemble

My black car is green.  Well, it's always a bit dirty.  Don't keep your car too clean.  Then it looks like you have money to keep it clean, thus, you might have something valuable inside, like that nifty iPad or perhaps a bass guitar...  Just sayin'.  Um, don't you just hate when people say "Just sayin'?"

It was another round of blues, jazz, and soft rock in the hallowed halls of the Capital City Club downtown.  The Billy Batts Ensemble has enjoyed a fairly long tenure there (knock on wood).  I recently found out that they hire a band to play every Friday night.  We share time with the likes of Joe Gransden, so we must be doing something right.  This time out, we tried a few of the ones that Walt had suggested.  He has wanted to do Edith and the Kingpin (Joni Mitchell), Your Gold Teeth II (Steely Dan), and that old pop gem Hello It's Me (Todd Rundgren).  Surprise, surprise, I volunteered to handle vocals on the Todd tune.  It's high for me to sing, but the high notes are falsetto anyways.  I have 4 versions of Todd doing it: Nazz (in the original key of Dm), the Something/Anything? "hit" version (Gm), the live album Back to the Bars (Fm), and the Latin/Bossa reworked album With a Twist (back to Dm).  We went for the S/A version.  I never knew there was a bar of 3 in it (twice)!  I also never knew that the 2nd verse is "reharmonized" to the relative major (ie Bb).  Wow!  As many times as I've heard it, I just tuned out and listened to the vocals, I guess.  I knew the Brecker Brothers played on it, as well as Peter Frampton's drummer John Siomos.  Well, great live-in-the-studio recording.  I did okay.  It will take some more practicing to nail those vocals.  The Joni tune was a bust in a way.  It took me a while to get with the chart I had, as Walt somehow learned it up a whole step in Dm instead of Cm.  We never did try the SD tune - too bad.  I made some chord charts.  Wish I had time to sit down and make a real Finale-created chart for all of these.  We also did Brian's blues number, that I had inadvertently played the Stormy Monday changes to - in the key of A.  I don't really know if that's what he wanted, but we've done it that way twice now, so I guess it'll work.  Got some nice compliments afterwards, like, did we record the show?  This from one of the managers!