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I've added Poll Star to the links. For those who aren't familiar with this site, it allows you to enter a band, find out all their tour dates and set up a notification when any new tour dates are announced for them. Check them out.
As many of you know, VH1 has been running a series called Bands Reunited show. I've now seen the entire series, and I think I may be able to pass along some wit and wisdom. Let's see....
Overall... It's a good idea to hang on to the contact information of your former bandmates and to try and keep current with the info. And it's a good idea to play your instrument occasionally so that at the twenty year reunion, you don't have to look at the camera and say "I haven't played the drums in nineteen years. Jeez, I hope this works..."
A Flock of Seagulls -- You know, I don't think there was much to learn there. Maybe if you're going to be a band with your brother, you shouldn't stop speaking to him. Your family is far more important than the band.
Berlin -- It's important to establish the way in which credit will be handed out in the band earlier, as opposed to later.
Dramarama -- Try not to break up with your bandmates publicly on the radio. And, if, after you reunited with the band (saying how wonderful it was to be playing again), you are then offered to play a "huge California music festival", don't break up the band over it. Again.
Extreme -- When the other members of the band tell you to walk softly around the guitarist, it's probably not a good idea to surprise the guitarist with a camera crew in public while he's eating lunch. In fact, the whole "ambush interview" thing probably should be reconsidered.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood -- Keep some perspective on your work. No matter how good or bad your one hit was, it's only one song and it's only music.
Kajagoogoo -- Know what the strength/asset of your band is, and don't fire said strength/asset.
Klymaxx -- It's important to have legal contracts between members of a band regarding ownership and intellectual property.
Romeo Void -- I'm still not sure as to who this band is; but the lesson here is that record companies tend to place more emphasis on image than sound.
Squeeze -- I didn't get much of anything from this one; don't know what to tell you.
The Alarm -- It's probably not a good idea to quit your band. On stage, in front of an audience. Without warning your bandmates.
I went and caught Something's Got To Give today for a bit of escapist fluff. And that's exactly what it was. It's a cute enough movie, formulaic and unsurprising. Keaton does good work (with the exception of a far too extended crying jag towards the end of the film); I'm not sure if the Academy nominated her because of her work or because she's who she is. Jack, well, he's playing a character that's written to be an awfully lot like Jack Nicholson. Keanu Reeves and Amanda Peet both appear, but they more of took up space and moved the story along than did actual acting. They didn't have much chemistry with either Keaton or Nicholson (respectively).
Watch time: 1:14.
I bloody well hate name tags. To me, they facilitate a false familiarity. A person might walk up to me, read my name tag and act like she knows me (she might even be able to pull it off). I'd much rather have her talk to me. Just ask me my name; it's really no big deal. And we'll probably end up talking for a bit, maybe even get to know each other a bit.
CMU is reporting that Def Jam Records may be manipulating the SoundScan data. I don't know if this is true, but it would hardly surprise me if it is. Perhaps this is just my own cynicism, but someone will always figure out a way to game any system. SoundScan is just the latest victim.
eMarketer has an interesting article about some trends to watch in 2004. The number 1 trend? Digital music.
Online retailers will have the most success in selling digital music as a break-even product or loss leader. The mass appeal and low price of music make it an excellent impulse purchase
Thanks to Kurt for the tip.
For the next three days, I will be spening most, if not all of my time away from computers. Accordingly, there probably won't be a lot of activity.....
Tonight, JoS brought a YAD for kicks. During setup, we talked about influences and what we each would like to play (if we had our druthers). He seems to be more oriented towards classic rock, so things were shaping up to be somewhat interesting.
We started going over some covers, and it seemed like he had a decent feel for the general gist of the tunes, but not quite getting where all the interesting parts should be. But that's not necessarily a bad thing; I don't do everything 100% each time through a song. Tempo was back as in issue, though. Out of the seven or eight covers that we went through, the tempo increased for at least half. Not sure as to why the rushing occurred, but it occurred none the less.
After the covers, we talked, discussing different approaches to the music business. Then we started improving our way through two different ideas. The first one had me playing noodling some semi-ambient chord structures. After goofing on it for awhile, we abandoned the idea for a snippet that Rich has been working on for sometime now. After working through some possible structure for a bit, we called it quits for the night.
I think that we'll probably play with him again.
Chick Corea has been added to the list of performers at the Grammy Awards. Also on the list are 50 Cent (yawn), Celine Dion (the horror, the horror), the Foo Fighters (could be decent), Alicia Keys (also could be interesting) and Richard Marx (did someone lose a bet?).
The guy who invented the Ctrl-Alt-Delete combination on DOS systems retired from IBM today.
""I may have invented [Ctrl-Alt-Delete], but Bill [Gates] made it famous," Bradley said."
R. Kelly and Michael Jackson are not going to be allowed to be in contact with each other at the upcoming Grammys. Apparently, there's some concern that they might share tactics on luring children into their, um, embrace.
James Brown has got himself arrested. Again. I wonder how long it will be until the "Free James Brown" t-shirts of the late 80's will make a recovery?
--Update--
Wow, I think that James has been to the Nick Nolte school of grooming.
Tonight, I caught Garaj Mahal at the State Theatre. It was my first time for both -- I've never seen or heard Garaj Mahal before, nor have I ever set foot in the State Theatre.
Garaj Mahal is comprised of Alan Hertz on drums, Eric Levy on keys, Fareed Haque on guitar and Kai Eckhardt on bass. I'll openly admit the only reason why I decided to see this show is because I wanted to catch Kai playing. I played with him briefly while I was studying under him, but it's a very different thing to see someone playing out on their own as opposed to imparting knowledge.
First, some words about the State Theatre itself. It's a pretty well done place, art deco architecture and decor, and it reminds me rather much of a few Cinema/Drafthouses I have been through. They had an interesting choice of entertainment in between acts, though. A movie screen scrolled down from behind the top curtains and then actually ran a reel of bands that would be playing there soon (Coming Attractions, I suppose).
Garaj led out with a strong, pocket groove. Alan laid down a monster pocket and didn't let up for the entire evening (J.D. would have been proud of this guy). He and Kai locked in early and stayed tight all night. The band has an overall jazzy feel to it, which fits with the backgrounds of both Fareed and Kai. I noticed a number of songs were in odd time signatures (5/4, 7/4 and one that was either 9/4 or 17/8 -- I sort of lost it for a bit). There's a heavy jam band component, though, particularly in the segues between songs.
They did take a short break. When they got back, Alan was doing some interesting techniques on the drums. He held in his hand a cymbal hanging on a string that he would bounce a stick between the hanging cymbal and other instruments on his kit. He also was doing this "pull-off" -like technique on the high hat that was really well done. Garaj saved their more interesting music for the end of the second set. For those who left early, you really missed out.
Some words on Kai (since I am a bass player, you'll have to forgive me when that's my focus). He has such a nice feel when he plays; he's a kind a giving guy, and that comes through in his playing. His technique is such he mostly plays fingerstyle, but when he thumps, he only single thumps. I've gotten so used to seeing Victor and Anthony double thump that seeing well done, quick single thumping was a nice change of pace. I noticed that he doesn't look at his hands much, particularly when soloing. And, speaking of soloing, his solos were elegantly phrased, blending high octane runs with dynamic emoting.
Would I go and see Garaj again? Yeah, I probably would. The band I would compare them to is the Flecktones; a jazz foundation, lots of other influences thrown in on top. They are not the same at all, but they mine a similar vein. Garaj played some funk, some jazz, some Celtic music, some blues, some gospel -- in short, all the things that make jam bands fun. You never quite know what's going to be next. I also picked up their studio album while I was there. More on that in the near future.
There was an opening band. I suppose I should say a few things about them as well.
The opening band was G13 from Ocean City, MD. Their sound seemed to be a cross between Phish and the Allman Brothers, just without either's passion or depth of musicianship. Well, truth be told, only the lead guitarist sounds like that. He had a complete Dickey Betts rip-off going on, and that's just about all he did. Both singers left quite a bit to be desired: the bassist's was too nasally and whiney, while the guitarist's was way too much a whiskey voice for what he was trying to sing.
Actually, the only highlight of the set was the drummer, who had nice chops and a good feel. The kit drummer, I should specify. I can only surmise the percussionist is a good friend of the band or a family member, because he added almost nothing sonically. The only thing that he did add some movement on stage. For this band, that will have to pass as stage presence.
Overall, the band suffered from the general curse of low- to mid-level jam bands -- songs that last forever (their shortest one clocked in at 16 minutes) without going anywhere or saying anything.
Two new ones for Classic Cafe in Manassas are on the books. There are some tenative ones still hovering out there; hopefully, there will be some confirmation soon.
Starpolish has an interview with accomplished bass player Billy Sheehan. Regardless of your opinion of Sheehan's playing (I think he's good, but overhyped), the interview is an interesting and worthwhile read. Some good points about the music business in general:
"I think the rule still holds true that if you're a good live band and you... if you live by the record deal you die by the record deal. So if you live to make a record and that happens and you don't sell 20 million for each of the next five releases -- which is pretty unlikely -- then you're doomed. But if you depend on your live show, your live performance and what you can do live and what people come to see you for, then you're generally going to be OK. ... [They] remember me performing -- not so much as a recording artist, but as a performing artist. So I like to urge players to really develop that aspect. I remember when Van Halen got signed in California -- as the story goes, Warner Bros couldn't not sign them because they were selling out 2,000- and 3,000-seat venues. So they were thinking, 'If we don't sign them, someone else will.' "
And bass playing specifically:
"...I grew up a club player in Buffalo, and that's my most natural element. It's easier to translate that to a stadium than it is to translate that stadium vibe to a club. I can go nuts onstage and have a riot in a stadium a lot easier than I could do my stadium shtick in a club. I can't do it without eight roadies and 50 racks of gear."
Something that he and I will agree upon: Roadies are good things to have.
Mike Stern's latest album These Times does not seem as strong to me as his previous outing. Don't get me wrong; the disc is certainly competent enough, with rock solid performances both by Stern and his supporting musicians (Will Lee, Victor Wooten, Dennis Chambers, Bela Fleck and Richard Bona just to name some of the cast).
The disc opens up with a late 70's blues/funk melody over a syncopated Latin-ish rhythm. The two follow up songs promenently features Bona for a mellow, together feel (and Fleck's banjo work on I Know You adds a graceful counterpoint to both Bona's singing and Stern's guitar work). The album wanders from a bluesy feel, to world influences, to bebop and again. It's almost a sampler of sorts, held together by Stern's cohesive playing style.
80's band Tears For Fears are coming back with a new album in April. Their biggest hit probably would have been either Shout or Everybody Wants To Rule The World (both from the Songs From The Big Chair album). For me, though, their best tune was Woman In Chains.
I've added Billboard magazine to the links; It's kind of the granddaddy of music rags, but there's still some good info there (as well as charts, for those who like that kind of stuff).
Since Alex's little incident with the police down in Florida, the promised Rush tour of 2004 is starting to look a bit in doubt.
Florida state prosecutors this week said they would make a decision on whether to charge the guitarist in two weeks time. Among the charges he could face are aggravated battery on deputies, resisting arrest with violence and disorderly intoxication - if found guilty of all three he could face a jail sentence.
Depending on the speed with which charges went through court that could affect Rush's up coming 50+ date world tour due to start in May.
Commenting on the case Brent Batten - crime writer with Florida newspaper Naples Daily News, commented: "Any felony conviction could jeopardise [sic] the tour scheduled for this year. The reality of the situation serves as a cold slap in the face to Rush fans confident a rich rock icon with a clean record and top-notch defence lawyers would get off with a light sentence, possibly in the form of a community service concert in our own back yard."
Thanks to Marty for the tip.
I found this in a local music shop; just thought I'd pass it along for local DC bands.
FREE Studio Time!! The Studio Recording Technology Program at the College of Southern Maryland is in search of bands for our students to record.
Here's the deal, we need rock, blues, country, and jazz bands with good attitudes, very solid players, original music and a lot of patience to be recorded by our students. In return you will receive a CD of your session mixed by one of the course instructors about two weeks after your date.
The studio is in Waldorf and you will need to be available all day on either a Monday or a Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm.
You will need to provide us with a rough tape or cd of the song you want to record. The instructors will evaluate it to determine if you fit what we are looking for.
If you are interested, contact me, and I'll give you the info you need (I didn't want to put the guy's phone number on the web...).
Actually, it was me this time. I was driving out to Manassas for a rehearsal with JoS. We were planning on trying out a potential lead guitarist. As I was driving down 66, noticing that the interstate is covered with white stuff, the forecast was for one to three inches of snowing turning to freezing rain and the temperature was already at 26 degrees (and heading south), I decided that driving out might be okay, but back would probably be dangerous. Hence, I pulled the plug. Maybe I'm a wimp, but why take chances?
Lame, misogynistically insulting Circuit City ads notwithstanding, it seems that women actually spend more money on technology than men do. Maybe all my brother's protests about how his wife was the one that wanted the big screen TV the size of Nebraska were actually true....
Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno have announced a new way to let artists sell their music online rather than only through record labels.
[Gabriel and Eno] call the plan the "Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists" - or MUDDA.... "Unless artists quickly grasp the possibilities that are available to them, then the rules will get written, and they'll get written without much input from artists," said Eno.... By removing record labels from the equation, artists can set their own prices and set their own agendas, said the two independent musicians, who hope to launch the online alliance within a month.
I'm glad that they're getting on the bandwagon; hasn't Prince (or whatever he's calling himself these days) been doing this for a few years now? In any case, more avenues and options are almost always a good thing.
Last night, VH1's Band Reuinted show put Kajagoogoo back together to play their two hit songs. For one thing, I had no idea these guys had any other hits beside "Too Shy". For another thing, I still like the bass line from "Too Shy". It was interesting and really pedalled the song forwards.
I think that once the series is complete, I'll probably do a post on all the things I learned from watching 80's bands get back together....
There's an interesting article about rising record royalities in the NY Times. Unlike the RIAA, the royalty groups do not view the web as a bogeyman, but rather as a good thing:
"After tracking radio and television and cable for all of these years, suddenly you're tracking something much bigger than all of that put together," Ms. Preston said of the Internet.
"Where I think a lot of other people in the business were spending time with lawyers trying to find ways to sue everybody,'' she said, "it was pretty clear to us that the public had accepted all of this new technology. There was no way to kill it even if you wanted to. So, you might as well get out there and embrace it and find out how you can license it and how you can collect from it."
Thanks to Eric for the pointer.
-- Update --
Kevin Doran also has some thoughts on the subject, and he points towards a standardization effort in Europe to get royality rates more uniform and less Byzantine.
Looks like I won't be studying with Anthony today; the weather's sufficiently bad in Waldorf, MD that the stores in that part of the world are closing down. Too bad, it would have been nice to go to lessons today (particularly since Anthony's going back out on tour for a few weeks), but safety comes first.
I also would have liked to have picked up another set of Fodera strings, but I suppose I'll have to go online for that.
Here's a good reference website if you want to know about free speech (or, more accurately, the arbitrary limitations placed on "free" speech) on various college campuses (or is that campi?) throughout the US.
Thanks to Glen for the pointer. And to Eugene for pointing out a particularly laughable restriction at Macalester College (which bans speech that aggravates another).
I got a delivery from Tour Supply in yesterday. For those of you that haven't heard of this place, I'd recommend it for performing musicians. They specialize in carrying all the small things that you need to get through gigs. For example, I just received a few rolls of gaffer's tape (much like duct tape, but not so sticky when you pull it up, so it's okay to use on cables and cords), a brick of nine volt batteries and some velcro cable ties.
Stop by and check them out, and tell them that I said "Hi"...
MediaCatch has hosed me again. Something like seven posts from today and two or three from yesterday have just disappeared. I think this makes the third time in five days that they have refreshed the MySQL databases (which have the net effect of wiping out any work I might have done in the interim). Not that I'm annoyed or anything.
I don't even know what to do about it; I have to put up with them for a few more months (then the contract is over). We'll see what happens then.
--Update--
I found the backup I made at work before I left yesterday, so the posts are back up.
Due to ice, snow and general nastiness, I'll not be rehearsing with DH/CC tonight. Oh well....
Neil Peart (the amazing drummer of the band Rush) speaks about his process for writing lyrics. Some of Neil's thoughts:
Writing lyrics is a tremendously demanding form of discipline; it requires precision. I don't like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes. I can tell. Craftsmanship speaks. I'm not happy with spontaneity musically either. ... We do have improvisational periods during sound checks and we record them and at the end of the tour we sift through them and look for anything that happened that was magic. And there are ideas that we can mine out of that, taking advantage of the spontaneity of one day's mood. But to go on stage and expect people to indulge you; that doesn't work. I prefer organization.
The craftsman in me likes the thought here (take time to make it right, plan out the progress of the tune in advance), but the jazz guy in me screams bloody murder at the thought of removing both improvisation and winging it. To me, part of the excitement of live music is that it does change from night to night. Too much of either extreme tends to be a bad thing.
The NY Times has an interesting article about the decreasing ability of radio to create new musical stars. Yep, the Buggles were right, and video has killed the radio star.
"Every single time [Josh Groban] goes on television, you can bank on the fact that the next day his album is No. 1 on Amazon," said Diarmuid Quinn, the executive vice president of Warner Bros.
While this surprise one or two people, it seems that more poeple in America tune into TV than they turn on a radio. Although, I would hazzard a guess that particular turning point came a decade or so ago...
I added Kurt Hanson to the links over on the left. He puts up a lot of good information and news about the music industry. I'm not a big fan of the way his site is laid out, but that's his particular cross to bear. Drop by and tell him hi for me....
--Update--
I also added StarPolish. This site is targeted more at musicians, trying to help promote and distribute as well as just handing out advice.
With Mike Stern's upcoming show at Blues Alley looming, I've been trying to familiarize myself with more of his repertoire. I've been listening to his prior album Voices for a few days, and I do like what I'm hearing. The overall feel of the album is reminiscent of Pat Metheny's work -- much more so than Stern's earlier outings.
Stern is pretty clearly walking down the world music street; and that's just peachy with me, as I rather like world music. Featured heavily in the first two tracks on the disc is Richard Bona, an artist from Cameroon who is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Elizabeth Kontomanou and Phillip Hamilton round out the vocal work for the remainder of the album.
Some highlights:
It's snowing in DC, there's about four inches on the ground and the nation's capital resumes it's annual brain fade about winter weather.
Personally, I don't get it. I grew up in the mountains; four inches would be regarded as a light day and not worth waking up early over. Around here, every grocery store for twenty square miles has been completely cleaned out of milk, bread, toliet paper and disposable diapers. And don't even think about driving through the streets.
Winter drivers tend to fall in one of two camps: the ones that drive like they're trying to dodge the flakes and the ones who think 'since I got that spiffy four wheel drive, I can cruise down these side roads at sixty miles an hour'. Both of these drivers tend to end up in the side of the road, usually after some low grade vehicular incident.
--Update--
I'm looking out the window of my office to the streets of DC and I notice two things:
1) The sidewalks are completely clear and probably have enough salt on them to cover all the pretzels sold at a Yankees' game.
2) The streets are completely white and will probably be a solid sheet of ice by 7pm this evening.
It looks like JoS's last performance is going to end up paying out quite nicely. Rich rang me up to tell me that we will probably be getting three to five gigs as a result of Saturday night. More to come as things firm up.
Today, we went over the five songs for the upcoming demo, just working on tightening them up. One of the more recent songs is getting most of the attention (naturally). Structure is a good and necessary thing, since it helps everyone know what's going to be happening and the plan accordingly. We as a group haven't been playing together long enough to be able to feel when each of us are going to do something; until that time, we need the structure to be able to keep things together.
Tonight, Jar Of Souls opened for Harlen Simple and Oddbox at Sharpshooters. This was the first time I had ever set foot in this particular establishment, and it was a pretty decent place. The crowd was good -- young, energetic and open to the music.
The show was a fundraiser for a friend of Harlan Simple's that passed away earlier this month. I think that enough money was raised to cover the bills and expenses. I do hope that is the case.
We played pretty well (excepting two songs for which we pretty much completely checked out). It seemed like we were getting a good reaction from the audience. Afterwards, I heard quite a few compliments as I was working the crowd.
I went through yet another set of strings on Thank You This is the third set in a rather short period of time; this one didn't last nine days. It's always the G string, too. I'm thinking that either I'm plucking way too hard or I have something physically wrong with the bridge on my Fodera. I suspect that it's probably the former in this case.
And, just to finish out the litany of woes, I tore off part of my finger nail. And I did it on our reggae version of Feel Like Makin' Love. Lately, I've been trying to play it more palm-mute style, to get a better reggae feel. That results in my hand being at a strange angle to the strings. Tonight, the end product was tearing off the outside half of my index finger nail. I got lucky, though; it didn't bleed during the show and I could tear off the ripped portion fairly easily.
I picked up another Sennheiser digital wireless unit a few days ago and it just got in today. It wasn't that I either really needed it or wanted it; it was just that it was on a deep discount for being "blemished". Since they don't make these things anymore, I thought it would be a good idea to maybe pick up some extras for parts (in case I have to cannabalize parts). I also went ahead and order the rackmount kits for both units from Sennheiser. I suppose that when they get in, I'll be rewiring my rig...
Tomorrow's show is actually a benefit for a friend of Harlen Simple's who died recently. The proceeds will go towards helping defray the funeral costs.
Tonight, we're taking the night off. We're going to try and get some rest and relaxation before tomorrow night's show.
All in all, this is probably a good thing. I starting to think that I've been overplaying these last few weeks. Burnout may be setting in. Playing with the variety of people that I do helps, but I'm starting to wonder if that's not part of the issue. One of the concerns that I have is that I don't feel like I have enough time to focus on my own playing and my own writing.
For those who haven't quite seen this website before, there's a hoax site about treating a kitten like a Bonsai tree. It's a joke, people. Not a particularly good one, but a joke none the less. For some reason, the British version of the ASPCA sees a need not only to respond to this issue but to also call for the regulation of speech on the web. Now that's something that's not at all funny.
The Royal Society is well within their rights to criticize the people who put up the Bonsai Kitty site; the best answer to bad speech is good speech. Calling for banning the site not only is an immoral thing to do, it actually will backfire on the Society's intention (I can promise you that I would neither have written about the site or even gone there without first having read about the Society's call for "cleaning" up the web).
Thanks to Eugene for the pointer.
Rich just rang me up to let me know that JoS was just on DC101 (in a commerical, not as a song). Not quite cause for a ticker tape parade, but it's still nice when it happens....
I finally got around to reworking the media page. Now, there's more than just a bunch of pictures. As soon as I can, I'll add some sound bites as well (I have to configure the software first). In the meantime, feel free to check out my list of "Essentials".
--Update--
I added two more CDs to the Essentials page. I neglected both Larry Graham and Flea; I'm going to chalk that up to being tired.
Also added is a textual nav bar at bottom of each page. Hopefully that will help make your experience here even more blissful than it already is.
Tonight, we just ran through a few doubters before the show on Saturday. One of the nicer things about playing with the same people for a long period of time is that not as much work is required to maintain the same level of performance. All in all, that's a good thing; it should free us up to be able to focus on newer and better things.
As a side note, Joe will not be joining us on Saturday. Which is too bad, I would have liked to have played with him.
Eric has put up an interesting post about the web, the music industry and live music. I think that this could be a good trend, and one I would like to encourage.
Just speaking personally, I tend to prefer live recordings over studio recordings. It's been my experience that someone can Pro Tool their way to perfection in the studio (Jennifer Lopez/Brittney Spears anyone?). But live, there's nowhere to hide. Not only is the performance more honest, there tends to be more energy to the music itself.
VH1 is running this series where they track down defunct bands from the 80s and try to get them to reform for a one night stand. Yesterday, VH1 "reunited" the 80s band A Flock Of Seagulls. It had probably been twenty years since the original members played with each other, and it showed. But the main thing was the singer. Apparently, he's still touring with a band called A Flock Of Seagulls (he's the only original member). If you get the chance to see them, don't. His voice (never all that strong to begin with) sounds completely ragged out and worthless. I was embarassed for him, listening to him mangle "I Ran" and "Space Age Love Song".
I found a new site that caught my interest today and added it to the links on the left of the page. Drop by, check it out, and say "Hi" to Kevin for me.
This is an interesting article about linking in general and blogs in specific. Worth a gander. (Tip o' the hat to Glenn for the pointer)
Tonight, Matt rejoined us for a rehearsal and a new guitarist sat in as well. It's been almost a month since we last played with Matt, so there were definitely some cobwebs to knock off. Joe (the new guitarist) sat in and pretty much picked everything off the cuff (either he already knew it or faked his way through it). We closed with an Alice In Chains song (No Excuses, I think) that he knew and Matt and I just faked our way through. A fun time, though. Hopefully, we'll all get tighter before the show on Saturday.
Richard Bona's latest release Munia: The Tale has been on almost constant play in my CD player for about the last two weeks. I'm only now getting around to writing about because I've just been enjoying it too much to try and put things into words.
Much like his last work, the album opens with an acapella invocation and then leads into a joyous Kalabancoro (which also has Salif Keita sitting in on vocals). Actually, the whole CD brims with joie de vivre. Engingilaye is another tune that resonates with sheer exuberance, and Balemba Na Bwemba drives home a strong groove. Bona has been a good (if underrated) bass player for years, and on this album, he finally opens up in the closing track (Playground) to let some of his ability shine through.
Sung almost entirely in his native language of Douala, Bona sings, arranges, composes and plays his way through a melange of world styles (rumba, bossa nova, even a little rock). Not jazz for the hardcode be-bop folk, but high quality jazz nonetheless.
In today's Washington Post, there was an article about the legal online music file trading sites. It seems that lots of people aren't all that happy with the legal alternatives, since one site won't have the same selection as the other site, site A will only sell the entire album, site B has Public Enemy, but only the B sides.
"It is fairly easy to buy a song, but it can be much harder to find a song worth buying. That is why unauthorized services, such as Kazaa and LimeWire, still have millions of users, despite the music industry's lawsuits designed to stop unauthorized sharing."
Throw this in with the normal business wrangling (royalities, advances against sales, etc.) and it's small wonder that this is not going anywhere and the less than legal places are flourishing.
-- Update --
And just in time to help muddy the waters, the RIAA files another smattering of lawsuits today.
Something that I learned from Anthony yesterday; Victor's shows at the 9:30 and the Funk Box both sold out. Congratulations, guys.
We had one of our rare weeknight rehearsals tonight. We mostly went over the songs for the demo, as well as fleshed out one of the newer songs. Working on the structure of the tunes is always a fun time.
This is probably just me being a bit behind the times, but Opus is back in print! One of my favorite cartoon strips from my younger days was Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County. This Sunday, I was picking up some Chinese food and decided to skip the Sunday comics. On the front section of the Washington Post's comic pages was Opus, in all his penguin glory. Now, if only I could find where the strip would be online, I'd be all sorts of happy.
Tonight was the first time in something like a month that I rehearsed with Douglass and Christine. Tonight, we had another guitarist sitting in. He added an interesting dimension to the music. We had to stop a few times and deconstruct the songs to find the best way to fit in his approach to the tune, but I think it was largely worthwhile.
After we played for a bit, we talked about business for a while. I suggested that they start to look around and see if they can't get an opening slot or two, just to try and play out, get a bit more known.
Thanks to a suggestion from Rob, I've redone the gear page. Check it out and tell me if you like it better or worse.
There's an interesting article/prediction on the future of classical music recordings out today. The author's thoughts dovetail with some of the business details I read in Pressman's book on the music business. Personally, I'd hate to see this kind of music disappear from the stores, but that's just me.
(Thanks to Eric for the pointer).
Dennis Chambers has finally released his own solo CD. I was completely blown away by his playing when I saw him at Blues Alley last year. I have been looking to get a recording of his playing since then, so when I saw his solo CD Outbreak, I jumped at the chance to pick it up. I have not been disappointed. Chambers is a master of his kit and it shines through on every cut of the disc.
I've gone through the disk about three or four times now, and it's got a good funk/jazz groove going on. The tunes have a very strong late 70's funk feel to them. Some stellar people sit in on the disk (Gary Willis, Will Lee, John Scofield and others).
The stand out song on the disc has to be Groovus Interruptus. Within two measures of the start, the urge to nod your head to the beat cannot be denied. Other standout tunes are Roll Call (which has a nice drum break by Chambers towards the end), Paris On Mine (great groove and laid back feel) and Baltimore, DC (nice go-go like groove to it). In Time is a good walk through time signatures (4/4, 9/8, 17/8 are there, maybe one or two more).
Outbreak is a well titled album. Chambers has been famous for years with jazz musicians; maybe this CD will help his popularity grow to a wider audience.
Things just didn't work out. Instead
, I spent a good bit of time looking for some good locations for photographs that I'll probably be taking tomorrow. Here's an image of the Potomac River that I took while I was out. The river froze up in an interesting fashion.
The Indigo Girls (one of my favorite groups) are about to release a new cd. Their last one was one of the best they have put out in years, so expectations for this next album are running pretty high.
Norah Jones' cd completely blew me away when it came out; while it was sort of a throwback to halycon torch song jazz days, it was an extremely well down throwback. She also has a new album in February, and I'll looking forwards to picking it up as well.
Is it just me or are all the actors from HBO's series Oz getting work all over the place? I just watched Monster today, and Lee Tergesen (Beecher) has a featured role. All of the Law and Order series has at least one person on the show who was in Oz (J.K. Simmons/Schillinger/Dr. Skoda on Law and Order, B.D. Wong/Father Ray/Dr. Huang and Christopher Meloni/Keller/Det. Stabler on SVU. CI has no mainstay from Oz, but I think just about every episode has had at least one Oz refugee as a guest star).
Not that I mind too terribly much; Oz was a great show. Granted, it was a semi-soap opera for men with massive homoeroticism throughout the series, but it was well written and well acted. And it pretty much convinced me that I will hang myself before going to a maximum security prison.
Today, I caught Charlize Theron's new work, Monster. If she doesn't win every Best Actress award she's up for, then check to find out who paid off who. This is easily the best performance of her career.
Theron is completely unrecognizable in this role. If you didn't know it was her, you would have never guessed. She put on 30 pounds for the role, but the makeup people probably deserve an Oscar for their work as well.
Overall, it's is a very well done film. The writing and directing move the story along, painting a rather sympathetic portrait of a very unsympathetic character. The supporting actors and actresses do a fair to middlin' job (to borrow from my mother) -- nothing all that stand out, nothing bad, either. Christina Ricci holds her own, portraying the child that Theron's character allows herself to love.
I would say that this is the very antithesis of a date movie. Much like Boys Don't Cry (another harrowing powerful movie combining sexuality and violence), I walked out of the theatre pledging myself to asexuality for awhile.
Tonight, we had a really good night at Firehouse. We got good crowd response, made some new friends, and generally had a good time. To be honest, it was one of the better times that I have had playing with Jar of Souls.
Keith sat in with us on drums, and Rob joined us (again) as well. When Rob got up, I went back to do a little drumming. It had been about fourteen years since I played drums out in public, so I was just a little bit rusty. Actually, I'm being kind. If I drum out again, I really need to practice more. To top it off, Keith's left handed, so I had to try and translate in my head to a left handed kit.
Rob played well, and Keith was rock solid. There were a few small problems -- the monitors (or lack of usefulness from them) chief on the list -- but nothing beyond a typical night. We ended up repeating a few songs from the first set. I really don't like doing that, but it does happen from time to time.
All in all, it was a good show. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Anthony put up his review of the Baltimore Victor Wooten show, and I think I'm blushing as I read parts of it. I'd just like to thank Anthony for his kindness, his inspiration and just him being him.
Tonight was our last rehearsal with Keith before our show tomorrow night. We went through about 23, 24 songs that we'll play tomorrow night. Rob's also going to sit in for a bit, so it should be a decent show.
I had a good time at practice tonight. Although I did go through a set of strings (the @#(*$# things only lasted a month!), Keith and I were starting to lock into each other. It's just a lot of fun to play with someone who's professional and together.
I just got off the phone with Phil Kubicki (who made my fretless). At the end of 2003, I did my annual maintenance of my basses (restrung, swapped batteries, oiled and polished the woods, etc.). I had called Phil a few days before I started, because I wasn't completely sure as to the material of the fretboard and how to treat it. He didn't get back with me in time, so I guessed it was ebony and proceed to use boiled linseed oil on the wood.
Well, it turns out I was about half right. The fretboard is made of ebony, but he recommended that I use mineral oil instead of linseed oil (on the grounds that linseed oil would make the fretboard sticky). His suggestion was to rub mineral oil into the fretboard and then let it dry overnight. The recommendation that I was following was to rub linseed oil into the fretboard, let it dry for about ten minutes and then rub off the oil to prevent the board from oversaturating and getting sticky.
I suppose at the end of this year, I'll try Phil's approach.
For the second time in three days, I went to see Victor Wooten. Tonight's gig was at the 9:30 club. I haven't been to the 9:30 club in about a year and a half, and I think I remember why now. Not in the best of neighborhoods, really expensive food and drink (for what you get), unusual acoustics and standing room only facilities. And on that note, parquet flooring over cement makes for very hard floors; pick shoes accordingly....
Just because I'm human, I'll be spending some time comparing this night with the Monday show in Baltimore. I think I liked the Funk Box show more; much more intimate, better acoustics (I don't know what the difference is between the two shows, but the kick drum in Baltimore hit like a sledgehammer), and the spring loaded floor definitely helped with the comfort level. Working in the 9:30's favor was a stage about twice the size (so more movement and more things on stage), a venue about six times the size (and pretty darn packed, too) and a much more robust lighting rig (which definitely helped the show out).
The band this time had the same members (Regi, Derrico, Joseph, JD, Divinity, Anthony, Victor), but this time they had enough room to set everyone up. So JD had a small percussion kit set up on the opposite side of Derrico. Joseph has his Theremin out for this show. Since DC is near where the Wooten's grew up and where JD went to college, they had lots of friends and family in the place.
The show was rather similar to the Baltimore show (not a big shock) and different in others. Some highlights:
I'm going to include the photo of JD and Victor in the body of this blog (which I normally don't do) just because it's such a great picture. I actually took about 143 photos at the concert. I'm not that much of a photo person, but where I was (front row, dead center) I had such perfect lighting that I found myself taking lots and lots of photos. Check em out! Annie Liebowitz I'm not, but some of them are pretty good.
-- Update --
I was on my way to rehearsal tonight when I was thinking about this show. It was just an embarassment of riches at this show. 4 top flight drummers (JD, Derrico, Isaiah, Futch) and 4 bass players (Victor, Anthony, Divinity, Isaiah's dad). What a night for the rhythm section!
-- Update 2 --
Anthony's put up his review of the show.
Tonight, Isaiah Williams opened up for Victor Wooten at the 9:30 club. This makes the third time that I have seen him play, but this was the first time that I have seen him play a full set on his own. Actually, tonight was the first time that anyone has seen him play a full set on his own -- that's right, tonight was the professional debut of the Isaiah Williams Project. On his own, Isaiah got his start four years ago on Showtime At The Apollo when he was five years old.
Futureman (Victor's brother and bandmate in The Flecktones) joined Isiah on stage, as well as Isaiah's father (Drue Williams) on bass and his uncle (James Dudley) on keys. Man, that kid can solid play. He has solid time, good groove and great stage presence. His dad and his uncle are pretty solid as well. Futch played a kit this time out, instead of his usual Drumitar. Victor also came out and sat in for a song.
After the show, I picked up a copy of Isaiah's CD. Both he and his father were gracious enough to sign it, but the experience reminded me that for all his brilliance, he's a nine year old kid. He just seemed to be really tired and cranky (it was a bit shy of 1am at the time).
Isaiah and Futureman are touring in February. Check him out. So long as he keeps his head screwed on straight, he's going to be an absolute force to be reckoned with.
-- Update --
Anthony's put up his review of the show.
I'm sitting out on the cold concrete in front of the 9:30 club, enjoying a sunny day with a brisk wind chill of about 30 degrees. Not as cold as they had forecast, but still pretty darn nippy. Why am I out here, you might ask? A reasonable question. Simply put, it's my turn to hold the line.
There are a bunch of bass players from the DC area that will be here tonight (in fact, if someone were to roll a grenade or two into the audience tonight, I think about 2/3 of the DC bands would be SOL). At a Marcus Miller show a few years ago, a nice guy named Darryl White was kind enough to let me hop in line after him (we had met at another bass show a month or so earlier). So, tonight I returned the favor.
I've decided to add a list of CDs that are currently in heavy rotation for me. Feel free to send me suggestions, if you think there's some good band out there that I might like.
Tonight, Victor Wooten and his band absolutely killed at The Funk Box in Baltimore, MD.
The band was comprised of Regi Wooten (guitar), Joseph Wooten (keys), Derrico Watson (drums), MC Divinity (vocals, alt bass), Anthony Wellington (second bass), J.D. Blair (drums/percussion) and, of course, Victor Wooten (bass). I had never seen Derrico play before, but he was amazing. He started out the show by himself by just laying down a thunderous groove. Regi was his usual self, Joseph's playing has become a bit more restrained (which is a good thing), Divinity's performances have gotten stronger since the last time I saw her play and Victor was, well, Victor. J.D. didn't play a kit tonight, because the stage was too small to support two kits. That should change at the 9:30 club.
One of the things that I was most looking forwards to for this show was seeing Anthony play on his own. Tonight, Victor introduced Anthony and let him have a long, extended solo. Anthony played very well; his solo was very tasteful with great phrasing. After he was done, he gave a very touching and heartwarming thanks to his wife. She's a great lady, and they are a wonderful couple who very much so deserve each other.
The structure of the show was interesting; there was no opening band. Instead, about halfway through, Divinity played three or four songs, and Isaiah Williams came up for a tune. Regi and Joseph also had a solo piece on their own.
Some highlights of the show:
If you ever get the chance to catch Wooten playing live, I'd recommend it -- particularly if you like funk and jazz. If you're a bass player (like I am), it's just about a religious experience.
I had never been to the Funk Box before, but I really like this club. It's very small and intimate, with great acoustics. The floor there is also wood, mounted on springs. I'd absolutely love to play there someday.
Tonight, I'm heading up to Baltimore with a few friends to catch the Victor Wooten show in Baltimore. I always look forwards to see Wooten play live, but I've been really wanting to see this latest tour. Anthony's on tour with Victor. While Anthony has played from time to time on previous tours that I have seen, it seems that he is taking a larger role in the performance, having his own solo as well.
I've seen and heard Anthony play on a few CDs, as well as listening to him noodle around while I'm struggling through a lesson, but those are both very different things than him playing out live with a tight band like the one Victor has.
I'll let everyone know how it goes...
This week, Rich and I went back to Keith's place to playing around again. Keith and I also had a nice chat about approaches and philosophy to music. We went through something like twenty, twenty-five songs or so in about four hours. Things went rather well. Once or twice, the tempo issue reared it's head, but I'm pretty firmly convinced that unfamiliarity with the tunes is the reason.
Keith took a good bit of time to work on some of the songs from last week, and it really showed. The songs were rock solid with a good feel. So Rich and I asked Keith if he'd be willing to sit in with us for the upcoming show on Friday, and he agreed. I'm looking forwards to playing out with him.
Today, the four of us went through three new songs ("Persian Suite", a Gipsy Kings song called "Faena" and a new piece that is untitled as of yet). So, that brings the total up to five songs for the demo. Together with "Soho" and "Waiting For Rain" from last week, things are starting to come together nicely.
Aref invited a young lady out to join us, possibly to do some vocal work on some of our tunes. She didn't sing, and I can't particularly blame her; it's a bit hard to walk in and try to pick up an original song in an unfamiliar style cold. She may come back again; I suppose that we'll just have to see.
We also decided that we are going to go into the studio on the last weekend of February. We are going to Chris Patry's studio, as I trust his ear and his engineering expertise. Stay tuned for some samples when we have them ready.
Tonight, Rich and I played an opening set for The Wrecking Crew (a harder rock band) at East Coast Billiards. It was not one of our better shows. Things were a bit unorganized, and not having a drummer really hurt our cohesiveness. We found ourselved out of time to each other more times than I would like to see. Of course, once is more times than I would like to see, but this was several times over the same set. But, for our next show, we'll have a drummer sitting in with us. I'm looking forwards to it.
JoS is currently on the lookout for a lead guitarist to join the band. Some of the thinking here is to thicken out the sound as well as expand the opportunities for the band.
One person who responded to a City Paper ad that I placed played a show with his other band in Olde Towne Alexandria tonight. So, Rich and I decided to drop in on his performance and check him out.
He played pretty well and did a decent job with his vocals as well. The band (their name is slipping my mind) had a really nice vocal harmony thing going. Apparently, the bass player also plays with The Joe Chiocca Band and the drummer plays in something two or three other groups as well.
Rich and I chatted with the guitarist for a while; we'd like to bring him out for a go 'round one time and see how things go.
I finally finished up Donald Passman's All You Need To Know About The Music Business (where's the subtitle "but you were afraid to ask"?) this morning on the Metro. If you ever wanted to learn about the business side of the music industry, this book would be a great place to start. Walking through the more common aspects of record contracts and how advances and royalties are determined all the way to the arcana of negotiating underscore arrangements in film, this book gives a good leg up to non-lawyers, pointing some areas where attention should be paid.
Two things that this particular book made rather clear –
I would highly recommend this to any musician who is interested in the financial side of the industry.
Anthony's out on tour again. He's the primary bass tech and backup bass player for Victor Wooten and has been touring with him for the last few years. A while ago, Anthony started keeping a diary of life on the road. It's interesting to read about coping with the road -- both the good and the bad. It's also as close to actually going on tour that most people will ever get.
It's lookin' like Saturday's show will just be me and Rich, swinging for the fences acoustically. All of our normal backup drummers fell through (see! This is why it's good to have backups!).
Rich and I have played acoustically like this before. It's a lot more work for me; I have to carry the tempo as well as supporting the melody lines. Rich has to try and pick out the tempo from my rhythm playing. Still, it can be fun.
I have joined the throng of good people over at BlogCritics. There's lots of posts about music, books, film and other stuff. Drop by and check it out.
You may notice that I might recycle some posts from one site to the other. I will try and update this site first and then carry over the posts to BlogCritics a bit later. Most posts will only go to one or the other, though.
The Instapundit has commented before on the RIAA and their Quixote-ish campaign to sue anyone who's ever downloaded anything. Well, he's back with some contrarian thoughts on the subject. It's worth your time to take a read of the whole thing.
It seems that Apple computers is starting to focus more and more on music these days. This seems to be a logical extension for Apple; the iPod is a "hip" accessory these days among certain groups of people, iTunes largely dominates the legal music download arena (and everyone who reads this is downloading music legally, right?), Apple really needs a new revenue stream, so this is probably a good strategic move for them.
The bad news is that they probably won't have this niche all to themselves for very long. Rio has a good mp3 player, Archos has some neat toys, and Sony is almost certainly looking for a way to sell not only some hardware but to leverage their existing library of music into an iTunes-like solution.
As a side note, I'd recommend the Cowon iAudio -- I bought one last year and I'm rather enjoying it. 256m holds enough music for a day at work. Throw in a voice recorder (which I use to make mp3s of things from time to time) and it's hard to beat it.
I'm already doing some reselling for Amazon for a while (and let me tell you, I think retirement is just around the corner...) Today, I signed up for a reselling deal with zZounds. They're a good online music shop; I've bought quite a few things from them and have been rather happy with their operation. So check them out!
I finally found an X-Wire wireless unit on EBay. I've been looking for one of these for about the last year or two; they are supposed to be the best wireless units ever made. Unfortunately, the company that put them together went bankrupt, so EBay is pretty much the only place to find them anymore. Sennheiser bought the leftovers once X-Wire collapsed, remanufactured the product into a much smaller, lower quality unit, but it didn't do very well (particularly for the price -- ~$800!) and they have since dropped the product. You can still pick them up here and there, and I recently did (as I was begining to dispair to ever find an X-Wire and the price was down to about $300). But, if I can get this X-Wire, then I'll happily pack the Sennheiser back up and return it for a refund (even a partial one would be cool).
-- Update --
I didn't get it. I'm hoping another will come around some other day and then I'll bid on that one. So, if anyone happens to know of one for sale, please let me know.
To me, The Simpsons happens to be one of the best shows on television today, quite possible one of the best ever. The satire is biting, the writing both sophmoric and witty (in turn and sometimes both at once). Already the longest running animated show in history (as well as the show with the largest number of guest stars), there is now a website that has every possible bit of information about the show that anyone could ever want to learn. I read a few of the episode guides, and methinks there might be a few people with way too much time on their hands...
One of the DVDs that I got for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad) featured Victor Wooten and Carter Beauford (of the Dave Matthews Band).
The main focus of the DVD is the studio and creative process in which Carter played drums on two songs (Zenergy and Resolution) on Victor's Yin-Yang album. While it was interesting (having been through a number of studio sessions, seeing the pros do it was an fascinating contrast), it was not the most appealing segment. The conversations that both Wooten and Beauford would have about maintaining groove and feel, musicianship and ways of playing together (instead of just with each other).
The bonus material of the DVD are even better. Beauford talks about most of the songs on the Busted Stuff cd and how he created his part. He talks about his influences, his general approach and how he works with the other members of the band. What's left of the drummer in me really enjoyed his commentary.
Wooten's extras consist mostly of him doing Q&A before Bass Day '01. His answers are quite enlightening. Capping the bonus material is Victor's solo from Bass Day '01. Basically, he plays what would become the Flecktones song Reminiscence (from the Little Worlds album). Part of the way through the tune, he begins to radically detune his bass, resulting in all the strings basically hanging completely slack on the neck. He slaps and works the bass in that condition for a while and then begins to slowly bring the tension back to his strings. AFter a minute or two of working the strings, he pauses for a second, and then picks back up the song, completely in tune.
I saw Wooten do the same feat at the Ram's Head about two or three years ago. That time, he did it to the song "Joe's Journey" (also from the Yin-Yang cd). When he did this live, I was completely blown away. Tuning a bass by ear -- not so impressive. Tuning a bass by ear/feel/I-don't-really-know-how-he-did-it without stopping to actually tune the instrument? Damn impressive.
Just a kinda cool toy -- give an IP address, find out where it's located in the world. So far, it's found AOL, the company that I use to host this site and my work site all accurately....
(thanks, Jeff)
I finished up the book version of the documentary on the Metro home today. While the film was about all the musicians with an emphasis on Jamerson, the book was all about Jamerson.
I'm glad I read this; it helped flesh out the man who was so wildly influential on so many people. Towards the end of the book, there are pieces from a veritable Who's Who of bass players (Geddy Lee, Anthony Jackon, Will Lee, among many, many others) talking about how influential Jamerson was to them and their rendition of some of Jamerson's work, as well as some exercises and transcriptions of Jamerson playing.
It seems to me that learning about the history of a chosen avocation can only help the comprehension of the craft. Books like Standing in the Shadows can only assist in this process.
I was thinking more about the meter of the drummer that Rich had brought out to play and why meter is so very important for musicians to have. And why it is a good thing for drummers to have it in copious quantities.
For starters, I should probably make mention about some musical terms like "meter", "tempo" and "rhythm". Music is charted in a structure (called a time signature) that lists the how many beats are allowed per measure over what kind of note should be considered one beat (i.e. 3/4 indicates that each measure will have three quarter notes per measure, whereas 7/8 says that there will be seven eighth notes per measure).
Rhythm is how the all of the notes and pauses are organized in a set pattern. Individual rhythms expressions can span measures or can be contained wholly within a measure and while the rhythmic patterns may or may not be repeated throughout a song, they typically are regularly repeated.
The tempo of a song is how many beats elapse in a given period of time. A typical measurement of tempo is beats per minute (bpm). A measure with a time signature of 4/4 (four quarter notes per measure) at a tempo of 120bpm should take 2 seconds and the same measure at 100bpm should take 1 and two-thirds seconds. While neither ones of those examples may not seem like a lot of time, songs are tend to consist quite a few measures (typically three digits worth).
Meter is the length of one measure of music. In the first example, about two seconds.
Hopefully, that should satisfy the sticklers for vocabulary. Technically, this particular piece of writing is more about tempo than meter, but it has been my experience that most of the musicians that I encounter have tended to use "tempo," "meter," and "time" interchangeably when talking about a musician's ability to play at a constant pace.
Some of the people I have played with call me the "Meter Nazi." Typically, it’s because I tend to point out exactly where in a song we either sped up or dragged behind. In fact, I used to think that I had good meter, until I started to study with Anthony. Then he sat me down with a metronome and had me play a few things, letting me know that I was pretty consistently rushing the 3rd beat of most measures that I was playing and most of the other beats in some of measures. My, that was humbling. Well, humiliating may be a more accurate way of putting it.
Anyway, bass guitar is a somewhat unusual instrument in music. It's both a rhythm and a melodic instrument, so it has to hold down the rhythm while supporting the rest of the instruments. While there are some musicians who seem to favor melody over rhythm and others who tend to focus on maintaining the rhythmic structure, both are essential for good grooving basslines. The ones who can do both are rightly fully considered to be masters of the instrument.
One of the things that I really appreciate about good drummers is how well they are able to hold down the meter. When a bass player has a solid drummer supporting the rhythms, it frees him up from having to do all the maintenance that is required to keep the rest of the band in time. Now, that doesn't mean that the bass player can just wander off into space, playing notes in whatever tempo happens to pop into his pretty little head, but a strong drummer can build out a tight pocket. And then the bass line can sit just a bit behind the beat or ahead of it, and that breathes depth into the music.
And here's a little observation that I have made over the years. Good drummers understand time, meter and rhythm. Great drummers understand that drums are not only a rhythm instrument, that they are melodic as well. From something simple as tuning the toms to minor 3rds for a darker sound to choosing an array of cymbals and using their different tonalities to color the sound (as opposed to hitting the whichever cymbal happens to be most convenient to the drummer's hand at the time), the drummers that I go out of my way to play with are the ones that have rock solid time and approach their instrument as more than just backbeats.
When the drummer is locked on to the tempo, she and the bass player can start to work together. Her pattern on the kick drum will set up the rhythmic choices for his bass line. He can double up the same pattern (which will bring a lot emphasis to the bass line and groove – check out this one hit wonder from the 80’s for an example), build on top of the pattern (accenting the doubled notes while growing the feel – the examples are too numerous to mention, but here’s one anyway), he can play against it (doing a counterpoint to add complexity to the overall song – the rhythmic intricacy of this song beggars the belief to start with: that Jamerson played the entire line with one finger while lying down on this back is just astounding) or the bass player can do a combination of these three techniques at the same time. The typical bass line tends to heavily favor the first two approaches, while almost all bass lines utilize all three combinations at one time or another.
Most of western music is built around a 4/4 meter. I can't speak that much to Eastern music -- as much as I have listened to it, I know that I'm only scratching the surface. For most of us, 4/4 time is deeply ingrained into our psyche. Turn on the radio and listen to almost any song. Find the beat and count it; there will almost certainly be four beats in between the first emphasized beat you hear and the equally emphasized beat.
Still, not all music is in 4/4. Waltzes are traditionally in 3/4 time (think of the Blue Danube from the scene in 2001 when the shuttle docks with the space station), flamenco is traditionally in 12/8 and Celtic music leans towards 7/8. And, of course, in American jazz, any time signature is up for grabs.
Counting out the meter can be an exercise all in itself. Speaking for myself, I don't like to count in my head much past five. Once I go past five, I break the count down into smaller numbers that add up the way I want. For example, a song in 11/8 might be counted as 4-4-3 (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3), 4-3-4, 3-4-4, 3-3-3-2, 4-2-3-2 or any other of the various pernumerations that would still produce 11.
The break down is important because it changes the way in which I approach the music. Playing 11/8 as 4-4-3 makes the song feel like a 4/4 groove with a truncated third measure. Playing it as 3-3-3-2 brings a strong triplet feel to the tune. And 3-4-4 takes the 4/4 groove and keeps it off balance from the outset.
Once the tempo and the feel have been decided and all the musicians are on the same page (or all in agreeance about the individual pages they are all on), the music can take shape. While it is possible for a song to be coherent with each musician playing a different meter (I can recall a jazz composition from years ago that had the drummer in 3/4, the bass line in 4/4, the keys in 5/4 and the guitar in 7/4, but that’s far and away the exception), in most circumstances, everyone starts and ends in the same frame of time. Each segment of the song needs to have at least one instrument holding down the tempo so the rest of the musicians can key off of that part. More often than not, it’s the drummer that everyone else uses as their reference point, but this is not always the case. When the drummer’s not holding down the fort, the role almost always falls to the bass line. But, most of the time, it’s the drummer hold keeps time for the entire group throughout the entire song.
Speaking for myself, I have played a number of shows with musicians of less than perfect time. When I was studying with Kai, I asked him pretty much point blank how he deals with other musicians that have meter issues. He commiserated with me, relating to me a few stories about how he has had to deal with it over the years. But basically, we both try to solve the same problem in a similar fashion: If other people are rushing, simplify the bass line and drive home the beat; if they drag, add in some more notes to make things feel faster. Do this for a while (like three or four measures) and if they don’t catch on, go with it as best you can for the song and then have a chat with the other musician(s) when you get a chance.
If the band is comprised of people with innate good meter, the tempo issue doesn’t automatically go away – each member of the band has to be able to listen to the other musicians to make sure the meter is in sync. When that happens one of the more critical housekeeping elements of making music takes care of itself. The more in tune each member of the group is to the shared tempo, the more relaxed everyone is and the more organic the music becomes. And that’s when the joy of playing begins to shine through.
For those of you that don't know, my biggest hobby horse is free speech. For the record, I'm pretty much an absolutist when it comes to free speech -- I think that the cure for "bad" speech is more "good" speech, not attempting to restrict the "bad". So, from time to time, I'll bloviate on various matters on this issue.
Eugene Volokh (of the Volokh Conspiracy) has written an interesting article about some of the myths of free speech. It's worth a quick read.
-- Update --
Volokh revises and extends his thoughts in the article in response to comments from readers.
Goulet has observed that it's a bit harder for a seventy year old to appeal to a younger crowd. This is a clear case for Obviousman!
It dawned on me this evening that I have played with four different bands in the last thirty-six hours. I'm pretty sure that this is a record for me. Although it's been fun to play with a wide range of people and styles in such quick succession, I can't say that I would recommend the experience. I'm really ragged out and I think I'm developing a brand new blister under the calluses on my thumping thumb.
Tonight, A&S decided to go into the studio and cut a demo EP. We'll probably do about four songs -- three originals and one by the Gipsy Kings. Tonight, we drilled and drilled over and over on two songs. While it might not seem like a lot, I think tonight was a good practice. We went a long way towars nailing down the structure and feel of two of the originals. I figure that next week, we'll work on the other two, and then we'll start tightening things down as much as possible. Sort of on the theory that it's much cheaper to fix boo-boos outside of the studio that on the clock.
Today, Rich and I packed up our gear and headed over to the domicle of yet another drummer (which I'm going to abbreviate as YAD to save myself some keystrokes). The drummer in question has quite the pedigree. On the one hand, I was rather looking forwards to playing with someone who has the experience(s) he has; on the other hand, why is someone with this kind of resume looking for work?
So we load in, tune up and start to play. Keith has a good ear, nice pocket and a good feel for what he's doing. There were some tempo issues, but I do not know if they were due to unfamiliarity with the music at hand or some other reason. Rich and I will probably play with him again.
Jay Bushman and I got in contact with each other through the DC Bass Players mailing list. After a few false starts, I went over to his place/studio this morning and we went through a bunch of songs that he has written. For the most part, they were pretty straight-ahead blues tunes. He plays with a drummer and a keyboardist/guitarist. The arrangements reminded me of well, kind of generic blues and Jay's vocal stylings immediately made me think of a friend of mine.
I initially agreed to play with these guys to do some tracks on their album they are trying to put together, but I get the feeling they are looking for a more durable commitment. To be honest, I don't think I have the available bandwidth to take on another project. A recording project is a two, maybe three weekends -- counting rehearsals. Playing in a band is a whole different animal.
I had played with the two guitarists of Last Second Comeback back a few weeks ago. Today, I got back together with them as well as their drummer/percussionist, Chris. We went over most of the same songs that we did the last time, as well as a few more. Chris as a interesting style of playing hand percussion. It goes well with LSC's style. I'll probably play with these guys a few more times in the future.
Rich rang me up earlier tonight; we may have an opening slot down at East Coast for some band next weekend. More on this as it develops.
-- Update --
Yep, an opening slot. The schedule has been updated accordingly.
Not too long ago, I picked up a magazine I saw in the bookstore. Bass Player magazine put out an issue focused entirely on gear -- suggestions on setup, what assorted pros play, a primer on electronics.
The setup info was interesting, but mostly the kind of stuff I had already pickup up along the way (adjust the truss rod a quarter turn at a time to account for seasonal changes, don't overtighten the bolts on a rack, string height, etc.).
As far as the gear section ("Rigs of the Stars!"), Les Claypool, Oteil Burbridge, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke and many others are covered. And, in answer to me wondering how Geddy Lee got his sound, they cover some of the bases here.
Salient points:
It seems that Alex Lifeson (the lead guitarist for Rush) got a little too frisky for his ringing in the new year festivities. More info as I happen to find it.
-- Update --
Here's his mug shot. I think I can stand by one of my comments from their DVD (#3, in this case).
-- Update 2 --
I found a better news link than the Washington Post and updated the above link accordingly. And this one has the mug shots of the son and the daughter-in-law as well (man, what is up with the kid's eyes? Is he just really tired, or did he get beaten up somewhere along the line?), as well as some further information. It seems that young Lifeson (I'm not even going to try and type in the actual name, so go with me on this one) decided to hop on stage and sing a song to his wife. Security was called, things got a little testy, Alex jumped into the fray and there were tasers all around.
-- Update 3 --
Lifeson speaks! I think my favorite quote from this article is from Lifeson himself: "[he] didn't believe his arrest was fair.". Off the top of my head, how many people think that their arrest was particularly fair?
And... it appears that there's some video footage of Lifeson leaving the police station.
You know, this is the kind of thing that is both really amazing/great about the power and reach of the internet and really scary/disturbing about the power and reach of the internet.
Happy New Year to everyone; I hope that you had a pleasant evening the night before.
I went to see The Station Agent. I have been wanting to see it for about the last month or so, but just haven't found the time to make it out to a theater. Today, I managed to find the time, though.
It's a good indie flick. A dwarf who inherits a train depot in a small NJ town, he meets some of the local people and discovers that he doesn't dislike the company of people anywhere near as much as he thought he did. There were lots of good moments in this story; the coffee guy who talks continuously to cover up his obvious loneliness, the recently divorced woman who just lost her son and may be viewing the new owner of the depot as a substitute and the librarian who is definitely viewing him as quite the dish.
This is a good movie for those who are into plot, character and acting. Probably a skip if you like things that blow up real good. Watch time 1:03
