tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-346444932024-03-12T20:06:02.698-07:00Armchair FlailingThe blog of Alan Oehler, guitar player, music fan, technical writer, and web developer.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-55952384837906508722020-01-14T12:46:00.000-08:002020-01-14T12:46:02.181-08:00It's 2020!The new year is here!<br />
<br />
I've never been too big on New Year's Resolutions, but on some level I resonate with the opportunity presenting itself to make some. Of course there's no need to confine oneself to the beginning of a year , but there is certainly something to it that brings a slightly sharper focus.<br />
<br />
So what do I resolve? In a nutshell, I plan to be more diligent in my various musical pursuits, particularly learning and creating.<br />
<br />
Learning always goes on to some degree, but I mean to actively work at it more than I have recently. I have a large amount of materials bursting with information that I want to absorb and have inform my playing. In addition to making my way through that, I intend to spend some time transcribing well-loved solos and to be more diligent practicing ideas in musical context (with backing tracks, or playing with friends).<br />
<br />
Creating has been the toughest nut to crack for me. I have had great difficulty in the past trying to direct myself to write pieces of music. I've always felt it is something I <i>should</i> be doing – there's something inside me that wants to come out – but years go by with nothing, or very little, emerging, because I just don't do it. I don't find much time, I don't take the time when I do find it, and when I do my focus is very fragile and easily broken. I intend to find some simple structure to put around it, and to set myself the modest goal of composing just a couple of pieces within the year.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-91734894824938897252019-09-27T11:03:00.000-07:002019-09-27T11:41:03.230-07:00Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn treeThis post is being written just a couple of days into fall, the last Friday of September. This time I took a line from Emily Brontë to keep the title from once more being "autumn update."<br />
Here's some of the things I have to look forward to in the coming days.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Today, Friday, September 27, a new collaborative CD from Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber, <i><a href="http://www.mikestern.org/" target="_blank">Eleven</a>,</i> is released, as is another unearthed recording by John Coltrane, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_World_(album)" target="_blank">Blue World</a></i>. </li>
<li>Looks like Stern and Lorber are going to tour, and they'll be at <a href="https://www.yoshis.com/search/?66624147619,66624149625,66624151631" target="_blank">Yoshi's on December 9 and 10th</a> with Jimmy Haslip & Dave Weckl in the wheelhouse.</li>
<li><a href="https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/ScottGoldstone" target="_blank">Scott Goldstone</a> and I are doing a "duo" show at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Wine-Bar/The-Wine-Room-Moss-Beach-207486812974375/" target="_blank">The Wine Room Moss Beach</a> tomorrow, Saturday, September 28. By "duo," I actually mean Scott will play a solo set, then I will play a solo set, and finally we'll play a set together. I'm trying to drum up the courage to attempt at least a little bit of live looping in my performance, using my <a href="https://digitech.com/en/products/sdrum" target="_blank">Digitech SDRUM</a> for rhythm and laying down a bass line with my <a href="http://ehx.com/products/bass9" target="_blank">Electro-Harmonix BASS9 Bass Machine</a> into my <a href="https://digitech.com/en/products/jamman-solo-xt" target="_blank">Digitech JamMan Solo XT</a> looper.</li>
<li>On Wednesday, October 9, I'm going to go see <a href="https://www.thewho.com/tour/" target="_blank">The Who</a> at the new Chase Center in San Francisco. I have been a fan since I was a teen and first heard <i>Live at Leeds</i> and <i>Tommy</i>, but I have never seen them perform except on film.</li>
<li>A couple of days later, Friday evening, October 11, <a href="https://www.nostaticmusic.com/" target="_blank">No Static</a> is playing at one of the better venues in the area, the <a href="https://www.hmbbrewingco.com/" target="_blank">Half Moon Bay Brewing Company</a>.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-3486666506677226632019-09-23T15:43:00.002-07:002019-09-23T15:43:57.604-07:00The summer night is like a perfection of thoughtThat's a quote from the poet Wallace Stevens... thought something different would be better than the usual "Summer Update" that I usually do...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Snarky Puppy at the Paramount in Oakland was fantastic! What a great theater. Amazing that there are two venues like this just a couple of blocks from each other (the Paramount and the Fox Theater).</li>
<li>I did <i>not</i> get to see Bela Fleck & the Flecktones nor Adrian Belew, alas.</li>
<li><a href="https://nostaticmusic.com/" target="_blank">No Static</a> had a pretty good summer season – gigs at the Highway 1 Brewing Company in Pescadero, The Wine Room in Moss Beach, a couple at the American Legion Coastal Post 474 in Half Moon Bay, the Burlingame on the Avenue street fair, and the St. Robert's Festival at St. Robert Catholic Elementary School in San Bruno (the latter exemplified the Stevens quote I used for the post title).</li>
<li>I got a new guitar! After wanting one for most of my life, I finally became the happy owner of a Gibson Les Paul. It's a beautiful guitar and plays and sounds like a dream.</li>
<li>I also revamped my Telecaster with <a href="https://chiltonepickups.com/" target="_blank">Chiltone pickups</a>. It sounds particularly good now.</li>
</ul>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-43337586064944018342019-05-15T10:13:00.000-07:002019-09-23T15:33:49.265-07:00A season of concertsFor some reason, stars aligned and planets danced and I ended up with a goodly number of concerts to go see in the first half of the year, mostly as Christmas or birthday presents. I think this is the most number of shows in a short time frame that I've been to see since I lived in NY and went to multiple Schaefer Music Festival shows every summer.<br />
Here's what they were:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/wayne-shorter/" target="_blank">Wayne Shorter Legacy Celebration, January 6th at SFJAZZ Center</a>
It was originally supposed to be Wayne's great quartet, but he was recovering from an illness that precludes travel, so instead he was "honored by an amazing array of his peers... a wonderful group of his musical 'family members' [performing] music from his celebrated career along with his longtime band members." We saw band members Brian Blade, Danilo Perez, and John Patitucci joined by Joshua Redman and Ambrose Akinmusire.<br />
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.kuumbwajazz.org/calendar/bill-frisell-when-you-wish-upon-a-star-900-pm/" target="_blank">Bill Frisell, January 25 at Kuumbwa Jazz</a>
The guitarist’s When You Wish Upon a Star project featured the group from his Grammy-nominated album of his arrangements/adaptations of music for film and television, with Petra Haden on vocals, Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on drums.<br />
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/john-scofield-lettuce/?performanceNumber=11800" target="_blank">John Scofield with Lettuce, March 24 at SFJAZZ Center</a>
Lettuce is a monstrously good instrumental funk ensemble (thanks to Tom DeFiglio for turning me on to them a few years back). Scofield appeared as a special guest on their 2002 debut album <i>Outta Here,</i> and they’ve rejoined forces over the years. Lettuce consists of Eric Bloom (trumpet), Ryan Zoidis (saxophone), Adam Smirnoff (guitar), Nigel Hall (keyboards & vocals), Erick Coomes (bass), and Adam Deitch (drums).<br />
</li>
<li><a href="https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/kurt-rosenwinkel-quintet/?performanceNumber=11741" target="_blank">Kurt Rosenwinkel Standards Trio, April 14 at SFJAZZ Center</a>
Kurt Rosenwinkel presents a revised edition of his standards trio featuring Italian bass virtuoso Dario Deidda and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr., performing material from his 2009 album <i>Reflections</i> and new settings of timeless classics.<br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://thefoxoakland.com/events/tedeschi-trucks-band-4" target="_blank">Tedeschi Trucks Band, May 11 at the Fox Theater Oakland</a>
One of my all-time favorite bands, and they just keep getting better as time passes.<br />
</li>
</ul>
Still to come is <a href="https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/snarky-puppy-1819/" target="_blank">Snarky Puppy, May 30 at the Paramount in Oakland</a>... a terrific Texas-bred/New York-based instrumental quasi-collective led by bassist and composer Michael League. "Snarky Puppy isn’t exactly a jazz band. It’s not a fusion band, and it’s definitely not a jam band." Thanks to Jeff Nix for turning me on to these guys a few years back when they were more obscure.<br />
And in the coming months there's a few shows I'd like to catch, though I don't have any tickets yet: Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, June 7 at the Fox Theater in Oakland, and Adrian Belew, September 17 and 18 at the Chapel in San Francisco...AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-45589680971440647452019-05-14T09:44:00.002-07:002019-05-14T09:44:17.261-07:00Update – mid-spring 2019We had a pretty decently rainy winter this year and the hills are all still green well into spring. Here's what's going on in my musical endeavors:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nostaticmusic.com/" target="_blank">No Static</a> continues to be moderately busy. We played six gigs between January and April, and currently we've got several coming up, starting with <a href="http://www.sancarloshometowndays.com/" target="_blank">San Carlos' Hometown Days</a> event this coming Saturday, May 18, followed a week later by our first appearance at <a href="http://www.highway1brewing.com/" target="_blank">Highway 1 Brewing Company</a> in Pescadero on Saturday, May 25, then t<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Wine-Bar/The-Wine-Room-Moss-Beach-207486812974375/" target="_blank">he Wine Room</a> in Moss Beach on Saturday, June 1. Scott will be out of town for a lot of July so we probably won't take any gigs in that period. Next one after that is another community festival, <a href="https://www.fairsandfestivals.net/events/details/2019-burlingame-on-the-avenue" target="_blank">Burlingame On the Avenue</a>, on Saturday, August 17. </li>
<li>Meanwhile Scott and I landed our first duo gig, also at the <a href="http://www.highway1brewing.com/" target="_blank">Highway 1 Brewing Company</a>, on Saturday, June 8. Scott will do a solo set, then I'll do a solo set, followed by the two of us together. I'm using the solo set this as a forcing function to finally get more comfortable using a looper and a guitar synth. Fingers crossed I can keep it afloat!</li>
<li>The loose jamming aggregation consisting of guitarist Jeff Kamil, the bassist know to some as PJ, and drummer Tom DeFiglio got together in early March for our first throwdown of 2019, and had a second one in mid-May.</li>
<li>Lea & Co.'s long hiatus continues; I think we can safely assume it's a thing of the past.</li>
<li>I've continued to only show up at Stan Erhart's weekly jam session at the American Legion Coastside Post 474 in Princeton-by-the-Sea about once every six or seven weeks. I always have a good time, sometimes a great time... I <i>really</i> should go more frequently...</li>
<li>I managed to get out to the mid-week Club Fox jam in Redwood City once this spring, the first time in over a year if I'm not mistaken.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-13892456801214345022019-01-24T14:50:00.001-08:002019-01-28T11:50:42.375-08:00Winter 2019 newsIt's a new year! Here's a few things that have been going on and are coming up.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nostaticmusic.com/" target="_blank">No Static</a>, after a bunch of summer and autumn gigs, tapered off a little around the holiday season, but now our calendar is "filling up" again, with a date at the Vinyl Room in Burlingame on January 11 to start us off, two in February and three in March...</li>
<li>The erstwhile jamming entity consisting of guitarist Jeff Kamil, the bassist know to some as PJ, and drummer Tom DeFiglio, are going to get together in early March for our first throwdown of 2019.</li>
<li>No updates on Lea & Co., we fell into a long hiatus around the holidays.</li>
<li>My infrequent appearances at <a href="http://erhart.net/" target="_blank">Stan Erhart</a>'s weekly jam session at the American Legion Coastside Post 474 in Princeton-by-the-Sea continue to be pretty infrequent, about once every six or seven weeks. But I always have a good time, sometimes a great time... I really should go more frequently.</li>
<li>I've been slowly but surely working my way through some of the gigantic mountain of educational material I have. Really enjoying some of the videos I got from TrueFire.</li>
<li>Still nothing new to announce re recording projects, dammit.</li>
</ul>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-33558542185196841522018-09-04T15:38:00.000-07:002018-10-17T11:44:48.036-07:00Spring & summer updateBusy few months gone by there! Here's a summary (or summer-ry, if you will):<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nostaticmusic.com/" target="_blank">No Static</a>, after a couple of gigs in June (San Mateo County Fair and the American Legion Coastside Post 474 in Princeton-by-the-Sea), had a very full August with six gigs – Pedro Point Brewing in Pacifica, Freewheel Brewery & Pub in Redwood City, the Burlingame On the Avenue street fair, the Wine Room in Moss Beach, Winters Tavern in Pacifica, and Scopo Divino in San Francisco.</li>
<li>In addition, in August I played a wedding with the terrific singer <a href="http://leperezmusic.net/" target="_blank">Le Perez</a> and Jeff Moles on upright bass, and a gig with <a href="https://www.jr-guitar.com/hardlystrictlyjazz" target="_blank">Jon Rubin</a> at the Cigar Bar & Grill in San Francisco.</li>
<li>Sharon Lea has emerged from her hiatus and expressed interest in re-estblishing <a href="http://sharonleamusic.com/" target="_blank">Lea & Co.</a>, as a duo again, so we've started to shake off the dust and we've scheduled an afternoon soon to record a few demos.</li>
<li>The erstwhile jamming entity consisting of Jeff Kamil, the bassist know to some as PJ, Tom DeFiglio, and myself managed to play together one Sunday in early July. I recorded it, and there were some nice moments, so I might go through and cull out a few clips to post on my SoundCloud page.</li>
<li>I had a lovely jamming session with bassist Scot Larsen and drummer Jesse Van Hiller in May; hope to do it again soon, but it's hard to find a time that works for us all.</li>
<li>Speaking of jamming, my infrequent appearances at <a href="http://erhart.net/" target="_blank">Stan Erhart</a>'s weekly jam session at the American Legion Coastside Post 474 in Princeton-by-the-Sea continue to be pretty infrequent, about once every six or seven weeks. But I always have a good time, sometimes a great time... I really should go more frequently.</li>
<li>Aside from a small burst of recording several practice tracks in May for a planned playing party with my drumming friend Jeff O'Rourke that still has not taken place, I've done precious little recording. I've taken to watching too many Yankees baseball games since accidentally re-upping for MLB TV for the 2018 season. Come October I'll have no such excuse until next March... But there are a couple of things I've been working up, maybe I'll get to them a bit. I have a solo arrangement of Jaco Pastorius' "Continuum" and a couple of other pieces with backing tracks, including Wayne Shorter's "Palladium," which I've been working on. </li>
<li>Finally, in the Sound Toys department...
<ul>
<li>my most recent doohickey is the <a href="https://www.ehx.com/products/freeze" target="_blank">Electro-Harmonix Freeze Sound Retainer pedal</a>, which allows you to record an instant slice of sound – for example, the initial strike of a chord – and have it continue as long as desired. It will take me some time and practice to become adept at using it, but it promises to be a helpful thing for playing solo guitar. I can, for example, play a harmony at the top of a section and then let it hang in the air as I improvise over it, and then drop that one and grab another moment as the chords change...</li>
<li>I have also tried to start actually learning how to use my <a href="https://digitech.com/en/products/jamman-stereo" target="_blank">Digitech JamMan Stereo looper</a> that I've had for some time now. I've been interested in the possibilities of looping for some time but the learning curve has kept me at the threshold, never getting past the "quick start" section of the manual. To inspire me, I got a video course from <a href="https://truefire.com/" target="_blank">TrueFire</a> called "<a href="https://truefire.com/guitar-lessons/creative-looping-handbook/c861?utm_source=tfsearch" target="_blank">The Creative Looping Handbook</a>," presented by Robbie Calvo, which I've been working my way through.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-49804670478368229212018-01-16T16:12:00.001-08:002018-01-16T16:16:13.051-08:00A new yearIt's the middle of January 2018... days are starting to get longer as we slouch toward spring.
Latest music stuff:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nostaticmusic.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">No Static</a> played a Sunday late afternoon gig at Winters Tavern in Pacifica. We hope to get a bunch more soon. I finished mixing one remaining leftover track from the August recording session, the Steely Dan tune "Black Cow," and added it to <a href="https://soundcloud.com/no-static-sfbayarea" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our SoundCloud playlist</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://sharonleamusic.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lea & Co.</a> played a private Christmas party in early December, but Sharon has decided to put it on the shelf for the moment for personal reasons. Hopefully we'll be back before too long.</li>
</ul>AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-13102509213174455702017-10-07T13:32:00.000-07:002017-10-07T13:32:05.651-07:00Autumn leavesIt's early October... you would hardly know it outside right now (an early Saturday afternoon), it's in the mid-seventies, but lately there's been more of a morning chill, and the light at dusk is beginning to get that fall thing going on...<br />
<br />
Recent music stuff:<br />
<ul>
<li>the Scott Goldstone band project, now called <i>No Static</i>, recorded <a href="http://nostaticmusic.com/index.php/music/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">some demos </a>(mixed by <i>moi</i>) and popped up a website. We had a nice gig two weeks ago at the San Benito House in Half Moon Bay, and we have two more on the calendar in the next couple of months.</li>
<li>Demos for <a href="http://sharonleamusic.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lea & Co.</a> are up on the website, but we've been on a bit of a hiatus, as one of us had sadly had a death in the family. We should be getting back to business soon.</li>
</ul>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-71529740595791942492017-07-27T10:14:00.004-07:002018-01-16T16:19:57.905-08:00Midsummer updateLots going on this year so far...<br />
<br />
First off, I'm still <a href="/2017/03/two-new-musical-projects.html">accompanying vocalist Sharon Lea</a>, but the Sharon Lea Duo has morphed into Lea & Co. with the addition of bassist Jeff Moles. We're folding Jeff in to our repertoire and it's going very nicely. The cool thing for me is that when I do my instrumental improv sections in the tunes, I don't have to keep the whole ball of wax in the air – I can rely on the rhythm and the bass line being there and I can play more freely, which is both more fun for me and sounds better. Our website will soon be available and there will be a few demo recordings, which we laid down about a week and a half ago and which I am currently mixing. I'm looking forward to getting out there and playing with this ensemble.<br />
<br />
Secondly, the <a href="/2017/03/two-new-musical-projects.html">Scott Goldstone Band</a> has been in a little bit of a hovering state, as several of us have had summer vacations that have interrupted our usual rehearsal schedule a bit. But we've continued to learn some new material, and it looks like we have found a sax player to augment the band. Last week we recorded some raw demos and we're going to clean them up and get them mixed after Scott returns from his overseas vacation. We also hope to settle on a name and get a website together by the end of August, get back on track, and take it to the street. I'm very excited about this group and I look forward to the autumn.<br />
<br />
<a href="/2017/04/another-music-project.html">The guitar duo with Jeff Kamil</a> has had two gigs so far this year, with another couple likely coming up at the Madrigal Family Sausalito Wine Tasting Salon & Gallery. We haven't attempted to find other places to play, and with the other projects I have going on there's very little opportunity for us to rehearse at all or think about it much. But we'll see... there's definitely potential there.<br />
<br />
Finally, I have played a couple of <a href="http://www.breadandroses.org/">Bread 𝄞 Roses</a> gigs with acoustic finger-style guitarist Jon Rubin. He's also invited me to two gigs coming up soon, which are on <a href="http://alanoehler.com/calendar/">my calendar</a> at my website.<br />
<br />
One thing that I've learned for sure over the last couple of months – when you have a full-time day job and then you add not one band but three or four, the paucity of time you can devote to the music becomes jarringly obvious! But I'm not complaining! (Yet...)<br />
<br />AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-62430918148551421752017-05-31T15:19:00.000-07:002018-02-28T15:58:02.726-08:00Allan Holdsworth 1946-2017On a Sunday morning in mid-April I was looking at Facebook and was appalled to see a message from Allan Holdsworth's family that the great guitarist had passed away at the age of 70.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97kaDbNdG6Z7nOjzxfBwzKp3DJz_aNHZq5TqMlz9TCH017kHMV72rXIG1-Vtf2cbkY8rIxRGrOMeZE7kRwADvrVKTBlagLjpHAJvJv2QGcJCr5kHOsTdcLeMSH31HusUfmhgA/s1600/19holdsworth-obit-blog427.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Allan Holdsworth performing with the band UK in Central Park, NYC in 1978 – I was at this show!" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97kaDbNdG6Z7nOjzxfBwzKp3DJz_aNHZq5TqMlz9TCH017kHMV72rXIG1-Vtf2cbkY8rIxRGrOMeZE7kRwADvrVKTBlagLjpHAJvJv2QGcJCr5kHOsTdcLeMSH31HusUfmhgA/s320/19holdsworth-obit-blog427.jpg" title="Allan Holdsworth performing with the band UK in Central Park, NYC in 1978 – I was at this show!" width="212" /></a>
<br />
It hit me like a ton of bricks. He was one of my all-time favorites. (If you don't know anything about Holdsworth, read this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/arts/music/allan-holdsworth-virtuoso-guitarist-dies-at-70.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">excellent obituary from the NY Times</a>.)<br />
I don't want to write another huge essay about his entire career, so I'll restrict this to the early part of his career up until the late seventies.<br />
I've been a devout fan of his since the early seventies, when I first picked up an album by the British rock band Tempest, curious about what drummer Jon Hiseman's new project was like. I put it on the turntable... and by the time it was over I was enthralled.<br />
Here's the tune that really grabbed me – in his solos and fills, Holdsworth played without cliches – notes that no one else would have chosen, interval leaps that no one else could have conceived – all with an astonishing melodicism, speed and fluidity that was way beyond any guitar player I had ever heard:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlZtDR75z8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlZtDR75z8</a><br />
He was also a violin player at this point in his career, and the intro on the last track of the <i>Tempest</i> album was a thing of beauty:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzUzflBXg-c" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzUzflBXg-c</a><br />
The first time I saw Allan play was a sheer accident — I went with some friends to see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(band)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Renaissance</a>, a mostly-forgotten British progressive rock band, at the old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Music_(New_York_City)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Academy of Music</a> in NYC. The opening act was Soft Machine. We arrived a little late and the lights were down and the band had already started playing. As the usher flashlighted us to out seats, the guitar player started a solo, and I stopped dead in my tracks with my jaw dropping... "Wow! Who is the guy?" I thought. At the time I wondered if it could be <a href="http://www.olliehalsall.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ollie Halsall</a>, another fantastic British guitarist who I was aware of. In retrospect I'm amazed that I didn't guess that it could be Holdsworth. A few days later I found an import copy of Soft Machine's new album <i>Bundles</i> at a record store, and the guitarist's identify became known to me. Of course I bought it immediately. Here's the two tracks that feature Allan most prominently:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04URH_HA4cE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04URH_HA4cE</a><br />
Just a few months later, Allan's profile was raised when he joined the great drummer Tony Williams in his New Lifetime band in 1975. They recorded their first album, <i>Believe It!</i> One of Allan's compositions that appears on the album remains for me one of the best examples of almost everything about him, with the exception of the signature chordal passages he was noted for in his solo bands later in his career. It's called "Fred."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OR9JOBWM1M" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OR9JOBWM1M</a><br />
I saw that band perform twice – or was it three times?<br />
Some of Holdsworth's best recorded performances were as a sideman. Here's a Jean-Luc Ponty tune from his 1977 album <i>Enigmatic Ocean</i>, which features a beautifully-constructed guitar solo starting at right about the 3:00 mark:<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/8L07v5SoaZw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8L07v5SoaZw</a><br />
In 1977 Holdsworth also joined drummer Bill Bruford's band and recorded the album <i>Feels Good to Me</i>:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EryOENGi67M" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EryOENGi67M</a><br />
Bruford and Holdsworth then teamed up with bassist John Wetton and violinist/keyboardist Eddie Jobson to form the band UK. I saw that band perform at the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park in Manhattan in the summer of '78, shortly before leaving NY to move out to California. Check out his beautiful solo in the song "In the Dead of Night" starting at about 3:08:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMu7XUc9OcI" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMu7XUc9OcI</a><br />
Feeling constrained by UK (it was reported that Wetton and Jobson wanted him to replay his improvised solos from the album note-for-note in their concerts), he left after that tour, and in 1979 he appeared on a second Bill Bruford album, <i>One of a Kind</i>. Check out this his solo in the final section of the great tune "The Sahara of Snow" starting around 5:22:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdaqTVL1_WU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdaqTVL1_WU</a><br />
Over the next few years, Allan started leading his own bands and recording albums under his own name. I saw him several times in the years since. One of those shows was a Tony Williams tribute project that reunited him with keyboardist Alan Pasqua from the Tony Williams Lifetime days. A double CD and a DVD of their performance at Yoshi's in Oakland was released in 2008. You can find video on Youtube:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJSbNGiAUA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJSbNGiAUA</a><br />
The last time I saw him was again at Yoshi's, in a trio format with bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Virgil Donati. Early this year I'd heard he was doing some performing again and I was hoping to see him up here again soon. Alas, that was not to be.<br />
I've gone on too long so I'll wrap this up here. If any of you that have stumbled on this and were not aware of Holdsworth, I hope maybe some of these links have been inspirational and made you want to find out more.<br />
Requiescat in pace, Allan, and thank you for the music.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-69851633002123792532017-04-26T11:29:00.003-07:002018-10-17T11:42:21.643-07:00Another music projectI also should mention that I'm playing from time to time in a duo with my guitar-playing friend Jeffrey Kamil, doing some jazz standards. We have played two gigs so far this year, both at the artist receptions at the Madrigal Family Winery Sausalito Tasting Salon & Gallery. The two of us also sometimes get together with our friends Tom DeFiglio on drums and PJ on bass and play some similar material just for fun.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-65002640719627367232017-04-26T09:39:00.001-07:002017-04-26T21:50:56.671-07:00Upcoming gig – Friday, May 12 at The Wine Bar in Moss BeachThe still-unnamed cover band I joined recently will be playing our first gig on Friday, May 12 at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Wine-Room-Moss-Beach-207486812974375/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Wine Room</a> in Moss Beach, just a little north of the Half Moon Bay Airport, one block to the east of Highway 1, from 7-9pm.<br />
<br />
Fronted by Scott Goldstone, a fantastic keyboardist and vocalist, we'll be doing R&B-flavored material like "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" by the Four Tops, "I Can't Go For That" by Hall & Oates, "Freddie's Dead" by Curtis Mayfield, "Trouble Man" by Marvin Gaye, "Home At Last" and "Black Cow" by Steely Dan, and many more. Tom Josa on bass and Dennis O'Keefe on drums round out the personnel. Come check us out if you are in the area!AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-61053758305331848362017-03-22T14:59:00.001-07:002017-03-23T10:26:41.176-07:00Home recording updateRecently <a href="/2017/02/home-recording.html">I wrote about getting re-engaged with efforts to record some music at home</a>. I just wanted to note that two things have put a bit of a damper on moving forward much further. First, I joined a new band, which is terrific, but it has meant that I've had to devote an inordinate amount of time learning the material, and the time has had to come from somewhere. Second, my recording workstation got into a strange state after shutting down improperly and became mired in a Windows Automatic Repair loop that I could not break out of. Ultimately I had to re-install Windows 10 from scratch and reinstall all my applications and restore all my documents and projects (thank God for backups!). I'm midway through getting back to a fully operational state. I've decided to take the opportunity to get a larger secondary hard drive, which I expect to be able to swap in the coming weekend. So hopefully, by the time the weekend ends I will be back in action, and I'll have some new stuff to start posting on SoundCloud soon after.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-58022035379357947472017-03-22T14:49:00.004-07:002017-04-26T09:25:08.728-07:00Two new musical projectsI've now got two things going on, both of which are great fun:<br />
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First off, I'm accompanying a terrific singer, Sharon Lea, on jazz and blues standards like "Misty," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "God Bless the Child," "At Last," and many more. The Sharon Lea Duo website will soon be available and there will be a few demo recordings. We made our public debut (not counting doing a couple of songs at an open mic a couple of months ago) on Saturday, March 18 at, oddly enough, a mall clothing store (dressbarn in Campbell) in the mid-afternoon. People seemed to enjoy it and we got many compliments from customers and staff.<br />
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Second, I'm now part of an as-yet-unnamed cover band that will be doing R&B-flavored material. Fronted by Scott Goldstone, a terrific keyboard player and vocalist, we'll be doing songs like "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" by the Four Tops, "I Can't Go For That" by Hall & Oates, "I'm So Proud" by Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions, "Home At Last" and "Black Cow" by Steely Dan, and many more. I'm really stoked to be playing with these guys and looking forward to playing out in the near future.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-18737195211606940442017-02-20T14:15:00.004-08:002017-03-23T10:24:56.189-07:00Home recording<p>Call it a New Year's resolution, but I have recently become newly determined to actually use this nice recording setup that I have here at home rather than let it just gather dust.</p>
<p>The first thing I did was ditch the old audio interface I had, which did not work well with Windows 10. (When I visited the manufacturer's website, I discovered they no longer are making pro audio products, the model I had was no longer supported, and the latest drivers (which I already had installed) "might work," but there was going to be no development of a Windows 10-compatible version. I put a few questions out on home recording forums but got no hints of anything I could do to resolve or work around the issue.)</p>
<p>For a few months, I lived with it, but I soon realized that the unreliability of the system being in a functioning state at any given time was acting as a real impediment to me doing anything. So I decided to rip that thing out of there and buy something more modern that actually has Windows 10 support.</p>
<p>I ended up getting a <a href="https://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/scarlett-6i6" target="_new">Focusrite Scarlett 6i6</a>. I installed it and bingo, I have a wonderful functioning system again.</p>
<p>I use <a href="http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR" target="_new">SONAR Platinum</a> from Cakewalk as my digital audio workstation (DAW) software. I've been using Cakewalk stuff for a very long time, and I've always been pretty comfortable and happy with it.</p>
<p>For recording guitars I have several options. I can plug into one of the instrument inputs on the front of the Scarlett and route it through a software amp in SONAR (I've got the ones that came with SONAR, but my favorite is the <a href="https://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear" target="_new">Scuffham S-Gear</a>). I have a Line 6 POD HD, which was the last of their kidney-bean-shaped guitar amp modelers, which is connected to the Scarlett via its digital interface. I also have a couple of guitar amps that have direct recording outputs. Finally, there's the good old approach of sticking a microphone in front of an amp.</p>
<p>I also use <a href="http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.htm" target="_new">Band-in-a-Box</a> software from PG Music to throw together quick backing tracks. It is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program – you type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box automatically generates a complete arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles. It's also a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback.</p>
<p>For drums, I really don't have the space to have a real drum kit in the room, and I couldn't play them much even if I did, so I typically use software drum kits that are plugins hosted by SONAR. Recently I added a new plug-in drum program called <a href="http://www.rayzoon.com/" target="_new">JamStix</a> by Rayzoon Technologies that can generate drum parts similarly to Band-in-a-Box, but with much more variability – more like human drummers with their own habits, accents and fill characteristics. I'm looking forward to learning how to use it and hopefully it will be inspiring. If I did want to record a real drummer live, I could set up to four separate mics into the four analog inputs of the Scarlett.</p>
<p>For keyboards and such there are also several so-called "soft synths" – software synthesizers that are also plugins available within SONAR. I have a MIDI keyboard controller that I can plug in to record MIDI data, but I'm not much of a keyboardist so I don't do that too often.</p>
<p>For bass, I can use soft synths and MIDI, and I also have a decent bass guitar that I can play a bit, so I can record it just like I do my guitars.</p>
<p>I have a <a href="https://soundcloud.com/alchuck" target="_new">SoundCloud page</a> where I've put up some of the stuff I've recorded here at home. There are also a few older things at <a href="http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1548&alid=-1" target="_new">Nowhere Radio</a>.</p>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-77117803678016963572016-11-07T16:20:00.000-08:002017-01-30T13:12:34.893-08:00Autumn updateIt's been a bit of an aimless year. As SNUG continued not get gigs nearly often enough, I looked around and ended up in another cover band based out of Redwood City. We played more often but for various reasons it didn't work out. In the meantime the folks from SNUG had moved south to San Jose and, when I told them I was working with another group, they found another guitar player. I wish them the best.<br />
<br />
Not too long after I found Sharon Lea, a very good singer who was interested in doing standards and such with an accompanist, and we started working out repertoire. We had our first public appearance at an open mic at Angelica's in Redwood City in mid-October, and hopefully we'll start finding gigs in earnest in the coming months. It's nice to be doing the sole accompanist thing again, so much simpler to deal with in every way... well, except for how hard it is to pull off creditably.<br />
<br />
I still am struggling with trying to find enough time to practice and to work on my playing AND work on recording projects AND compose music AND get involved with looping... what happens is I spend most of the available time practicing and neglect everything else. I did manage to crank out a couple of quick and dirty recordings playing over prerecorded backup tracks from <a href="http://www.bobbysbackingtracks.com/en/" target="_blank">Bobby's Backing Tracks</a>, two Stevie Wonder covers; you can hear them on my SoundCloud page if you are so inclined:<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/alchuck/my-cherie-amour-quick-mix" target="_blank">"My Cherie Amour"</a><br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/alchuck/boogie-on-reggae-woman" target="_blank">"Boogie On Reggae Woman"</a><br />
<br />
I still go out to play on the odd Sunday evening at Stan Erhart's long-running jam at the American Legion in Princeton-by-the-Sea, but not as often as I used to, and I have not been to either the Club Fox or the Pioneer to play even once this year.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-56684204786927941692016-04-23T19:16:00.003-07:002016-04-25T05:55:47.859-07:00"John and Mary" by Jaco PastoriusI recently listened to the tune "John and Mary" from Jaco Pastorius' second solo album, <i>Word of Mouth</i>, and marveled again at how wonderful it is. I am also amazed that this album, and this piece in particular, are not better known. To me it has always seemed to be a work of utter genius. There seems to be very little on the Internet about it that I was able to find. So I'd thought I'd write a little about it. Maybe one or two people will stumble on this, seek it out, and discover just how beautiful and great this tune is. Then my work here will be finished ;-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbN7jocQNAeRjA1uZfsttePpWeYdDA_wXa94wVBGATXWV8vh1oJ9vAJoehkikF_iM7zESBZsRbgi9CGriENHGPDPWzq-jFxHQvuIUyXlilnTtmQZ-Pq1xmBHXDALrN436QSIe/s1600/jaco+in+repose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbN7jocQNAeRjA1uZfsttePpWeYdDA_wXa94wVBGATXWV8vh1oJ9vAJoehkikF_iM7zESBZsRbgi9CGriENHGPDPWzq-jFxHQvuIUyXlilnTtmQZ-Pq1xmBHXDALrN436QSIe/s200/jaco+in+repose.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
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It's actually a rather elaborate piece, running a little over ten minutes long, with Jaco on bass, organ, and vocals, Othello Molineaux and/or Paul Horn-Muller on steel drums, Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, either Peter Erskine or Jack DeJohnette on drums, perhaps Don Alias and/or Bobby Thomas, Jr. on percussion, Jim Walker and/or Hubert Laws on flute ( as you might gather, the album's liner notes are somewhat lacking, so other than the very recognizable Wayne and Herbie, it's hard to piece together who else actually played on this track), augmented here and there by strings and a choir of voices, as well as some captured moments of Jaco and his children talking.<br />
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It actually starts with one of those snippets, with Jaco and his kids whispering and giggling. Then come some piano chords that lead us into the first part of the tune, a joyous melody with a Caribbean lilt from the pans throughout which dart soprano sax improvisations from Shorter. This goes on for a bit and then come to an end, leading into some more moments of Jaco's children speaking.<br />
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From there the piece segues into a second theme stated with wordless vocals from Jaco and the children, punctuated with tympani, with Shorter's improvisations again springing up around and through the theme.<br />
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The first theme returns with more improvising. Then the second theme repeats its first part, but leads to another section where a tuba plays an ostinato note and the rhythm changes and then drops out, and a moment of silence occurs. Then the piano introduces the next section, where strings and horns play a lovely segue. An achingly beautiful melody played by Jaco on the bass (and doubled freely by his voice) is stated once, then again as the strings and horns lay down a slightly more elaborate backdrop.<br />
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Next, a vocal segue by the choir leads to a repeat of the first theme, this time much fuller, with the voices harmonizing the simple melody and Jaco singing improvisationally<br />
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I don't really know how to describe it, but this piece just makes me stop and quietly listen, and it evokes a lot of emotion. The feeling it projects is sweet and loving, but there is also an undercurrent of sadness and regret. There is depth and complexity to the emotions evoked. Maybe part of that is knowing Jaco's story, his bipolar disorder and his sad death at age 36 (so much potential music-making that we'll never get to hear). I also remember clearly when this album first came out, when I was living alone in a studio apartment in West Los Angeles, emotionally tattered, miles from friends and family. I remember lying on my futon at night and playing this record many times, letting it sweep me up in its spell.<br />
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To me these kind of experiences are what gives music its power, though "power" isn't the best word.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHfUAnBBeLg" target="_blank">"John and Mary" on YouTube</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Mouth_%28Jaco_Pastorius_album%29" target="_blank">More about <i>Word of Mouth</i></a><br />
<a href="http://jacopastorius.com/film/" target="_blank">See the Jaco documentary film</a>AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-45904243232295306682015-09-28T16:15:00.002-07:002018-03-06T14:30:32.282-08:00Wayne Krantz Trio at Yoshi's, March 26, 2015My first trip out to Yoshi's so far this year was to see one of my favorite musicians, Wayne Krantz. He played at Yoshi's, the wonderful jazz club in Oakland's Jack London Square. Rounding out the trio was James Genus on bass and Cliff Almond on drums.<br />
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Krantz's music has for some years now (though a little less so on his last two releases, <i>Krantz Carlock Lefebvre</i> and <i>Howie 61</i>, both of which were more composed and included vocals by Krantz) been largely improvised. He takes some thematic elements – phrases, grooves, chord patterns – to give the proceedings something of a skeleton, and the trio uses these to navigate. To call them songs isn't accurate; maybe musical snippets is a better term? Nothing remotely like the typical jazz trio playing the head, then taking solos, trading eights, and repeating the head.<br />
<br />
Along the lines of his most recent recording, this year's <i><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/good-piranha-bad-piranha-wayne-krantz-abstract-logix-review-by-ian-patterson.php" target="_blank">Good Piranha/Bad Piranha</a></i>, some of the material was "cover material." On that record, he recorded two versions each of Pendulum’s “Comprachicos,” M.C. Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” Ice Cube’s “My Skin is My Sin,” and Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke’s “Black Swan" – one set with Nate Wood on bass and Keith Carlock on drums, the other set with Tim Lefebvre on bass and Nate Wood on drums. Gabriela Anders adds some momentary vocals to most of the tracks. Each touches briefly on the tunes but then gets Krantzified immediately. The two versions are almost totally different, as were the versions the trio performed at Yoshi's. It's recognizably Wayne Krantz – his distinctive qualities as a guitar player are <i>sui generis</i> – but you don't listen to Krantz expecting to hear specific melodies or tunes. It's all new each time.<br />
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It's a risky thing to do, and accordingly, he's not a household word, and his music isn't something the less-than-adventurous listener would be attracted to. The music is constantly in danger of veering off the tracks (the dreaded "bad night"); but to balance that out, there is always the chance of something transcendent happening.<br />
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Last night's show was decidedly not a bad night. You could see it in the faces of the musicians as they played. Krantz lit up like a child having the most fun ever, totally in control of his awesome facility with the instrument and the array of sound-modifying pedals he uses (wah, delay, a new device called a freeze pedal, and a ring modulator that turns him into a percussionist from outer space). He was clearly enthralled, and it was enthralling to the audience, who clearly got it, grooving and smiling and applauding and whooping out loud. There was a nice feedback loop formed between the performers and the audience.<br />
<br />
Most people probably wouldn't call this jazz, but to me it's jazz at its finest, thrilling music arising out of the <i>simpatico</i> improvisation of gifted musicians, music that swings and grooves and rocks.<br />
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Read <a href="http://alanoehler.blogspot.com/2012/01/wayne-krantz.html">my earlier post about Wayne Krantz</a> if you are so inclined.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-69684939107462832392015-01-11T20:25:00.001-08:002017-10-07T11:57:32.518-07:00Another year passesIt's a couple of weeks now after Christmas 2014, and I'm looking over the last year musically (and otherwise) and trying to see it in a glass-half-full rather that glass-half-empty mode. Not easy. SNUG had just three gigs all year. The collab with Adrian McMahon imploded. Another playing collaboration with some friends never got off the ground much due to the scarcity of time to get together. I had one jazz gig in November. Otherwise I've been spinning my wheels, floating between working through some instructional materials, working on solo jazz arrangements, occasionally going to some blues jams, working on some of my various recording projects, looking at Craig's List every couple of weeks or so in hopes of finding some playing situations...<br />
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That all sounds pretty half-empty. What's the half-full part? Well, I keep managing to get a little better still. I dread the day when old age starts to take its toll on my hands but so far I continue to improve.<br />
<br />
In 2015 I really hope to figure out some sort of path forward that sees me either writing and recording some of my own music, finishing some of my other recording projects, and playing live more often in one or more contexts.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-9632677888533532002015-01-11T20:15:00.000-08:002015-01-11T20:15:02.948-08:00Mike KeneallyI've know about Mike Keneally for a while but somehow was never moved to check him out until I read a <a href="http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/1013/mike-keneallys-mercurial-muse/25739" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Guitar Player</i> magazine interview with him</a> on the occasion of his new album, <i><a href="http://www.keneally.com/music/discography-mike-keneally/you-must-be-this-tall/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">You Must Be This Tall</a>, </i>and learned that he had previously released a collaboration between himself and one of my all-time favorite musicians, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/andy-partridge-mn0000045903/biography" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andy Partridge</a> of XTC fame – <a href="http://www.keneally.com/music/discography-mike-keneally/wing-beat-fantastic-songs-written-by-mike-keneally-andy-partridge/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i>Wing Beat Fantastic</i></a>. So I downloaded it from Amazon, loved it, and then went out and got the new one. Loved that one, too.<br />
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Some thoughts while listening to <i>You Must Be This Tall</i>: Keneally's guitar parts by turns roll, ramble, snake, dart, flit, bark, snarl, roar, chuckle as they make their way across a colorful, vivid musical landscape.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-80367470728230479622014-04-03T12:18:00.001-07:002014-04-03T12:18:45.826-07:00Spring updateWell, sorry to say, the second half of 2013 and the first three months of this year have been a bit of a dud on the musical side of things. SNUG had a mere two gigs all year, the least since I joined in 2009 or so. (So far we have one appearance at the <a href="http://sfcherryblossom.org/WP/" target="_blank">Cherry Blossom Festival</a> in San Francisco on the books for April 12.) The jazz trio project I was trying to put together never materialized, I could never get the bass player and drummer scheduled together and finally gave up. The project I have going on with Adrian McMahon lost a lot of steam when the drummer we had been rehearsing with moved to Wisconsin in September. But we have recently found a guy that seems to be working out, so hopefully that project will emerge sometime soon.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-45591954796644577042013-07-13T07:11:00.000-07:002013-11-22T17:05:20.038-08:00Mid-year updateIt's the early days of summer now, about a week after the 4th of July, coming up on the All-Star break in major league baseball. I've been pretty busy since the year began. I've been working on spinning up a trio with bassist and vocalist Adrian McMahon. We've found a drummer who seems to be working out, we've been working out repertoire, and we're starting to sound pretty good. For the first time I am doing a significant amount of vocalizing, which is something I have been successfully avoiding for most of my life, ever since someone told me many, many years ago that I shouldn't try to sing - that I should just stick with the guitar playing. That really stuck in my gut and every time I've tried to push past it over the years, I always fell short and backed off from it. So it feels gratifying to have it start coming together, finally. I am singing pretty simple backing parts on a number of songs, and singing lead on one so far, a couple more pretty soon.<br />
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I have also been trying to put together a workable jazz trio. It's been hard to get off the ground but I have a bass player and a drummer interested. My notion is to play together and record it, and from that come up with a demo that I can use to shop it around and find some gigs. Ideally I'd prefer a classic organ trio format, where the organist can play bass, chords and melodies and solo as well. Guitar/bass/drums is cool but it leaves me having to work a lot harder.<br />
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Meanwhile, SNUG has not had much action this year, alas. There was a private party in June, and another benefit show coming up in August, but so far that's it.<br />
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On the recording front, I continue to have several things hovering in varying degrees of completion, including a couple of Weather Report tunes. One is "Cucumber Slumber," on which my son David plays drums. We recorded the basic tracks a year ago when he was home from school for the summer and we still had his uncle Ted's drum set in the house. I've overdubbed bass and a few guitar parts, and it's close to being ready if I could only find the time to finish it. The other two are "Mysterious Traveler" (which I've been threatening for years to work up as half of a medley combined with the Meters' "Cissy Strut"), and "Black Market," which I've wanted to learn for many years and finally have.<br />
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All this, along with working on solo playing and trying to find some cycles to also write some material of my own, leaves me with an overly-full plate, considering I'm trying to keep all these balls rolling while also working about 45-50 hours a week at my new (as of April 1st) day job.<br />
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There was a fun jam that Stan Erhart had going in a bar in San Mateo, just a little over a mile away from home, on Sunday nights, but after several months, the bar pulled the plug on it in late June. I attend the Wednesday night jam at the Club Fox only once in a great while, and so far have still not made it back this year to the Sunday early-evening jam at the Pioneer in Woodside and some of the other jams that I have been to only once or twice (especially the Thursday Grand Dell jam in Cupertino, which has turned out to be a pretty big deal). Jamming is sometimes a lot of fun and sometimes not, but it is time-consuming, too, and the other stuff I outlined above is more important to me.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-44286243069227352742013-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:002013-07-11T08:07:10.535-07:00Jamming at the Fenix Supper ClubThere's an interesting new venue up in San Rafael that opened earlier this year. It's a somewhat upscale supper club with live music. On Wednesdays they have a "Pro Blues Jam." My friend, bassist <i>extraordinaire </i>Michael Oliver Warren, is in the house band, and told me I should check it out sometime. Being so far way, and on school night, I hadn't yet taken the opportunity to do so. But then the first week of July arrived. Wednesday night was the 3rd, so the next day was a holiday. So I took the opportunity to throw a guitar in the car, pick up my fellow jam-hound Jeff Kamil, and drive north across the Golden Gate to see what was happening there at the <a href="http://www.fenixlive.com/" target="_blank">Fenix Supper Club</a>.<br />
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It was a bit of a strange experience. The music room is the dining room and it was completely full of people with reservations eating dinner. We had to wait in the bar, where at least we could see the band via the same camera feeds that were streaming the video over the ‘net. (Yes, it turns out they stream the shows at the Fenix and archive them after the performance. Here's <a href="http://www.livestream.com/fenixlive/video?clipId=pla_b0c51f2d-1c79-425a-896d-b22d28aa2647&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb" target="_blank">the video with me in it</a>, singing and playing on Bill Wither's song "Use Me." My appearance starts about 10:20 after the beginning of the video.) We each had a burger, a good one, if rather pricey, had a beer, and watched. Later we managed to be able to sit at the far back of the dining room, and that was an improvement.<br />
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The house band started about 8:15 (the Fenix website says 7:30). They have a “theme” each week. This one was “Stevie Ray Vaughan Night,” which I presumed meant the host band’s set this night would be culled from material associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan, as indeed it was.<br />
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The host band played about an hour, then opened the second set with an instrumental by the guitarist. Then they called up me and a drummer. (You can see the drummer in that video shortly before we started to play, expressing some consternation that we weren’t about to do a SRV song. I guess he thought the jammers were restricted to calling SRV tunes, which was reasonable based on the information provided.)<br />
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After that song, I left, the drummer remained, and Jeff got called up. He got one song too. Later there was a young woman that sang three jazz standards, followed by older gentleman that sang three soul songs. We left around then, it was something like 11:30. Not sure how much longer it went on.AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34644493.post-14291740819188452362013-02-21T22:33:00.002-08:002014-06-16T00:19:27.610-07:00Never clone alone<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2esecDlYp-jdgJgLvDLHeSSV2m4fwt9KOfR9W3IWUgf-46qLiW-XwQRSrTQYDdWmIHpb9Xvb-jFJvmFNtiakLkvezd1aKeoo7todH4aD0ZhF7iEhBtz58M49CFyUStrC_lO6S/s1600/IMG_0786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2esecDlYp-jdgJgLvDLHeSSV2m4fwt9KOfR9W3IWUgf-46qLiW-XwQRSrTQYDdWmIHpb9Xvb-jFJvmFNtiakLkvezd1aKeoo7todH4aD0ZhF7iEhBtz58M49CFyUStrC_lO6S/s320/IMG_0786.JPG" height="298" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Early this year I finally got a really nice guitar amp again (after selling my wonderful old 1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb a couple of years ago). It’s a clone
of a 60’s blackface Fender Vibrolux Reverb, crafted by <a href="http://www.kingamplification.com/" target="_blank">King Amplification</a> of Santa
Clara. They didn’t just copy the circuit with the nominally-specified component values, they measured the actual values from a particularly
sterling, great-sounding, actual 60's Vibrolux and used that as a baseline. (Values of
those cheap resistors and caps and such typically had something like a 15%
variation in actual measured value, plus they would change over time. So some
of those amps sounded particularly sweet sort of by accident.) In building the
clone they used better-grade components that have much tighter tolerances and
won’t change much over time, so the amp came to life sounding killer and should
stay that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
AlChuckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06159822009483534964noreply@blogger.com0