I went to the music store today to trade in my rental PA cabinets for lighter ones. I did that. But I brought home drums as well.

A set of YAMAHA Maple Custom Definitives (a line that is apparently not available in the US market). 6ply Chinese maple shells, made in Japan with all the YAMAHA bells and whistles. They are modeled after a vintage Gretsch style shell (rounded edges). I think they sound killer. The finish is exactly like my first set of drums, 60's Rideau (also made in Japan) that were handed down to me from my grandfather (an amateur drummer). So, there's sentimental value.

But, here's the kicker:

These were Steve Jordan's drums!

He subbed for Al Foster with Sonny Rollins here at the Toronto Jazz fest in June. I missed the show (gigging myself), but YAMAHA Canada provided Steve with a kit to his specs, which means they had wood hoops added to the tops and bottoms of the toms. They are very cool, and musical sounding. They give the drums a darker tone, some warmth. I like it.

So, I have the drums on rent for a week until I decided whether or not I want them for good. They are so much lighter to carry around than my 1inch thick beech shelled SONOR Phonics. So I think the Phonics may get promoted to "big gig" status and these would be the working drums.

Oh yeah, the sizes are:

8x10
9x12
13x14floor tom
15x18bass drum

I am in the midst of two weeks accompanying Peggy Baker. It's fantastic, for a few reasons. I decided to take almost two months off from playing for dance classes; it was getting tedious (or rather, I was.) and I didn't want to burn out on it. The offer came to do Peggy's professional training intensive at the National Ballet of Canada and I knew this would be my perfect re-entry into the dance world. Peggy is pretty much the top of the game, the $$ is great, and I'm challenging myself to play new and different things. For one, I am playing a Roland SPD-6 in my setup, allowing me to have 6 virtual instruments under one hand. It's very cool and I think will be the new direction I'm going to take my accompaniment. I want to add a small keyboard to play bass lines and trigger sounds of my iBook, but generally, I'm going to push towards a majority MIDI/sampling setup for dance work. For those that are keeping score, I've given up on the drumKAT, it's way too hard for me to program, I don't have the patience. It is simply too much instrument for me. The sounds in the Roland gear is not as good, but it's pretty much plug n' play, and that's what I need right now (the KAT is for sale, a steal at $750 CDN for anyone who is interested).

Also last week I did a 3 night workshop called Taps and Percussion with dancer Paula Skimin, which was also very illuminating. I'd never worked with tap dancers before, and I don't know why I've waited this long. The rhythmic dialogue going on between drums and taps is very lush and energizing. We were doing a workshop based on the concept of PULSE, and we subdivided and re-envisioned the same pulse in various polymeters. It was hard to do, and I was a bit rusty to be honest, but the whole experience was so much more than I expected it to be. Looks like I'll be working on a piece with Paula for Novemver of this year.

On top of all that cc3 and HBS gigged this week, once each. This week coming is a killer for gigs. I'm doing Peggy's classes mon-fri in the morning, and then gigs on tues, thurs, fri, sat, sun, mon, tues, thurs, saturday. Way too much lugging of drums and PA gear. In fact I am going back to the rental place tomorrow to trade-in my rented PA for something with lighter speakers. The Yorkville Elite's I rented are breaking my back when I have to load and unload them 4 times in one night. I must confess that this coming stretch will not be possible without the aid of my trusty tech and friend, Paul Fitterer who will be teching the HBS show on Saturday Aug 20. Without his help on this it wouldn't happen, due to other commitments in my schedule that day.

Also, my good friend and creative collaborator Laurie Raymond is opening her new dance school, Creative Childrens Dance Centre this week. I am not exactly sure how I will fit into that new venture, but I plan to make myself available for whatever they need. Laurie and I go back many years through her PBJ Dance Projects company, which in my opinion, was one of the finest projects for young creative people (Laurie fostered a professional dance company entirely run by the kids that were in it. Laurie provided guidance and creative ideas and choreography, but the kids themselves raised the money, hired the various staff, booked the gigs, etc.); out of which I have forged many amazing friendships with the various kids that passed through it while I was working with them. PBJ is on hiatus while the CCDC starts up, but I am hopeful the spirit will remain the same...

I took some time today to watch the DV of the Red Guitar gig, so many great moments in it, and a few horrifying train wrecks too! I've got to get going on booking for October.... Stay tuned..

Wow, what a busy week. Lots of music going on, I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully I'll be able to post soon about what I've been doing, no time now....

The Red Guitar is a cool place, and we had a great time last night. The crowd was on the intimate side, but appreciate and listening (what more can we ask for? :) ). The band had its moments and had a lot of fun too. As usual, my feeling post-gig is that I can't wait till the next one. I still feel like Tim, Ed and I are still learning each others' moves, which is cool (and has its musical benefits), but it also can contribute to some onstage confusion. 50% of the material we did last night was brand-new as well. Anyway, I hope to those that came that they enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

This week coming up is insanely busy: 5 days with Peggy Baker at the National Ballet, 3 nights with Paula Skimin at the Taps and Percussion workshop, 2 nights with cc3 and 1 night with Hot Buttered Soul. At some point today I have to figure out what gear is going where, and how much I can leave in any one spot without being short a pedal or cymbal stand at another gig...

Tonight! First set is at 9pm, see you there!



chris cawthray @ the Red Guitar
with his trio: tim posgate/guitars + ed zankowski/tenor saxophone
603 Markham St. (Markham/Bloor), Toronto
$9 cover
CD and DVD giveaways!!

On a whim (partly influenced by the extreme heat wave we're under and the thought of lugging drum hardware) I took my congas and a cymbal to cc3 last night. It worked really well, and I got to play a whole night on congas, which is somewhat rare these days. Thankfully, we didn't try and become Miami Sound Machine just because the congas had shown up. It was far more interesting for me to play our existing material than to tailor the sound of the band to the congas. Anyway, I think Mike and Eric liked it too.

I met a young drummer last night at the gig, named Max Lazich. He's a PAISTE fan like me, so we hit it off immediately. I showed off my Giant Beat cymbal too, and he dug it (I think). He told me he's got some custom stuff from PAISTE on order right now, including a 24" NOVO China. That's a big beast of a cymbal! Anyway, it's always good to meet drummers, and to play drums for them!

Today is a day off, so I'm working. :) Putting together promo CDs, etc. I'm heading to Hamilton tonight to see my old friend Jimmy Herring play with the Codetalkers @ Pepperjack's... I haven't seen Jimmy in a few years, I missed his entire tenure with The Dead, basically. It happened to coincide with me getting married, having a baby, etc. All sorts of settled-down kind of stuff that puts a cramp in any travelling and concert-going. :) Anyway, I'm excited to see him and hear him play, he is undoubtedly one of the finest musicians I've had the pleasure of hearing, let alone knowing.

cc3 tonight has been cancelled due to weather, and the fact that most of the roads leading to the venue have been closed or are jammed with traffic due to the plane crash at Pearson Airport, which is only a few minutes away from the Creek.

We hope to see you all next week at Canyon Creek, and please send some good thoughts out to the people involved in this horrible accident.

Allrighty, the Red Guitar show is imminent! Our Saturday rehearsal got moved to Tuesday, so I'll report back after that. In the meantime, I'm looking ahead to shows in October, the fabled "tinyTour" will rise again. I'm also talking to a publicist about handling those dates ("doing it up right" as it were). The plan all along has been to divert CD manufacturing money (since we're DOWNLOAD-ONLY over here at cc.com) into publicity. So, we'll see. Right now I'm projecting to do the tour in the first couple of weeks of October. It'd be nice to do the dates in sequence, just because I think everyone's focus on the material and the general vibe improves in such situations; but since everything will likely be in 2 hour or less drives from home, we could space them out a bit too.

OK, here's what you need this week:

tuesday - cc3 @ Canyon Creek Square One
thursday - cc3 @ Canyon Creek Burlington
saturday - Chris Cawthray @ The Red Guitar, Toronto

We had another great night at Canyon Creek. The Thursday cc3 (with Eric Boucher) is a helluva band. We played two new charts tonight that I had prepared:

Hope Song (my tune from winter music )
Hunter (a Bjork cover)

Both of these tunes are being added the the "fruits..." trio with Tim and Ed, so it was cool to hear the charts played before I rehearse them with T&E on Saturday. It was particularly gratifying to hear Hope Song, because it really just felt like another tune in our book, not an ugly duckling (as sometimes originals can feel next to a book of established REAL songs by Ellington, etc.).

So, the rest of my week is all happening on Saturday, with a rehearsal during the day and then a Hot Buttered Soul gig at night. I have to get my act together in terms of finishing the promo for the Aug6 gig, but if you're reading this, I hope you're already coming to the gig. :)

cc3 @ SQUARE ONE has been cancelled tonight, july 26. The whole area is under a severe-weather watch so the venue has decided to cancel this date and add an extra week to our contract into September. See you next week!

.... in other news

I had my first-ever "meeting with my editor" today over the phone, for my Dance Current article. She (Megan Andrews) likes my article but wants to break it down into a series of 3 articles, as she thinks the topic is worthy. I'm cool with that. Stay tuned....

My blog couldn't be more boring right now in comparison to my "the fruits of our limitations" mate Tim Posgate. He's in Scandanavia touring with his own band featuring Howard Johnson, and getting into all sorts of trouble/fun. Go read all about it.

I did another night at Joe Dog's last night, and unless I get really desperate, I can't see myself doing it anymore. The fighting (in the audience, not the band) and general chaos of that place are just, dare I say it, beneath me. I really have so little desire to entertain people who want to finish their evening with violence. Such pointless stupid displays of aggression are so trite given the fact that so much of our world is mired in brutal violence.

Today and tomorrow are family days, which I of course wish we had more time to just do that, instead of the usual scheduling and juggling of schedules and nap times (naps for all of us!). I am sneaking away to do this post and to finish my first draft of my article for the Dance Current, due tomorrow. We may do a series of articles, as the topic is hard to completely discuss in 600 words.

Tonight is Joe Dog's with Hot Buttered Soul. This gig is a poorly paying 2-nighter that holds sentimental value for our singer, so he books us in there. It's loud, goes late, and there's usually a fight or five at the end of the night as the patrons exit (the patrons fight, not the band). It's the only gig I play locally where one of us has to "guard" our vehicles when we load-out. Feels like Detroit.

The weird part is that the club is in a reasonably affluent area in an overall upper-middle-class city of Burlington. Drink brings out the worst in people, I guess. Hopefully soul music in the form that we deliver it soothes that savage beast.

.......

I'm very humbled by the emails I'm getting from folks who've downloaded "the fruits of our limitations". I'm very pleased with the record and this band in general, so to find out that others are "getting" it too is just wonderful. I can't wait to get some gigs and touring happening. I did some mail-out today of promo copies and I would like to think that things are only looking up for this project.

I played my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal last night, it's very very cool. These cymbals are THE sound of heavy British rock from the 60s. In the middle of the cc3 gig last night I was playing a figure on the GB between its bell and shoulder and it sounded like we were listening to the middle of Whole Lotta Love... MP noticed it too. It's a bright cymbal with a lot of air in its tone, I like it, I am hopeful it will blend well in the trio with Tim and Ed.

I've begun printing promo copies of "fruits..." for sending to reviewers, etc. I have no illusions that reviews actually generate sales, but it might bring traffic to the site and hopefully get folks downloading. I've already noticed the traffic stats for my website are higher, so that's a good thing. With the plethora of online reviewers these days, the chances of someone linking from a review to my site are much higher than the chances of someone logging on after reading it in a magazine. The music has also gone to Lauren @ INDIEPool for setup @ iTunes. He assures me their turnaround time is speeding up, so considering that their price is right and Lauren is a helluva guy (he's a very attentive sales rep, but in a good way, not the cloying telemarketing way), I'm trying their service again.

I'm also working on more repertoire for the Aug6 gig, and then also looking towards the realization of the TinyTour for late September (my committments to Hot Buttered Soul should be much slower by then). Hopefully a friday-saturday-sunday matinee run of toronto, hamilton and guelph. Stay tuned...

AND:

if you haven't yet, please, DOWNLOAD "the fruits of our limitations"

My gig tonight got rained out after one set, and then Pacy phoned to tell me that my master CD was waiting to be picked up in his mailbox.

So, I got busy.



the new release, DOWNLOAD ONLY. Go get it.

like "winter music", I'm going to offer it for free until it becomes available on iTunes.

Mastering went very quickly last night. Pacy had suggested I bring some CDs with me that I thought sounded good. Not "good" from a performance/composition point of view, but "good" sonically, good engineering, etc. I picked the last The Bad Plus disc GIVE, mixed by Tchad Blake, and an old Pheeroan AkLaffCD from 1990 called Sonogram.

It was amazing, when loaded up in ProTools, how different those two records are. Much of it is attributable to changes in digital recording technology, but the Bad Plus record was a much larger sounding record, and much louder too. The AkLaff record has such a nice ambience, but ultimately we decided to use the Bad Plus as our reference. So, what we did was put a track from that up onto the "board" and A:B'd my tracks against it until we got a similar volume, spread, and tonal quality. It took alot less time than we thought it would actually. Our pre-masters were so good. That's all Pacy, of course. Anyway, After about 90 minutes we were satisfied and Pacy was planning on doing one more check of everything before he delivered the final product to me.

I'm excited, and I think you'll like it.

Meanwhile, I have to start promoting The Red Guitar gig, so yeah, August 6! See you there!

I'm mastering @ HiLo Studio tonight. This is the final stage before "pressing", which raises an interesting issue. I am still undecided about releasing this as a CD. My gut tells me to simply make it a download, and stay ahead of the curve (any money I would have spent on manufacturing CDs can be spent on other areas of promoting and performing with this band). I'll burn copies for promotion, but what I will be promoting is that the music is available for download, as opposed to promoting the sale of a hard-copy CD.

The download concept is here to stay (in the last six months my parents have both bought iPods, so what does that tell you, it ain't just for crack-smoking teenagers anymore.....), and my music is contemporary and (hopefully) even forward-thinking. Why shouldn't its presentation to the marketplace be at least as current?

.... in other news: I rec'd a box from PAISTE today with my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal, it's gorgeous. Go check 'em out online here.

I received an email today from Megan Andrews, the editor of The Dance Current, Canada's national dance magazine. Her and I had discussed me writing an article for them back in the spring, and while I started it, I shelved it while other things came up.

Anyway, she still wants the article, so I'm going to finish it. It should be out in the September issue. My plan was to write the article on the rhythmic theory I use when teaching music to dancers. What is that? Oh well, you'll have to wait for the article. :)

The gig last night was great, EricB really came through playing bass+keys (he played organ sounds and a "split" of a wood bass and piano). He even took a few "bass" solos. Tim sounded great and the decent-sized crowd was quite appreciative. So, all in all, a good night.

I'm starting to think about a "cover" image for the new release and may use some photography by my friend Ed Pas. he takes wonderful pictures and posts them at his incredibly prolific blog (the Bog).

With any luck I'll find time this weekend to finish this work, then Pacy and I will be mastering, then (hopefully) you'll be downloading!

I just finished printing and cutting colour handbills for the August 6 gig w/Tim & Ed. This kind of work has nothing to do with drumming, composing, or any of the things I am passionate about. But it has to be done. And I'm just the man for the job, in fact, I am the only man for the job. :)

BTW, the Red Guitar (the club we're playing August 6) has its grand opening this weekend, the website is here at theredguitar.com

I'm playing with TimP tonight in Burlington, we may touch on a few tunes from the new band's repertoire, but we're hitting with Eric Boucher, so we'll do alot of other stuff too.

7pm in Burlington @ Canyon Creek, see you there.

A light week this week with just two gigs, tomorrow @ Creek Square1 and Thursday at Creek Burlington. Both gigs are cc3, but with all-new lineups (since MP is away on vacation):

tuesday: cc, anesti karantakis (guitar), mike pellarin (bass)
thursday: cc, eric boucher (keys), tim posgate (guitar)

I'm totally humbled by the fine musicians that come out to play with me, it's going to be a great week.

Luther Vandross has died, much too soon. He was an incredible singer, and one of the last true soulful singers in mainstream music. There is a live album from Radio City Music Hall that was recorded just before his stroke (check it out here) that contains some damn-near perfect performances by him and his band.

A singer like Luther is hard to find in this "Idol" era. Luther knew how to sing with a groove, to push and pull against it, and using phrasing to evoke various nuances out of the lyric and the melody. Most contemporary R&B is just a bunch of bogus vocal freakshows, completely devoid of musicality, and rife with "gymnastics". A waste of time.

Luther made some awesome records, and in the process, collaborated with some of the finest musicians available. In my opinion, Yogi Horton and Buddy Williams' performances on "Forever, For Always, For Love", are essential listening for all drummers.

So, in tribute to Luther, go do some listening....

Tonight's gig was effortless, from the first note to the last. What a great night, waaaay too hot outside, but Eric and Mike sounded great, and we nailed cool versions of some of my faves in our repertoire (wichita lineman and isobel, and of course the cc3 staple, rain song by zep). I'm keen to bring in some new charts, maybe a Radiohead tune, and another Bjork....

Next week it's subs-ville, with MP away on vacation at the Montreal Jazz Fest. Mike Pellarin subs on Tuesday with Anesti and myself and I'm looking forward to that. He's SO good, and a helluva nice guy too. Thursday is still up in the air, but with any luck we'll do a keys/guitar/drums trio. Stay tuned...

I'm taking the weekend off to celebrate a wedding and a birthday, it'll be nice to have a few uninterrupted days with my family; and I'll take some time to listen to the pre-mastered mixes of the new record (tentatively titled "The Fruits of our Limitations").

We had a good gig with Anesti last night at cc3's new Tuesday install, Canyon Creek Square One. We're playing very different material with Anesti than we do with Eric (or anyone else). Anesti, for one, brings lots of gear, so his guitar tone changes on every tune; his view is that if he's melody and harmony then he should bring some variation sonically to each tune. It's a cool approach, and he's a damn fine player. We're still settling on what the repertoire should be (I think we played too many rock tunes last night, but the audience seemed to enjoy it....), but this is going to be a fun gig.

The topic of the musician's union came up last night in our conversations. Without going so far as to say I am "anti-Union" (I may be, I just won't go so far as to say it), I do feel that it's goals and mandate do not represent what I am doing professionally. Anesti argued that the Union protects musicians by guaranteeing a minimum fee for our services; yet he acknowledged that a vast majority of Union musicians regularly take (and rely on) gigs that pay below that scale. The question we debated was whether the Union is failing the musicians, or whether musicians are failing the Union?

I tend to support the notion of a free market for the exchange of creative services, and as such, have found that in addition to being a drummer I am also a record company executive, booking agent, online commerce manager, etc. At times, it may be prudent to use my drumming as a "loss leader" for other things to flourish (such as with my trio with Tim and Ed). If I squarely defined myself as a drummer only, my professional mandate would not allow for that (I would place the financial compensation for my drumming above all other aims).

Yes, "Union" gigs pay better than most of the gigs I do, but I wouldn't be working at all if I relied on Union gigs to pay my bills. The amount of gigs in that category are far fewer than the number of musicians capable of playing them. Does that mean I should stop playing until those gigs become available to me? I don't think so; I find work for myself and my groups at what I deem to be a fair price for my time/effort/expertise. My career, as such, is a rather complex combination of creative services that I sell to variety of clients, not all of whom immediately associate me with "drummer". There is always someone willing to work for less than the "going rate", and that is what the Union tries to discourage (they can't possibly believe that they can eliminate it). The fact is, the Union doesn't seem to have time to spread it's message beyond symphony orchestras and musical pit bands in this city. Most of the venues I make music in would simply stop presenting live music if they had to comply with Union rates and regulations. It's as simple as that. The music business is one that requires its participants to make their own opportunities, and to be flexible and adaptive to a changing marketplace. I have my doubts as to whether Union affiliation would be an asset or a hindrance in that regard.

For those of you that visit here before the homepage, the poster for the August 6 gig is now up.

This morning I am making notes on the mixes Pacy sent to me and I'm beginning the digital "booklet" that will accompany the download of our new EP.

There's a momentum happening here. The cancellation of the tinyTour that never was has yielded another opportunity: we may do an "off-site" gig in the Guelph Jazz Festival sept 7-11. The GJF this year features the Art Ensemble of Chicago, which is just plain AWESOME. Also, Ed Z mentioned to Tim and I at our gig in May that many years ago he wanted to be AEC's Roscoe Gordon, with the exception of wearing the dress. :)

The tinyTour is no more, for now.

Scheduling and expense have dictated that the tinyTour should wait until the fall. In the meantime we'll still be hitting at The Red Guitar on August 6 and hopefully doing a Sunday @ Pepperjack's in August. Stay tuned for a tinyTour in September or October.

Meanwhile, I am definitely in the thick of my SIRCorp/Canyon Creek monopoly gigs for the summer. When HBS plays, I am soundtech + drummer + bandleader, so my night includes transporting, setting up and tearing down the PA (then unloading it back at home again), plus setting up and tearing down my drums, plus carrying enough cash to pay the guys in the band and bringing an invoice and collecting and depositing the payment from the venues. Oh yeah, and play the drums. In addition to this I am on the phone between gigs making sure there are players for each show, etc. Needless to say it's a lot of work. But, it's good work. I'm rewarding myself with a Giant Beat cymbal from PAISTE, I can't wait!

This week it's just cc3 on tues and thurs and then HBS hits at Canyon Creek/Sherway with Chris Stott on drums Saturday night (I am taking the weekend off for two very important friend and family functions).

I stumbled into booking shows for the new three-o this week. While my idea of a miniTour hasn't come to fruition, other things have presented themselves. Expect us back at Pepperjack's (Hamilton) in September and the miniTour has been re-named the "tinyTour", as it is now (if it happens) only 2 dates:

Saturday August 6 - The Red Guitar - Toronto (evening)
Sunday August 7 - TBA - Guelph (time TBA)

Ok, over the course of the day the three-o miniTour has been squashed from 3 possible dates to 2. Looks like we'll be gigging August 6 in Toronto and (possibly) August 7 in Guelph. Stay tuned....

The new three-o (tim, ed and myself) are hopefully booking some shows in the beginning of August. If it all falls into place, we'd do August 5-6-7 in three cities in Southern Ontario. Tentative scheduled so far is August 6 in Toronto at a new venue called The Red Guitar. I will confirm this soon, and then officially post it on the website.

Our new 5-song release will come out in July as a free download at cc.com, and then soon to follow available at iTunes. I'm still working on a title and cover art, I hope to have that soon.

My Canyon Creek sched this week:

Tonight! cc3 debuts @ Canyon Creek Square One! 7pm-10pm
Thursday: HBS w/ Lester McLean @ Canyon Creek Burlington 7pm-11pm
Saturday: HBS /Todd Harris @ Canyon Creel Sherway 7pm-11pm

Kevin's gig tonight was fun. Probably the loosest of the gigs this band has done so far. Everyone played well, and I think it was perhaps the most appreciate crowd we've had yet, but the gig just felt a bit sloppy. I am not sure where this band is headed next: it's 10 pieces and no one is really making any money. Kevin has built up alot of goodwill amongst the musicians in Toronto, and he's rightfully cashing in some of it with this project, but it can only last for so long before everyone's schedules start to conflict to the point of disintegrating the band. The music is excellent, as are the players and everyone's intentions; the band needs some sort of patron saint to drop an extra $1000 in the cashbox everytime we play. Then we could all go home renumerated and Kevin's music would make it out to the world.

Tomorrow is the Waterfront Festival in Port Credit with HBS. I'm on a kick right now to expand the current repertoire of HBS and clean up some rather ugly versions of tunes we do now. I'm getting some resistance and I find that disheartening. My reasons for pushing for these renovations is that the work we are getting demands it. We're often doing 4 set gigs and we find ourselves at the end of repertoire before the end of the 4th set. Furthermore, there are some tunes that our versions have become so idiosyncratic (different lyrics, goofy arrangements, etc.) that the audience isn't digging them. When the audience wants to sing along, we better be doing the song the way they know it. Anyway, I was hoping for a more positive reaction to my suggestions.... let's just hope it's only 3 sets tomorrow. :)

Busy night tonight:

It began around 3:30, when I delivered a bouquet of gerber daisies to my grade 12 students @ ESA in celebration of their final performance tonight. I chose the complimentary "Happy Retirement" card for the bouquet. My work @ ESA is something I don't really blog much about, but it's a big thing for me, and I really dig working with such talented young people.

From there I delivered Hot Buttered Soul's PA system to Canyon Creek: Square One location for the HBS gig tonight that Chris Stott was subbing in on for me. Then I headed down to Burlington, and had some extra time so I stopped in to visit my brother and his family for a bit before hitting @ Canyon Creek: Burlington with a special cc3 of myself, Kevin Cooke on bass and David Patterson on guitar. It was cold tonight on the patio, and the general mood somewhat subdued. David is such an excellent player, so smooth, he really makes it seem effortless. Kevin is an interesting contrast to that. He's like a big kid, blowing HUGE solos on his 6-string bass, and then grooving and accompanying in a somewhat scattered fashion. Just when I thought he wasn't listening to me and it wasn't "there", I realize he's right there with me, but kind of reversed (like on cop shows when they look through the two way mirror into the interrogation room). At any rate, I think we made some nice music. I'm looking forward to playing with both of these gentlemen Saturday night in Kevin's big blues band @ Clinton's.

On the negative side of things: a bird shit on my drums while I was playing tonight. Everyone's a critic.

After packing up and getting paid and paying out at Burlington I headed back to Square One where HBS was just finishing up. They sounded good, but it was still weird for me. Like watching someone dance with your wife. :)

We packed up and got paid there, and then Stott started busting my balls about how they didn't get a meal for free at the gig. I know he was kidding but I think my bandleader nerves were a bit frayed by that point: I suggested he go join the Musician's Union if he wants dinner. :)

It's a touchy subject. Back in the "old days" free booze and food was a given when playing restaurant gig. These days, it's not so cut and dried, and to be honest, from my position as a bandleader/booker, I'm not really interested in negotiating for food and drink. I think "soft" beverages should always be free (and they almost uniformly are), but the booze and the food are where these restaurants make their profits, and live music is almost always paid for out of profits; it's not a line item in their budget.

Anyway, some places we play are very generous, and we appreciate it (note to working musicians: if you get dinner and drinks SERVED to you, TIP THE SERVER based on the retail value of what you're eating or drinking). But, it's certainly not a deal-breaker for me if they don't want to feed the band. Alot of people disagree with me on this, and insist on maintaining that it's just a common courtesy. My opinion is that I'd rather not be in a situation where my clients are "doing me favours" (which is how some venues view feeding the band). They get a great service at a fair price (not cheap, but fair), and let's leave it at that. I've operated on this principle in my dealings with the Canyon Creek organization and my invoices to them have increased substantially every year.

Anyway, now I'm home with some inexplicable extra energy. So y'all got a late-night blog. Tomorrow is a day off, with shopping and socializing scheduled. Saturday is Kevin Cooke @ Clinton's, then Sunday HBS plays the Waterfront Festival in Port Credit from 1pm-5pm.

Here's the official plug for my gig with Kevin Cooke Band this Saturday night:


==================================
Mark your calendar: Sat. June 18th

THE KEVIN COOKE BAND

"All the horns & twice the percussion!"

LIVE AT CLINTON'S TAVERN
693 Bloor Street West
at the Christie Subway Station


map to venue


Featuring the 10 (possibly 11 or 12) piece band
for a paltry $5.00 cover

Show starts at 9:30pm
Come for dinner -- stay for the show!

Bring your friends out to see the amazing
ELECTRIC HOCKEYSTICK!

I played a dance class this morning, and will head out @ 3:30 to view my students' dress rehearsal for their final show @ ESA (I'll miss the show due to a cc3 gig). In between I've been doing some admin and realizing that times are pretty good in my career-world. I went to the mailbox to find three cheques from various clients. All three of these cheques, for various reasons, arrived with an absolute minimum of hassle on my part and the work I did to receive them was very pleasurable and creative. My email Inbox contained an offer this afternoon to teach and play at the Toronto Dance Theatre Summer School, which I am not sure I can do (the offer while well-intended, may be too late for me to fit into my schedule) but have nothing but fond memories of doing it last year. I've got a healthy calendar of live gigs for the next three months and at some point in that period will be releasing the new collection of music by myself, Tim, and Ed. Will this last? I don't know, it never has before, but I should start trusting that it will return when it does go away, and maybe bank a bit of $$$ while I've got it. (Which may mean not buying a full set of PAISTE re-issue Giant Beats, which even at my endorsee price could be quite pricey, but they're SOOOO nice.)

My only problem these days is that I can't figure out how my friend Ed Pas blogs so freaking much!, and it's interesting!

Pacy and I had a mixing session @ HILO yesterday. Wow, the stuff sounds INCREDIBLE. All credit goes to Pacy's fine facility and his ability. Thanks to him, we've ended doing a lot of mix "moves" one normally doesn't see on a so-called-jazz recording. The result is going to be a collection of pieces with lots of sonic depth (beyond the performance itself), we've done a few "headphone mix" type of things in terms of sonic spatiality. I can't wait to finish. Probably at least another two weeks before we can get done (not that there is that much left to do, but more because of scheduling to get into the studio together).

Anyway, I think this new band is something special, and once you hear the recordings, hopefully you'll agree.

The MHSB shows are off to a good start. I caught all my cues, and managed to play some interesting music in the process. I'm still working out some technical issues with Reason. With each different patch I use the volume goes up and down, so depending on what I'm playing with it (i.e. synth and drumset, or synth and Tibetan cymbals, etc.) the Reason sounds are sometimes too quiet.

I experienced a "first" tonight: my chair collapsed underneath me. All comments about my weight aside, I was using my "C" drum stool (as in "A" being the best), or the third of the three stools I own. During the first show I thought my stool was just really squeaky, and then in the second show, after it collapsed (thankfully I wasn't playing at the time, but it still made a HUGE noise), those sounds revealed themselves to be metal fatigue. I ended up sitting on my amp for the rest of the show. I'll have to take stool A or B in tomorrow.

My set-up for this gig is kinda cool, a synth keyboard on the left, a 3 pc (snare, kick, floor tom) kit in the middle, and then hand drums and various percussion to the right along with the iBook, all in somewhat of a semi-circle. The cymbal array is quite a mixture: left to right, 13" Signature medium hihats, 18" Innovations crash-ride, 14" Sound Formula crystal crash, 20" Visions Novo China, 6" FO 602 Bell, and a gorgeous 22" (I think) Peace Gong. All PAISTE (of course), all exquisite.

Tomorrow is a matinee with MHSB and then an evening hit with Hot Buttered Soul.

Just checking in while I have a few hours between gigs. I played two dance classes this morning and the studio had to have been at least 30Celsius; way too hot for the work we were doing. Anyway, I complain about winter so I can't really start complaining about warm weather now, can I?

We had a great gig last night at Canyon Creek. The re-constituted full-time cc3 of myself, mp and eric boucher is coming up with some great stuff,and getting to play outside allows us a bit more room volume-wise. Mainly, I get to use sticks, as opposed to brushes, blasticks and my hands. Ironically, the most "noticed" (in that post-set listeners mentioned it) part of my playing last night was when I put my sticks down and accompanied mike's bass solo with handclaps. Anyway, it's going to be a great summer making music with this band.

But, next week it's a substitute trio of myself, david patterson and kevin cooke. Then the following week, Hot Buttered Soul takes over the Canyon Creek patio. So, cc3 re-convenes on June 30. Also, the "other" cc3 of myself, mp and anesti karantakis starts up in two weeks on Tuesday nights @ Canyon Creek Square One.

I'm trying to focus on my gigs with the Martha Hicks ballet school this weekend. I'm playing improvised interludes between their dances, it's a fun gig, lots of experimentation, and the people are all very cool and oh so nice. However, today has been bogged down with my duties as bandleader&booker, as I find myself short of a singer on a bunch of HBS dates. Rather than panic, I'm going to hope. And beg. And maybe have to pay more than I want to get a substitute singer. :)

On Monday I'm mixing @ HILO with Pacy Shulman. I'm excited, this is going to be a great suite of tunes. I'm thinking about making it a freebie here at the website, in exchange for a little data-mining: To access the entire "album" one has to sign up to my email list. Sounds fair? I hope so. You can always email back and be taken off the list, but I'd like to try this approach.

I'm hoping to announce a gig for the band soon. With any luck it will be in the first week of August at a new venue in Toronto, stay tuned...

I am staring in the face of a very busy week! In addition to 10 dance classes this week @ ESA, I'm doing a cc3 hit on Thursday and an HBS on Saturday (which I have to rent the PA system for...). Squeezing in around this are 6 shows for the Martha Hicks School of Ballet. The MHSB gig is one I have done for a few years now, and it's great fun and a great group of people to work with. Essentially, I perform musical interludes in between dance pieces in their show. The shows are thematic (this year is a "colour" theme) so my interludes "set up" the next piece and its theme. Sounds simple, right? Well, there are 9 shows in total (Nick Coulter is subbing for me on shows 1,4&5), 50 pieces (about 20 in each individual show), and different running orders for each show. It gets crazy from an organizational standpoint.

My hope was to utilize the drumKAT this year in the show, but alas, I am still struggling to find a way to make this device useful for me and my work. I spent Friday afternoon at Evan Ritchie's studio, and he generously and patiently helped me program some "kits" (trigger setups for the KAT to talk to sound source, in this case a rented Kurzweil device). I decided to can the idea when we were basically taking an hour to finish the first kit, and it still wasn't what I wanted. And I had 20 more kits to create! The interface for the KAT is cumbersome and to actually use it as a performance tool require so much prep-time that I lose interest in playing music on it by the time it's ready!

I decided to just use my crappy Yamaha Portasound keyboard as a MIDI controller for my iBook (running Reason), as I did a few months back on that Melissa Rebronja gig. I spent about half an hour creating a bunch of Reason setups (basically just picking patches for the internal sampler), which will all sit on the iBook desktop and I can simply open these files and the new sound will appear, no need to scroll through menus and find the right patch. With the keyboard I can just improvise and play what I hear in the moment, as opposed to pre-determining which notes will be played by the KAT pads.

The KAT itself is an awesome tool, if you take the time to program it. Perhaps if the work I had provided a large pre-production budget, I could allocate time and money to getting the KAT set up, but that magic gig hasn't come yet.

GIG REPORT:

Here's a clip of my song "megtwo" from my gig on Friday night. This is a cool trio, and the more I think about it, our demo will probably become an actual release (download or CD, or both, stay tuned...). Anyway, let the music from the gig speak for itself, click here to watch a clip.

Mixing sessions @ HILO are probably delayed until next week. I'll report track-by-track once we're into mixing.

Otherwise, this week is dance classes and a cc3 hit @ Canyon Creek Burlington w/eric boucher and mike pelletier. Next week is wild, with dance classes, a 6-show theatre gig and a cc3 gig and a Hot Buttered Soul... yikes!

I implored my PC-using brother to check out if Winter Music was available at Puretracks.com, the Canadian download site for PC users. It is, at over $2 more in price. What's up with that? I assure you I am far, far away from those making this decision, and I can't in good conscience ask people to buy from Puretracks, when iTunes offers it for $3.99.

PC or Mac. Both are supported by iTunes. If you have an mp3 player that isn't an iPod, you'll have to drag-and-drop your mp3 files from your iTunes library onto your player; that's the only catch with the iTunes software.

Anyway, the marketing department here at chriscawthray.com has already devised our slogan for the new WINTER MUSIC download release:

"the sounds of summer: winter music"

catchy, huh?

go here to download the iTunes software

WINTER MUSIC is on iTunes!

FINALLY.

I shouldn't start to get picky since it took almost 6 months, but they listed me under the ROCK genre. Maybe. I don't know, do I rock? That record doesn't, but whatever.

Please, check me out on iTunes. Please. I've waited so long. :)

hey!

Big weekend, the gig in Hamilton was a blast. I'll try finish my studio report this week, and a offer some thoughts on the gig. Stay tuned....

Studio report: part one

Wednesday night was great. Instead of going in and doing the original plan of three songs, we played our entire repertoire, six tunes! While I had hoped to take pictures and video, little of that actually happened. I was busy drumming. I'm going to start making a concrete plan to get a DV/digicam person at sessions and gigs so that good stuff gets documented. At any rate, here's two photos I managed to take:

tim

ed


First of all, I can't speak highly enough of our host and engineer, Pacy Shulman. HILO studios is by far the finest "home" studio (in actuality it's a dedicated, soundproofed, professionally designed building separate from his house) I've ever recorded in. Pacy's skills are complete and efficient. We got great sounds very quickly, and the entire recording experience was seamless, with no delays or breakdowns during the recording (which are far more common than you may think in the recording world). If you are planning to record, call Pacy: 416-399-6567

We recorded to ProTools, and I was able to take a complete copy of all of the files from the session (over 5 gigs) home with me on my iPod. Then, using GarageBand, I was able to reconstruct the session here at home, and in about an hour (time spent importing files, etc.), had useable rough mixes of all six tunes to listen to until Pacy and I can schedule a true mixing session. The basic sounds Pacy put "to tape" are impressive, and other than adding a bit of reverb to the guitar and sax, I didn't have to do anything to get it together. If it sounds this good under my control in GarageBand, the finished product is going to be stellar.

We did six tunes, and one or two takes of each, a few of them were "done in one", usually after a false-start or two. The tunes we did, in order were:

1. megtwo (an original of mine)
2. paper tiger (Beck)
3. tragic magic (NRBQ)
4. caravan (duke ellington)
5. japan (original)
6. good (original)

For myself, I find the actual recording experience to be somewhat disconnected. When playing interactive music with headphones on and the guitar amp in the bathroom (the "porcelain isolation enclosure") and the tenor sax behind baffles, it all gets a bit weird. I don't necessarily think it is detrimental to the music, but I'm much more comfortable assessing what I or we did after the fact, from the recording itself; as opposed to judging it from within the recording environment. Come to think of it, that's what makes a great producer great, I guess. That ability to hear the work in the midst of wires, headphones and baffles. Anyway, I was willing to trust my musicians and myself that we'd get good takes, so I didn't really listen all that critically until I had the rough mixes on CD.

Before I get to that, I'll quickly run down my gear for the session:

I used my trusty Sonor Phonics, 13"tom, 16" floor tom and 22" bass drum. They, as always sounded great (thanks again to the technical support of Paul Fitterer for his care and feeding of my drums a few weeks ago). I used a 6.5x14 Sonor SignatureLite snare drum from most of the tunes, and a 13" Sonor Artist Beech (27plys!) for "japan" and a 6.5x14 Sonor Phonic ferro-manganese steel for "good".

The first two drums had single-ply coated heads for batters and the latter drum has a coated double-ply head. No muffling was used, with the exception of my hand muting the batter head on "japan". The toms had coated 2-ply heads on the batters and were wide-open, except on "japan" where I placed SONOR clip-on mufflers on the toms. The bass drum had a Powerstroke 3 on the batter and my new front-head design (adapted from LA session drummer Russ Miller): a single-ply clear head with 8 -1/2" holes cut around the edge. I have a "banana" shaped muffling pillow (I think the brand name is a "Thumper") attached with velcro to the inner shell, and it rests slightly on the batter head.

For cymbals, all PAISTE, of course. I used 13" Signature Medium HiHats throughout, and an 18" Traditionals thin crash above on my left. I had a double-cymbal stand on my right that hosted various combinations:

megtwo: 20" Signature Rough Ride (left) and 20" Dark Energy Mark I Ride (right)
paper tiger: 20" Rough Ride (left) and 6" FO602 Bell (right)

for "good", "tragic magic" and caravan, I used just the Dark Energy Ride, and no 2nd cymbal on the stand. for "japan" I used no cymbals at all.

next post: rough mix rundown....

I'm home from setting up at HILO studio, sounds good, feels good, tonight should be fun.

Here's a few pics so far:

the exterior

my drums

a mic and engineer Pacy Shulman bending over, working hard


more photos tomorrow

TimP and I have been "telerehearsing" last night and tonight over email and phone. One of my charts for tomorrow's session was written wrong (damn interns.....), and Tim has been trying to solve the riddle. He did valiantly, and as of now I think we have a corrected chart for tomorrow. I can see it now from Apple: "iRehearsal"

...you heard it here first!

I've just posted some photos over at cc.com that Christopher Stott took on May 14. Here's one:



The rest are here

The photos from last week at Pepperjack's are starting to email in.... here's one:

Last night we went to see a performance of Ukranian dance. A very good friend, and a number of my students @ ESA are in the company; I say this because without this connection, an event like this would probably pass under my radar. The last time I saw this company was a few years ago, and while the style of dance is very much historical/storytelling with a lot of miming, the athleticism and accuracy is stunning. What struck me most though was the power of the cultural statement. This company tours the world and has so for many years. Their schedule has been a way in which my friend in the company has been able to travel to places that she's never been (nor have I for that matter). Anyway, all of this is happening due to the efforts of a displaced community of Ukranians living here in Toronto. I am not sure to what degree, if any, they are funded by government arts money (my guess is ZERO). They exist because of the passion of those involved (including their local audience).

That, to me, is culture. In my opinion, the model of Canadian artists relying on government subsidies generates "subsidized" work that makes no impact on the people who funded it (Canadian citizens). I'm not suggesting that Ukranian dance is on the cutting edge of contemporary dance, far from it. But, it thrives because of a shared passion between performers and audiences, and that is priceless.

Mike and I played with David Patterson last night at Canyon Creek, Dave sounded great, and he brought 2 amps so he could play in stereo (he said it wasn't for volume as much as being able "move more air" at a lower volume), which sounded great. Next week is Martin Aucoin, and then with only one or two exceptions it will be Eric Boucher with us all summer on Thursdays. When our Tuesdays start Mike and I will be playing with the great guitarist Anesti Karantakis for most of those dates this summer.
I've enjoyed having the rotating "third man" situation, but it does mean alot of extra work for me, booking players, finding subs when one cancels, etc. I have less time to bring new charts of music to the band when I'm busy on the phone. I don't necessarily think the music has suffered (each new "third" brings in his own music, so cc3's repertoire stays fresh), but I'd like to be able to bring in more stuff.

Hopefully we'll see you this summer at one of our gigs!

I'm just getting home from rehearsal. Tim and Ed sound great, and the drummer had fun, to say the least. We're all pretty excited to be recording and gigging next week; there's a great energy in this trio. Ed's tone is simply too big to begin to describe, it just cuts through the cymbal wash and the guitar. So nice. I can't wait to post up an mp3 on the website, but it'll have to wait. Our rehearsal recordings, while exciting, are full of starts and stops; not the best representation of the tunes (but a good representation of the rehearsal!). In a good way, everything has been left unfinished in some way, so there'll be some element of surprise during the recording session, and then presumably, new loose ends will be discovered and resolved on the gig.

Overall, it's a bit more "out" than I'd originally conceived, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Plus, I'm now singing one tune, which is a challenge for me, but I have the support of my band mates, and it will open the door to a whole other avenue of repertoire.

It's a very healthy diversion from the current web-wrangling I'm doing with the M4M site, which is better left not talked about. If you really want to know, log in the to M4M blog here.

cover for the May 27 show has been set: $10

We rehearse tomorrow and record next week, I'm quite excited about it all, quite frankly.

We're opening for the fabulous Kevin Breit, so it's gonna be a great night of music.

The HBS concert was a big success yesterday, and a good start to HBS's summer schedule. The band now has a blog site that i am running, click here to see it.

Now my focus shifts to the new band with Tim and Ed (who sat in yesterday with HBS and nailed it!), I'll be doing a poster for the may 27 gig, that'll be up soon. Stay tuned!

Today's the Day!

Please come on out to the Hot Buttered Soul NICU Benefit Concert, it's from 2pm to 5pm @ Pepperjack Cafe, Hamilton:

LET'S FIX Let's Fix Cancon

I've been sent a few emails telling me to check out this website, so I did. It doesn't make sense to me. (Go read it, and then read my comments, or if you're already familiar with it, read on...).

The math is flawed (assuming the goal is to bring more Canadian music to Canadian commercial radio). It actually proposes to have LESS total Canadian music on the radio, which is silly. I personally don't think something should be played simply because it is Canadian anyway. Commercial radio stations are private businesses, they can play what they want to keep their advertisers happy, and we're not forced to listen to them (I don't).

That website proposes that if each current Cancon track is valued at "1" point, bigger artists should receive .75 of a point for their track and smaller artists should get 1.50 points. The end result is that a radio station would technically have to play LESS Canadian music to meet the quota if they played smaller artists. So, presumably they could play people like myself at 3:00am and then all Bon Jovi during their peak times. This ghetto-izes Canadian music even more than before in the commercial radio world. (Again, I am not in support of any kind of nationalist protection system for Canadian music. I have no doubt that program directors for major radio corporations don't care where the song is from, Canada, Mars, wherever; they're just looking for that hit that will draw listeners and ad revenues up.)

I tend to think that the bigger artists have a trickle-down effect, and actually HELP smaller artists more than most think. Celine Dion sings songs written by Canadian songwriters who otherwise may not get their songs heard down in LA or New York or Nashville by major record producers. She hires many Canadian musicians, etc. She makes lots of money for her record company, which in turn (in theory) can invest that in new artists. Kenny G sells more records than any ten "jazz" musicians combined, and like it or not, his profits keep his label's "real jazz" dept. running.

The bottom line (to me) is that as an artist you have to be clear about where you are going. If your "artistic" goal is to provide content for commerical radio, then make music that fits their mandate (remember, they have NO obligation whatsoever to play any certain artist, and CANCON itself is technically a restriction on the free-market, which may have in fact negative effects on the radio business as a whole). It is simply not reasonable that a commercial radio station (privately owned by shareholders) MUST play anything by anyone. It's no more reasonable than telling an original "indie" artist who has invested his own finances in his music that he MUST play a certain type of music.

There are so many avenues for getting your music heard beyond commerical radio playlists, and many of them are likely far more suited to your music than a big corporate radio station. Use them, let commerical radio do what it wants. And while they're doing what they want, you go make music, instead of legislation.

What up this week:

The week has begun with me cleaning-out and re-assembling my home office. It's a project still very much underway. Things have been piling up, literally. There's got to be 35 CDs on one chair alone... Anyway, the means will be justified by the end (provided the end is increased productivity). I am hoping to, once re-organized, create a small area for my drumKat to be set up permanently so I can practice and compose with it whenever the mood strikes me.

Gigs this week:

cc3 with Eric Boucher in Burlington on thursday
Hot Buttered Soul benefit concert for the McMaster Childrens Hospital NICU on saturday

Other than that I am playing some dance classes and writing charts for next week's rehearsal with Tim and Ed. That project took a turn last week when it became possible for us to schedule ourselves into a "real" studio to do our recording. We were set to record in the very capable hands (and ears) of Kevin Cooke at his North-Eastern Utility Muffin Research Outpost but it would have possibly required us to be isolated in separate rooms during the actual playing of the music. (Kevin's studio is in his home and he doesn't really have a "live room" for the trio to set up in). This could have proved problematic, so I've been musing loudly about how to solve this. Enter Pacy Shulman, also highly capable, and it turns out, vastly generous. He has a dedicated studio on his property, with a real "live room" and glassed-in control room. He's offered up his studio (HILO Studio) and his time, and he was able to do it on our previously scheduled date! So, all is well.

I had a great time playing last night with Marcel Aucoin. We did a short set (we didn't do all the songs he'd prepped me on, and unfortunately, we didn't get to play one or two of his really cool ones), and I didn't make any mistakes, well, I mean, I played the music that he'd written properly. Whether the way I chose to play it was appropriate, I don't know. That's the tricky thing about subbing into an original band, I brought my vibe to the music, and I can only hope that it was what Marcel wanted. The bass player, Wes Neal, was strong, and he's a great listener. I'd love to play with them again, though, I was only subbing, so it may be a while till I do that again.

My newly tech'd toms sounded fantastic, thanks Paul!

As for the rest of the evening, I didn't get to stay for the final set (which included my friend Deb Sinha on percussion, but Jean Derome played in the first and third sets. Other than a brief TV thing I'd seen him on, Derome's playing was new to me. He's very impressive. He played flute, alto, and a suitcase full of whistles and oddities, in addition to using his voice. He improvises with conviction and a real sense of clarity. I could have listened to him all night. Maybe I should have, but it was late by the time the third set started, and I had a set of drums to lug down two flights of stairs and a gig this morning.....

But wait! There's more! The audience itself, while small, was perhaps just as impressive (if not more) than the performers in that it included legendary sound poet/vocalist Paul Dutton and sax/plunderphonicizer John Oswald, among others. While packing up my drums I couldn't help but listen in on Dutton's conversation with Scott Thomson (who played some fine trombone in the first set, and is also one of the concert organizers, and a member of AIMT, the improv collective that presented the show), as they discussed the various "scenes" improvisers in this city. There really is alot going on, and to me, so much of it has been way under my radar. I'm excited to be connecting with it now, and I hope I can keep finding the time to do it (and I hope they will still be interested in having me!).

Ok, here's the info on my gig tonight. I am a sub for Marcel's trio, so my name may not be on there:

click here

The kit for tonight:

Phonic 13 and 16 toms (first gig with them since they were tech'd back to perfection by Paul Fitterer
Phonic 18 bass drum
Signature Lite 6.5x14 snare drum

Paistes: 13" sig med hats, 16" Sound Formula crystal crash, 20" Dark Energy Mark I ride, two 6"bell cymbals that I'll place inverted on the floor tom for some tunes

also some shakers.

See you there! 9pm start, my set is second.

I met with Marcel Aucoin yesterday, and listened to (and played--I brought a cymbal and a middle-eastern tambourine) his music. Great stuff. He's playing alot of organ, a 60s combo organ. It has this nasal tone, so cool, I'm going to have fun playing with him tonight. The drummer on his CD, Joe Poole, sounds great, and he's new to me.

Anyway, Marcel gave me charts and his CD, so I'll be putting some time in today so I don't embarass myself tonight. :)

We hit @ Canyon Creek with Bruno Ierullo last night. I thought the first set never really got going, and the audience seemed indifferent to it as well. The second set was good, and the listeners seemed more captivated by it too. Eric Boucher is with us next week.

Gig!

My solo set at Leftover Daylight (DVD available here) has yeilded me a gig this Friday with players all new to me.

I'm doing a set at the Arraymusic studios with the Marcel Aucoin Trio (not be confused with pianist MARTIN Aucoin), Marcel plays piano and Wes Neal is on bass. Me on drums. I meet and greet today with Marcel. I have no idea what the music is like, but the whole evening sounds like a good concert. Here are the details:

may 06
. jean derome/ christine duncan/ tiina kiik
. the marcel aucoin trio
(w/ wes neal, chris cawthray)
. lina allemano/ jean derome/ ben grossman/ debashis sinha

weblink here

Tonight, it's cc3 w/ Bruno Ierullo in Burlington...

So, my new trio project (not to be confused with cc3, my "working band") with Tim Posgate and Ed Zankowski is gearing up. This is something I'm very excited about, and luckily we have our first gig within days of our demo recording session (May 27 @ pepperjack cafe in hamilton), so we'll get a chance to really test-drive it. At this point, we're going to be doing 3 originals (of mine) and 3 covers. From there, I hope to be adding more originals. I haven't actually written any new material yet (we're doing 2 of my older tunes, re-worked); I will, but the reality is that I have a surplus of what I think are great songs that have either been under-heard or were never realized properly in previous groups. At any rate, given my current experience with Indie Pool, I'm just going to give the stuff away for a while, so there will be new music for download @ chriscawthray.com in June.

In the meantime, you can listen to what's there

And, don't forget about my new DVD! BUY IT HERE

(yes, I am plugging the new DVD every day)

I'm quite frustrated with IndiePool. I have been waiting almost 3 months to see any kind of action on "winter music" getting added to the major downloading sites (Puretracks, iTunes, etc.). To their credit, they've been great about answering my calls and emails, but they don't seem to have the answers I want. To that end, I have re-posted the audio files of "winter music" on the BUY MUSIC page of my site. You can still order the CD for only $5 too if you like what you hear. If my stuff ever comes out for sale where it's supposed to, I'll remove those files, but for now, go get 'em if you want 'em.

AND:

Don't forget about the new DVD! chris cawthray solodrums 4.29.05 BUY IT HERE

Ok, a little bit of messing around with iMovie has yeilded the first ever DVD release by musicformovement!

chris cawthray solodrums 4.29.05 is M4Mdvd001, the first in a series of hand-made/home-made DVD documents of my work. To see an excerpt click here (currently the excerpts are only available as Quicktime .mov files)

The idea behind this series will be to make available DV recordings of gigs and whatever else appears necessary to release. Thanks to contemporary computing, I'm able to produce and create these DVDs very efficiently and thus, can sell them quite cheap. This first DVD is about 30 minutes in length and will sell for $6USD + shipping. Each DVD will be hand-signed and numbered by me.

The image for the cover can be seen at chriscawthray .com here

TO BUY THE DVD CLICK HERE

my friend Ed Pas has made an iPod Shuffle out of sushi, he calls it the sushiPod Shuffle

I had a great gig last night. It was fun, I was even nervous before I played. I stumbled a few times, but I think there were some genuine moments of "new stuff" for me on the drums. I met a ton of new people, and may have even landed a gig next week with players I've never hit with before (stay tuned for details....).

In the meantime:

a video excerpt of last night

It's a Quciktime .mov file, so Apple folks should have no problem. PCers, well, maybe this will help.

Ok, last announcement for the solo show tonight. Hopefully I'll see some of you there!

Leftover Daylight

@ the Arraymusic Studio
60 Atlantic Ave. Suite 218

Show starts @ 9pm, I'm first and I plan on being punctual ("on time" was too much of a pun for a drum gig, so I didn't type that, but now I have, so there you go....).

$10/$6 (I think the latter is student, but aren't we all in some way?)

if i don't see you at the gig, check in to the blog tomorrow or sunday and I'll have a multi-media report. :)

map to gig

Tonight's cc3 gig with Martin Aucoin was great. Martin is such a pro, he knows lots of tunes, has a great vibe, and he makes me feel like I can play! We had two great sets, with a really strong response from the audience, and a great hang overall. Martin's back in a few weeks, do try and come out if you're able.

Meanwhile, I am now clearing my gig-mind for tomorrow's solo show. I want to just go and play, no agendum. Take this set as an opportunity to re-connect with my instrument. That connection can get lost or altered when it's always gig, gig, gig. You see your instrument as a tool to earn money with, and forget that it is really so much more a partner than a tool.

GIGS THIS WEEK:

thursday 4.28 - cc3 (with Martin Aucoin on keys) @ Canyon Creek Burlington 7pm-10pm
friday 4.29 - cc solo @ Leftover Daylight 9pm $10/$6
saturday 4.30 - cc on percussion with the Kevin Cooke Band @ the Black Swan 9:30pm $5

... I'm pleased to say that Anesti Karantakis will be completing the cc3 lineup for the bulk of our summer dates at Canyon Creek Square One (Tuesdays) and Eric Boucher will be the third man in Burlington on Thursdays this summer. I feel like I've been on the phone non-stop for days now arranging people's schedules and trying to get various guys for various gigs, it's tiring. But, it means I've got work in my book, so it's a good thing.

My friend Ed Pas, a very fine artist, has a blog that tracks him and his family's current adventure in Japan. It's a great read. http://edpas.net/bog/

Anyway, he informed me that he doesn't read my blog often enough because I don't have RSS (whatever that is). Well, I do now, click on the link for SITE FEED over to the right on this page and if you know what to do with it, do it!

I'm just learning. :)

Most of the dates are up for the summer now. When this campaign began (to somewhat "install" my two working bands at Canyon Creek for the summer) I was hoping to book more HBS than cc3, but it's worked out the opposite way. I'm not dissappointed by this at all now that it's a reality. As a musician I think this is a more adventurous schedule. With cc3, the repertoire is constantly changing from gig to gig, whereas HBS has a set repertoire, with little variation. So, with 22 cc3 shows and 13 HBS shows, I'm likely to play more different music, which is good.

As for cc3's lineup, I'm going to scale back the amount of variation in the "third man" position. I'm going to book people in for at least 4 gigs in a row. So, Eric Boucher will be with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays are still TBA. May's schedule (only Thursdays) is still a rotation, but once we're into June, I'm going to start slowing that down. Frankly, booking a different player every week is extra work, and I don't think my client, nor the audience, is really demanding it. Certain players have gone over bigger than others (not due to their ability by any means, but more because of the repertoire they bring with them), and I'll probably draw on that. Of course, Mike Pelletier remains on bass, with Nikku Nayar finally making a few sub-appearances in June and July.

NEW MUSIC:

I've received advance copies of the new John Scofield and the new (new to North America, it's been out in France for a while) Meshell Ndegeocello fusion album. Both records are quite good. The Scofield is a Ray Charles-tribute produce by Steve Jordan (who also plays drums on it), and the Meshell is an all-star fusion outing. I had a similar experience with both records: I forgot who's record it was. There are so many different players featured on these discs that the personalities of Scofield and Meshell are submerged to a great degree. I would argue that the Scofield record is really a Steve Jordan record, when it comes out in June, you'll hear what I mean. As for the Ndegeocello, it has some wonderful moments (there's a track that features Cassandra Wilson and Brandon Ross that reminds me of Kip Hanrahan's Thousands Nights records). There's a 3/4 ballad that I will probably chart out for cc3, called "Papillion".
I think both records are very satisfying, but they're not what I expected.

WHAT'S UP THIS WEEK:

I am playing my solo show and I am still trying to decide whether or not to just play drums alone or bring some soundscape tracks (to play off my iPod or iBook) to add some textures and atmospheres. I have to decide soon. Also this week is cc3 with Mike Bowell on guitar and a Saturday night show with the Kevin Cooke band (a huge 10pce blues/r&b band, all originals by Kevin). If you're on my email list you'll get a reminder early this week...

SIRCorp + me

So, SIRCorp is the company that owns the chain of Canyon Creek restaurants that I find myself fortunate to have steady gigs with. The gigs are split about 70/30 between my trio (cc3) and the r&b band I work with, Hot Buttered Soul. This summer, I'll do well over 30 gigs for them between June and Labour Day. That's a lot of work, and all essentially from one client. I'm very grateful to have this relationship, as with very few exceptions, they trust me to pick the repertoire and players for all of the gigs, and they treat the musicians kindly and generously when we're performing there. The per gig money isn't huge, but it's decent and steady, and commitments of this size from one client are rarer and rarer in this business. So, a public thanks to my folks at SIRCorp that still see value in live music of many different styles.

I got a great phone call today:

Peggy Baker (modern dancer extraordinaire) has asked me to do 2 weeks of dance classes with her during her Intensive at the National Ballet of Canada in August.

Of course I accepted. I told her I was very flattered to be asked, and she laughed and said she was the one that was excited!

This could shape up to be a decent summer creatively and financially, too good to be true!

I saw the John Scofield Trio last night (bill stewart + steve swallow), it was fantastic. They're playing at a very high level, and Steve Swallow is without question among the living legends of this or any music. I waas fortunate enough to be standing sidestage about 8 feet from Mr. Swallow and Mr. Stewart, so I had about as close a view as I could get without being in the band. The gig was at a rock/dance club, and while not the ideal venue (noisy air conditioners, lotsa people chatting, etc.) they quickly put that aside and made the venue work for them. I was very impressed.

My "aha!" moment of the evening was when John was engaging in a long spoken introduction to their rendition of the standard, "When Sunny Gets Blue". Now, this is a warhorse of a tune that's been abused by would-be jazz musicians mercilessly since the 40s. One wondered why this trio would do this tune? Well, John's introduction explained that this was a song from Swallow's youth, and he had fond memories of "falling in love" to it. While this may have been a dry comedic "bit", it resonated with me: play songs that MEAN something to you. It seems simple, but jazz musicians miss this so often, and that's why we have endless versions of "Autumn Leaves" by guys that never even realized this was a song from a musical, a "hit" of its day.

Play music that means something to you. Chances are it will mean alot more to the audience if you do.

What a concept! :):):)

I am swamped right now with Hot Buttered Soul's summer schedule. I am very happy about this. It looks like we'll be working alot this summer, enough to buy me a few days off here and there to enjoy the summer. Getting the gigs is the easy part, coordinating everyone's schedules is the work. The net result will probably be that HBS will get to work with 2 or 3 singers this summer, as Todd (our main man) has a day-job that conflicts with some of the dates. I'll post all of the dates when they are confirmed (probably next week). But suffice to say, we'll be working this summer. :)

I hope I can put all of these bookings to bed by the end of next week so that i can concentrate on my trio recording with Tim and Ed. Then I can concentrate on booking that band too. As my last post said, live gigs are probably where it's at for what i do, so I am sharpening my booking skills.

things on my mind:

.... While booking the session date with Tim Posgate, we briefly discussed his new record. He's getting the discs from the manufacturer this week or next, and I asked him about its release date. His response was that there wasn't really going to be a "release" per se. I am sure he'll send it out to all the press contacts he has, etc., but he said his best sales have always been off the stage at gigs. They're touring this summer for a few weeks, so I imagine he's got his mind set to do most of his sales then.
It's an interesting time; music retail is a non-issue (in terms of supporting new or small-time artists), and my contacts at the major labels say they can't get much happening with retail either. Are downloads the way to go? Well, in my heart I think so. In reality I have been waiting MONTHS for my stuff to get "added" to the big sites. The major labels obviously have a direct-line to getting added, so what's so different from the old retail model? I am not sure. Thankfully, the cost of getting in queue to be added is minimal (less than $200 for my whole album), but the great democracy of the internet is once again a joke.
There are benefits to trying to get onto iTunes and the like; people will find your music by accident while searching for something else, and they might just buy a track or two to check you out. Your "fans" will be able to easily and securely purchase your music and you have no IT costs of your own to maintain a paid download service.
The fact remains though that you still have to spend the time and money to publicize the existence of your music. This is costly and is not a guaranteed return of investment (no advertising or marketing is). So, musicians like myself and TimP are left to figure out where the best source of revenue is.
I am beginning to suspect that for the kind of music I want to and like to make, it's a live thing. Simply put, there are WAY TOO MANY records out there. Jazz magazines alone review hundreds of titles a month, how many really connect with a large group of consumers? (Tim's last record got a killer review in Downbeat and I think it translated into little or no sales....).
So, are records vanity projects? Is it a glorified business card? Most jazz artists on major labels do not see money from their record sales. The record company pays them to record an album, which they then promote, and the artist (if he or she is smart) coincides record company promo with their own promotion of their live concerts (where they actually make money). The alliance with a record company is not a partnership that will generate revenue for the artist (if they wrote the material they may see a bump from publishing royalties.... but), but rather an exchange of time and talent (from the artist) for promotion and marketing (from the label).
It occurs to me that maybe for jazz/improvising/whatever musicians, a pro-sports model might be more apt. Do people buy DVDs of football games? Not really (maybe highlight reels or historic games)... But the NFL generates huge amounts of money based on their live show (the games themselves). Obviously the scale is incredibly different, but what if an artist like myself promoted a "season" of gigs instead of a record?
What I am talking about already happens of course, but I think a shift in perception by artists is necessary. The CD you sell off the stage is merchandise, like a T-shirt. It may have much more artistic and sentimental value to you as its creator, but it is increasingly evident (in this over-populated CD world) that it can't be the reason why you're on stage. The new generation of entertainment consumers (I'm talking about teenagers) place very little value on CDs themselves. I treat my records and CDs like jewels, many kids I know will use the CD case as a notepad to write down someone's phone number. They place value on the music, but not the form it's presented to them in. For that matter, paying for it seems at times ridiculous to them. It's like TV, always on, free for the watching.
I am not suggesting changing people's attitudes, but I am changing mine. As a musician I have to assess where my revenue is most likely to come from. If it's live gigs, I have to focus on that. That may mean giving the music away for free off my website, or near-free through iTunes, in order to establish an audience for my live music. Many musicians are dissatisfied with the state of gigs, making $100-$200 per show is not enough for them. (I feel that way sometimes too) Fine, don't do it. But be prepared that a career in music may no longer be in the cards for you. The industry is changing. The "superstars" of today are those that are comfortable in the midst of the convergence of music/movies/etc., and that means that the music element is just one portion of your total presentation (J.LO......). For people like me, music is the whole package. So, I have to tailor my plans and my expectations to this new sub-industry. The new priorities may put live performances at the top, teaching workshops (interacting with your audience beyond the confines of a concert) below it, and the creation of permanent documents (CDs, DVDs, etc.) below that. I am prioritizing them based on their likelihood to return on investment. Know what you are selling, and then it becomes clear what can be given away for free. In the end, we're selling brands. The brand is represented through concerts, workshops and recordings. At any given time, one of these may need to be used as a "loss-leader" to support the others. Be flexible, and manage your risk (don't spend all of your money on your record, because you won't have any money to promote yourself after it's done, for example). And most of all, be realistic. That doesn't mean you can't be idealistic as well (don't compromise or sacrifice your musical vision), but don't forget that the joy is in the creation, not the renumeration. A music career is a business decision, not an artistic one.

Big Day!

I booked the studio session for my new band of myself, Tim Posgate on guitar and Ed Zankowski on tenor sax. We record May 25th at the North-Eastern Utility Muffin Research Outpost (manned by the stalwart Kevin Cooke), and then on May 27th, we have our first gig!!!!

We're opening for the very fine Kevin Breit and his band at Pepperjack's in Hamilton. Too cool.

I can't decided whether this band needs a name or not, or if I will resurrect my old Relax with Trudy band handle (the catch-all name for my trios from 1998-2002) and use it on these guys. What about the "new Trudy"? hmmm....

stay tuned for more details!

I just added a diagram of my two main drumkits that I use these days. It's really one kit (a red SONOR Phonic) broken up in two different configurations. Anyway, as most drummers will concur, these diagrams are, at best, an approximation of what I'm using at any given time. Different gigs require different cymbals (and I have lots of cymbals) or drums, but what I put in the diagram is basically what you'd see me with most often.

Here's the diagram (it can also be found on the PRESS KIT page on my site):

A relatively slow work weekend with gorgeous sunshine and warm weather..... and I get sick. Yeah, caught a cold. I did get to pick up 2 of my drums from Paul Fitterer today and he's done a fantastic job on them. It's like having new drums. Anyway, we're working on a weblog for his tech-biz. click hereto see it, very much under construction.

I got the new Charles Lloyd release on ECM yesterday, called "Jumping the Creek", a quartet with Geri Allen, Bob Hurst, and Eric Harland (who's playing was new to me). It's really great. I haven't finished it yet, but it's very powerful stuff. Lloyd assembles and deconstructs the band as needed, sometimes he is solo, or in duo, or trio in various combos. It's all so natural, swinging, and the improvisation is very personal. Rhythmically, Harland injects some "jungle" or "techno" style stuff without it sounding forced or fusiony. Nice work.

Now, a full work week, and a cold to conquer. :)

Today is a day off. So, with the exception of a few business-related phone calls, it's going to be a family day. (2 of the 3 of us are getting haircuts!) Plumbers came to our home yesterday and eradicated numerous dripping noises that polluted the sonic landscape of our home, and eliminated the wasting of water that those drips represent.

This service was not cheap. Plumbers (even after they pay for the parts they install) make alot more than I make per gig. These guys were good, (one guy got down on his knees and listened to our toilet flushing to diagnose it's problems.... I called him The Toilet Whisperer...) so I presume that's why they're expensive. The two of them worked very fast, and they were in and out of our lives in 3 hours (and $1100). It occured to me that one could renumerate themselves quite comfortably in a "trade", quite comfortably. The only sticking point is that to be successful in a "trade", most of the time you really do have to put in a hard day's work. There's not alot of boardroom conceptualizing (or, for that matter, blogging); you show up, diagnose the problem or need, and fix or supply.

I guess my career is straddled between these two worlds; alot of time I am plumbing: providing percussive services to others with skill and efficiency, or replaying music people know (playing covers) to comfort and entertain them. Repairing, Restoring, Recreating. Other times I am the CEO of my multi-national company; thinking up new music, searching for something no one has heard before, implementing long and short-term projects.

Anyway, I just got an email from Paul F., my snare drum is ready for pick-up. I'm encouraging Paul to start a blog for his tech work. It might be a fun site, posting pictures of projects, etc.

Have a great day!

I picked up the April 2005 Downbeat yesterday as it had a review of the three most recent Kip Hanrahan releases (available on my site www.musicformovement.com). All three got good a review, but the reviewer (to me) was attempting to show off his vocabulary a bit too much in his review. I'm very much undecided about music journalism. There's so much bad writing about music by people that have no business writing about music.

Then again, there is also alot of bad music made by people that have no business making music. Anyway, I tend to view music journalism as a marketing tool, and not much else. If a review or article gets one's name out there, great, mission accomplished. If a musician attempts or expects to be able to further express themselves through this medium, that's a lost cause. Of course there are always exceptions, but I'm quite confident that I am speaking about the majority of music press.

One thing that bothers me is when music journalists ask musicians about politics, world issues, etc. Actually, maybe what bothers me more is when musicians ANSWER these questions. It's just so foolish: rock journalist (Frank Zappa described them best; "People who can't write writing for people who can't read...") prepares his big question about nuclear proliferation for stoned and distracted 24 year old flavour-of-the-month, and he ANSWERS it, and the journalist prints it! It's embarassing for all involved.

If you have dedicated your life to creating music, that is a political act in and of itself; and that rarely gets discussed. Just because you have a window to shout out of, doesn't mean you have anything worth shouting about. If you're really making music, that's where your views are, and not just lyrics. If you use music as a vehicle to talk about other issues in magazines and on cable TV, you're abusing music.

The reality is most "journalists" have nothing to say about music. They can talk about lyrics (they treat them like a 4th grade book report), and they can talk about the pictures on the CD case, but either they don't have the language to express what they hear, or they simply can't hear the difference between one CD to the next. Read some of Brad Mehldau's liner notes that he writes himself and compare them to some of his press clippings. Vastly different uses of language and in the former, the music actually gains a literary voice, in the latter, it's just promo hyperbole.

Anyway, I can go on forever about this.

....Speaking of mis-representation by the press. I have a dilemma. In this latest Downbeat, Joshua Redman is quoted as slamming one of his records, saying the band wasn't ready to record when they did it, and he is unsatisfied with the recorded results. So, if i want to hear this record, do I pay for it? I mean, I can find some of it via P2P I am sure, but it's also over at iTunes. If the artist is distancing himself from it (and he may not be, he may have just been mis-quoted), why should I pay the artist for the pleasure of listening to something he doesn't stand behind?

Good Gig News!

Looks like my fruitful relationship with the Canyon Creek group of restaurants is growing: cc3 will reside on Tuesday nights on the patio at Canyon Creek/Square One in Mississauga this summer. Hopefully, the restaurant group is picking up Hot Buttered Soul for a bunch of summer dates too.

My earlier post this week with my to-do list has been stalled by trying to find a sub for this Thursday. Argh. What a pain in the ass. I try and book people weeks to at least a month in advance to avoid this crud. Oh well.

Other news:

My friend and fine drummer Paul Fitterer is branching out into drum-tech work. I've watched him use meticulous and conscientious care on his drums for years, and thankfully, he's now offering that service to other drummers. So, I've submitted my 13,16,22 Phonics and an ebony veneer Signature Lite snare drum for his cleaning, re-lube-ing and general inspection. Paul doesn't do any heavy work, like re-cutting edges or fixing cracked cymbals, but for tune-ups and other care/repairs, he's your guy. Email him at paulfitterer@sympatico.ca to inquire about his services.

" Did you mean CARES ANTHRAX? "

That's what I get when I typed "chris cawthray" into the iTunes search engine. This is getting ridiculous.

No ranting this morning, promise. :)

Eric Boucher (who was booked to play the next two weeks with cc3) called last night to bail on this week's gig, so I have to find a sub today, stay tuned...

Before Saturday, I also have to get some demos of 3 dance pieces done for the Pickering School of Ballet. I'm going to use my drumKat and probably GarageBand software to get these done. I'm in at Toronto Dance Theatre for one class this week too, in addition to my regular gigs at the Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Also in this week somewhere will be the finalizing of plans for a new trio recording with (hopefully) Tim Posgate and Ed Zankowski. Three busy musicians + small budget means scheduling gets tricky. I'm hopeful though it can work out so that we'll be recording before Tim goes on tour this summer.

Ok, have a great week!

Sunday morning, way too early, and even earlier than that since daylight savings time ("spring forward") happened overnight. After solving a furnace-related issue that I will never understand nor comprehend how I fixed it, our chilly home is once again being toasted lightly, and hopefully will be golden-brown before anyone else wakes up realize just how freezing it was in here last night.

Backtracking....

Friday's AKIM gig was a really intense mix of highs and lows. In the end, it was total chaos. As it turned out, Akim and I were the only one's familiar with his material (a sax player that was sitting in was simply being cued as to when to solo, not playing any parts, per se). I met a new bassist on the gig, Joe Mcleod, who was fantastic. Great player and a warm friendly guy. When we did two-beat grooves (country and swing stuff) he used a great technique to imitate an upright bass by sliding into each note. Wonderful, though likely it went mostly unnoticed by everyone else. Joe's relative unfamiliarity with Akim's material, and Akim's insistence on calling lots of tunes Joe clearly wouldn't know (despite the fact that Joe and Akim know many tunes in common, enough to fill the entire evening I am sure) made for a tense and uneven gig. I don't fault Akim for wanting to do his material, or obscure covers, it's his perogative and alot of those tunes Akim does great versions of many of them, but the vibe onstage was so crappy I wanted to go home after the first set.

After that the second set involved more of the same repertoire choices, and a guest appearance by a female singer that proceed to sing OVER Akim as opposed to with him, and more general confusion. We had our moments though, and I felt like we hit a good groove on one of Akim's originals ("Shadowchild", I think), and a broken guitar string precipitated a sax/bass/drums funk jam which was too long but fun.

The third set began with just Akim and me (I think Akim wanted to cut his losses on his originals and just do them as a duo instead of forcing Joe to learn them as they were happening), and then the band came back and we backed up Melissa Rebronja on two songs (she brought charts, so everyone was able to sight-read and do a nice job), then a local singer (I mean REALLY local, I think this guy was permanently installed at the bar) came up and did Stormy Monday (only Joe and I knew it, so Akim and the sax player, Luis, soloed on the G blues scale during it). The singer sounded good, he nailed all the blues cliches, and so did Joe and I (when in Rome...). Then the rest of the set was steady decay, finally hitting entropy while we did covers of Hotel California and Like A Rolling Stone with a sloppy drunk woman sitting in on backup vocals and her equally drunken friend shouting at us from the nearmost table. Apart from them (and a few friends, whose presence made the evening much more bearable, thank you), there wasn't really many more folks paying attention. These two drunken ladies had, I presume, won some sort of drinking contest in which the prize was a folk-rock fantasy camp singalong.

And, of course, the gig was supposed to end at 1am, and I was assured no later than 1:30. So what the hell was I doing on my drums at 2:05AM? Possibly playing my last $100 gig with Akim.

To sum up this rant, I must confess that I may have been alone in my feelings about how this gig went. I am sure many folks had a great time. I didn't. The current world that I live in doesn't accomodate these kinds of evenings so well. I usually play gigs during the day (thus, am not sleeping till noon, so I do care whether the gig ends at 1am or 2am, because I usually have to be up the next morning for another gig), and if you want me all-night, I should be paid for that.

I say this because I am a bandleader myself and I seem to have very little difficulty organizing and performing gigs where the sidemen are paid $100 and we finish when I said we'd finish. If we play an extra or extra-long set, they get paid for that. I do this every week with cc3 and Hot Buttered Soul. Furthermore, if you want me to play way past the gig's Cinderella-time, at least make sure we're playing something worth playing, not f'ing Hotel California.

This is not a complaint about Akim's music, he's got some good originals and he could have great gigs playing them. But there's two things that make great gigs that were lacking on Friday night: preparation (and that doesn't always mean rehearsal, just bring charts that a pro can read onstage in dim lighting) and being able to sense the vibe of the band and the audience, and react accordingly.

I've just printed out the setlist AKIM emailed me yesterday for our gig in a few hours, and just realized there's second page of "maybe we'll play these too" songs. Oops! Actually, most of them are familiar to varying degrees, the others, well, that's why drummers invented laying out and making dramatic entrances at the chorus or second verse. (And you thought it was because it's musical, ah, grasshopper.....)

Anyway, I'm getting to take my big drums out tonight, which haven't seen any action in 2005. It's been all jazzy/folky for me so far this year, so I've been using the 18" bass drum. Tonight, I get to bring my 22" Phonic, with a 16" floor tom and I'll use my 13" 27-ply beech snare drum, which packs a nice punch for backbeats. Anyway, just two cymbals, 15" 2002 hihats and an 18" Innovations crash/ride, which is a total unsung hero of a cymbal. It's a great cymbal, and pretty cheap in comparison to many that I have....

I got a copy of Kurt Rosenwinkel's latest disc yesterday, on Verve, called Deep Song. It's got all the right people (Brad Mehldau and Larry Grenadier among them), but I had it on while cooking dinner (spinach linquine with a tomato reduction) and it wasn't really nailin' me. I really wanted it to, I'd heard such a buzz. Maybe it'd be better if the band on the record was a real working band (I highly doubt Mr. Mehldau has much time to be in anyone else's band these days), as opposed to a session band. I don't know, it just lacked that punch that you get from a "band" band. Like, the Wayne Shorter Quintet (to compare a similarly current acoustic jazz group), for example. Admittedly, Wayne is truly above everyone else, but his band are mere mortals (pattitucci, perez and blade). That band toured extensively, and the rapport that extended playing gives a group of musicians is tattooed on the sound of that band.

Then again, maybe it was the pasta..... :)