October 2011
2 posts
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Taking off my clown shoes
The latest episode of The Blue Six String podcast is posted at http://bluesixstring.libsyn.com/ and includes the new song “Taking Off My Clown Shoes” written by me and featuring a guest drummer who brings the funk. Check it out along with the previous episodes and make sure to pick up a better quality audio download at bluesixstring.com.
New Podcast
Hello to everyone. Just a quick note that I’ve started a weekly podcast that can be found HERE. Make sure to subscribe, leave comments and tell your friends.
June 2011
5 posts
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Bad blogger
I’ve been a bad blogger. I am sorry for the absence. It is not that I have had nothing to write about as there is always something to write about, I’ve just been too busy and undisciplined to write every day like I used to. I’ll be better, I promise.
That being said, I’m going to start a short series of photos that I’ve taken at various gigs. I hope you enjoy.
April 2011
1 post
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Bay Musician →
I am constantly asked to recommend musicians for gigs and, often, my list of names is short. The best of those names is often booked and I end up being no help at all. For a while I’ve been thinking about creating a website that had the resumes and contact info for musicians in the bay area, separated by instrument and rated by their peers and now I’ve created it. Bay Musician is an...
March 2011
1 post
“A guy calls the musician’s union to get a quote on a six piece band for a...”
January 2011
1 post
4 tags
December 2010
10 posts
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Support music at all levels
For most people, this time of year is marked by a holiday in nearly every religion but for the few, the proud, the band teacher, this time of year is the end of semester concert season. I’ve gone to a couple of my private student’s concerts and, of course, had my own high school concerts to prep for and played in a couple concerts myself. One thing that cannot be overstated, at any...
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Christmas sing-along
Twas the night before morning and riding along
The Beach Boys were singing a holiday song.
The harmonies all were crafted with glee
In hopes that a hit their new song would be.
But amongst all the lyrics and jingle bell hop
I only sang along when that one guy yelled bop.
The Beach Boys Christmas album has joined the ranks of Phil Spector and Elvis Presley as a classic collection of pop...
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“There’s nothing classier than boring jazz music.”
– Michael Scott, The Office
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Duke Ellington: Three Suites
With the holidays upon us, I thought it’d be nice feature one of my favorite recordings of all time ever in the history of recorded music. Period. That recording is the Duke Ellington album “Three Suites”. I was first turned onto this album by a jazz musician (whose album I reviewed a few months back) I respect very much. This album, in turn, turned me onto the Duke....
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It was 30 years ago today
I was 10 months from being born when John Lennon was murdered outside his home by, as Paul McCartney would later call him, the jerk of all jerks but the impact of that event still resonates with me as an avid Beatles fan as well as a fan of Lennon’s solo catalog. It was on this day, December 8th, 1980, that Lennon, riding high on what was to become the biggest comeback of rock and roll, was...
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John Lennon: Double Fantasy
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
I purposly held off on writing my review of this album until after the remasters had been released. Admitedly, I’d only heard...
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John Lennon: Rock and Roll
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
My review of “Rock and Roll” is going to be short because I have very little opinion on this album as it offers no...
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John Lennon: Walls and Bridges
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
“Walls and Bridges” is, without question, my favorite John Lennon album. From the opening track “Going Down on...
November 2010
5 posts
2 tags
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Apple to Apple: The Beatles on iTunes
I wasn’t going to comment on this week’s news that The Beatles were being sold on iTunes but my loyal reader was eagerly anticipating my uninformed thoughts on the subject.
I think it’s great. There you have it! Let’s get real, it’s not that big of a deal as far as the music business is concerned. It would be bigger news if they were selling exclusively through...
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Because I don't like it, it sucks
In a previous post I wrote about my distaste for people who think that “you don’t like it because you don’t understand it”. There is another dimension to this dementia that is, “I don’t like it, so it sucks.” I get so tired of hearing people say, “you like so-and-so, but they suck!” Hey there, fella, next time you have an opinion, keep it to...
“How can you tell a trombone player’s kid is on the playground?”
– He can’t use the slide and he doesn’t know how to swing.
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The lost great trombone player
I recently began reading Pops, the newest biography on Louis Armstrong and while reading about the most revered trumpet player in jazz, I realized that my native horn, trombone, has no Armstrong. If you were to ask the average person to write a list of jazz musicians, sorted by instrument, I’d wager none of them wrote a single trombone player. Miles, Coltrane, Bird, Monk, Mingus,...
September 2010
21 posts
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John Lennon: Mind Games
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
On “Mind Games”, Lennon’s fourth studio album, Lennon abandons much of his political lyrical base and explores the...
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John Lennon: Some Time in New York City
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
Right out of the cage, I have to admit that I don’t care for this album and consider it the weakest collection in Lennon’s...
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John Lennon: Imagine
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
Much has been written about “Imagine”, John Lennon’s second proper solo album. It is regarded as a classic, often...
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John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
*In honor of John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and to coincide with the release of his remastered catalog, I am writing a series of reviews on Lennon’s solo output, excluding live recordings, posthumous releases “experimental” albums. Enjoy*
“Plastic Ono Band” came out on the heels of the Beatles breakup and after Lennon experimented with primal scream therapy. ...
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Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
Brian Wilson has finally released the Gershwin album that I wrote about a month or two ago. I wanted to hate this album after the disappointment of “Lazy Old Sun”, his most recent album. In many ways I do hate this album, but I also enjoy it a great deal of it.
The first bit that I love is the album cover. I don’t know why I find it so visually appealing but I do, so there. ...
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Life of a musician: Part 13, Small spaces
It is a strange dichotomy that the musician is often the focal point of any event and is, still, often an afterthought. Whether doing a bar gig, theater gig, or wedding gig, the group of people with the worst conditions and most cramped spaces are always musicians. While an 8 foot by 8 foot band stand sounds appropriate in your head, when you figure that the drums will take 5x5 of that by...
100 POSTS!!!!
For those of you keeping track at home, this is the 100th post of my little music blog. Since beginning in July I have covered a lot of topics but there is a lot more to go. If you’re a regular reader, please leave a comment and say hello. I’d love to start getting to know some of the readers and see what articles they are responding too and enjoy (I happen to know I gained a lot of...
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Field shows: Who needs them?
I recently started teaching at a private high school. It has been several years since I taught at the high school level (teaching mostly private students) and I’ve enjoyed working with students who get sarcasm and my sense of humor. One thing I wasn’t prepared for was my hatred of field shows.
Don’t get me wrong, to watch the really great groups do field show is a lot of fun...
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Cutting up the overture
What is the least sacred music in all of musicdom? The overture, that’s what. No other collection of notes and rhythms is so mutilated and chopped up as the average overture in today’s musical theater community. As of this writing (early September) I have played in the pit for eight different shows and I can’t remember a single one that didn’t edit the overture in some...
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Cruise ship musicians
Often, on American Idol, Simon will insult a bad audition by stating that they sound like a cruise ship singer. I take offense to that statement because I’ve known cruise musicians, I’ve heard cruise musicians and I once considered being a cruise musician. These cats can play any style, sight read like crazy, maintain a book of hundreds of songs and perform several times a day, seven...
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Overrated: Digital Downloads
Several years before the internet was a household item, Frank Zappa predicted a time when we would buy music over the phone lines. Imagine the foresight it took to predict that in the mid 1980’s. What he didn’t predict, however, was how much music was going to suck because of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPod. Not a day goes by that I don’t listen to music on it...
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Bob Dylan's singing voice
If asked to compose a list of famous singers who can’t really sing, most of us would put Bob Dylan towards the top of the list but I think that is an unfair assesment of his talents as a vocalist.
First, Dylan was highly influenced by the blues singers of the 1920’s and 30’s and adopted a singing style that mimicked their phrasing, articulation and verbalization. Second, if you...
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August 2010
5 posts
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You don't like it because you don't understand it
I am sick and tired of people telling me that I don’t understand something just because I don’t like it. “You don’t like Bulgarian interpretive synchronized swimming? You just don’t get it.” It’s not that I don’t understand things, it’s that some things just don’t appeal to me. I don’t like rap music. I understand it and, to a...
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“What’s the difference between a sound guy and God?”
– God doesn’t think he’s a sound guy.
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Life of a musician: Part 12, Sound Check
I hate just about everything leading up to a gig. I don’t like rehearsing, packing the truck, unpacking the truck, setting up the stage, or sound checking. I’m sure it doesn’t seem like a very big deal to the non-musician but anyone that has played a gig with a sound guy knows that sound check is a drag. If you throw lights into the mix, you may as well just play your electric...