Author: Zingblog 2

Wonderful Christmastime

Okay let’s see. Out with the old and in with the new year. 2019 wow. Our troubled world keeps on spinning, weaving its joys and sorrows into the fabric of our lives. We’re back into the groove with the new year, with its new demands and challenges. Things already happening fast. Work has been busy, I guess you could call it a kind of comfortable chaos, the Devil you know. Lizzy had been showing initiative, getting things done during her winter break, painting furniture, redoing her room, throwing away stuff. She told me she wished she could find some kind of work for a few weeks, and Anna said she needs some help with the Global Jukebox. So now she’s interning there.

Rewinding a bit, we had a nice break for the holidays. Christmas Eve mass at Christ Church was absolutely beautiful with the choir doing Lessons and Carols. On Christmas day we visited family on Long Island and watched the classic Christmas movie Die Hard, which doesn’t really hold up well and makes no sense. Jeannie and I watched a few of the old Rankin and Bass holiday specials too, including the one with Heat Miser and the one with Burghermeister Meisterburgher. It turns out the actual animation for a lot of those was done in Japan. One of their last productions made was the 1977 cartoon of the The Hobbit, which was the thing that got me into Tolkien and Middle Earth as a kid. (Compare cartoon Gandalf to the Winter Warlock.) Shortly thereafter the animators founded Studio Ghibli and began production on Nausica: Valley of the Winds.

We went upstate after Xmas to visit my parents. Martin and his family were there too, so it was a really full house. When were unwrapping presents my Mum mixed up my little 3- and 5-year-old nieces names and chaos ensued. Ah, fun times. I got to play chess with Martin and my nephews too. I haven’t played in a long time, wish I could play more.

We met up with Larry and Jackie one night and went out to a restaurant in Hamburg called Grange that had a Cheese Describer to enumerate and describe the cheeses in our appetizer. One was described as “the most adventurous” along with a slew of adjectives. They also had raw scallops and other weird food, all really great! Michelle got a plain pizza. We visited Denis and Sarah while we were up there too, which is nice cuz we haven’t done that in a couple years and their kids are getting bigger.

Unfortunately I’ve been sick off-and-on since the day after Christmas. One thing after another. Shoulder, stomach, back, head cold. Comes and goes. It’s the cold and dark time of year. But you know, emotionally and spiritually okay. Now my feet are hurting again after being basically okay for over a year. Hope it passes soon. I’ve been trying to relax and take it easy. Luckily I had a few days off and I can work from home when I need to.

We had to give up on getting the Honda fixed at the Honda dealer. We took it there three times and they didn’t do anything, and lied about the service they performed, wanted to charge us $600 to change the spark plugs. Bad scene.

After we got back we had Nick and Lisa over one night, good to catch up and good fun. New Year’s Eve was fun too. Jeannie and I went out to dinner with Gina and Andy from the rock band to see our friend’s band Sue and the Fun Ghouls featuring the inimitable Shredder on guitar. I knew Sue, Shredder and the drummer George from ICS. My other friend Mike is gone and they have a new keyboard player, and she’s really good too. They’re one of the best local bar bands in Westchester and they played a great set. Good to see them and it was a great time.

I got my record made and it’s now available online. More on that next post.

Also a reminder my jazz group, Haven Street, is playing this Saturday night at the Green Growler in Croton-on-Hudson. Last rehearsal, first time back in the new year, we put together a set list. Everything sounded great. Not just my playing, the whole group was really on. Jazz is funny cuz improvisation is so central the whole thing. You memorize all this stuff to have at your command just so you can forget about it and be in the moment. When you’re not playing you’re best you get the feeling you’re falling back on canned riffs, and it’s still pretty good. But when you’re really on it’s like magic, taking flight, beautiful and expressive and spontaneous. We’ve been able to hit that level more and more consistently, so I’m expect it’s going to be a good show.

Manic Mechanic

So last week the new G-Force made it’s debut at Dudley’s Friday Night, followed the next night by a show at Victors. Both gigs went well, with the second being tighter than the first, and with a bigger crowd too. There was a really entertaining drunk chick who stole Gina’s tambourine and ran around the bar shaking out the beat. Later sang a song with the band. I thought she was a friend of Gina’s but none of us knew her. She was a friend of the drummer’s sister or something. During the intermission she was hitting on me until I went over to the bar to get a drink and introduced her to Jeannie, who was sitting right there. Then she took off. Funny how that always seems to happen.

I must say Vinny is not only a really good guitar player, but he’s a great asset when it comes to loading and unloading, and setting up and tearing down the PA. He must have experience lifting heavy things, cuz he knows what he’s doing. Very efficient, always there at the right time with another pair of hands.

Monday night was maybe the first rehearsal ever where we didn’t learn any new tunes. Instead it was all tempos, endings and transitions. I’d say now most of the songs ought to be pretty damn tight. We have two more shows the next two weeks, and then we’ll learn a bunch of new songs when we come back in January.

We’ve also been having a series of really good jazz rehearsals. Unfortunately our guitarist Gary has been out sick, but we’ve been exploring cool new grooves and sounds as a quartet. Jay got genuine gut strings on his bass, which changes the tone considerably, making it much warmer and richer. Last Sunday we practiced at the drummer’s house. He lives right on the river near Croton-on-Hudson, straight across from where we went hiking last month. The next gig with the jazz group is in early January. Should be lots of fun.

Meanwhile on the home and auto front, it seems everything breaking down at at once and takes forever to get fixed. Nothing catastrophic but a series of minor inconveniences that by now are adding up.

First I’ve been meaning to get my car into the shop for an oil change and a new set of tires. The tires are not super urgent, but I’d rather get it done now than wait until springtime. I took it to the shop one day last week, but they only had 2 tires in stock. The said they’d order two more but now I have to take it back. And my car is full of amplifiers these days so I’d rather wait until after this run of gigs.

Next we have a fluorescent light fixture in our kitchen and ballast blew out on that. So that was an unexpected repair project. This is the second light fixture I’ve replaced this fall.

Then our furnace shut off one day and wouldn’t restart. We had go out to the garage and flip the breaker to get it to come back on. And just as it’s getting below freezing at night. After this happened two days in a row we called in a repairman. He fixed it temporarily, and now we’re waiting on a part.

It turns out the cause of this was that water got into our chimney pipe and dripped down into the furnace. The day it happened was windy and rainy and stormy. So now we need to get someone to go up on the roof and check out the situation, whether thing on top the chimney that’s supposed to keep the water out is intact.

And then to top it off, yesterday my car key broke in half. The metal key part separated from the plastic part that holds the electronics. What’s next?

G! Force Gigs

You may be wondering whatever happened to the rock band since we had to kick out our old guitar player. Well, the new guy Vinny has been jamming with us a few weeks now. He’s really good and is a nice and fun guy too, and has learned the whole set. So it’s all systems go! Next rehearsal we’re gonna start in on some new tunes, mostly Xmas carols. We have a run of gigs coming up between now and the end of the year. Hope to see y’all at one or more:

November 30 – Dudley’s in New Rochelle
December 1 – Victors of Hawthorne
December 8 – Barney Mc Nabb’s in Tuckahoe
December 15 – Chat 19 in Larchmont

Bridge’n’Tunnel

We had a really fun and interesting weekend full of music and visiting the old neighborhood. First off, my jazz group Haven Street played a gig a club called Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn. The gig was on a Friday evening, so getting into the area took about two hours for a trip of fifteen or twenty miles, going thru, as Jeannie put it “all three boros”. We took the route down the FDR drive which was at least fun and scenic since I rarely go that way.

It turns out the club was only a few blocks away from where we used to live in Park Slope in the year 2000. Fun and intersting to see how the neighborhood has changed. It still seems lively as ever. We found a great pizza place right around the corner form the club.

Shapeshifter is a very nice place to play, with a big stage, grand piano, drums and PA already set up, and even a professional soundman. You can tell they care about the music and the musicians. It’s run byt the son of the bassist Jimmy Garrison, who is famous for playing the classic John Coltrane quartet among many others.

Our set went well. As mentioned previosuly, the band has been sounding better and better, and the songs getting freer and more interactive. Everyone’s playing was in top form and the set was all originals, wide-ranginng and expressive. We had only and hour and we focused on getting more songs in rather than stretching out. We played eight songs, four from our first record, and four from our upcoming future record.

The second band that night was a big band doing avant-garde material. They were very good musicains, and intersting music. But when the main idea is to eschew traditional melody, harmony and song structure, there’s only so much one can take. Still I’m happy they kept alive my streak: the eighth band in a row I’ve seen with a trombone player.

After the show Jeannie and I decided to drive past our old apartment in Brooklyn to see how the neighborhood had changed. Driving home we went across the new Kosciuszko bridge, which was pretty neat. Then we decided we might as well drive past our old apartment in Queens from the mid 90’s since it was pretty much on the way.

Saturday it rained all day. In the evening we went out to see Ravi Coltrane at the Village Vanguard. Wow, what a sax player! A very high level of vrituousity, and very expressive. He has alot of his father in his sound, but is doing his own thing, very modern and up to date. The thing that impressed me probably the most of anything is his tone on the soprano sax is so full and fierce it’s actually baddass! He also had a great group with him: piano bass and drums.

We hadn’t been in the Village for a while, and it was just a few blocks away from where I used to live in the early 90’s. It was Saturday night of Halloween weekend when we got out of the show, so it was extra fun to watch the people all dressed up and going out to party.

There’ll Be Spandex Jackets One for Everybody

It’s been another busy week. Last Friday my piano guy finally came by with my adjusted pedal board. If you recall, way back when I bought my piano I had them make some casters to raise the height of the keyboard 2″. This is because I’m tall and me knees need to fit underneath. However the pedals were quite high. Close inspection revealed it looked like they had been raised previously. So had them extend the pedals again to be lower. But they didn’t follow my directions and they made them too low, so that I would never be able to take the piano off the casters. I had to have them raise them back up again partway. This is all custom work and it took a long time, and I’ve been without my pedals the last few weeks. Now at last it’s at the right height and all is well. Ah happiness.

I’ve been trying to get out to see more live music. Jeannie and I saw Steely Dan at the Beacon in NYC last weekend. It was a great show. They do complete albums nowadays, a different one each night, and for us it was The Nightly. Technically it was a Donald Fagen solo record, produced by Walter Becker, but I guess now it’s part of the Dan cannon. Of course it’s a great record, opening with the retrofuturistic classic I.G.Y., and naturally the band played the heck out of it. It was a big group, with Donald on vocals, piano and melodica, two guitars, another keyboardist, bass and drums, three backup singers and four horns. When I’ve seen the Dan in the past the horn section was all saxophones, but this time they added a trumpet and trombone, extending my streak to seven of the last seven bands I’ve seen have had a trombone player.

The second set was a bunch of hits and deep tracks from throughout their career, all great stuff. In a group of top-notch musicians doing complex arrangements, the drummer really stood out over all the rest, with Neil Peart level chops applied to nonstop funk and soul grooves. At the end of the set he did a drum solo. Just wow.

The opening act was an unexpected treat: the Peter Bernstein trio with Jimmy Cobb on drums and some old guy whose name I didn’t catch on organ, just amazing.

As mentioned a few posts ago we had to get rid of the guitar player in my rock band cuz he was always too loud, wouldn’t stop playing between songs, was generally unprofessional and just didn’t get along with the others in the group. But we have a whole string of gigs coming up between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we need a new guitar player fast. This week we got a new guy Vinny who came in. He seems like a nice guy, learned a bunch of the tunes, and he’s a good player. So it looks like we can move ahead again. Looking forward to the new lineup coming together.

I had to go the music store this week to get a box of reeds. We have a jazz gig coming up Friday in Brooklyn and I was down to my last one. While I was there, they had for sale the Real Book, Sixth Edition in Bb. So I finally replaced my old 5th edition which I bought out of the trunk of some dude’s car my freshman year of college, before they were legal, and is so deteriorated it can longer properly even be called a book.

One other thing they had for sale in wind section – a melodica! I picked one up, inspired by the Dan, and also Michelle has been asking for one. I brought it to jazz rehearsal, thinking i might try it out. I told Jay about it, and he asked “Is the the instrument with the little keyboard that you blow into? I hate those!”

So that was that. Nevertheless the jazz group continues to sound better and better, tighter and more free each rehearsal. We’re starting to plan our next record. I’m totally psyched for our gig on Friday.

Haven Street in Brooklyn

Here’s announcing my jazz group Haven Street will be playing at Shapeshifters Lab in Brooklyn, Friday October 26 at 7 pm. Should be a good show, featuring half originals of our debut record, half new stuff, and maybe a standard or two.

Spoiler alert: I’ve been getting deep into All the Things You Are. It was Gary’s idea to do an original arrangement. It’s a song I’ve played a million times, but recently I realized I was just kind of riding my way along the changes without having much to say, so I decided to really learn it. With a song like that the melody and the harmonies are so strong it’s kinda hard to go a fresh new way when you solo, but the material is so rich it’s really worth it to explore. I found a really cool version by Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan that I’m kind of using to influence my approach.

Also I should mention that Eric Puente is now our full time drummer. He brings a great energy and swing to the group, and it’s great having him on board.

The Debut of G! Force

Last Saturday night was the debut of my new rock pop dance party band, G! Force. It was a fun and successful night. The venue was Victor’s of Hawthorne. I’d played there a couple times before, but never got a huge crowd (once was a snowstorm, the other the day before Thanksgiving). But this night the place was packed. The music went over well, and the band was reasonably together, considering we learned 40 tunes in about six weeks. The bar even invited us back for another gig in November.

We played two long sets, about an hour and a half each. We do a mix of tunes from the 80s up to the present, with a few reaching back to the 60’s and 70’s. To give you an idea, the first few sung by Gina were Exes and Ohs by Elle King, Mercy by Duffy, Domino by Jessie J, Valerie by Amy Winehouse, and No Roots by Alice Merton. Gina has a powerful voice and pulls off that kind of stuff of really well. She also sang lead on a number of rock numbers like Any Way You Want It, Working for the Weekend, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot, as well as some disco tunes like I Will Survive, Boogie Oogie, and Hot Stuff. I sang lead on a bunch of numbers including You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) by Joe Jackson, I Want a New Drug, Cheap Sunglasses, Drops of Jupiter, Closing Time, Vehicle, and I Just Want to Celebrate. I’ve really been working on my singing and it’s definitely been been improving. Some of the best songs we do are duets: Stop Dragging My Heart Around, Get Lucky by Daft Punk, and Tub Thumping by Chumbawumba.

There were a handful of good sax tunes in there as well. And unlike in previous bands, I’m playing a bunch of synthesizer sounds in addition to the usual piano and organ. It’s fun and a throwback to the 80’s when these songs were new. Right now I’m just calling up various presets but I’d like to put some time into crafting the sounds on some of the tunes.

Gina of course is polished and professional, has a fantastic voice and uses it well. Ken on bass is awesome, especially on the funk and disco numbers. He even had a few solos. Andy on drums is not the steadiest drummer I ever played with, but his playing earnest and powerful. Walter on guitar is versatile and can pull of all the parts in a variety of styles, and had some really good solos. He was the last to join and got it together very quickly. He seems most at home with the hard rock numbers. Unfortunately he tends to turn up his amplifier too loud, and he and Gina don’t seem to get along very well. Ah well, we’ll see how everything plays out.

Now that we have the basics together we’re gonna work on refining things and getting tight. Our next show is in two weeks. After that we have a few weeks to maybe learn a few more songs, then a run of shows from mid November thru mid December.

Come check us our at:

Barney McNabbs on Tuckahoe Rd in Yonkers, Saturday October 13.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

I finished off a longstanding project last weekend. The row of stones on the edge of my driveway had become unseated, pushed and tumbled over by the action of a nearby former tree, plus my wife and/or daughter driving over them. So I had to dig out on dirt to get at the stones, pull them out, level them up, seat them in new concrete, then re-fell and grade the topsoil and put down new grass seed.

I had actually planned on doing this last year, but was limited by injury, so the task was hanging out there for a long time. At the beginning of the summer I bought supplies and got ready, but then it turned 95 degrees for a solid three months. Finally in September it was cool enough to work outside. It ended up taking three sessions. The first one was to dig out, after which I had to stop cuz it started to rain. Then second I mixed the concrete and set the stones, and third I put back the dirt and put down new grass seed. All in all it took longer than expected cuz along the way I pulled alot of weeds out of the topsoil, and I ended up re-grading the yard so I had some leftover dirt to fill in some low spots.

Since I’ve finished we’ve had moderate temperatures and alot of rain the last few days, so I’d expect the new grass will come in nicely.

While I’m here I’ll mention we went for another great hike last weekend, this time around the Palisades in new Jersey just on the the other side of the George Washington Bridge. I had been there once before when I lived in Brooklyn. My friend Mark and I biked all the way from Park Slope. It was a long and epic ride, especially pulling back up the escarpment. This was only a few weeks before 9/11 and I got the last picture I ever took of the World Trade Center from the bridge.

This trip Jeannie and I parked at the top of the Palisades and hiked down, then walked along the shore for a while. There were some parks there that I don’t remember from before. Then it was up again further north and back to the beginning along the summit. Very nice.

New Origami – Blimp and Platypus

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month and a half since the OUSA conference. I did alot of traveling in July but I’ve been back and getting stuff done the last few weeks. Now is a big time of year for origami conventions, there’s one in Ohio this weekend, and one in Japan, and one coming up in Oxford in a few weeks. It’d be fun to go them all but you gotta choose your adventures in life.

Meanwhile I’ve finally circled back to finish work on some new origami models. I debuted two new models at the OUSA convention back in June: My Platypus and my Blimp. As mentioned before, the Platypus uses the hex base from my Lizard, Turtle and Armadillo.

The Blimp is big improvement on my previous Zeppelin, which was just barely possible to fold. I did a couple more tweaks to the design since the convention, and now have a model I’m happy with. The way the nose locks is especially satisfying. In addition to having nicer proportions, the Blimp is much more straightforwardly foldable from a variety of papers of different thicknesses and sizes. The one shown here is made from 12″ Stardream, which is an excellent paper. It’s thick and workable like Marble Wyndstone, but with a bit of sparkly luster. Luckily I was able to reuse the stand I made for my Zeppelin.

So onward and upward. I have lots of ideas for more new models and hope to find the time to work on them in the fall. I also plan on getting started on a book or ebook of Complex Air and Space Origami, as complement to my forthcoming book from Tuttle.