Category: Music

New Recording: Soul On Fire

We’re more than halfway thru January and winter has finally arrived in earnest. We got out first snowfall last night, and the start of a spell of sustained below-freezing temperatures. I’m weathering it alright. It helps that I’m working form home these days; don’t have to wait out on the train platform in the early morning. With the new Star Wars movie out Michelle asked that we watch episodes I – III, so we did over the weekend. I must say, they’re much better than I remember them, except episode I, which is even worse! I’d forgotten the bit where Jar Jar gets his tongue electrocuted and develops a speech impediment. Yeesh! Still, it’s frustrating because they could have been such really great movies if George had put a more effort into the characters and the dialogue and less into over-the-top CG action set pieces. Ah well it’s over now.

I’ve been able to get around to a few random tasks. I don’t have as much time for recording now since I’m mostly focusing on live bands, but I finally finished tracking the long-awaited Soul On Fire. I had laid down a sax part earlier but wasn’t quite satisfied with it. The new track is also the debut of my new Reference 54 tenor. It sounds quite good. I usually do a few takes and edit them together create the best total performance, but in this case I just used one take as-is with no alterations.

While I was at it I circled back and added a few synth parts to To Be a Rock. Martin had listened to my last mix and though it was missing something, and suggested I think in terms of David Gilmore. Well I didn’t add a guitar track, but I think I have something of that kind of feeling.

The Saxophone Situation

Today I had the chance to take a good look at my old horn, and made an inventory of the work it needs. Much to my relief I found the leak on one of the lower side keys that would account for the low-end tone problems. Everything else looks pretty tight. So I’m gonna get that replaced, plus the three pads in the upper stack, and a few bits of cork and felt to dampen the clacking. After that I expect it’ll play just fine again, and pretty much all the pads will have been replaced in the last two years. (Last major pad work I had done before that was 1999.) Then I’m gonna take the whole thing apart and clean and oil it, and put it back together. I’ll probably continuing using this horn for the rock band, particularly for gigs, and use the new horn mainly for jazz.

The Global Jukebox

I recently took on a very fun and interesting client. It’s Alan Lomax’s Global Jukebox Project. For those of you who don’t know Alan Lomax was musicologist who, beginning in the 1930’s went all around the world, from Texas to Siberia to all over Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and even Buffalo, NY, building up a comprehensive library of folk music from all different cultures. Then he thought about ways of comparing them scientifically to see if they reveal anything about the relationship between the characteristics of the music and characteristics of the culture. It turns out they do.

Along the way he invented a thing called Cantometrics to evaluate the music along an exhaustive list of parameters. The results are really quite revealing – as a musician I’d even say mind-blowing – and are encapsulated in his book Folk Song Style and Culture. Highly recommended reading. It’s very well written, and ultimately speaks directly to the question of why all human cultures make music, and why different kinds of cultures make the kinds of music we do.

Except now you don’t have to read the book, because we’re building a web site to bring it to life! The Lomax foundation has literally thousands of hours of field recordings, backed by an immense a meticulously catalogued database. We’re pulling it all together to present interactively, using different ways to visualize the relationships including maps, trees, lessons and journeys.

I must say it’s a refreshing change from corporate, agile-driven software work. As the front end developer and UX/UI designer, I have alot of freedom to shape the site. They’re academics, and while they’re very smart and care deeply about the work, they’re not software engineers or interaction designers, so they’re also very hands-off and trusting about things in my domain. They also tend to be more laid back, creative and open, so it feels alot like R&D work. Right now it’s a fixed-length contract, but they have enough ideas for years of work, so I hope they have enough money too, and the gig transitions into a long-term relationship.

This is also by far the oldest legacy codebase I’ve ever worked on. The original Cantometric data was originally encoded on punch cards in the 50’s thru the 70’s and entered into an IBM mainframe computer at Columbia University. Sometime in the 80’s someone ported it to C or maybe Pascal, and into a relational database on a PC or a spreadsheet on a Mac or something. Then apparently in the early 2000’s they ported it again, this time into a modern platform that was web-ready and could be queried using mySql. Then they spent an enormous amount of time digitizing all the music and cleaning up the data. That bit still isn’t quite done, and my first programming task had to do with rights and clearances.

Still, it’s interesting how computers were part of the vision from the beginning. In Folk Song Style and Culture there’s an appendix explaining the software at the time, mainly the data encoding and the statistical analysis work. I haven’t looked forward to reading an appendix so much since The Lord of the Rings!

The Night has a Thousand Saxophones

I bought a new saxophone today. It’s a tenor, a Selmer Paris Reference 54. Very nice, great condition, almost like brand new, all golden and shiny, and it plays just fantastic.

My old horn is a Selmer Mark VII, and it it’s getting pretty long in the tooth. I just had a worked on a few months ago, and then first band practice of the new year a pad fell off. Oy! I was able to put it back on with tape, but the sound isn’t quite the same, and now it’s got to go into the shop again. In general the horn is fairly clackity, and it’s difficult to sound the low notes softly without using subtone. Like I said, the horn is old. Like forty-five years old. And I’ve had it and been playing it in working bands for almost twenty five years now. I think it may really need a complete rebuild.

So, the other night I was feeling kinda down about the situation, this being my main axe and all. On a whim I decided to look on craigslist to see if there were any saxes for sale. I’ve been looking off-and-on over last couple years for various things like PA equipment, a soprano sax, a bass clarinet, and even a tenor, but haven’t found a deal I wanted to take. The really good horns only go by rarely. There’s lots of crap out there, and sometimes some pretty good stuff, high-end second-rate stuff that tends to be really expensive. I figured for a tenor I’d never find a Mark VI or Mark VII that is good shape that I can afford, so maybe I’d look for a Super 80, or a Japanese model.

So I was pretty surprised when I saw this horn listed at reasonable price, and what’s more the guy selling it is right in my neighborhood. The Selmer Reference 54 is the current Paris model, based on over 100 years of saxophone making, the direct descendant of the Super 80, Mark VII, Mark VI, Balanced Action, Cigar Cutter and all those. It’s based on a Mark VI, the most legendary horn of them all, but with modernized design and manufacturing. Literally the best you can get. And beautiful engraving too. I have few other Selmers but none have the fully engraved bell like this one.

And I gotta tell you it plays like a dream. Butter and cognac and molten gold. Lots of little refinements mean the intonation is better and the tone is more consistent throughout the range, and the action is tighter, which means you don’t have to move your fingers as far and it just plays faster. Best of all the tone is rich and solid at pianissimo all the way down to the low Bb. I can play Lush Life again! The tone is clearer than my old horn, but still sufficiently dark and smoky, at least the way I play (I only played about three bars when the dude says to me “Wow, you’ve got a huge tone!”). And like I said, very shiny. Like new, just one or two tiny scratches.

Dude even threw in a second neck. I don’t know where he got it, but it’s not Selmer. But is makes the horn sound pretty different, more open and brighter. I’ll have to experiment with it.

As for my old horn, well it’s still a classic. People generally prefer the Mark VI over the Mark VII, but to me that’s a great horn. It’s got everything the Mark VI has plus a high F#. Mine has a great, tone, smoky and edgy, although that’s partly cuz it’s a but leaky, creaky, and squonky, and I’ve gotten used to its idiosyncrasies. Someone told me a long time ago that horns tend to improve their sound over time because the crystals in the metal actually reoriented themselves to align with the resonant energy patterns of the horn. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds like it could be.

So I guess I’ll take it to my man in Yonkers and at least have him replace a few bad pads and whatever bits of felt and cork have fallen off since the last time, and see how far that goes. Who knows, maybe that’s all it needs. I can ask about the rebuild, how expensive it is and how long it’s likely to take. If it’s not outrageous I’ll probably go for it, since the work goes straight into the value of the horn, and I have another horn now, so I don’t need it back in three days or less.

Meanwhile I’ll spend time some exploring my new horn and getting used to it. Next up, I need a new mouthpiece too. I don’t even know if they make the kind I use anymore.

The Haven Street Five

Happy Holidays everyone. I’ve been having a good break with lots of parties and travel, and two trips to the movies. I had a bit of downtime too and I’m finally getting around to a few random tasks. Today I put up a web page for my Saturday jazz group, now known as the Haven Street Quintet, or Haven Street Five. It includes an official band photo and a bunch of audio.

http://zingman.com/music/havenstreetfive.php

Most of the work was actually mastering the audio. The recording was actually quite good, done old-school style with a single microphone in the middle of the room. It came out well balanced, and I didn’t need any EQ, just a bit of dynamic boost, and trimming the beginnings and end, and converting it all to mp3s. Here’s our take on Giant Steps. Enjoy!

Living for Giving the Devil His Due

Lots and lots of music this time of year. The LEFT HOOK played at Fisherman’s Net last Saturday nite. We even learned a bunch of Christmas songs, including a nice jazzy duet of Chestnuts by Gary and me, but we ended up not playing them. It was our third gig there, and the place is starting to feel like a home base. It was a good crowd, including a bunch of familiar faces, including a few from Bryn Mawr. Looks like we’re starting to get a following. But despite everyone having a good time and mostly being cool, seem like there’s always one crazy and/or obnoxious drunk guy (or gal) at every show, who wants to get in your face, and act like he’s with the band. Usually mostly harmless, but I guess you never know.

My UPS guy was there again too, and I ran into him twice this week taking a morning walk. Makes it fun and cozy walking around the neighborhood.

Even though it was a really good show, the gig wasn’t even the music highlight of the day. We had jazz that morning. The Saturday jazz group is a quintet, and has Gary from LEFT HOOK On guitar. We’re trying to get some gigs with that group, so Gary brought in an audio recorder. We rehearsed six or so song, among them John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. For those of you who don’t know jazz, this song is considered like Mount Everest. It’s extremely hard to play, being very fast and having wicked chord changes, being the maximal expression of Coltrane’s sheets-of-sound phase. And it’s not enough to be able to negotiate it technically, you have to have something to say.

I’ve been studying Giant Steps for years, and was psyched when the piano player called the tune a few rehearsals back. We do our own arrangement, which is a bit slower and with a piano and bowed bass intro and outro, really laying on those harmonies. That means you can’t just slalom over the changes, you have to get in there. For the past few weeks I’ve been working toward an approach to the solo that’s less an imitation of Coltrane and more hard bop, more my own. But I was still in the zone of being focused on not loosing my place. Well over the course of the week I took out my horn a couple times and woodshedded the piece, which is something that I rarely do. So when the time came on Saturday I was much more free and relaxed, and more able to find and string together and develop ideas. We did two takes, each better than the last. Everyone in the band said I nailed the solo. I can hardly wait to hear the tapes.

Lizzy’s had a couple concerts as well. One night last week was her school’s Christmas concert. The new school has a much bigger music and arts program than her old one, so the lineup included a brass choir, a dance group, the chorus (in which Lizzy sings) a string ensemble and a concert band. Heavy emphasis on classical music including alot of Germans: Mozart, Handel, Bach, Hayden and those guys. A pretty high level of musicianship overall. The concert band did Leroy Anderson’s Fesitval of Carols, which I really enjoyed since I played that in my high school band.

Then last night was a vocal performance by the advanced singers in Lizzy singing and theatre group. Again a heavy emphasis on the classical, including some operetta and some legit heavy opera. The performance was in the church with the amazing reverb. I’d never heard Lizzy do a recital piece before, but she’s gotten really good. A high, strong soprano. A-level on a grade 6 NYSMA piece. Two of her friends in the group are senior and both are starting as music majors in college next fall. They did three songs each, very excellent. One more show to go, which is the Pageant at Michelle’s school.

LEFT HOOK is now on break for the holidays. We have a list of seven or so new tunes to get together for January. I’m amazed at how much audiences like Blue Oyster Cult, so I want to get another hard rock, proggish 80’s tune on the list. Look for us to start gigging out again in the New Year!

Caroling Caroling Near and Far

It was a busy weekend. Friday nite we continued on our quest to watch all the Lord of the Rings movies, which we began around Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen them in a couple of years, so they’re fresh again. Up to the middle of The Two Towers now. Jazz on Saturday had been moved to an earlier time slot, but is sounding better than ever after a few weeks off and a rusty start. We want to record our next practice to try and get some gigs. I’m gonna have to really learn how to play Giant Steps now. Yikes!

On Saturday nite we got our Xmas tree and all of the decorations up. This was complicated by the fact that our old tree stand was kaput, and after an hour of trying we had to face the fact it would not hold up the tree no matter what we did. So we had to run out and get another tree stand Saturday night, and even then it was hard to get the tree up straight. But we muddled through somehow. Sunday evening Jeannie and Michelle put up a lego train around it. Choo-choo!

Sunday morning I was in the city, teaching an origami session at the Museum of Natural History. It was more airplanes and spaceships, pretty much the same stuff I taught at MIT a few weeks ago. But in the meanwhile I diagrammed two more models: my Astronaut and my Space Probe. Both came in right around 25 steps.

This session was also webcast. It was my first time doing that and it went well. They provided a camera on a stand pointing down at the table, coupled to a computer running a group video chat so I could easily teach both the people in the room and the ones on the internet at the same time.

The level of folders, at least the local ones, was not at the MIT level. They were low intermediate at best, and some didn’t know alot of the basics. So a few of my models were actually pretty challenging for them. Still, we got thru four: the Astronaut, Rocketship III, UFO II and Space Pod, and all the students did well. It was a good learning experience as an author and teacher. I was wondering if these models might be too hard for a book targeted at non-expert folders. My conclusion is that some may be tough for a raw beginner, but with just a little experience most folders should not alot of fun and have much trouble.

Michelle came with me and took a class. She never misses a chance to do an origami event these days. She folded a really cool mouse, and then made about a dozen of them in rainbow colors. People are telling me now what a good folder she’s become.

This evening Lizzy and Michelle sang at a Lessons and Carols service at the church in Bronxville. It was a large group, anchored by the church choir Lizzy recently joined, and augmented by the children’s chorus from YAA, a really good organist on a great pipe organ, and a brass and timpani ensemble. Apparently today before the show was the only time all three sub-groups rehearsed together.

This is the first time I heard the choir, and I must say there are excellent, truly at a professional level. Lizzy is one of four first sopranos, and the youngest person in the choir. There are two other girls from her youth group but most are adults. They were doing very advanced and complex arrangements with all kinds of counterpoint and harmonies, lots of suspended and other non-triadic intervals, call-and-response things, interleaving voices, and they pulled it all off beautifully. Covered alot of emotional territory too, from haunting to joyous. I only know about three of the songs, but it was the best thing I’ve heard in a while. Also today I learn that unlike the Catholics, the Episcopalians still dress nicely to go to church.

Bonkers in Yonkers

Last weekend the Left Hook Played the Bryn Mawr Tavern in Yonkers. Nice place, good crowd. Easy parking, and they let us run a tab and then didn’t charge us for drinks. I’m happy to say that the band is getting to the point where it’s predictable we’re going to sound good. All those little things we’ve been working on – beginnings and endings, tempos, dynamics, vocal harmonies and balance, are all coming together now automatically, without thinking, so we can focus more on performing and interacting with the crowd. It’s good too that our set seems to be working, at least for the kinds of crowds we get at this kind of bar. Pretty much every song we have people dancing and singing along. Some of the ladies were very, uh, friendly and enthusiastic, which was quite flattering, but then again they were drunk too.

In a completely random encounter, my local UPS guy was in the audience. He came up to me between sets, said he knew me, sees me rollerblading around the neighborhood. I told him he delivered the speakers he’s hearing the band thru. Our guitar player Gary also drives a delivery truck, so they bonded over that like they’re part of some secret brotherhood.

A long time ago I had a bass player who drove a delivery van as his day job. One day he delivered a bomb to a doctor’s office. Learned about it on the news that night. Quit the next day.

I now have three gig’s worth of audio and video to sort thru. I hope to put up some new clips on the web site soon. Meanwhile we’re all taking a break for Thanksgiving and learning a batch of new songs. We have gig coming up in a couple weeks back at Fisherman’s Net, but it may be a private party. I’ll keep you posted. Beyond that, the search for more gigs and bigger venues continues. Onward and upward!