Musician's
Diary 1999 back |
 |
|
Jump to a specific date this week
About this Diary This diary is a continuation of the public diary I began as part of the Seattle Guitar Circle 1999 At-A-Distance course in October of 1999. In general, I prefer to avoid any intentional self-censorship in painting a picture of the real details, interactions, and events that I have experienced with the extended circle of musicians with whom I interact. Part of this process may involve the use of the real names of some of the people with whom I work and play with. Part of this process may also involve dangling prepositions. I am flexible about the former. The latter is simply a reflection of my ultra-tasteless-white-trash grammar disguised as flimsy poetic license. If you find your name mentioned in these pages and you would prefer to remain anonymous (for whatever reason), please email me and ask me to refrain from using your name here. Or, I will also gladly change your name to initials if you prefer, or I will even completely refrain from speaking about you in this public forum, as you wish. Monday November 29 It's 1:45am, and I just finished laying down a cheesy fender rhodes track on the current R. Chris Murphy project. Chris and I were both complaining about our lack of roadies - we had to haul the heavy-mother full size Rhodes piano into the living room from Chris's whale-size van before the tracking could begin. This process began at 11:45pm this evening. Did I mention it was raining outside while we did this? After lugging this tonnage into the studio, setting up, getting levels, and hearing the tune a few times, Chris's instruction to me was to "play like you are playing in a bad high school prom dance band, and you are the keyboard player who thinks seventh chords are cool, and you think that everyone at the dance will think you're cool for playing fancy chords, but in reality, no one will notice or care." Mission accomplished. * * * SGC rehearsal tonight was fun and lively. Christian borrowed Bill Van Buren's Ovation and he will be joining us as a guest for our shows this week at the Phinney Winter festival and at Mr. Spot's on Saturday evening. He showed us some corrections, fine tuning, and pointers on his piece "Where it Goes, We go" which we have been working on for the past couple of months. Given that I introduced all of the component parts to Bob, Dean, Jax, and Curt from memory a few months ago, (including parts I never even learned or played,) I'm surprised there were not more corrections... Anyway, the piece is really a great addition to our repertoire. The tempo has also jumped up a couple of notches. Gaucho energy is flying high in Seattle. * * * We also ran "Cultivating the Beat" twice, once at the beginning of the evening, and once towards the end, reinforcing our observation that the second time through, we usually deliver a better performance. It's such a great piece -- in many ways, we are still just beginning to sink our teeth into it as a group. I need to play this every time we rehearse to keep it growing in my hands... In terms of length, complexity, fingerings, speed, and non-linearity, it may be the toughest piece I've ever taken on. We need this piece. It's one of the pieces that is really pushing our limits right now. * * * I have a 9am meeting in building 31 with the WinCE team. What a product name: Windows CE (WinCE.) But a more important question: What am I doing awake? * * * Tuesday November 30 Many re-orgs are occurring simultaneously here, both microscopically and macroscopically. My MS work is shifting once again -- this time fairly dramatically -- the sixth time in three years. The dust is not settled on this yet and probably won't be for another few weeks. Does this stress me out? On some level, yes. But on the other hand, what has my life been if not a long series of major changes. My real talent may be that I am a living Adaptive Network. My fingers are also in a bit of a re-org thanks to an intense workout this afternoon and evening with Christian. We spent the late afternoon and evening working downtown on two of his new pieces: "Ramona" and "Peep Show" -- both are asymmetrical heavy metal finger twisters, designed to be played just above the pain threshold in both volume and tempo. Curt and I played tag team with Christian today -- Curt had students in the early evening, so he went home while Christian and I stayed downtown. Every so often, Curt would call us to report on Seattle riot proceedings via cell phone. We finally finished the day when Christian broke a D-string while revisiting "alpha dogs," an Electric Gauchos piece that has not yet seen the light of day (except at one secret cafe, many moons ago...) Tomorrow afternoon, the PRS trio meets with Bill for some major bashing on these new tunes. Rock on, Wayne. * * * I spent the later part of this evening debugging some SGC website file size limitation bugs. Mindless web maintenance occasionally eats chunks of my life. After about an hour, I gave up and went back to my unplugged PRS to review the work of the day, and to get these 15 patterns into my body. Still have some personal work to do on these. In fact, that is a gross understatement. What I have covered with Christian in the past three days could keep me busy for the next few months. Did I say months? Perhaps I meant years. * * * I have observed that, after 14 years of intense work in Guitar Circles, I can learn and memorize complex GC standard tuning parts (by rote) rather quickly. My short and long term memory of these parts is also pretty good. But my main weakness as a player is in reliable execution of that which is just at or beyond my center of gravity. For example, my upper comfortable right hand speed limit is really sixteenth notes at 112 bpm. And it has been stuck in this range for about 4 years. And, on average, I am completely unreliable with "Cultivating the Beat." So, the question lurking like a stick poking in my side is this: what will it take to ascend to the next octave? The state of my hands seems to vary from moment to moment -- sometimes, this seems almost arbitrary. At times, I feel like I have an excellent connection with each finger, and there is strength, speed, and flexibility, ready to fly with little necessary warm up. At other times, my fingers might as well be meatballs flailing away at the end of my elbows, and I have to warm up and work to achieve even a basic level of competence. Harmonically, I do pretty well with diatonic spontaneous melodic composition and soloing. But I am not really a 'soloist.' In fact, the truth is, that I am not really a "guitarist." I play guitar, I study guitar, I work with the guitar, but there are guitar players (like myself) and then there are guitarists. Christian is a guitarist. His instrument is an extension of his body, and he speaks in the native tongue of this instrument. For me, guitar is a second language. Within the SGC quintet, Bob is probably a guitarist. Curt is probably a guitarist. That is, these are native speakers. I suspect Jax, Dean, and poor pelota are guitar players -- we visit the sacred island of the guitar, but we don't really live there, or speak the language fluently. Will I get in trouble for thinking these thoughts in public ascii? Oh, probably. But so what. What value will this writing hold if I do not report what I see as I see it. My view is subjective. My opinions are biased by egotism, greed, self-interest, laziness, and a partial view. End of story. But there's a moral: I also love my friends deeply and work my ass off to enable them to succeed with their own aims. Right now, it feels better to tell the truth and suffer the consequences than to pussy foot around and try to avoid stepping on toes. The good news in all of this: playing with Christian is pushing my limits again -- this is both extremely humbling and necessary. I am a competent and thriving guitar player only because I have been fortunate enough to spend time with the generous guitarists who have been patient enough to work with me. * * * So, on a lighter note before bed, some more phunny fotos from the VTV show:
Wednesday December 01 A transitional day today - not just the middle of the week, but the middle of the pending ms reorg. I had some good meetings today to clear up past loose ends. Tomorrow will be all about clearing up future loose ends. * * * Another afternoon of loud electric work with Christian and Curt, this time, with Bill R bashing away like a maniac on drums. Everyone was in ear plugs today except Christian. He was only wearing a smile. "Ramona" and "Peep Show" are shaping up nicely. Curt has lessons all day tomorrow, so Bill, Christian and I will continue making progress in the late afternoon, and we will hook up with Curt later in the evening. * * * I am exhausted. I was in the downtown rehearsal space from 3:30 - 11:30 today with an hour break for dinner... My fingers are also feeling tired. My whole body aches from extreme use. Rehearsal with the SGC plus guest Christian was the final 2 hours of this extremely musical day. We ran the SGC set that we will be playing on Saturday (first at the Phinney winter festival in the afternoon, then at Mr. Spots Chai house in the evening.) The tempos were on the speedy side tonight, perhaps momentum leftover from the electric sessions? Everyone was tired, but the music and energy was lively none-the-less. Jaxie was smirking wildly a few times, and I could not figure out what was amusing her so much. I guess she was engaged in her own private smirkulation. Today was Dean's second day of work at the Experience Music Project. He seemed very focused on doing the job and going home. Patty is out of town, so not only is he beginning a new job, he is also taking care of Louis by himself this week. Yikes. * * * David Singleton and Diane Aldahl are coming back to Seattle on Saturday for week of BTV work. This will be a major turning point for BTV. Next monday night, they're going down to be part of Mark Long's demo club -- a place to search for potential investors, employees, and strategic partners. * * * A few other major communications today -- Trey left a message about the potential KSER benefit shows in February. I played telephone tag with Peter Dervin again today. Emails from both Martin and Herni today. No time to even really read them, let alone respond. Many conversations to continue tomorrow. For now, time to rest.. * * * Thursday December 02 Major life changing decisions will be made in the next four days. The reorg will be public as of 6am Friday morning and I have do decide which ship to ride on for the next phase of my MS ride. Stress? Nope, just another day in the high stakes high tech worlds which I frequent. The real stress I feel right now is coming from working with Christian -- he continues to push Curt and myself beyond our current musical comfort zones. We both need this badly. We are not on a formal Guitar Craft course right now, but it is clear -- there is Guitar Craft at work here. One of my tasks for next year will be to convert some of my old GC diaries into html for eventual archiving here and on the newly designed Guitar Craft site. For now, this largely secretarial task will have to wait -- my days are simply too full with present moment tasks to spend time re-visiting these snapshots of a struggling/developing musician. * * * I met Christian for dinner downtown -- he spent the afternoon with Bill, working out the drum arrangements for 'Ramona' and 'Peep Show.' Our dinner conversation mostly revolved around logistics in two areas:
After dinner, we drove to Curt's for a short group unplugged PRS practice of the 15 patterns which have been flying around. There is some speculation that these 15 note patterns that we have been working with are the same (or similar) 15 note patterns which RF is working with in Nashville. No way to be sure until we hear what "Larks V" becomes. * * * Speaking of Larks, I had a conference call with Tobin Buttram, Todor Fay, Chanel Summers, and Brian Schmidt today regarding Tobin's progress on a major DirectMusic project which is underway. Wish I could say more. Patience. * * *
Another SGC on VTV photo featuring the prominent buttocks of our sound man, reaching down to EQ our BBE-less system for maximum sonic playability. I play best when:
This desire to play well translates into a slight obsession with getting the sound "right" in monitors. This especially true when I am singing while playing. I sing best when I can hear the crisp and clear high end parts of my voice -- without this, my pitch goes out the window, and I am largely guessing with tone, dynamics, and presence of my voice. When I can hear myself well, it's almost like I have an extra degree of freedom in my singing. When I can't hear myself well, most of my energy goes into worrying about my pitch, tone, and timbre. When I can hear myself well, pitch, tone and timbre take care of themselves, and I can focus on my performance, phrasing, and interpretation. The same is true for my guitar playing. In fact, I think of my guitar playing more as a vocalist than a guitar player. Especially when soloing. On a related note, my BBE 'sonic maximizer' has been on the blink lately. This is one of the tools I use to provide clarity in the monitor mix, so that I can better hear and respond to the subtle pitch and timbre details of my guitar or voice. Without this, the sound becomes a mushy, blurry mess to my ears, and my ability to respond becomes diminished. If I am playing a piece which is really 'in my body' I can generally still deliver a convincing performance, sans BBE and sans subtlety, but with only a prayer and a glimmer of hope that it sounds okay to those listening. * * * Last night, the SB Roadshow team, with special guest, Christian, rehearsed our electric version of 'Greenthumb.' The final section of the piece is a duet (a dialogue) between two guitar soloists. I realized last night that this section works well when the soloists literally "sing" their parts - that is, when the solos have a visceral 'vocal' quality in their phrasing and execution. Spewing trails of 16th notes does not work here -- why? One reason: these solos are an extension of the vocal work which was established earlier in the song. These two dueting soloists represent the characters of the master and the apprentice in the song. Ideally, as in the song, these characters are working together, in conversation, responding to each other in harmony, even pushing each other to a harmonic climax. The version of this on the 'Greenthumb' CD works for me on this level. Horacio Pozzo and I are the Master and Apprentice, respectively. Horacio begins the 'solos' section just after the vocal line "turn on your light and get started" -- he begins with his clear, authoritative picked-note-tone. I follow with my buzzy-thumb solo, and we trade sentences in conversation, learning from each other as we go. By the end of the piece we are "singing" together at the top of our steel stringed lungs while Christian and the rest of the group provide the gorgeous sonic scaffolding from which we leap. * * * Singers sing words which form phrases. These words have meaning and intention. And singers breath between phrases. Solos which are just a spew of finger patterns or notes are meaningless and distracting. One thing I often say to the aspiring musicians I work with in guitar circles: tell a story with your phrases. Each note is a word. Each phrase is a sentence. Did that sentence make sense? Do your stories make sense? Do your stories make you laugh, or cry? Or dance? We tell stories, even with our 'instrumental' music. * * * Bob Williams is a great story teller. His solos have been killing me lately, full of richness, emotion, and detail. His solos tell stories -- and plays his solos like a singer sings -- they breath, they flow. The pulsate with dynamic fluidity. And they respond to the conversation which is already underway in the room around him. * * * This is the difference between music which is 'alive' and that which is simply being mechanically executed. The first has meaning and responds to present context. The second is a spew of random notes, the result of simultaneous monologues. * * * What a great privilege to be playing with a group of excellent, eloquent, and articulate story tellers. Did I mention that we are playing at Mr. Spots Chai house on Saturday evening? * * * Friday December 03 I almost took the day off today. After a relatively sleepless night last night, and a fairly traumatic day of debating and persuasion, I had some excellent resolution in my (formerly) pending ms work decisions. Tonight I will sleep well knowing I stand on solid ground. * * * In the late afternoon, I joined Curt and Christian for another downtown, loud electric run through of our current working set. This was followed by an excellent dinner at my new favorite downtown Chinese restaurant. I miss living in Belltown. Perhaps I will live there again some day. Perhaps next year? * * * David Singleton and Diane Aldahl arrive tomorrow afternoon. The SGC has two gigs tomorrow, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Given my current state of exhaustion, and the busy day tomorrow, I'm going to cut this diary entry short for tonight, change my strings, practice briefly, and go to be early. * * * Saturday December 04 Bill Rieflin called this morning to make plans for rehearsing tomorrow and to ask for Paul Richards email address. I heard about Paul's mother from Curt yesterday, and sent Paul a short email this morning too. I only met Paul's mother once, at Thanksgiving at the Richard's house 10 years ago. She was very sweet and accommodating to the 9 turkeys that Paul brought home with him during the (in)famous League of Crafty Guitarist's 'bogo tour' of 1989. That tour featured myself, Curt Golden, Paul Richards, Hideyo Moriya, Ralph Gorga, Tobin Buttram, and Hernan Nunez traveling across the US and back in two vans with amazing support from John Sinks, Eduardo Galimany, and Betina Nunez. We played gigs where ever and when ever we could including the Whiskey in LA, the Peachtree Arts center in Atlanta 48 hours later, and a bunch of unusual places in between. Who's dumb-ass idea was that anyway? Uh,.... Well, that's a longer story for another time. * * * Load in for the "Phinney Winter Festival" was at noon this morning -- we had hero Walter Harley on sound and load-in assistance again today. And it looked like most of the Seattle Repertoire Circle was in the audience today, lending their listening support. During the high point of our set (Cultivating the Beat), two little boys began dancing in the front row. A new market for SGC music appears: dance band for the grade school circuit. During our acoustic encore (Tony Geballe's classic, derailed) Isabel Williams also became part of the show -- she started swinging wildly in a series of Cirque du Soleil moves using Bob's legs as a maypole while he continued playing on flawlessly. Immediately after our set, hero #2, Frank Sheldon was selling CDs and attending the mailing list at the front of the stage. During load out, Curt and Frank seemed to engage in conversation with a few friendly Phinney neighbors who wanted to know more about our work. This was our second year playing the Phinney Winter Festival, and there was good karma in the air from our show today. An octave up from last year's karate demonstration. Ok, I'll try to refrain from more vague and lame inside jokes.... * * * I spent the middle part of the afternoon fixing a headlight on my white anti-cool toyota gig mobile -- my hands were covered in greasy dirt after this stupid DIY task which I should not have DIM (done it myself.) Wow, I saved about ten bucks. That was a super intelligent move. And got greasy crud all over my hands, clothes, and fingers. Did I mention I'm a total wimp about my hands and fingers? I am. I would have gladly paid ten bucks to keep my hands clean. * * * After completing my ultra-manly project for the afternoon, I went home to prepare for a quick dinner with David and Diane before the second SGC gig this evening. Translation: I took a glorious nap. Their plane must have been late, since they did not call or respond to my messages until about 6:20. We have a meeting tomorrow morning at 11, so we will begin our BTV meetings then instead. Tomorrow evening, we have also been invited to go over and visit the new home of Todor Fay and Melissa Jordan Grey. Todor and Melissa were the founders of the Blue Ribbon Soundworks -- a company that created one of the first interactive music toolsets ('Bars and Pipes' was originally written for the Amiga, and to this day, it still has a cult following of dedicated fans and users.) Their technology has since evolved into the ultra-successful (and completely free!) DirectMusic technology which I often rave about. This technology is changing the way musicians and composers work to render musical 'performances.' I've probably already said too much, here -- most people will not hear anything about DirectMusic for some time, but they will hear the power of DirectMusic over the next few years as PC games begin to take advantage of it's power in rendering high-quality, dyanmic musical scores on the fly. There may even be some DirectMusic surprises in the next year or so... I've been working closely with both Todor and Melissa since in 1996 -- they are a complete joy to work with. And I'm looking forward to seeing their new house. There is a giant blue neon eighth note in the front window of their house -- a sign of the people and the passions that live within. * * * Random gratuitous plug of the day: R. Chris Murphy is off to LA tomorrow to produce and record the new Terry Bozio, Tony Levin, Stevens CD. Then he's off to produce a Swedish band, then an English band. Busy guy these days. More importantly, some idiot volunteered to take him to the airport early in the morning. At 1:45 in the morning, I have to ask: what is wrong with me? * * * Another successful Mr. Spots SGC show tonight. Are you tired of hearing how good the SGC is getting yet? Well, then come see a show, and see for yourself. We just keep getting better and better. One of the guy who asked us for autographs tonight was foaming at the mouth about how the whole world was about to discover us... he is even offering to book a tour of Montana for us. Not exactly my idea of the "whole world," but an interesting idea. There were some very special high-profile guests in the audience tonight (Peg Whitaker, Bill Rieflin, Frankie Sundsten, Greg Sundberg and his wonderful wife, Frank Sheldon, Fred Chalenor, Peter Kardas, Janette Rosebrook, among others) in addition to our special guest on stage: Christian. What to say about the addition of Christian to our show this evening? I have nothing but super sincere superlatives to launch in Christian's general direction. I wish he lived here,... For those who know me, you must already know that I'm working on that one. Did I mention that my friend Christian can really really really play the guitar? The world will one day discover the art and craft of Christian de Santis. * * * Highlights of the set tonight:
This was a group worth seeing and hearing this evening. We sold a pile of CDs and made some new friends this evening. Three of these new friends are worth mentioning: a group of three of the most intensely attentive people in the audience (Erynn, Silvia, and Travis) found out about the show on the web, and came to check it out... I guess we never really know who is reading and responding to our public web work. Unless they come to our shows. * * * After the show, Curt, Bob, Jax, Christian and I went out for some food and drinks in the Mr. Spots neighborhood. Some fun conversations about Bob's teenage theatre career (I'm hoping to get some Phil Collins-esque pictures,) memories of amazing Arden Party (Shakespeare) shows in NYC, warm memories of NY guitarist, and our crafty pal, Renaldo Perez. And some normal off color 'band' humor was flying around as the drinks began to sink in. During the rainy walk back to our cars, some distant Ralphorisms surfacing (aphorisms of lost Crafty Guitarist, Ralph Gorga) surfaced from another era:
* The insane and immor(t)al words of Ralph Gorga, referring to the Claymont Court mansion and barn where we lived for 2+ years from 1989-1991. * * * One closing thought to call up warm fuzzies which may offset the above Ralphorism: It was really great to have Peg Whitaker in the audience again tonight. Something about her presence, her energy, and her beaming smile brings us to life. We have a connection to Peg which is vital and energizing. Somehow, it feels like only the beginning of our work with Peg. But for now, I am going to take her good advice: It's time to sleep. Sunday December 05 SB taxi service was in gear early this morning with a complementary ride to the airport for traveling music producer, R. Chris Murphy. There was a time in my life (about seven years) ago when I was traveling long distances by plane at least a couple of times a month. Any traveling musician knows the ritual. The supposed glamour of world travel wears off very quickly. For me, it is a complete treat to stay in one place -- better yet, to stay home. Travel implies work. Travel disrupts the rhythm of health. Travel assaults my sanity. Travel makes me stupid. Ask Diane Aldahl, now suffering heavily with a bad cold over in the West Coast Bellevue Hotel after stepping off of a plane from England 24 hours ago. For me, being driven to the airport or retrieved from the airport by a friend (rather than via taxi or public transportation) can be a very comforting factor in the totally humiliating process of travel by plane. This is why I am always very happy to offer myself as a taxi service when close friends come or go from Seattle. Seeing a friend at the end of a long journey somehow softens the landing. And being sent off with the gentle good wishes of a friend somehow smoothes out the ballistic process of blasting off into the unknown. Between Chris and myself, the night before a major trip is affectionately known as a "rockslide" night -- this is the time when, no matter how much you plan ahead, no matter how much you work to prepare in the weeks before the trip,... you always end up staying up half the night paying bills, cleaning, doing laundry, organizing papers, packing, double checking details, sending off final emails, and doing one bazillion last minute tasks ordering your affairs before being on the road and away from home. The "rockslide" reference refers to the insane days when I was running an internet startup called "rockslide" where 20 hour work days were the norm, and frequent international travel for extended periods led to these inevitable all-nighters. In my current phase, this is partially why my work is intentionally "local" and "immobile." I can not currently afford the stress and strain that this insane process of a week of preparation followed by a few weeks of suitcase living followed by a week of recovery at home offers. This is also one of the primary motivations behind a vision which Frank Sheldon expressed almost five years ago: Frank described a vision of a "location based performance team." A LBPT is a group which stays and plays within a local region to avoid the extreme physical, emotional, relational, and financial costs associated with traveling the world to play music. The Seattle Guitar Circle is in fact an empirical expression of Frank's LBPT vision. Although, lately, within the extended Seattle Guitar Circle, we rarely use these words "LBPT" any more -- perhaps this is because we don't have to use these words to describe how we work -- it is a given -- this is what we have become, so there is no need to differentiate our work from the former modus operandi of the Wilsons, Los Gauchos Alemanes, the California Guitar Trio, and the League of Crafty Guitarists. World travel is no longer viable or necessary for a this diverse group of musicians who have elected to come to Seattle to work together locally. One by one, the team has arrived here, and a center of gravity has been established. And this gravity is beginning to have a significant effect in the local musical eco-system here. This way of working is actually a fundamental shift in the processes I followed earlier stages of Guitar Craft. In 1986, I began commuting regularly to NYC, West Virginia, and England to work with Guitar Craft groups. In 1993 I began commuting to Germany and South America to continue working with Guitar Craft groups. In 1996, I personally decided that enough is enough: this model is broken -- and my world-wide pilgrimage has completed. Now it is time to say home and continue my pilgrimage in one place. * * * Following my trip to the airport, I met David Singleton, Diane Aldahl, and Steve Enstad at the WC Bellevue Hotel for a long afternoon of intense BTV planning meetings. The bad news: I sacrificed an electric rehearsal with Curt, Christian, and Bill this afternoon in order to get BTV numbers and plans in order for two important meetings tomorrow. The good news: The highlight of our afternoon was a visit to the home of Todor Fay and Melissa Jordan Grey which I mentioned in yesterday's diary entry. Their new home is inspiring. The house itself is a work of art. Even in the dark Seattle rain, the view out their living room window is stunning. And they have agreed to join the BootlegTV board of advisors. Another significant feather in the growing BTV hat. * * * Home fairly early by normal Pelota standards gave me time for a solid hour of practice and time to reflect on my day in ascii. I even had time to notice a certain unnamed Seattle wise-guy is getting quoted in another unnamed musician's higher visibility diary. 8 ^ ) Enough semi-anonymous excitement for one day. * * * Quiet prayers and warm wishes go out across the globe to Pauly, Bert, Bridget, Marti, Valentina, Ferni, Bill, Robert, Debra, Hugh, Frank, Ingrid, and Herni out there fighting ongoing battles at a not-so-distant distance.
|
