Musical Healing

I really don't think that most people realize what someone must go through to try and make a living as a musician. My guess is that most people think all we do is party and get up at 1PM the next day, etc.

Nothing could be farther from the truth...at least regarding us SERIOUS musicians.

But amidst all the stress, sacrifice, and long hours, every now and then there is that special gig that reminds you of why you do it all. Well, this past weekend I had the incredibly rare fortune of having 2..yes count them...2 very special gigs that were back to back and were nothing short of magical for me.

The first gig took place this past Friday night on march 27th, 2009. I performed in a concert with the great blues artist Gail Storm at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center on Long Island, New York. What a concert that was! I always have fun playing with Gail, but this was on a whole other plain of reality!

The best part for me wasn't just how well we all played together and the fun the four of us had, but how so many people came up to me after the show and commented on how much they enjoyed our performance. That really made my night!

Then, the next night on Saturday, I had the pleasure of performing with rock n' soul artist Christina Gaudet at the Bitter End in New York City. Man, what a show!

Christina really pulled out all the stops and had her FULL 11 piece band. There is no question, based on the audience reaction and all the compliments I received afterwards that we rocked the house!

Those two gigs were something that I needed about now. Just a little reminder of why I go through all that I do. It's all about that incredible and inexplicable feeling that you get when a performance is beyond the norm and enters the realm of magical! It's receiving all the love, positive energy and adoration from an audience that is totally into you and what you're doing. And to think that I had the extreme fortune of experiencing that twice in one weekend! Usually, I think most of us musicians consider ourselves lucky if we experience that sort of thing even just once in a year!

Those two gigs were just what I REALLY needed about now...some musical healing!

What EVERY Musician Needs!

I'm actually about to leave my house to go to a rehearsal in Brooklyn, but I just wanted to take a second and put up a post about a little device that I think every single musician should have...a GPS unit.

I've had the TomTom One second edition (pictured on the left) for about 2 years now and I can't sing enough praises about it! It's been a very helpful tool for me and I honestly can't see how I've been doing as much traveling as I have been for gigs without it.

By no means is this going to be a review or an endorsement for TomTom products, or whatever, but I do think that any serious musician who is on the road a lot should really consider having a GPS unit as important as having their instrument for the gig.

As a "gadget guy" I had been wanting a GPS for a longtime, but thought they were too pricey and really didn't want to spend the money on one since I could always just print up directions from yahoo or google maps.

Then something happened to change my mind.

I was on my way to a gig deep in upstate New York. I was just getting through a confusing section of the highway when I came across the part in my printed up directions that said, "turn onto local road"...we've all seen that one! The only problem was it was a really weird exit, traffic was bad with people driving fast, and there was no obvious indicator as to which turn was the correct one off of the exit because there was a succession of 3 or 4 turns and none of them had street signs or names!

I had no time to think and in the middle of trying to reread the directions I nearly got into an accident. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I began to think back to the times that I had encountered a similar problem. Realizing that buying a GPS unit would be cheaper than dealing with medical bills, I went to Staples the very next day and picked up my TomTom One.

It's been great! In over 2 years of VERY heavy usage, I can count only 6 or 7 times that it was either wrong or couldn't supply me with the exact address. But in all those cases, it still got me to within 5 minutes of where I was suppose to be. I always take a print out of the venue's address, phone number, and contact person anyway so that I can adjust if there is a problem with the directions from the GPS.

So anyway, that's my little rant about having a GPS. And like I said, it's what EVERY musician needs!

I have a new respect for some of the great studio musicians out there - the cats who are involved with several projects and manages to kick butt in ALL OF THEM!

In short order, I have rehearsals with the Gail Storm Blues Band with all kinds of material to learn for a concert next week, rehearsals with the other sax player and then the full ensemble of the "rock and soul" artist Christina Guadet, material I need to have together for a private function, and then there's always the material in my quartet that I really need to work on. I'm still haunted by the mental lasp I had when we last performed "Always", one of my own compositions, and I forgot how to play the B section!

The fact of the matter is that it's a blessing to be this busy. There are plenty of cats out there that wish they had some extra things going on, so I'm certainly grateful.

Gail Storm's stuff is great and very musical - lots of dynamics, lots of using your ears, and not to mention playing with her, Joe Vicino the guitarist, and Bernice the drummer is a blast beyond a blast. We'll be performing at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center next week and I know we will bring the house down!

Christina Guadet's material is very fun to play and I have to be careful because my part is arranged and there is another sax player as well. Him and I need to be well in sinc with things because there are some timely hits and parts that don't repeat themselves too much. In short, it's a lot to have to memorize. We'll be at The Bitter End in Manhattan next week, a day after Gail's gig.

What I love about this is that I can try and achieve my goal of being able to play in any genre of music that I'm asked to play in, and sound like I belong in that genre and yet can still sound like it's me.

Michael Brecker was my hero when it came to that. He could play in any genre of music and sound like he belonged to it, but you could still tell it was Michael Brecker's playing from a mile away!

I think the endeavor of any musician should be to understand the "language" of the genre of music that he or she is asked or hired to perform in, but to still find a way to let their personality shine through.

This is a tough challenge to be sure, but one that I know I'm looking forward to meeting in my two gigs next week!

Coming Up for Air

Man, I have been busy beyond believe of late! It's getting increasingly difficult to actually function because of how dense my schedule has become and how much I'm trying to juggle.

I have to admit that I'm feeling both mentally and physically drained. Much of my hustle has been in trying to get more gigs to compensate for the loss of my wife's job. But I've also been busy with trying to help my wife start her own business, which is causing me to take away from running my own. And then there's my website - I've been trying to get the redesign done since this past November, but I just can't get any time to myself.

And of course, in the backdrop of all of this are my attempts to get a more regular practice routine in and my campaign to loose some weight.

I don't think I'd mind being this busy if I had more money coming in to show for it, but that isn't the case.

Probably what I need at this point is a vacation so I can come up for some air!!!!

All in all, I think things will start to calm down some once I finish my website's redesign and my wife becomes more autonomous with her business. Since she is new to being self employed, she doesn't yet know how to market herself, etc.

Despite the fact that I have to spend a lot of time helping her out with her business that I should be spending on my own business, I'm glad that she is doing this. I have told her for years that the great thing about being self employed is that you can't fire yourself and you don't have to worry about coming in from your lunch break and suddenly being handed a pink slip because the company is "down-sizing" to save money!

In any case, I think I need to sit down and figure out a more rigid daily schedule so I can attempt to be more efficient (if that is even possible) and get more done with less.

Even When There's A Problem, There is No Problem

Yesterday I did a gig at a jazz festival that takes place in the vineyards of the east end of Long Island.

I got up very early in the morning to pack my car up with the sound system and other gear. I even had plenty of time to practice a bit before I left. Check out the entry on my practice log. Anyway, I left a little later than I wanted to, but still in time to set up the sound system and be able to start the hit in time. Things were going good until...

...at 1:00pm, basically an hour before we were to start the performance (I was still driving to the gig) the bass player called. He was a cat that I called as a sub because my usual guy couldn't make the gig. At first I thought he was calling me to tell me that he was there or something. That wasn't the case. He was calling to tell me that he couldn't make the gig because his car got towed.

Of course this was not what I needed to hear an hour before the gig and when I still had to be worried about things like putting the sound system together, impatient event coordinators, etc. I immediately got off the phone with him and called a bassist who I thought would be around and really the only guy that I knew who stood a reasonable chance of making it there in enough time so that we would only have a 10 or 15 min late start.

Long story short, the bassist arrived just as I was finishing the head of the first tune. The whole gig was off balance for me, though. I had to readjust the set list on the fly, I ended up needing to play some standards that I hadn't played in a long time. I try to tell myself that it shouldn't matter and that I need to just be professional, but when your mental game is thrown off it's tough to recover!

So what is the point of all this? I think that I need to work on the mental aspect of my playing as well. Something I've long known about, but now I have to do something about before I end up having a train wreck on a more important gig (though, my philosophy is that EVERY gig is important). My mental policy is now, "even when there's a problem, there is NO problem".

I need to learn to shut out snags and just move on. Actually, from the natural process of maturity and getting older, I am much better at it now than I was in my early to mid twenties. But now I think I should really work on it because in the end the only thing that should ever really matter is what comes out of the bell of my horn.

Practice Log - 3/6/09 | Part I

This entry is for the practice session I did late last night before I went to bed. The past few days I have been working on the tunes that I will have to perform later today.

Tunes:

1. Head and changes of "Surely" (an original composition by Kenny MacKenzie)
   used Band-in-a-Box and also went over changes on the piano
   1 hr
2. Head and changes of "Sing a Song of Song (by Kenny Garrett)
   used Band-in-a-Box and did comparison with Kenny Garrett's CD recording

Practice Log - 3/5/09 | Part II

This log entry is to make note of the practice session I had last night but forgot to note in this online practice log.


Tunes Continued:

1. Head and changes of "Hope" for a second time (one of my original tunes)
   10 min
2. Head and changes of "Ro" (an original tune by my friend Nick Russo)
   20 min

Misc:

1. Sight reading with metronome at 100 bpm
   10 min

A New Personal Goal

Right now, I'm sitting in my studio in between students and I just happened to look at myself in the mirror...holy cow...I have gained quite a bit of weight!

All the late night meals after gigs, general crappy eating and no exercise is definitely taking a toll on me. Gone are the days of my 6'3" 205lbs athletic frame from college, that's for sure.

It's looking to me like I'm going to have to add a little something to my list of to do and find some time to get a good exercise routine into my schedule. And, I'm going to have change the way I eat. I have really been eating like crap for about the last 10 months or so.

Realistically, I don't think my metabolism or my genetics will allow me to return to my college weight of 205lbs, but I do think that I can reach and look good at 215lbs - 220lbs. And even that will take a lot of work...probably a good full year's worth of hard work and sacrifice.

Well, no time like the present..right after I finish this Ginger Ale!

Just Kiddin'!

Practice Log - 3/5/09 | Part I

Warm Up:

1. harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   10 min
2. long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   5 min
3. harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
   10 min
4. long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   5 min

Technique:

1. Major scales in thirds (up, down, up-down, down-up variations)
   6 keys ( C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db).
   16th notes with metronome @ 100bpm
   15 min
2. Bebop Pivot Points in all 12 keys
   Pivots on 5 and 4
   cycle of 4ths with 2 beat - 1 beat - o beat rest in between keys
   8th notes and then 16th notes with metronome @ 100pbm
   15 min

Tunes:

1. Head and changes of "Hope" (one of my original compositions)
   10 min
   

Self Analysis 3/4/09

Lately, I've noticed that I'm a little sloppy with my execution of certain things. Also, my sight reading has dropped quite a bit along with my endurance. Not to mention, my altissimo range seems a bit compromised.

I guess to put it another way, I'M A MESS! I recently told one of my students that I estimate that I'm only playing at about 65% of my previous peak level of roughly three and a half years ago, which pretty much coincides with when I bought my house. The past few years have seen the most erratic practice routine of my career and I have to reign it in now, before even more damage is done. Being a home owner, and now a father, takes up a lot of time, but I need to work out some time to practice on a more consistent basis again.

I think it's important to do a periodic self analysis like this.

At any rate, I've decided on starting a "Back to Basics" practice routine for myself. I will go over the things that are fundamental that I haven't touched in at least 7 years or so.

On the one hand I feel like I'm going backwards. But that's my ego talking. I know that in order to get back to the level I was at a couple of years ago, I need to get back to basics for a month or two - or how ever long it takes for me to get back to where I was at. From there I can then move on and try to surpass the level I feel I was at when I was at my previous peak.

My New Page

I've been working double and even triple time trying to get my new website completed. I've been working on it since around November of last year and it's still not done!

Actually, it's not even that the new design is all that complicated. I'm still trying to keep the design relatively simple and free of too much Flash media because I know that there is still a large number of my fans who have computers that are "older" and might not be able to handle some of the new things that you can do with websites. It's just that time has not been an ally of mine...particularly since becoming a father. Not to mention the amount of work I must put in on a daily basis to keep my performance schedule busy enough to pay the bills.

However, I may finally be able to launch the new website within a week. I wanted to have it done before my March 7th performance at Long Island Winterfest, but I think a more realistic target would be a launch by sometime early next week.

I've got the "Fan" section of my website about 95% complete, with only a few loose ends to tie up. There are some nice features that I think will cause visitors to want to come back for more, but I still have to start the design work for the sections that will be dedicated to presenters/booking agents, members of the press, and students. One cool feature I'm going to have in the "Student" section will be a link to my practice log, which is a part of my blog, so that students or curious musicians can see what it is that I find myself needing to practice and how I organize my practice time.

It's been a lot of hard work, but I think I will have a website that I can be proud of when it's all said and done.

Fun Over the Airwaves

I'm just returning from a radio interview I had for WLIU 88.3 FM out of Southampton, NY. It's the first radio interview I've done since this past August and it was sure fun! No doubt because of the liveliness of the hostess, Bonnie Grice, and the quick wit of the other guest...a good friend of mine and a true patron of jazz, Steve Bard.

I haven't spoken to either of them in nearly 2 years, but you would never know that from listening to the interview, which lasted for about 20 minutes and featured a couple of tracks from my CD Front and Center.

It was great to have a chance to crack a couple of jokes and talk about jazz with a couple of first class people who really care about the music.

The interview was scheduled by the organizers of an event I'm performing in called Long Island Winterfest. It's a great event because the people that come are true jazz fans and it helps out both us artists and the vineyards that the event is held in.

Anyway, the interview went very well and the 3 of us shared great chemistry. It certainly helped to put a better light on my day since I am now going on 36 hours with no sleep! I just could not sleep last night and I barely got 2 hours the night before...I'm exhausted! In fact, I think I'll be hitting the sack now and saving my practice time for when I'm a little more coherent.

My Own Voice

I just got finished watching most of a DVD one of my students let me borrow that featured the great alto saxophonist Phil Woods during a master class at NYU.

He said many things that gave me pause to wonder and that stuck in my head. One thing was a comment he made to some cats from a small jazz combo - typical quartet setting (sax, piano, bass, and drums). What he said reminded me of what I heard Miles Davis say in an interview once. Phil told the young cats that it sounded like they were playing straight ahead bebop and that they were playing it safe and not taking any chances.

One thing he said in particular grabbed me: "I don't want you to please me, I want you to upset me!" As simple as that may sound on the surface, that is actually real steep.

Here Phil Woods is, a bebop player from the old guard, and even HE is saying that the music (jazz) must move forward! He also made comments about finding your "voice". That's a little something a lot of the young cats I meet should pay heed to.

Only 7 or 8 years ago, I can remember being depressed because I didn't sound like Michael Brecker or have that "classic alto sax tone" like Cannonball or Bird. But then people like Todd Coolman, Dan Faulk, Don Braden, Vincent Herring, Dick Oats, and others told me that there was nothing wrong with my playing style or my tone. They got me to understand that the goal in jazz and indeed any art is to find YOUR OWN VOICE. In their view, I was fortunate because I had found it so early.

Now, by no means does that mean that I don't ever have to practice again, that I don't have anything left I need to work on, or that I'm already as good as I possibly can be...I'm a long way from that for my own taste! But I can at least be comfortable in knowing that I'm getting across to listeners as ME and not as someone I wish I could sound like.

Practice Log 3/1/09 | Part I

Warm Up:

1. harmonics on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   10 min
2. long tone exercise on alto sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   5 min
3. harmonics on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60 bpm
   10 min
4. long tone exercise on soprano sax with tuner + metronome @ 60bpm
   5 min