Restaurant hiatus

So, it looks like me and MV will be on hiatus from playing up at the restaurant for the next little while. It's funny to think that I've been playing live jazz and r&b up there for well over 6 years. Good atmosphere and good people.

Cheers.

Suzuki and Bed

I find when things get busy in life, you really need to prioritize and organize what is most important.

First Things First.

For me, I have found that I always wanted to pass down my joy for music with my kids. With work and gigs taking a significant portion of that time away, it was imperative that I found a vehicle that would channel these skills and values.

Enter the Suzuki method.

This is a wonderful way of passing down music from parent to child, with a lot of learning commencing between the two. It is a method that heavily involves the parent, regardless of that parent's musical skill level. The emphasis is more on building a relationship between student, instructor, and parent. Although, the process may seem slow, the rewards are bountiful and timeless. In fact, the one-on-one time between parent and child is its own unique reward in which price can be tagged. A parent gets to learn with their child a skill and a language that few get to learn; which may down the road be a source of income or a means of livelihood.

What I have taken from this program is that routine is key; both in my children's musical education and also in mine. I have learned more about my children's character and their tendencies. How one would like to get to the end of the piece or how another wants every note to be exact. One will lose focus at any given opportunity; another will stay focused regardless of distraction. I share in my children's frustrations when learning something new and celebrate with them when they overcome a difficulty. We have moments of laughter and moments of pain, but we go through these roller-coaster moments together.

In our home, practice time is just part of the routine before bed time. But it is quality time that we get to share every day.

Children of Eden Feb 11-27

It's been a long time since my last post, but I thought I'd throw this out to you.

I'll be playing bass in Scarborough Music Theatre's "Children of Eden", a musical based on a book by John Caird, loosly based on the book of Genesis; music and lyrics by Stephen Swartz (Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, and the film Prince of Egypt).

Here's the details:
February 11th, 12th, 13th at 8pm
February 14th at 2pm
February 18th, 19th, 20th
February 21st at 2pm
February 25th and 26th at 8:00pm

All shows at Scarborough Village Theatre
3600 Kingston Rd (Markham Rd & Kingston Rd)
Scarborough, ON
M1M 1R9

Box Office 416-267-9292


For more information about this production, visit www.theatrescarborough.com
For more info on Children of Eden, visit Wikipedia


Hope to see you there.

It's All Gone

On Sunday, I was having a printer problem at home. It was basically a driver issue with the new update for my OS that I downloaded onto my ibook. Well, the last time I had this problem, I re-installed the original OS X Tiger.

No problem, right?

Maybe in my exhaustion from my trail race on Saturday, or from practicing my bass for the past hour on a Sunday morning, or a combination of the two, I made a bit of a mistake in the re-installation.

Instead of installing OS X Tiger, I went ahead and re-installed the original OS X Panther. After installing this OS, everything that I had saved on my computer could not be found.

It was all gone.

Thousands of pictures dating as far back from my wedding of five years ago all the way up to our trip to Mystic, CT had completely disappeared. Music that I had downloaded and purchased had been completely wiped. Videos that I had created of my son's first steps had mysteriously vanished.

Now, I don't remember if there was an option that I should have left unchecked, but what I do know is that this is not the type of lesson to learn the hard way. Just last week, I was walking through a retail store having every intention of walking out with an external hard drive but in my cautiousness, opted to buy it at another time. I had been talking to wife about how we needed to backup all our files just in case something happened to the computer.

Missed opportunity.

Well, my only hope for salvaging some lost data is to check in with a store the specializes in Macs. Maybe in my haste of trying to fix a driver, all my data is saved in a different partition of my hard drive that was created in the installation of the OS.

Although, I doubt it.

To Mystic and back

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket." In my case, I shouldn't have placed all my trust into my GPS.

As a last minute decision, I decided to take the family down for a road trip to Mystic, Connecticut. What's in Mystic? Well, there is a gorgeous aquarium filled with aquatic animals like beluga whales and sea lions, plenty of places to explore and learn more about aquatic animal life; perfect for the kids. But to be perfectly honest, this trip was designed for the sole purpose of visiting a double bass shop for myself. A little out of the ordinary? Absolutely. But, when you're considering to make a serious investment, you want to know in your gut that it was the right one. Sometimes, you need some concrete evidence rather than what you read on a web page.

Back to the GPS.

Call it what you may. Whether it be ignorance, gullibility, male bravado, or just plain laziness, I felt that the GPS would get us to Mystic, CT the fastest way possible without any problems. Well, the route that we took should have only taken us 10 hours, but thanks to the unfailing faith in this device, it took us about 13.5 hours to get down Mystic. Well, I should have figured out that things were a little fishy when we constantly kept seeing signs pointing us to New York City. This held especially true when hit New Jersey. Now, I was under the impression that New York City was easily avoidable, but when I saw signs welcoming us to Staten Island, I knew we were up for a bit of an adventure. We found ourselves weaving off and on NYCs many bridges late in the evening as well as trying to navigate through its busy Manhattan, Bronx, and Brooklyn streets. After an hour of getting discombobulated in this enourmous metro-maze, we found ourselves back on the interstate.

Now, you would also think that the GPS would help you avoid traffic. Again, such was not the case. From what I found out from the locals, anyone that's been on I-95 at any given day knows that that freeway is constantly under constrution. At 10:00pm on a Sunday night, there were a number of sections on I-95 straight into Connecticut where two lanes would be under repair forcing traffic to mergge into one lane. This slowed us down to a stop many times. If we were going any slower, we would be moving backwards. Pulling into the hotel was absolute bliss having been in the car for over 13 hours, especially knowing full well that I would have the chance to but my head down to rest.

Lesson learned: Bring a map.

After a long drive through the night, the next daywould have to include a place where the kids could walk around and explore was an absolute must. Enter Mystic's Aquarium. We all had the opportunity to learn about Beluga whales, sea lions, penguins and many different types of fish. Granted, the kids really just wanted the chance to run around and be kids. After lunch, we all headed in to Upton Bass in Stonington, a couple of miles east of Mystic.

I went in on my own into Upton while my wife stayed with the kids where they could just run around and play and to make sure that they would not disturb me and those working at Upton Bass.

When I first walked in I knew that I was going into a shop that I was not accustomed to. Most violin shops that I've gone to are filled with violins and cellos with a couple of double basses; here it was quite the opposite with just a few violins hanging high on the walls acting as crown moulding. The double bass was the focus of this shop and its passion. Many double basses lined the walls as well as those that stood center-stage on stands in the middle of the display room which grabbed my eye once I first walked through the door. I had the opportunity to just walk around and take the time and look at all the basses that they had on the display floor.

I had a chance to meet Jack who spent a great deal of time with me giving me a tour of Upton's workshop. I had a chance to see how their basses are created from start to finish as well as the basses that they were restoring. Jack has a wealth of knowledge about building and repairing and has a great passion for the double bass. Although, I do regret not having the opportunity to see him play.

I was also given the opportunity to play a bass that was under the property of Tony Falanga (bassist with Ornette Coleman). After playing my first note, I knew that this bass was special. It had a clarity and warmth that could cut through molasses with its brilliant attack. It was difficult to put this bass down and it just did not seem right to try to audition any other basses after this one. Playing arco on this bass was also a pleasure, but I felt self-conscious because my brain and hands have made the switch to playing in fifths. Furthermore, I tend to get a little insecure in my abilities when playing in front of other players (it's just in my nature to feel that way).

I had the chance to play Falanga's bass in the back room where basses were being worked on before they were shipped out as well as see an aluminum bass. It seems that there is a lot of work put in to every bass that they produce and there is much care into every little detail before a bass is shipped out. Having made the trek out has reassured me that this is where I would like to purchase my next bass.

The road trip back was so much easier since I spent the night writing down Google Map's directions home. Even with a long stop-over in Buffalo, we still made it home in less time than it took us getting down to Connecticut that Sunday night.

So, what did I take away from this trip? Well, I found out just how resiliant my family is with long road trips. What was already a long trip could have been made longer with loud, cranky kids yelling the whole trip. I also found that everything about Upton Bass is first-class. Lastly, a GPS's driver should be updated regularly and should not be your only option.

Now, to save up some money for a new bass.

UB Professor Poplar Deluxe continued

Thought I'd share what I last posted with a few images and videos.








I'm finding it very difficult to keep focused with this on my mind.

Upton Bass - UB Professor POPLAR Deluxe

In my pursuit for a mid-level double bass, I found Upton Bass String Instrument Corporation in Stonington Conneticut. Upton Bass is a retailer and wholesale manufacturer of quality products tailored to the double bassist.

I spoke to Eric a couple of weeks ago and he basically pointed me in the direction of their UB Professor POPLAR Deluxe Double Bass. On top of that, they would build/assemble the bass according to certain specs that would work best for me. You could even say that I would have a hand in helping build a bass for me.



Anyway, here's a little bit more about this bass:

Select hand carved German Spruce top, slab cut Poplar flat-back & sides, inlaid purfling. A great 3-in-1 instrument...can we call it an OLD sound in a new bass.

Poplar has not been a common choice for recent commercial instrument making; however, Cremonese masters of centuries ago recognized poplar's acoustical merits. Stradivarius, Giuseppe Guarneri, and others used poplar to create masterful instruments during a truly golden age of instrument making.
The UB Professor POPLAR Deluxe pays homage to the master builders of yesteryear by sporting a solid poplar flat-back and sides. The Prof. Poplar Deluxe Double Bass produces a warm, lush tone with incredible clarity and projection. The flat-back construction and solid spruce top generate a remarkable immediacy in response-both arco and pizzicato. The sum of all the parts makes for an instrument that is equally impressive in orchestral, jazz, and solo performance. Collegiate bassists and working professionals can be required to play an incredible array of styles in many settings. With the UB Professor Poplar Deluxe Double Bass, moving from the solo spotlight, to the orchestral section, and then onto the smoky jazz club can be done with ease!


It seems like this may be a Bass that covers all my musical areas.