It's True

There's a saying.

"Where there's smoke, there's fire".

Well in my case, all talks are true, I will be a father once again. Child number 3 is on the way. Me, I'm extremely excited and hopefully, another child that loves music.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

A little under the weather... Chrono Trigger

Still sick, and it looks like I'll be like this for a while.

Anyway, during this time of "ailment", I've found a bit of time re-connecting with my video game "roots". Mostly games from the 8-bit and 16-bit systems. I never realized how "catchy" some of the themes were. Anyway, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but in 2006, my bass instructor said that he was going to be in Play! A Video Game Symphony. I found a few clips of the performance and one of the games that was being featured was Chrono Trigger. I can't say that I played this game (although my cousin was a huge fan)but based on the music, I wish I had picked up this label. Anyway, enjoy.



I hope to some day be a part of something similar to Play! or VGL. It's something that I've thought long and hard about since I was in high school (12 years since graduation). More on those thoughts later.

Recap: Scarborough Choral Society

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Many thanks to Judy Scott-Jacobs and the Scarborough Choral Society for having me be a part of the "Sounds Of Christmas 2007" concert. It was a blast playing with many wonderful musicians and I hope to be a part of this concert next year. It's one thing to be a part of an orchestra with good players, but it's icing on the cake when those good players are good people.

Thanks to all who came out to watch.

Please visit www.actco.ca/scarboroughchoral to learn more about the Scarborough Choral Society.

Quote of the Week

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
- Peter Drucker

Self-management usually has a co-relation with Self-Control and Reason. In times of sitting in rush-hour traffic, most people, like myself, tend to be lacking in all these categories.
- BassBassDude

Rehearsal

I never realized how much I enjoyed playing in an orchestra.

Last night I had a chance to rehearse with the Scarborough Choral Society in preparation for the Sounds Of Christmas Concert scheduled up at Markham Theatre this Saturday December 8th and Sunday December 9th.

Everything seemed to go pretty well. Like any rehearsal where an orchestra first meets with a choir, there are a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Whether it be cues, notes, or entries, come show-time this weekend, everything should be ready to go. Friday's rehearsal up at the theater will help pull everything together; it will also give everyone involved a better feel on what the sound will be.

Here are the details:
Scarborough Choral Society - Sounds Of Christmas Concert
Markham Theatre For The Performing Arts
171 Town Centre Blvd.
Markham, ON, L3R 8G5

Saturday December 8th 3:00 PM
Saturday December 8th 8:00 PM
Sunday December 9th 2:30 PM

Please visit www.markhamtheatre.ca for more info

Hope to see you there.

My Mistake

This will be brief...

I thought I had a rehearsal last night for Judy's Christmas Concert for December 8th & 9th. With that, I hauled me and my bass out to said rehearsal. It turns out, the rehearsal was for the choir; the orchestra rehearsal was the night before. To sum up, in front of a 20-strong choir, I picked up my 6-foot bass and headed home with my chin up and my tail in between my legs. At least there will be another rehearsal before the concert. Hopefully, I won't embarass myself a second time.

Chalk it all up to experience.

Quote of the Week

If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.
- Elbert Hubbard
To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
- Alan Kay
Which came first: Procrastination or the person who invented procrastination. Theoretically, it hasn't been created yet.
- BassBassDude

Stevie Wonder: Toronto

Last night I had the chance to watch Stevie Wonder for the first time at the ACC. I have to admit, it was a great show. The band was great. Stevie was great. Most of the music performed were songs that I have grown up with. High energy to begin the show, laid back during the middle and incredible energy to close. The audience was completely sold on everything that was on stage. Fans of Stevie Wonder's music were not disappointed having performed many of his Old Motown hits, through his big 70s and 80s smash songs right up to a couple of his most recent projects. It is almost a given that Stevie's vocal, keyboard, and harmonica expertise were brilliant as well as his killer band which helped drive and keep everything together. To sum up, the performance by all the musicians was amazing.

My major concern is with the ACC and probably with stadium concerts on the whole. It seems you can never produce an intimate setting in these sorts of venues due to their vast size and concrete structure. The sound bounces all over the place so there is a great amount of clarity and tone that is lost in that environment. In addition, whenever Stevie was speaking, it was hard to make out what he was saying due to the poor acoustics that the arena provides which is unfortunate due to the various topics and tangents that were touched upon.

Stevie's music can make a lasting and personable impression on a person when listening in the car or on the radio or in the privacy of one's mp3 player, but to recreate that in a large setting is very difficult, or rather, near impossible. Having stated that, it was still a remarkable show and being a Stevie Wonder fan, I came away having a fantastic time.

Bartok- Romanian Folk Dances Cello

I really love Bela Bartok's Roumanian Folk Dances.

Here's one arranged for Cello & String Orchestra



http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kod0r2cV7_w

MSO Povolgya. Conductor - A.Levin
Arranged for cello & string orchestra - S. Antonov and M. Emilyanichev


Enjoy.

Gig Recap: Stroke of Bad Luck

"Always be careful"

That's what I should have been thinking when I was starting to pack up from my gig up at The Marlowe Restaurant & Wine Bar. To cut to the chase, Ken and I had just finished our third and final set of Jazz and Old School R&B. Before I begin, I should mention that since I started playing my bass in 5ths tuning, I also began playing sitting down on a stool. One of the accessories that I use is a Bass Anchor that attaches to my stool and keeps my Bass from sliding away from me while playing. Last night, I had put my double bass on the floor to begin putting everything away, but had accidentally placed the bass on top of my Bass Anchor. I turned away for a brief moment and heard an incredibly loud and hollow "Thunk". I turned around and there was my double bass lying on its front on top of the bridge. This, as you can imagine, was not a good thing. After a quick examination and slight bridge adjustment, everything looked relatively fine. No scrathes (which I don't care too much about), and no visible cracks. Granted, the lighting was poor and I was pretty tired after playing, so my examination may have been skewed. Anyway, here's hoping the power of positive thinking will bring about better luck.

"Always be careful"

Gig Recap: Melanie E

Phew. That was a relief.

I just had a gig Friday night with MelanieE. Melanie got my number through a "friend-of-a-friend" of mine and wanted a bass player that could sight read music. I agreed and this past Friday, I basically got up in front of an audience and performed music that I had only seen a half-hour before show time with a group of people I had never met before. I was a little tentative with some of the music but everything turned out really well. Style-wise, the music was straight-ahead Jazz which is right up my bass playing alley. On top of some of the Jazz "standards", were originals that were sung in French; Melanie's mother tongue. In addition, Melanie's husband, Keith, played tuba, taking many of the heads and solos. I've never head tuba in that way and I have to say that I was greatly impressed with Keith's skill in bringing tuba to the forefront. In fact, we were supposed to play Donna Lee (touch Charlie Parker tune) with the tuba playing the head, but Keith felt it would be a little much. I, on the other hand, would have loved to have seen "Donna Lee" played on tuba, just so I could have said that I saw "Donna Lee" played on the tuba.

I have to admit, I was very tentative early on in the gig, but started to warm up as the evening progressed. It's sometimes very hard to come out of your shell when your thrown into a different environment, but it was a great time nonetheless. I had a wonderful time playing with MelanieE and I hope to play with them all again.

Visit www.MelanieE.com to learn more.

Quote of the Week

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.
- John Ruskin
The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.
- Foster's Law
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
- Don Marquis
I'll begin working on the art of Procrastination later.
- BassBassDude

Quote of the Week

Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow.
- Arthur Stringer
It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it.
- Henry Allen
Late to bed and late to wake will keep you long on money and short on mistakes.
- Aaron McGruder
Early to bed and late to rise makes for the envy of an insomniac.
- BassBassDude

Looking for a Venue

A friend and I are planning to put on a recital sometime next year in order to raise money for two charities (Shirley will be raising money for Canadian Hearts and Hands and I will be raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society). Our current concern is trying to find a suitable venue. Basically, it will be a piano/double-bass duet and we're already looking into some music to play together as well as our own solo material. I've been working on Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G for the past little while, so I think this will be my Solo pieces. But, we need a place that can hold a number of people and has good acoustics in the Greater Toronto Area.

More on how things are going later.

Still Miss It

It's funny how something small can trigger deep emotions and memories.

I found myself surfing the net and found myself at a-capella.com. It was here I stumbled upon Vox One, a group that I have first listened to when I was back at York U. I never had a chance to fully listen to their stuff, but after sampling a few of their songs, I wish I had paid more attention to this group.

Back to what I was talking about.

After sampling through a large number of the a capella goodness at a-capella.com, I kept thinking about how all the learning and fun I had at York; more specifically with Wibijazzn. Sight-reading and working on learning and memorizing your part, making the best sound possible and having it blend with the other sections, the trials and tribulations along with the excitement and energy that come with working so closely with such inspiring people, and creating new music and arrangements are only some of the elements that I treasure greatly and constantly reflect on, and at this particular time, can only recount. What I seem to love and miss the most, is hard to actually put into words. I guess you could call it the 'team' aspect; the idea that a group of people at this one particular moment, are completely committed into this one task. Not just the performance as a whole, or coming to a practice. It was when the group was about to hit that one 'crunchy' chord, or that one difficult passage with arpeggiated runs that were in a different key, or trying to keep time and sit in the pocket with a sick rhythm. It was those times, whether it be in practice or performance, when people would bear down and start listening just a little harder or focused just little bit more to try to hammer out the intricate details of their part. And when it all came together, it was breathtaking. Granted the breath-taking could have been from holding a note for 30sec, but that's besides the point.

I guess the real point is that there is great beauty in the music that is written, but it's the musician(s) that breathe into it its soul.

L-dia

I was looking for Musiq Soulchild's "Just Friends" video on YouTube where I stumbled upon this clip.



Check her out at myspace.com/lydiakaboesj

Props girl.

Gig Tonight: Marlowe

Sorry for the late notice.

I'll be up at the Marlowe. Here are the details.

155 York Blvd
Richmond Hill, ON
905 771 8645

Ken and I will be playing from 7 to 10.

Hope to see you there.

Quote of the Week

An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living.
- Nicholas Chamfort
I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.
- ee cummings
A joke's a very serious thing.
- Charles Churchill
The phrase "just kidding" really means "this is what I think, but I don't want to hurt your feelings".
- bassbassdude

Gig Recap: One Up

It's always great playing with a live drummer. Period. There's a certain locking and connection that happens between a drummer and bassist. Moreover, there's a character that one can discover when playing with a live drummer, as opposed to a midi drum track. Anyway, I had a great time playing up at One Up with Lianne, Glen and Dan. It went very well and everyone there had a great time.

Thanks to all for coming out and showing there support.

Gig: One Up Lounge

I'll be playing this Saturday August 18th at One Up Lounge in Toronto. Here are the details.

One Up Lounge
130 Dundas St W 2nd Floor
Just West of Bay on the North side of Dundas St
8pm to 11pm
Public parking directly across the street.

For more information, please visit oneup.ca

See you there.