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.

Clark Terry Red Mitchell

Ever since I re-tuned my bass to 5ths I've been trying to listen to more stuff with Red Mitchell. I found this with Terry Clark and love it.




Enjoy

Recap: Marlowe Recording

With my eye acting up that night and having great difficulty keeping it open, I still found myself enjoying playing Thursday night at Marlowe's. Everyone who came out had a great time and I hope the recording came out well. Thanks to all who had a chance to come out and support us. Hope to see you again.

Live Recording Sessions @ Marlowe

Join me and Melodious Vibes on Thursday July 19th for a Live Recording Session @ The Marlowe.

Here are the details:

Marlowe Restaurant and Wine Bar
Thursday, July 19, 2007
6:00pm - 9:00pm
155 York Blvd.
Toronto, ON (Just west of 404 on Hwy 7)

Join us in this Live Recording Session and be the select few to see and hear this exclusive performance. This show will be produced and released on CD and DVD! stay tuned for more updates!

For more info on Marlowe and Melodious Vibes visit:
www.themarlowe.ca & www.melodiousvibes.com


Come on out for some good food, great music and lots of fun. Hope to see you there.

Quote of the Week

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
- George F. Will
The power of positive thinking is very powerful.
- BassBassDude
We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
- John W. Gardner
It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
- Walt Disney

Quote of the Week

Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.
- Stephen R. Covey

Give me five minutes and I can bring the worst out of a person. Trust me.
- BassBassDude

New Travel Announcement

Just thought I'd share with you that I will be starting my own Private Travel Agency business. This is a very exciting time for me and I will be posting more about this new venture shortly. If you would like to know how I'm doing, give me a shout.

Gig Recap

Everything went great. It's always great playing with Allan and Glen. In the next little while, there will be a couple of Tuesday nights where I will be up at Marlowe with Ken. Once things are confirmed, I'll give you better notice. The dates will most likely be July 26th, August 7th, and August 14th.

Marlowe Thursday Night

Hi all,

Looks like I will be playing with MV up at Marlowe at Leslie & Hwy 7 this Thursday June 28th.
Here's the details:

155 York Boulevard
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B4, Canada
(905) 771-8645

If you're available at around 7pm, come on by and say Hello.

visit: www.themarlowe.ca

City Chase - Toronto 2007

Well, I'm still licking my wounds from the Mitsubishi CityChase - Toronto race. My buddy Dave-o and I, with my brother Dean sitting on a computer at home, went through our 4th CityChase. Although, we were sporting some injuries prior to the race, we did pretty well. First off, we received an honorable mention for most clever name "Limp-A-Lot-But-Will-Finish". Soon after all the formalities were through, we headed out from Metro Hall to retreive our at the Court House. The clue sheet was loaded with over 35 chase points written in code. We headed west to the Toronto Art School (Adelaide & Spadina) and had to sketch a model. After finishing, we ran east to the Fire Hall on Adelaide where we had to hook up a fire hose and spray a target. Next we ran south King and grabbed a streetcar to a park on Walnut. There, we teamed up with another team and ran a small course on 4-person skis. We then ran north to Trinity Bellwood Park where we had to shoot a target with a paint-ball gun in 5 shots. After taking one for the team, we ran back down to King and grabbed a Westbound streetcar to Joe Rockhead's. There, we had to climb up a 20ft wall and received a 'Pass' card to jump infront of long lines. We next grabbed a bus south to the Ex and ran across Lakeshore to Ontario Place. There was a long line of about 50 teams so we used our newly-acquired 'Pass' card to jump the line. We jumped into a paddle-boat and run the Olympic course under 3 minutes and completed the Chase Point. We next found ourself at the Chinese Light exhibit where we had to run through a maze and find 4 checkpoints. After completing this point, we ran back to the Ex and grabbed the 509 Streetcar to Rees street where we had to jump into a canoe in a small urban pond. Although we almost capsized the boat, we ran the canoe through a samll course and headed East on another Streetcar. We jumped off the streetcar at a parking lot close to Harbour. There, we quickly raised $25 for Children's Wish Foundation (thanks for the donation Dave) and jumped on the Subway to Yonge and Eglinton. We headed to the Running Room just north of Eglinton and had to do a photo hunt with a camera-phone. We jumped back on the Subway to King, grabbed a street car back to Metro Hall and finished the race approximately at 4 hours and 45 minutes.

Lots of fun and I still have the welt on my backside from Dave-o's Paintball gun. Thanks to all who made this race happen and I hope to be a part of it again next year.