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My first introduction to analog recording was the Fostex 4-track small portable recording around 1984-1985... I worked with a touring musician who followed a stint I was doing when I was with Teddy Wilson playing bass. The guy needed equipment (his broke) so I lent him my Fender Twin... Got to know the guy, and ended up accompanying him playing piano (albeit I accepted no pay), the most fun I've had unfortuneately musically, has been when "it's fun", and the green stuff isn't an issue.. "The corner house" in Farmington wasn't paying john a heck of alot... and I loved the arrangements he was doing, so agreed to play piano on chapin, Blind Faith, and JT ballad songs....Those were right up my alley... Following the gig, a few musicians would get together locally in his motel room (he had the fostex 4 track portable player), and lay down multitrack arrangements... That was my first experience with "amateur recording", I never even perfected analog..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Don't be,  it didn't come easy, and it's only about 30 hours per week.  I didn't start off "at home", the company knew me, and liked me and than I got quite ill.  It's the medical bene's I need the most ! For the full med coverage I am QUITE a lucky person... The pay, ack... I'll never see 6-digits, I'm not "well to do" by any stretch of the imagination... I make most of my money as a stud/jigaloo for now aging super-models that want a brunette bimbo male who just shut's up and does his thing   What can I say ??,  Even 40-50 year old super models need a someone on the side


(yeah,  and no wise-cracks,  I was referring to FEMALE supermodels, I don't switchhit in real-life.. I only play :gay: online at times)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Wow, you played bass with Teddy Wilson, the pianist?  Very good!  I see that he died on July 31, 1986 in Britain, CT.  Are you a finger picker bassist or do you play with a pick?

So you're appreciated for your body and your mind.  Good deal!  

Yes,  Teddy died within a year of the corner house gig (I'm just that good  LOL)

So it must've been closer in 1985 when I worked with him, and John !   (You think he'd have hired me if he was in his prime ?  :shock: God no) !! Teddy is tops, Have you ever seen video's of him when he was with Benny Goodman, and Glen Miller ?  The guy was lightening fast ! Teddy had second stage cancer when I worked with him, and he wasn't doing well, his eyes were always watering, and close to the very end, he even had an LPN/companion that chauffeured him to and from gigs, (Gorgeous white woman, if I was a true fool I'd have gotten firsky  LMAO ) his night vision made it impossible for him to drive after dark.. Unfortunately alot of his repetoir was pretty slow at the time, he often did stuff such as "Roses and Lollipops" he's been over here quite a few times, they picked me up for a few weeks on their way from New Britain to the Corner house restaurant lounge (which has also since died) during local gigs,  (I lived 20 minutes from him, and did some fill-in basswork during his :better days: as well), Blues/swing/bigband/Jazz Band is my forte on bass, and to a degree 6 string, but I've also played Alto/Tenor sax and flute 2nd chair jazz bands, and when the piece was easy did some switch-hitting and was allowed to play some piano,  but Unfortunately I don't excel as a keyboardist, or guitarist, or even bassist in most pro "blues-based" circles, My free-form jazz lead runs suffer tremendously, I don't have what it takes to be a front musician..I was always just too damn lazy as a musician, if not drunk and drugged My chops aren't developed enough on guitar or piano to play dexterous runs fluently with swing type/ Jazz free-form "Ellington/ Peterson" precision, I never broke far enough from the blues-box to excel as free-form jazz artist, I'm no Diana Krall, but I wish !!!!  I just try to pretend I am at times  LOL my best work was just in rock ballad cover, it was easier, and I tend to be lazy.... I was always abit sloppy with my riff's, plus for some reason, (and it's hard to explain or understand) I don't have the psychological disposition to be the front person; Solo cocktail piano gigs were brutal for me, (not just because my inability to sing made it compulsory I filled in melodic content on piano as well), but I need to follow a front-person (or hide behind another person; I don't like being the visual focal point), I'm an excellent accompanist, but NOT psychologically able to be lead musician, nor could I act lead roles in theatre.. perhaps self esteem/past probs..... But he (Teddy) was a fabulous man, who I'm quite lucky to have had the oppt to work with, Teddy in his prime, would never have looked at me.. I ran into all sort's of probs trying to get into formal classical/Jazz training, the two are VERY close-knit... At 12 my instructor "John Mohegan" (well known Jazz pianist who died of brain cancer in the mid 1980's too) lost his temper with me, It was thought I had the ability to start jazz young just based on my gifted "ear" assuming I was able to do the arduous Hanon/Bach counterpoint drills, as well as the two octave Major/minor/Harmonic minor/Melodic minor/Gypsy/Wholetone scales, etc..  But I had different ideas, I let family and friends down, (no protege here, just a lazy problem'd kid who "might've been" if he was arranged slightly differently upstairs emotionally).... I wasn't devoted enough to study with such a musician... I sat in with Brubeck for two gigs, but NEVER as Dave's replacement..HAHA Nope !!, I did some stuff with Dan and Darius, so was lucky enough to play a few times with Dave..(when I was in fairfield county living in Westport). I've been around, but now I'm here  :(

Too bad the cards didn't fall differently,  but there aren't many left to arrange, they slowly dropped out've the deck ages ago... What can I say ?  I'd love to be a "has been", but I never was.

Anyway, nothing to be jealous of Don, unless you want the WHOLE package, and you do not !  

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

no no, not my mind !  Don't be silly !

(OK, well not entirely in this case, but I suppose imagination is a part of "mind")  

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That is one of the best musician's gig stories i've ever heard!  :worship:  You played with some jazz royalty there!  I know of Teddy Wilson from when he played with Benny Goodman mainly.  That famous 1938 Carnegie Hall concert with Wilson, Lionel Hampton on vibes, Krupa, Count Basie, Buck Clayton all doing Fletcher Henderson arrangements. My dad used to play that one all the time.

I could have done a lot more with my music career too.  I never did practice enough to do well in "serious" music forms.  I wanted to have fun at it.  I couldn't play a jazz solo.  

True Don, You are an excellent bass player.   For those choice positions, that's when we see what REALLY amazing musician means !  I'll never get cocky again. At least not on the inside ! There's some "abomination" of a person in some hidden place, who's going to kick my a$$... Since I didn't really apply myself, there are several abominations like that ..

I will only get the top gigs because someone likes me... Not because I am "The best". Than I have to keep them !  That's the tough part !  I wish I were "tops", assuming there were such a thing in the music world  LOL ..
I began to feel when you are a performing artist, it's all about biding time until your competition makes you look like a fool  :(  

That's the nice thing about staying home and playing   Noone has ever broke my door down to show me up.

Scary thing is, EACH time we expose ourselves, the stats drop as to where we rank in the artistic world in terms of how high on the bell curve, the more we get out, the more someone sit's-in, who's spectacular, and fell out've nowhere. It's a HUGE world FULL of amateur talent, and capable artists.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

That is one of the reason's I became a multiinstrumentalist, I just couldn't be "the best" at any one  LMAO   So if someone kicks my sorry butt on piano, they will likely want me on bass !!!


Kappy<---- learned to cheat

All depends on genre,  I've been told by :the best: in the jazz genre,  "Steve, you're no pianist, take more lessons and apply yourself"..  As a rock musician, I'm a very good keyboardist tho, as a ballad pianist I'm quite good..

So when an accomplished jazz musician disses me, I pout, and go to classic rock for awhile   ..  I'm no true jazz musician, but I can play jazz.. The true jazz pro's have a knack and have had training.  I never "earned" my wings... I don't deserve to be anyway... but I can get by bluffing

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Whenever I was around a bass player that was better then me I always made sure he knew that he was the "alpha bass player" so to speak.  I'd rather observe and learn new playing tricks then try and act competetive.  I can come out more educated that way!  LOL

Smart move!

Well it's 3:30 here.  I gotta get some sleep.  Bye y'all!  :wave:

Don,  I added a few stream of thought comments in my above post

God, have I been humbled by ace musicians !  There've been many times I thought I'd have a bonfire, and burn my guitars !  I've learned alot from excellent artists as you've mentioned, but to tell you the truth, at least for me, there was always that drive "to be the best" !.. I never had what it takes to be "the best", and that's the ability to absorb advanced composition theory, and go thru the grueling requirements of advanced ear training.. ability to know and analyze composition intricately without having a keyboard in front of me, hearing most any song, analyze it, walk over to a piano and emulate what I've heard without trying the pieces of the puzzle first, however just by hearing a song, It clicks immediately in my head how it will be correctly played, without experimenting. Just as you and I can easily identify basic forms of composition, some of these jazz guys, can hear a song and write it out on music staff paper just based on what they briefly heard.. They have the relative pitch skill to know the key signature, and the ability to know intricacies of time signature, and just write out the whole song they hear on the radio as a Schirmer's composition without having an instrument in front of them for reference. The ability to apply abstracts, using a foundation of quantitative math, calc 2 skills, and geometric ability enabling them to hear complex arrangments, process them, and go to the piano and correctly apply what they visually saw while hearing the song in their car.. I need to play with the puzzle pieces in order to put the puzzle together, Complex composition analysis, and advanced ear-training for dummies just doesn't exist,  It's tough when you have ADD!

Anyway, I defeated myself, wanting to be something without having devoted 100% to achieving it, HOURS a day practicing what I hate, rather than trying to escape it (scales and fingering skill),  I never learned "good enough" will suffice, just enjoying it is enough, It was never how many I have more skill then.  It's those that have more skill than I do, that become the foundation for self-contempt in the pro world, yet they were willing to challenge what most of us hate, and grasp it... modal theory, harmonization, and math at levels I'm just not cutout for..

Must don't know how tough music composition can be

I beat myself up being my own worst enemy

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Odie, where the heck are ya?

Have you heard of these bands:

"Blackberry Jam"

"Terwilliger Curves"

"No Strings Attached"

       ~?????~

I don't think it's your kind of music (country, country/swing, and bluegrass) , but they have been around a bit, and play the PDX area alot, and here in Aurora apparently, and they've played the fair. Just wondering if you've heard them (or of them) and what's your opinion.  :wave:

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♥ Laugh your heart out, dance in the rain. Cherish the memories, ignore the pain. Love and learn, forget and forgive. Because you only have one life to live. ♥

In case I forget,  would you remind everyone what day it is today Don ?


It's a significant b-day for a bass player !

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Why yes, I'd be delighted to Steven!  It is Sir Paul McCartney's "When I'm 64" birthday!    Probably not the happiest of times for Paul by a long shot.
He does deserve a huge round of applause for bringing us a lot of great music and inspiration over that past 45 years.  

Thanks Don !!!   Yep,  crazy as it sounds,  as a Beatles fan, I thought about today, and realized it was coming for a few years..  Even thought it would be a great time, and topic for an international televised concert.  You bring up a good point however.  This is perhaps not the happiest time in McCartneys life...


A few of my own thoughts today.

Interesting to sit and listen to the older Beatles song "When I'm 64", and realize that today (sunday June 18th) Paul McCartney turned 64 years of age..


 Happy Birthday McCartney...  Just out've curiousity since it's fathers day,  I'm curious about (was it 1971 first album with Maraschino cherries on it)?  The Song "Teddy Boy".  Wasn't that your first son ?   We never hear of him....

  "This is the story about a boy named Ted, when his mother said, Teddy be Good,  He would...."  as I understand it was written for your infant son,  the baby held on that album... as a lullaby <McCartney also wrote the song Hey Jude, as a Lullaby for John Lenons son Julian.

McCartney was a talented musician and composer,  really had a knack for harmonization on the bass, his bass lines were always pretty sophisticated,  he was always a very talented multiinstrumentalist, who was a talented clarinet player even in elementary school (According to his cousin Keith McCartney who lived here in upstate CT).. One of his all time great songs IMO is  "Maybe I'm Amazed"

I'm glad he's still alive...  It's nice to chat about a decent person, and classic rock musician favorably without the chat being an epitaph

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Don,  I shouldn't admit to this, but I know nothing about Ringo   .... However since he was one of the Beatles, I guess I should recall or know something about the guy...  Did he ever Marry ?  Have any kids ?    I think after the Beatles ended, he was the least followed by most.   Maybe not, I don't know...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I'll be adding this daily now.  I've done it in other rooms I'm a part of, and I suppose it's not inappropriate in a music related bboard.


"today in music history"

http://datadragon.com/day/

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Since we were discussing the sax family of woodwinds yesterday, I figured this site, with some of those massively large saxophones, and bass register woodwind instruments would be interesting.  This site has soundclips of many of these instruments...

http://robotics.caltech.edu/~kj/jay/gallery_index.html


"you're a mean one, Mr Grinch" is played on the Eb Contra bass sax... Things BIG
http://robotics.caltech.edu/~kj/jay/sou ... inch01.mp3

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".