My first professional recording experience

April is kicking March's ass.

I'm listening to THE Jazz Show hosted by Gavin Walker at this moment. It's an episode from a while back, featuring the album Sonny Side Up by Dizzy, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt. It's nice to listen to jazz after a couple weeks of ignoring it. It's like getting a serious dose of reality!

But the reality I've been living in is pretty boss, too. Utopian, really. On April 1, I got a very unpleasant fine on the skytrain, and had to find myself some way of paying it. So I immediately began experimenting with busking. I actually paid the fine within about ten days. And now I can basically say I have a part-time job where I set my own hours, I work outside in the gorgeous weather, and I get paid way above minimum wage in cash. An ideal job.

And outside of that brilliance, Veronica played a gig with Thee AHs at the Cultch on the 11th. Two five-song sets. She played a bit of sax, but is mostly on bass duties now, which she likes more anyway. Here they are playing my personal favourite song of theirs, Strange Little Scene:


They're going to be playing a gob-smacking set of hits tomorrow at Heritage Hall at 7:00, and again at Lugz cafe (main and broadway) on friday at 9:00.

Furthermore, I went and saw Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke at the Rio with Fab a while back. They were absolutely stunning, and went well with the cherry blossoms lining the streets.

The middle of a wednesday

Yesterday, after two weeks of half-hearted looking, I finally found my olive-green notebook from 2006. It contains Occupant lyrics, other lyrics, lists of my favourite albums (which haven't changed too much, which is either good or totally embarrassing), guitar riffs, band names (some of which I still think are really great), and notes on a board game that Stella and I were developing. It's quite the thing to find.

But today, I'm actually in a state that I very seldom fall into. It's a state that can really only be brought on by one's own laziness, or in this case, being blase about all the things that are available to me in my abode. That state is the mental poison known as boredom. I tried figuring out the chords to The Best of Jill Hives by GBV, but I was highly ineffective. I kept thinking, "there are probably only about 4 chords in this song, all of them barre chords, but I just can't get them!" Eventually I cracked and looked it up on the internet. I soon found a tab that sounds really quite accurate, and was astonished to see chords like Amaj7 and E/D# smattered in there! So that's what I get for underestimating rock music...

I also called a few people, but none of them answered their damn telephones! I guess they have call display, eh?

Well, here are Thee Ahs featuring that divilishly attractive Veronica girl:

On the Roof

Hello there children,

Back in merry old August, Fab and I played a couple of tunes out at UBC. I thought I ought to post a tune from this landmark performance. It's a tune I wrote called On the Roof, and as you will hear...well, it's pretty sick.

Click here!

You can't really hear my spoken invocation at the beginning; basically, I'm just saying, "Close your eyes and picture rain as you hear this."

Hey guys!

I know, I know. You're all pretty mad at me. I was in charge of your sole source of entertainment, this blog, and I neglected it. But I'm certain you'll forgive me when you see what I'm posting for your benefit!

Scoping around craigslist, I found a local band called Thee Ahs looking for someone to open for them. So I checked out their myspace, and lo, I had a new favourite band. To imagine how a band can be this good - well, it's a waste of time. Obviously, bands like this just blink into existence. Argal, I give you:

http://www.myspace.com/theeahs

Enjoy!

Of course, I couldn't respond to the ad, as the night they were playing happened to be the night of the City School cabaret. Plus, I didn't have a band that could open for anything until the day before said cababret. And that still needs some hammering out, you understand.

String trio

This is a string trio I wrote in about 3 hours a few days ago. The title of it is 'Snap' - an homage to a particular video game....Fab knows. I hope you enjoy the talent of the 1-mm high musicians who live in my computer!

Click here to hear it

or

Click here to download the program I wrote it with

Little sunflower

The second jazz piece Fab and I ever learned, yet no recordings have arrived on the internet yet! Well, here's one from the End cafe from March 23rd. Fab's not on this one - he had something fah more important to attend to than play some trivial cocktail music - if he was, the recording would go up on glissando. Some new material will be appearing on that page soon.

Steve Kaposy - drums / Jason Walters - tenor / Jerry Boey - trumpet / Ian Cameron - bass / Yiorgos - organ / Ridley - alto / Jim Burns - guitar

Click here!!

I love her, but she kills me.

Last wednesday, Liam, Melissa and I all gathered at Fab's place, with Fab in attendance, to jam. Liam brought his djembe(hand drum), and I brought my sax and guitar effects. Our first effort was recorded onto a small walkman with a condenser mic, and included me on sax, Liam on djembe, and Fab and Melissa on two separate keyboards. The walkman, however, decided it wanted a solo of its own all the way through. A noise solo. We then decided to just head for park and tilford plaza--an hour-long walk--to get wedge fries. Park and tilford (PT) is a ten-minute walk from the old Windsor House, so we would usually buy wedge fries every day. We now go there at least once a year.

Anyhow, Liam and I had both left our instruments at Fab's, so we decided to pick them up the next day. Luckily, we ended up there at the same time, allowing us to jam some more. It was all very atmospheric and meditative, and we even employed a basic polyrhythm in one piece. Fab, with his riches, treated us to lunch at Belgian Fries, where we split a deep-fried mars bar before returning to jam more. We'll need a better recording device next time, maybe the portastudio.

Sam, Melissa and I convened once again at Fab's place on monday, but unfortunately it went nowhere except Belgian Fries again. This time, we tried the deep-fried ice cream. Better not tempt a third visit for at least six weeks. My arteries are already having a party.

And one more time, I went to Fab's yesterday to record our reverb-soaked rendition of Equinox by John Coltrane, available on the latest Glissando entry. I was more than impressed with Fab's ability to play the bassline and the chords at the same time, and then play a solo over the chords. As for my own playing, I think the second chorus of my opening solo just may be my finest hour.

A delicious bass

It's really raining out there today, which means I won't be able to slap the last coat of paint on those cabinets. I haven't heard any news about Marg since yesterday afternoon. Whatever should happen, she won't be around for a few days. Obviously.

I'm listening to Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants. Always makes me think of Cortez, 'cause I listened to it on the way home from same last year. That, and right around that time I listed them as one of my five favourite bands.

I'm posting a link to a piece Nils and I worked on a few months ago. The story is, Occupant decided to record a series of searing bluthz songs, which Nils wanted in on. We all got together for a couple of days in a row. On one of those days, Nils and I were sitting in the livingroom trying to write something. Not too much was happening. I sat down directly in front of the bass amp, which, of course, fed back. This was about one or two days after I had seen the Blood Brothers, a somewhat feedback-oriented band. When I put the phaser on and set it a certain way, it made the feedback bend and tweet. I started scraping one of the strings. Nils said, "Now that's a bassline!" He started playing some echo-y guitar, Stella contributed inaudible violin, and then Nils added some chimes and 'cello bits on his beputer. I was certainly surprised at the result! Here it is.

Everything I would have written

Sorr-ry I haven't written in a while.

Mel (my sax teacher), whose real name is actually Colin, invited me to see him play a set at a Greek restaurant last Friday. He said they were a trio "with an incredible bassist and an incredible drummer". I brought a truckload of people with me. Fab, both his parents, Cosmic clock, Sylvia and Wallis. He played tenor throughout both their sets. I recognised only one song they played, but I don't know the name.

During his solos, he never played any light-speed passages or anything. He always took his time, and his thoughts and ideas were extremely clear. I forget the bassist's name, but as Sylvia remarked as soon as she sat down, "They have an excellent bass player". Whenever we applauded at the end of one of his solos, he would nod at us.

The drummer's name was Joe, and he was very young. He had guitar face: drummer's edition. But he was entitled to it. I recall the first time I saw a live jazz band at an opening at the art gallery. The guitarist had an expression that is probably exclusive to jazz players. Kind of like he was high on his music, or as Jimmy Ricardo once put it, "He is having an inner communion with his God, the musical note". And that is how Joe looked, but much more over-the-top. Everyone in the place obviously loved him. His solos were almost like their own pieces of music. My new favourite living drummer (my favourite dead one being Shelly Manne, who played on Sonny Rollins's Way out west).

Everyone talked about it the whole ride home. I think everyone had an excellent time. When I asked Cosmic, so did you enjoy yourself this evening, she said she was surprised how good they were. I said yes, he said they had an incredible bassist and an incredible drummer. She said, "And he wasn't lying. But what he failed to mention is that he was good at playing, too".

On the drive, there is a corner where no business can succeed. There have been about three restaurants in the last three years. About a month ago, a new cafe opened there called The End. Stella and I went there to see if it was frequent-worthy. There are no coffee shops in our neighbourhood (no good ones anyway). It was clean, you could order just a coffee or a whole meal, the waitress had a lovely accent, there were a googolplex different places to sit (leather furniture, even), and the food was cheap but perfectly good. Five out of five fish on the Bishop scale!

Fab and I met at said cafe on Sunday and had dinner. We then proceeded back to Stella's to jam, the outcome of which can be heard on our blog. Glissando isn't a band name, it's just a cool word. Stella has forbidden us from discussing a band name until we have recorded at least six compositions. We will continue tomorrow before Eureka Seven, which unfortunately has been moved to eleven o'clock.

Man from another place

In the last couple of days I've been experimenting on the newly acquired pianoforte, or forte as I tend to abbreviate it to. It's been called 'piano' for so long (when it should have been called pianoforte) that we must even it out. For every time it's been called 'piano', we must call it 'forte'.

I had been meaning to record one of these improvisations, because I thought it may help me to come up with some ideas. So today, I did just that. I'm presenting the improvisation here, in four sections. The total run time is about nine minutes. The website I'm using to publish them is new to me, so I'll link directly to the files.

The first section, Land of Sketchy opens with one chord repeated a few times in the bass, then the right hand enters and plays extensions of the chord before playing a very brief melody. An arpeggio in the deep bass ensues. Then more chords, with fairly fucked-up-sounding extensions. Then some large, hopeful chords mutate into horrible wrecks(melodic ones) and it ends with two blasts of, um, death.

The second section, I can't get comfortable is mostly a slow melody in very low registers. The notes slowly link and form a chord, which is repeated ploddingly while some high melody notes enter (again, altered extensions). The bass notes then crawl lower into extremely low registers, and the high melody continues. When the melody has finished talking, the bass thinks for a minute and then stops.

The third section, Hm(sigh). is very short and probably my favourite of the four. It opens with a mournful bass arpeggio that I most certainly will be using in the future. You're hearing it here first! Cookie contributes percussion and then chords, extensions, melodies succeed. It keeps its mood for a while, then begins to see the light. Then it gets extremely frustrated and it kills itself. Dramatic! But if you're not paying attention it will appear to fizzle out meaninglessly(and boringly).

The last section, Blunt Instrument emerges with a quiet percussion intro. Some seemingly happy chords begin and establish a 3/4 beat before minor extensions prevail. It speeds up and gets quite riled up, relaxes for half a second, then accelerates intensely before the percussion and plucked-string outro.