Another large day

Today, we moved a PA system from O'brien's abode to Liza's with the help of The Fab. O'brien scooped this item from the tai chi garage sale yesterday. 2 monitor speakers, 2 mics, 2 mic stands, and a mixer. Liza and I had to rearrange the better part of the abode to accommodate the system, and our livingroom-studio now looks much larger. Last week, we also received a pair of congas from the Nils abode. They were taking up space in storage. So now we have percussion, which will sound even better with the reverb supplied by the new mixer. (I guess it could sound good 'clean', but we'll leave that for people who can actually play the congas.)

Did I mention jazz is back? It's at the Libra room from 5 til 7:30 on sundays. Of course, I couldn't go today, because we were working with the PA until a few minutes ago, and also no one is around to go with me. Jason is in Japan until around the 21st, and without him there, it's a bit difficult, especially since there's a much different group of musicians there now.

Fab and I have been practicing the tune I wrote a while back, On the roof. The form is AAB. The A sections have a quiet, rain-like quality, and the B section is loud and mostly just one chord. (That's not to say it's exactly like a Nirvana song...) The focus of the band is on providing tension and release using elements other than harmony. I got this idea when I was reading a Jamey Aebersold book, and there was a table listing different things that provide tension and release. On the tension side, there were things like playing loud, ascending lines, faster notes, and dissonant harmony. On the release side, there were things like playing soft, descending lines, longer notes, and consonant harmony. So I thought, why not write a tune based mostly on dynamics? A good thing about this format is that it forces me and Fab to listen to each other.

Anyhow, we have to have it down by next sunday - we have a half-hour performance at IDEC that we're preparing for. I am also preparing for the finest concert ever conceived, which will occur on friday. The Liars opening for Radiohead....wow.

At least I got the tip jar once.

I had the teeth removed on wednesday with Matty, Ilsa and Kler in attendance in the waiting room. I felt nothing, and there was some bizarre fashion show on the TV in the ceiling, so I felt no desire to pay attention to the proceedings. My face was totally frozen on one side on the way home, but I was almost fully recovered within a few hours. I recuperated for the next day or so, but was awake enough on friday to see Paprika at the ahht gallery with Kler.

Sax playing was out the window for a few days, but I've been taking stabs at it yesterday and today. It does cause me pain, though, so I was forced to spread my attention equally between all of my instruments. I've been working on learning tunes off the record, which can be fun, but it can be quite frustrating. For instance, Eric Dolphy's Serene has only a bass outlining the chords, and it's not always audible, so figuring out dem changes is a colossal struggle!

A while ago, I borrowed a piano book called Blues Hannon from Marg. I was looking at it today. I figure if I can learn some basic blues piano starting now, and practice a lot, I'll be able to play things like Equinox or K.C. Blues within 6 months....school permitting. I'm not looking forward to that.

Guitar-wise, I've been working on pinch harmonics. I used to screw around with those all the time, but only on the high frets, and I didn't even know what note was gonna come out. And finally, bass-wise, I am the best bassist in the world, as usual.

I got an e-mail from Yiorgos today saying:

"Well, the rumours were true and The End Cafe has been sold. It is officially changing hands on Wednesday and will be closed down for a week for renovations. It looks unlikely that the Sunday jam will be continuing there...."

So that's that! Of course, the End gets the prize for being the first business to survive for more than two weeks in that location. So, thanks to the whole band for making it happen, and to Kler, Tamlyn, Sarah, Nello, Kim and her friend, Melissa, Kian, SAMMEH, Liam, Adrian, Watson, Jacob, Luc, Luan, Logan, Pixie, Anne, Peter, Ernie, Margie, Liz, Victor, Cole, Gary, and Ilsa and O'Brien for coming out to support us.

The band:
Jason, Joel, Jon, Jim, Jim, Jeff, Ian, Steve, Alexei, Nathan, Aleisha, Mike, Graham, Gerry, Yiorgos, The Fab (and his friend whose name Ian can never remember), Andrew, Caralyn, Catherine, Pete, Peter, The Girl with the Vibes, Eric (the one time he was there, he was great), and everyone else.

Specks

Yesterday Kler, Ilsa and I went to Loan and Persuade to purchase a Saxophone, who we've named Dot. We then proceeded to the Krazy! show at the VAG, where we perused some Manga and watched part of an Anime movie in a room that, contrary to what the VAG seems to stand for, was very comfortable. Then we went to the gallery cafe to sharply inhale some sustenance.

Today, we threw a frizbee around during our Cookie-walk, then Ilsa went to teach the girls in west Van. In the afternoon, I sat down at the paezano for a couple of hours and wrote a tune employing mostly Lydian (super-happy) chords. It's the first jazz tune I've ever completed! It even has a title - On the roof. Fab was over and I gave him the lead sheet to take home. We're also working on a song that will include elements from jazz, funk (ya right), metal, prog rock, and the blues.
I wrote a wicked bassline for a guitar riff of his, too.

Tomorrow, I am for sure getting my wisdom teeth out at 3 o'clock. I'll be wise no more!

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!!

Mediums?

We had an English assignment in which we had to write a poem that had a lot of very strict rules. It wasn't a specific form, they were just arbitrary regulations. It had to be twenty-four lines long, and each line had to have some specific things - for example, line one had to have a noun, a number, and a colour. So I went to work on this, talked about a guy named Pauline playing a bass solo. When I had ten lines left, I thought, "Maybe I'll submit a bass solo with it!" I wrote the solo, then decided to just complete the assignment as usual, keeping the solo for something else. I was still interested in combining two media in one piece, though. I told the Cosmic Cop about it, and asked if she'd be instristed in cola-BO-rating on something. She agreed. Now, I've been working on some music for three days, and am going quite fast. When it's done, I'll record it and submit a cassette to the Cosmic Conundrum and she'll illustrate it. And it just might be the greatest piece of art of all time!

Another entry about jazz at the End cafe? Boring!

That may seem like the case, but it's quite different now, because I'm not just listening anymore. I wrote a journal about it on January 27th.

Original title:
"Why this journal is late"

The reason I couldn’t submit this journal last monday is simple: I didn’t have time to write it on the weekend, because I was getting ready to play at the End Café on sunday night. So now I figure that I ought to write about what that was like.

Two sundays ago, The Fab and I were listening to live jazz at the End Café, as usual. Then Jason, the tenor player, came up to our table and asked, “So, when are you guys gonna come and play?!” “When we’re good enough,” I replied. “If I waited until I was ‘good enough’,” he said, “I would never play.” He made us promise to bring our instruments the next week. So we did.

We had four songs in our repertoire: “Equinox” by John Coltrane; “Little sunflower” by Freddie Hubbard; “Tune-up” by Miles Davis; and “Mr. P.C.”, also by Coltrane. I had been nervous the whole day. When I stepped onto the stage, though, all my questions of “What scales should I use?” etc. just disappeared. The band was Jason, Ian (bass), Graham (drums), and Jim (guitar). Ian began playing the distinct intro to “Equinox”¹. I was standing next to Jason. Were we going to play the melody together, or would I play it on my own? I opted for the former. Then, when it came time for solos, Jason and I soloed at the same time (I guess you’d call that a duet). This went on for some time - the drums got louder and more intense.

One of the most interesting things about the experience was finally being able to hear what musicians talked about on stage. Jason was guiding me through it: “After this bass solo, there will be a drum solo, then there might be a vamp coming up, or we might just go straight back to the melody, so be ready for that.” The said drum solo was incredibly dynamic - during one insanely quiet bit, I was kneeling right next to the bass drum, wondering if anyone else could even hear it.

We then played “Little sunflower”, and took a break. Fab and I returned to the stage at about twenty-to-nine for the last two songs of the night - “Tune-up” and “Mr. P.C.” Both were much faster then we were used to, and the band was bigger - we were joined by Jerry (trumpet) and another Jim (alto). There was also a different drummer, Alicia. My solo on “Tune-up” was probably my best that night, and Fab’s solo on “Mr. P.C.” was explosive. Jason told us, “You’re welcome to come back and play any time you want.” It was an excellent learning experience.

And That is why I didn’t do any homework last weekend.

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1: “Equinox” is most commonly played in the key of C minor, but according to The Jazz Theory book, “the best players like to play it in its original key, C-sharp minor” (the latter being a harder key to play in). When Jason asked which key Fab and I played it in, he was quite impressed that we fall into the “best players” category.
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We played the following week as well, but only on two songs, and took a break on the third week. This coming sunday, we'll play again, and just an hour ago I learned a new song: "Maiden voyage" by Herbie Hancock. I'm going to aim to learn Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" soon as well.

Swansolian

So, as you may be aware, crispmush occurred the other day. Up until last year, I hated crispmush, but then I realized that, guiltily, I somewhat enjoy it. The best thing I got was from Iris; a book of her poetry, augmented by illustrations. Beauteous! I also received Outward Bound by Eric Dolphy, Pithecanthropus Erectus by Mingus, and Backlash by Freddie Hubbard, among other discs.

I was very much looking forward to hearing the Hubbard record, as it features the original recording of "Little sunflower". (I also thought that Eric Dolphy played on it, but I was wrong about that.) However, I discovered that the last tune on the album, Bob Cunningham's "Echoes of blue", is also of supreme quality. My first reaction was, "Swans in jazz form!!!" - then I recollected something. About a year ago, Occupant penned a series of blues songs, featuring the creepy guitar work of Nils. The third song we recorded, "Think of something to say, but don't", was something of a murder ballad with a two-note bassline. Right after we wrote it, my reaction to that song was also "That was like the Swansiest thing of all time." The guitar work went from being tentative at first - Nils playing with a little plastic ruler here - to blasting, reminiscent of Swans' "Blind love" (from Children of God). Too bad the mood was kinda thrown off by my less-than-subtle bass solo.

These two songs are suggesting to me an interesting genre - some kinda ultra-slow blues - and I want to explore it. I've also been thinking about recording the blues I wrote recently - still untitled - as a shoegazer-type of tune. Distorted and acoustic guitars overdubbed and interlocking - Loveless stuff. Y'know, I always have all these ideas for music I want to write, and I never get them down in time - it's like creative A.D.D. I have to get my shit together, and school's not helping!!

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.