September 2026 – Zing Blog 2

Kick out the Jams

Been spending alot of time on music these days. Just as well, it’s been raining cats and dogs here the whole weekend and yesterday, and it’s getting darker earlier too, so it’s harder to spend time outside.

I went to a jazz jam over the weekend up in Armonk, put together by a friend of mine. Mostly real book stuff, but definitely a step up in the level of musicianship form my Wednesday rehearsal group. The guitar player in particular, who was also our host, was really good. Really into the whole Joe Pass bag. It’s good to meet new musicians, and everyone wants to get together again.

Then last night a sat in on a rehearsal for my friend’s horn section funk and R&B band, because they’ve asked me to sub on sax for a couple of gigs later this fall. This was a ton of fun. I didn’t know what to expect, but was pleased that the group is really tight and at a high level of musicianship. Even the singers were great, and they often tend to be the weak link in the local bar band scene. They seem like a really nice bunch of people too, friendly and professional, no egos. I guess when you have a band with eight people you need to have subs or you’ll have to turn down alot of gigs.

The regular sax player emailed me a bunch of charts the week before, so I had a chance to look them over, and I also made a playlist to listen to. Most of the songs I’m familiar with, and many I’ve done in other bands (but not as part of a horn section). All great tunes, fun uptempo horn section music. I was able to keep up with the group on the stand, although the charts weren’t always accurate and there was alot to pay attention to. The big thing in this situation is to blend with the rest of horn section to sound as one, which was not a problem. One big highlight for me was doing My Old School, possibly my favorite Steely Dan song. They were are really impressed I nailed the “California tumbles into the sea” riff. So I’m looking forward to the gigs, and I’m gonna try to see them at their next show in October.

Meanwhile, in my home studio, my epic The Sailor’s Saga is drawing ever closer to completion. I’ve been focusing on the lead guitar part, which is ten minutes long, and starts with some languid noodling and builds to an epic climax over the course of several rising and falling waves. I was afraid my guitar playing might not be up to the task and I’d have to bring in a ringer, but it’s shaping up most excellently.

The first thing was to find a sound that’s in the zone, with lots of sustain and a bit overdrive and can go from smooth to biting depending on what dynamics I play with. I’ll add more effects in the DAW once I’m done tracking. Then I just started at the front and kinda jammed the whole way thru, stopping whenever I ran out of ideas or played something I didn’t like. I ended up building the whole thing in two- to four-bar sections, kinda like how I used to write out sax solos when I was in high school and first learning to improvise. When I got to the end I listened back and started again on a second take. I learned the riffs I liked from the first take, about half of it, and played new ideas for the rest. Today I finished the third take, which kept eighty percent or so of the ideas from the second take, and keeps getting better in terms of phrasing and proficiency. Also each pass goes alot faster than the one before. I figure another one or two passes and I’ll be set. Then it’s on to the mixing.

Another Time Around the Wheel

Although summer is not technically over yet, Labor Day has come and gone, and the vibe now is changed. We ended the season with a nice little vacation down to Ocean City, Maryland, where we hung out on the beach and the boardwalk, went swimming in the ocean, rode our bikes out to Assateague Island, did happy hour at the hotel beach bar, went out to a few nice meals, and listened to tunes on the car trip down and back.

I’m still working on the Global Jukebox as my main gig this fall, as I was over the summer. It’s coming along nicely, although it’s hard to say when it will be ready for release because there’s still alot to do on the data side. We’ll probably start seriously planning the launch before the end of the year. Meanwhile I’m trying to pick up a second gig, helping Origami USA redesign their website and a bunch of associated development work. I’m low-key looking for a new job, but there’s no hurry as long as the freelance project keep rolling along. It’d have to be the right project. Anyway, it’s more relaxing this way and gives me time to work on other things. And there’s plenty to do.

After I got my saxophones fixed, the next thing on my list was to get the Mustang worked on. The windshield wipers, fuel gauge, turn signals and stereo all stopped working sometime over the summer. I figured it was most likely a blown fuse that supplies the dashboard, but I didn’t feel comfortable pulling and replacing the fuses myself, so I took it to the garage. They found the problem was actually a wire with a flaky connection under the dashboard near the fusebox (it is an old car after all), but I had to bring the car back several times before they actually fixed it fully and completely. Well at least that’s taken care of (hopefully), and I can start in on the next phase of the plan, which is to get the body painted.

The major thing with this is to find a place that will work on a classic car, and is reasonably priced. Lucky for me, there’s a couple guys in my neighborhood (both named John) who like to sit around in the mornings on the patio of my local coffee shop, which is next door to the garage. We’ve had a “hello, good morning” kind of thing going for a long time, and sometimes I’ll talk with them about stuff. One of their favorite topics is cars, especially sports cars and classic muscle cars (the Buffalo Bills being another favorite topic). They each know of a body shop in the local area that they were able to recommend. Next week I’ll start calling around.

I’ve also made progress on Michelle’s room since she moved out, touching up the walls with some fresh paint, moving furniture around, and getting rid of old junk. The next step is to get her to come over and organzie and/or throw away the things she left behind. And of course there’s always another yardwork cycle, things are really growing this year (although the wasps aren’t gone yet, that’s another thing), and more organizing the garage and my studio. I finally put away all the origami paper I bought at July’s convention!

In music, Josh is set to come back to rehearsing with the group this week. We’re all very excited. Meanwhile we’re still trying to reschedule the gig that was supposed to be this week, that we had to punt on. Ah well.

On the Spellbound project, I’ve started rendering our all the midi instruments and transitioning to working on the mix. I still have the big guitar solo left to do, but that’s the last bit of tracking. If it turns out to be too much to play the part myself, I have several guitar player friends I can ask to do a guest appearance. We’ll see.

The weather has been beautiful, although it’s getting dark earlier faster these days. It remains great for biking, not too hot. Hopefully it’ll stay that way for a while.

The Summer of George

We’re getting into the long, lazy end of summer. Back in May, I made a list of things I wanted to do over the summer. I did most of the things relating to travel, spending time outside, seeing music and that kind of fun stuff, plus biking and working out. However, I only got about halfway thru the tasks around home improvement, software, music and origami. Creative work can take a long time, especially in the early stages, and the same with projects that involve research into buying things or hiring custom services. Ah well, there’s more time ahead in the fall.

Last weekend was the first weekend I was home since mid-July, and I spent it, as well as most of the week before, catching up on random tasks. It’s amazing how much time everything takes when you have to do it all yourself. The week before I went camping I put a huge amount of time into yardwork.

When I got home from camping, number one on the top of my todo list was to get my saxophone fixed. My repair guy lives out in Nyack, and you have to call and set up an appointment to drop it off and pick it up. I tried calling back in June but he didn’t pick up the phone. This time he did, so I dropped it off last Tuesday. This is my Selmer Reference 54 tenor, my main sax. The low notes had become messed up to point where they wouldn’t sound at all, probably due to a leaky pad, plus it needed a new cork. I brought my bike with my so I could check out a biking trail on the shore of Hudson, that runs thru a state park from Nyack up to Haverstraw, the next town to the north. There and back plus a little scooting around the town around the shore was fifteen miles, lovely and a little hilly, with woods and shores and beaches and great views. I came back Friday to pick up my horn, and it plays and sounds great. Nice and fast and responsive, and can play the low notes softly in full tone. Woo-hoo! I brought my other sax with me, and old Selmer Mark VII tenor that I’ve been playing in the interim, figuring it could use some work too. Some of the low notes sound muffled and it’s hard to pop some of the altissimo notes (although that might just be the way the horn is). This was my main horn for many years until I bought the new one. It’s more than fifty years old, and I bought it in the early 1990’s, after I sold my car and just before I moved to New York (spending the money I was going to live on my first semester as a grad student at NYU). It’s a great horn and worth keeping it in shape. Much more of a smokey tone than the Ref 54, great for ballads. Anyway, I figure an once of prevention while it is still playable. So now I have to go back and pick that up one day this week.

Meanwhile Michelle came back last weekend and asked us to help her move a bunch more stuff, including a big bookshelf, to her new apartment. Afterwards we had a chance to walk around her neighborhood and get dinner at a Mexican place, all of which was very nice. Since we were moving furniture around, I noticed a few spots on her wall the needed touch-up painting. Luckily I still have the remainder of a can of paint from when we did her room years ago. While we were at it we did a deep cleaning and got rid of a bunch of old stuff. Another task done. Now all that remains to put everything back.

An unexpected and rather annoying thing to deal with is I have an infestation of wasps in the soffit above my garage door, right near the front door of my house. I’ve been trying to get rid of them, but the nest is hidden up inside. This happened once before about ten years ago or more, and I was able to remove a peice of panelling to get at the nest, but this time they’re in a different spot. I can’t take apart the soffit without cutting, and I don’t want to do that while they’re active. So I’ve been trying to get rid of them using different sprays and stuff, but so far it’s been ineffective. I might have to just wait for a cold day when it’s safe and hack up in there.

Meanwhile in my recording project Spellbound, I’ve finished all the twelve-string guitar parts and the last song, and am now adding some sweetening synthesizer parts including some high slow synth strings, and tubular bells. Last is the lead guitar parts, which might take a bit longer since I need to do two twelve-bar solos plus some interstitial noodling. Still, hope to be done tracking before the end of September.

And, in the world of Spacecats, we were all set to start recording our next record right after Labor Day, but unfortunately we are delayed yet again. Our piano player Josh was in a bike accident and hurt his shoulder. Sounds like he’ll be alright, but it’s going to take him a few weeks to recover, so he’s going to miss some rehearsals, and then it might be a while before he’s back to a hundred percent. We’ll probably have to postpone our upcoming gig in September too. On the bright side, we’re having my old friend Gary sit in guitar for this week’s rehearsal.