Zing Blog 2

My kids’ school is doing a cabaret night in November as a fundraiser. It’s being put on by parents and faculty (no kids), and I volunteered to play sax and keyboards in the orchestra pit. I played orchestra pit for the school musical way back in high school and college, and I gotta tell you, show tunes are some of the most demanding and fun music out there. So this show is two sets of Broadway show tunes – classic and contemporary. The vocal director is my daughter’s math teacher and also has two kids in the school. Her husband is the piano player and music director. They’re both really excellent, and have a core of singers that they’ve been doing this with them for a few years.

Meanwhile, my project with Erik is coming along. We have enough covers for a set, and have six originals in the semi- to mostly-worked-out phase, so soon it’s be time to start setting up gigs.

So I’m getting back into practicing sax regularly again, and learning the songs. I’ve mainly been playing soprano sax the last few years, but now I’ve dusted of the tenor. It takes alot more wind power and lower back strength, so I’m working up to it. The good news is I can still get that really, really awesome sound out of it. The music is a pretty wide mixture, so I’ll be playing sax on about half the tunes, keyboards on about a third (mainly to provide orchestral fill), and laying out on the rest. Should be a lot of fun.

They asked me if I wanted to sing a number too. My first though was “39 Lashes” from Jesus Christ Superstar because I once worked up a heavy metal jazz fusion version of that song. But somehow it didn’t seem like the best choice. Then I thought of the musical Tommy, and the finale We’re Not Gonna Take It. But when I listened to the lyrics that didn’t seem appropriate either. Tonight I listened to “I’m Free” and banged it out on piano easily enough, so I’ll see if they’re into that.

My new music project with Erik appears to be coming together nicely. We had our first “regular” rehearsal this weekend, now that school’s back in session and all. We got together a few times over the summer, but what with vacations and all it was only once a month for July and August, and once before in September. Still the sessions have been really productive and we have one set of material ready to play and another set on the way.

For me it’s been a rather intense personal journey just to get this far. I’d played in bands from 10th grade up to the time Lizzy was born, and over that time been in many of musical groups that did quite a broad variety of music. I mainly played saxophone, but also did a good bit of piano, synthesizers, vocals and even some guitar. I bought an upright piano when Lizzy was a baby with the idea of getting really good at jazz piano. Well I got pretty far but I’ll never be an Art Tatum. My focus on piano was stride, some modern jazz, Monk and Keith Emerson. I also did a good amount of rock and pop, but in general I’d get bored with that kind of song once I’d learned it. Plus its hard to find good songs that come across on piano. One of the reasons I took up guitar was to sing over it. Over time my piano playing got to be more and more instrumental, although important exception has been my songwriting.

It’s been a few years since I’ve played live in group, so it’s been a process getting up to speed again. The format is a duo to start with, with me on piano and Erik on guitar, and the two of us sharing the vocals. The intent of adding a rhythm section somewhere down the line. I’ve been going thru a lot of tunes on my own, getting them worked up to point where it’d be worth bringing them to the group. The material mainly classic rock, (formerly known just as rock), with a bit of prog and R&B thrown in. We both have broad and largely overlapping taste, and we both know tons of songs. And of course the blues is the root that everything from rock to jazz to R&B rests upon, so anything bluesy pretty much works.

We both love The Beatles and Steely Dan, and could put conceivably put together a night of entertainment with a set of each. But for now we’re limiting ourselves to two songs per group and working up a variety of material. In general we’re looking for songs we can perform with a strong, tight delivery as opposed to just jammin’. I’ve made it a rule to pick songs under five minutes. Of course, once you have the material down it opens the door to stretching out.

One important function of picking covers is to give the musicians and the audience a context in which to develop and hear the originals. I have tons original songs, three of which I’ve begun teaching Erik, and he’s showed me one of his so far. Getting a whole set of originals down is an important goal.

The process of working up all these covers has led to me getting systematic about what works for me in a live setting. I’d gotten used to layering things in the studio, and doing multiple takes. One reason I wanted start a band was to get back in the habit of performing songs all the way thru from start to finish, which is the way I used to write. Now I’ve started doing vocal warmups when I practice, and paying attention to where the notes I’m singing fall on the keyboard. Those two things have already made a big difference.

It took me years to develop right/left hand independence on piano. Now playing and singing live, I’m essentially doing three things at once. Since there’s no bass player, I’m holding down the bottom with my left hand. Even a fairly basic song is alot of work if you really want to nail it. Not all songs are in my vocal range or fit my style, even if I can play them, and not all songs can be sung and played at the same time.

And thru this I’ve changed my whole piano style the last few months. There’s been lots of rhythmic and melodic work in the left hand and a focus on rock-solid timing and groove, basically taking on the bass role. The right hand is seeing a return to simpler, often triadic harmonies after years of exploring out-there voicings and chords. I’m not abandoning what I was working on, just tempering it, bringing it back home a bit and integrating it into a broader style. My soloing has changed too. As a sax player who studied Charlie Parker and idolized John Coltrane, my approach to soloing has always incorporated the bebopish idea of slaloming thru the changes in a stream of 8th or 16th notes. Later, in the 90’s when I played in funk and R&B groups my approach became much more focused on rhythm and riffs. Now on piano, my soloing tends to be more melodic, and I don’t worry about speed. Rock and pop solos usually take you from point A to point B are only 8 or 16 bars.

This last rehearsal was a bit different. Erik invited his friend Joe to sit in on bass. Erik decided to play drums instead of guitar so there was a full rhythm section. The format was an ELP-esque power trio. I should mention that my sound is a Fender Rhodes, and I’ve been using my new digital stage piano which has been working out great. After I years of working with synthesizers and electronic music, I want to focus on playing rather than monkey with sound, and Rhodes fits my playing style and concept for the music. Anyway, with a rhythm section I was freed from holding down the bottom, although all the left hand work I did contributed to a strong and powerful groove. But I was suddenly responsible for all the chords and melody aspects too! It was good fun and worked really well. Of course Erik was still singing his parts. At this point I’m singing lead on most of the songs, although we have a few songs that have basically a dual lead vocal and some where I sing harmony.

One new song I brought in was the Rush classic Subdivisions. Not having practiced it before, neither of those guys could keep up with all the meter changes, but it was okay cuz I’d worked out a solo piano version, having prepared for no rhythm section. Erik has suggested we each do a few tunes solo so get a second set together faster, and this is one that should go in my solo bucket.

One highlight of the jam was “Cheap Sunglasses”, which we’d played before, and I was delighted to find works just fine with no guitar. When we got to the coda, Erik and Joe wanted to play out that groove for a while, so ended up taking a long and completely spontaneous solo, which started with some fairly in-the-zone blues riffs, then kinda evolved into more freestyle jazz, which in turn got pretty abstract, angular and dissonant and eventually morphed into a kinda prog space thing. This in turn led to a more rhythmically oriented funky thing, which brought me full circle back to the blues.

Watch this space as we start shaping up to play our fist gigs.