April’s almost at an end. It’s been nice weather the last few weeks. All the trees and plants are flowering and filling in with leaves. Such a dramatic difference. Lovely yo be outside, and a great boost of energy.
Easter was about as late as it could be this year. We had Mary and the family over, and Jeannie made a rib roast. It was a nice time.
I’ve been doing plenty of biking, getting to know my new bike. We’ve been out on the Empire State Trailway twice now, the second time with my new bike. Both times I did sixteen miles, which has become my basic trip. I’m trying to get my time down to 64 minutes, which is fifteen miles an hour, or four minutes a mile. So far my best time is more like four minutes and five seconds a mile on average. This last trip, I made it to the end where I turn around in thirty-one minutes! But I got tired on the return trip, and in the end didn’t go much faster than my first time this season.
I’ve also taken my bike into the Nature Study Woods a few times now. It’s a woodsy place near my house with trails that are mostly pretty flat, but hilly and rocky in a few sections. I can pull up all the hills pretty handily on my new bike, which is good cuz I wasn’t able to test it out on that kind of terrain before I bought it. I’m exploring different, longer rides in my neighborhood. Last time I went all the way thru NSW up to Mill Road, then zigzagged my way back home thru New Rochelle, for a total of 10 miles, and about 500 foot elevation gain.
Jeannie’s bike is in the shop right now, so this weekend we did some hiking instead. Went up the Timp in Harriman State Park. Four and half miles, 1000 feet vertical.
I watched the new Bob Dylan movie a couple weeks ago. It was lots of fun, especially cuz my patron Alan Lomax, the visionary behind The Global Jukebox, was a character in it. One thing about it found funny was that I used to live in Greenwich Village, so to see it reconstructed thru combination of hHollywood backlot and AI-generated CG took a few minutes to get used to. It also made me miss smoking. Perhaps predictably, the story ended just after Dylan turned electric in 1965.
I also watched the new Led Zeppelin documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin. It was done by the guy who did American Epic, and in cooperation with the surviving members of the band. It features lots of interviews with Page, Plant and Jones, and archival interviews with John Bonham. It mostly focuses on how Jimmy Page put the group together out of the collapse of the Yardbirds, in the midst of British psychedelic heavy blues scene of the 60’s. Also a deep dive into Jimmy and Jonsey’s work as session players and that scene at the time. Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger was shown an example. There’s concert footage from early TV and concert appearances as The New Yardbirds, the as Led Zeppelin in America in 1969, culminating in the band’s triumphant return to England shortly after the release of their second album to play their first major shows on their home turf as Led Zeppelin. In a surprising twist, the story ends just before they turn acoustic in 1970.
The next night I had to watch Celebration Day, the Zeppelin reunion concert from 2007. It still holds up, great song selection and great performances. Musically and sonically is actually better than most of their concert footage from when they work together as a band. It makes me wonder how much they fixed up in the studio in postproduction.
Speaking of the studio, my recording project Spellbound is coming along. I’m up to tracking vocals on the first batch of four songs. One is really low in my range, one is really high, one is right in the middle and the last one’s an instrumental. The low and middle ones went down pretty easily, and now I’m tracking the high one, which is well within my range if I’m warmed up. It’s kind of a belter, a power ballad sort of thing. I’ve done a few takes and am getting comfortable and focusing on the phrasing, which is a good place to be.
I’m also continuing to cleanup and reorganize my studio. In the last couple weeks I got rid of a whole bunch of old computer and electronic equipment. The last thing is go thru boxes and boxes of origami models and cabinets of paper and consolidate all that. I hope to be finished will all this before Michelle moves home in a few weeks. Meanwhile I’ve also set up the mic stands and microphones around my drum kit. The final step is to plug everything in and start recording. BTW, I’ve decided to learn how to play The Crunge on drums.
One more thing, my jazz and funk group Spacecats has another gig coming up on Friday May 30th at the Green Growler in Croton, which is fast becoming one of our favorite places to play. The band is in a fun place now, playing at a very high level. I’ve been slowly making charts in software of my backlog of songs, and bringing them in to the group, so we have some new originals each gig.
The most recent of these is Mo’bilty, which I originally wrote for my pre-pandemic band with Gary and Jay and Rich, and subsequently recorded on my record Bluezebub. The recorded version was a sort of cartoon-jazz vibe in 7/4 meter. The band took to the odd time signature but came up with a pretty different feel, but also very hip and much more modern sounding. Should be fun to see how this one develops.
Meanwhile, watch this space for updates on the gig as the time draws closer.
