NAMM 2010

Made it to NAMM once again. This major music convention, across from Disneyland, is really Dizzyland, madness beyond belief! Miles of musical instruments, music creation software, and studio gear... way more than I can describe or photo. So it didn't take long to get back to basics... sex!

The booth babes are always a fun thrill! As I said to the guys, let's get the sex over first, then we will be relaxed for the rest of the day.

The one piece of gear that was particularly interesting was from Taylor. Long known for their great acoustic instruments, they now produce several lines of electric guitars. Pictured is an interesting slim line hollow body electric with a Bixby, called a T3.


I must admit, the most impressive layout is from Fender... all their current lines (Charvel, Squire, Eddy Van Halen, Gretch) are nicely presented in a huge room with a wonderful "street" theme. While checking out Gretch gear, a real guitar hero showed up... Duane Eddy! responsible for activating my twang gene back when I was a young farm boy in Illinois.


Eddy was scheduled to play at one of the after hours events, which we declined because we were hammered after fighting the madness all day (interestingly, the punks "dress up" for the NAMM event... a formal engagement for that group of folks... makes for some interesting people watching).

Also in the Gretch area was a small stage... one performance we caught was from Paul Pigat, a Canadian rockabilly star... a great player!


We also saw a performance from Magnolia Memoir, a rather excellent jazz-pop group. Willis occasionally plays with them and is on their upcoming CD. MM also has a rather excellent web site, check it out.

As well as high styling punks, the metal gods were present. Interesting display for gear oriented to that genre...


Well, I guess that's an awful sketchy report from NAMM. But the event is soooooo overwhelming! Thankfully we can always come back for sex (the Gretch Girl, signing posters for herself and the gear)...


I'm breathless...

Best 2009

Every year I compile what I think is the best jazz tunes I've recorded during that year. The collection for 2009 is now available for listening or download. Click on the pic above to link to the page.

Some usual suspects like SLAJO and John Henry, some newcomers like Nate O'Brien and Chase Baird, and a real surprise from Josh Payne. Also snuck in something I recorded with Willis on guitar during a trip to LA.

Enjoy!

Palm Springs Car Show

Spent another New Years holiday in Palm Springs, which has become a very pleasant ritual. This year we were in time for the monthly car show, featuring hot rods and custom cars, sort of a 50's theme, but not restricted to any sort of era. Lots of great cars from the area, I've pics of only a few. Click on the images to get a higher rez photo.

First up is a beautiful Bucket T, with an unusual V12 engine!



Now a 40 Ford with a huge, blown engine (in the good sense!).



Gotta have flames!



And gotta have a classic Woody, it's SoCal after all...


How about a classic flat head Ford?


A little newer, and more stock, and beautifully restored...




Built for the track...


And for the sports car fans, perhaps the most amazing autos ever built, a couple original Cobras...


The next day, during a walk to get a Sunday paper, I was treated to the old and new simultaneously arriving in front of the supermarket. A classic Rolls, and a new, modern Rolls convertible.



Quite a weekend for a car fan!

Studio 13

We inaugurated Studio 13 over the holidays. Willis drove up from LA and gathered a few friends together for a little jazz jam. Met Jake the bass player for the first time, a hellava player! Dave Chisholm and Steve Lyman were the "usual suspects".

The recording was simple, 6 mikes into my Metric Halo 2882. No effects were used for the raw recording into the MIO console application on my MBP. Everything sounds great at this point, Willis thinks there is too much "room" in the recording. Certainly some acoustic treatment to the basement facility is in my future, but for now, I'm happy with the results.

Now to mix and master the recording. This will be the hard part (everyone has an opinion on how it should be done).

Anyway, my studio project is at last up and running to the point where we can get some good stuff. I can get 8 channels into the 2882, with another 8 digitally connected from a new Focusrite OctoPre MkII. Can't imagine ever going above 16 inputs, it would boggle my mind to handle (and mix) any more than that. But I'll spend years tweaking and perfecting.

Studio 13??? Well, we are just off of 13th Ave...

Perving on Planes

Spent the Thanksgiving holidays in Palm Springs. I finally got a chance to check out the Air Museum, featuring lots of classic WWII airplanes. Something fascinating about these old warbirds, and really more fun than modern jets. But then I like classic sports cars more than modern sports cars, so I guess I show my age.

This is an excellent museum, with lots of very knowledgable, and mostly veteran, docent help. I especially enjoyed the "babes" painted on the planes. Click on the images to get a bigger pic.






Then there is the propeller-head crew, the real babes.


Sort of to go along with the museum, the same day we caught "Amelia" at a local Palm Springs theater. A pretty good movie, with some really good shots of more classic planes, especially the Electra, used by Amelia on her final flight.

Utah Arts Festival

I'm sort of late with this. Spent the summer moving to a new house, setting up the "man cave", and dealing with a new status as landlord for my old house. So I finally processed several recordings I did at this summer's Art Festival. I caught several acts, mostly using my hat mikes and a new Sony D50 flash recorder. The exception was John Henry, where I brought out a bigger rig, and managed to avoid getting it soaked in the big rainstorm (see resulting rainbow above). I have some great samples of the music from several groups on the Rev Willis web site (scroll to the link at the bottom of the Home page), or click the links after each of the following pics.

John Flanders seems to play with about 20 groups during the festival. He must make enough dough during this one event to retire for the winter (does he ski?). Anyway, he played in a new group (at least to me) from Park City. Highlighted by the great pipes of Alicia Faith, Radius thoroughly entertained the cafe audience.

Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Ken Critchfield is a bassist who tends toward free jazz and total improv. His group Seraphim combines music with spoken word.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

A festival favorite is Zion Tribe. They finished their set with the best version of Turning Point that I've heard them do. Flanders on sax, of course.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Following Zion Tribe was the one man band, That One Guy! He played a weird home brew pipe device with more contact mikes and effects than I could ever figure out. Amazing stuff! He's occasionally associated with the Mermen, a bay area psychedelic surf music band, and one of my favorites. TOG had to compete with bleed from some sort of Neal Diamond clone band, but he blew my mind (as you'll probably hear).
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

John Flanders was on the festival schedule with his own group, the expanded Double Helix (Ryan Shephard on trombone). He introduced a new tune, Latin Blues, which had some great percussion sequences.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Finally, we have John Henry, the best jazz combo in SLC. The guys started out hot, but got cooled off by a major rain shower which shut down the electricity. Well, not too cooled off, they came out to play a couple gospel tunes as acoustic, for the packed audience seeking shelter from the storm. Where Derek got the accordian, I'll never know (for a solo on a Monk tune).
I've linked to their Meat Grinder for a musical example.

A great festival for music, more than I could catch. Also some fine art, I spent way too much on neato glass sculptures.

San Rafael--Morning After

My friend Rod, with his super digital SLR and its incredi-lens, braved the cold morning air for these shots of the San Rafael desert at daybreak. Great pics... Click on the pic to get a larger image.