--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wednesday
- 4/27/06
10:12 am
Los Angeles, CA
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Friend's of Friend's of Friend's
This week I have been visiting with the friend's of friend's who my friend's introduced me to. Bear with me, this may get a little confusing. My good friends George and Linda arranged to introduce me to Jack and Connie, friends of George's father Arthur, who were the focus of the prior blog. These friends of George, and his father have quickly become friends of mine. Their friends, who wish to remain anonymous, let's call them, hmmm, "Louis and Katherine". Louis because he is a trumpet player (as in Louis Armstrong) but he Caucasian. Actually let's start over, she can remain "Katherine" because she reminds me of a woman I know of named Katherine. Let's call him "Herb" after Herb Alpert. Herb mentioned Herb Alpert during one of our conversations. I drove up to their home in Newbury Park, a section of Thousand Oaks.
I met Herb and Katherine when I played at the art gallery also described in the previous blog page. They were quite impressed with the VSO right away as I was, and asked many welcome questions as I sat in the art gallery, which wasn't very busy at the time. I told them about different aspects of the music system, and almost immediately they asked if I would come over for dinner, and set up the VSO to accompany her on the piano and Yamaha electric Clavinova she has in her living room. She said she was thrilled to have accompaniment as she had recently played with a friend and enjoyed it very much. I gladly accepted the invitation as I am always eager to play, and make new friends. The next day I went over around 3pm after staying another night with the gracious Jack and Connie. Herb and Katherine's neighborhood was lovely. Perched under the Santa Monica mountain range.
Their house was equally nice.
As I ventured up the walk I realized how nice it really was
They had a beautiful patio with all the trimmings
The backyard was serenely inviting
The home was on about 1/4 acre of land
There was a tree outside that looked like the one in Poltergeist
but it didn't attack me
They had a fountain which was bubbling quietly in the pleasant neighborhood
Herb was in the process of setting up a grill when I arrived. They said I should come back sometime for a cookout. Getting back to the grill- I helped for about 10 minutes before dinner as Herb tried to get a stubborn screw in the frame. I tried but couldn't get it in either despite my usually crafty hands. He eventually got the screw to fit while his wife and I were playing music. I hope to make it bach over for a cookout sometime. I've misspelled nothing, and I'm sure this is where the cookout would be.
After taking the tour I set up the VSO alongside her piano and Clavinova
"Katherine" and I played a few songs. She is classically trained and strictly sight reads from sheet music, which is I guess the opposite of my barbaric technique. After running through the few songs a couple times, and her filling me in on the major chord changes (not major in the musical sense, but I suppose that's a minor detail) I improvised some string accompaniment, and also did solo instruments to go with the melodies she was playing on the piano. I even sang the female vocal part to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "I Don't Know how to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar while she played clavinova. I used the vocal processor obviously. I really wish I had recorded that. From now on I have to focus on recording but I'm just having such a good time playing. We didn't play as much as I would have liked. She had to prepare dinner, and a teenager from down the street came over to check out the VSO rig. Well call him "Paul". He is 13 years old and from the looks of it, somewhat of a musical prodigy. I met him the first night briefly. When I went back the next night for dinner, socializing, and most importantly, playing music, he came by for a couple hours to play the clavinova with some VSO backing.
I insisted he tried the VSO and he hurriedly agreed. He even took his shoes off before my inevitable instruction to do so. Obviously a smart lad. He tried the rig, but told me he was mainly a keyboard player. He did pretty well nonetheless. Isn't it funny how "nonetheless" became a word that just scrunches up three words into one? Movingonow, "Paul" and I played several tunes, including a version of "Stairway to Heaven" that blew my doors off. Both his performance and my own. He was playing the whole thing on clavinova, and initially I did the backing string section. Then I kicked in the drums at just the right part complete with snare intro. I even pulled off a shabby VerSiOn of the guitar solo to end the tune with a bang. It was pretty darn good overall considering we'd never played together and much to the dismay of everyone involved. I have never played Stairway before save the guitar solo, let alone drums and orchestra throughout. We had dinner (the first pork chops I've had in ages that were moist) and talked. The previous night I helped Herb set up their computer to record Katherine's playing. I think he was doing everything correctly setting up the recording except that the line in didn't record into the software for some reason. The mic input actively recorded into the program and we captured her recording. I was happy to have helped fix the problem. Herb and Katherine are such nice folks, and I can't believe how gracious they are and how quickly they "took me in". When I asked if I could write about them here in my blog they agreed, but wanted to remain anonymous as they said they were "simple folk". I had a great time being there in such a nice place playing music.
Before I left they told me of a free concert at the
local
Senior Center being performed the following day.
When I saw the flyer I knew I had to attend
The Fullerton Guitar Orchestra just happened to be playing at the senior center where they usually hold sessions of the Ventura county classical guitar society, where Katherine is a member. She recently bought a beautiful Ramirez classical acoustic and has been taking lessons to broaden her musical scope. I drove back up to Newbury park on Wednesday.
Sufficed to say the cost of gas was
worth the trip to see the performance.
I sacrificed my comfort to to the cause for a short time by sitting in the small retractable seat behind the passenger seat in his pickup truck as we drove the 8 miles further west to Camarillo where the performance was to be held.
As you can see I wore my musical socks
Along the way Herb and Katherine pointed
out various landmarks and points of interest
We arrived around 6:30 for the concert scheduled for 7
As we were so early we were able to sit in front
row which was lucky as I recorded the performance
(click here or on picture to view panoramic image)
The performance consisted of 18 acoustic classical guitarists playing arrangements conducted for something that's called "Guitar Orchestra", which I had heard of here and there in the past but never seen. You have to realize the irony here. This is the most devout example of what I do in a twisted introverted retrospectus that I have ever come across. I am one person playing an entire orchestra, electronically, and here are a group of multi-soloists playing acoustically as an orchestra.
Let's just stop to ponder that for awhile...
a little more...
ok
The sounds the guitar orchestra conjured up were divine to say the least. Especially the solid bass sound provided by multiple guitars covering the bass parts. The most impressive and sonically pleasing were the pieces incorporating harmonized harmonics played by the different sections.
The multi-soloist "orchestra" was divided up into 4 parts.
The 1st section, playing lead/melody (representing the violin section)
The second section playing lead accompaniment
the third section chording, and playing lower register accompaniment
and the 4th section played bass parts in unison.
There was a percussionist who played on the last couple
numbers.
Although he was very good I preferred the pure sound of the guitars. With
his playing it sounded to jazzy, and was a different feel I didn't find as
enticing as the pure orchestra.
If you start adding too much sometimes the feel is lost.
Look who's talking
moving on
They did have cordless wah-wah pedals
Below is the program for the performance.
If you can decipher which tunes are which my hats off to you. I lost track(s) due to hard drive crashes on my MP3 recorder and wasn't keeping a written a setlist, which I should have.
The guitar orchestra tuning was a new sound,
and reminded me of a Grateful Dead space jam
The Performance
Introduction
- by David Grimes,
director/conductor
This first recording "Lobe den Herren" was captured using my Sony external microphone which was the only piece recorded with the external microphone.
The battery in the microphone wasn't fresh, and the levels were low even with the record input levels at maximum. As I mentioned, this was the only piece recorded with the external microphone besides the short introduction. Because of the low levels I wasn't sure it would record fully and I opted to use the my MP3 player's internal microphone which isn't as good. This proved true once again as there is some buzzing and the tones aren't as defined as when using the external mic. In the future I will stick to the external mic setup and adjust the volume levels after using the pc sound editing software I have, as that method worked out during editing. I set up my MP3 player after asking if it was alright to record. No one had a problem with my recording the performance, and I set about getting the record levels and situating the mic. I placed the MP3 player between my feet while recording the first tune using the external microphone.
I propped it up angled it against my foot for a better internal mic angle for the rest of the recordings after I noticed the level of the external mic was low.
Three Belgian Brothers
Highlighted at the show were three brothers from Belgium touring with the guitar orchestra. Let me just pause for a moment of silence ensued, and bundled a mood. Sorry I'm getting all romantic just thinking about it. These guys basically redefined music for me last night in the following ways
1) Bother No. 3, sitting on the right, and who was also in section 1 of the orchestra, was the most emotional player I had ever seen. His eyes would roll back and he would sway with the music as all the brothers did, but him especially. He wasn't disturbed by the presence of the audience at all. He seemed in love with his music, swaying together as if on a lone rolling hillside at the coming of dusk. His chops were quite mighty.
2) The timing, phrasing and dynamics between the brothers was unlike anything I had ever heard. As brothers they surely had plenty of opportunity to practice together assuming they had played during their younger years growing up with each other. Due to their playing skills I assume this must have been the case. I didn't ask them as I was afraid to go near them they were so good. Actually I did talk to the 3rd and most emotional brother for a minute. He was very much like his playing, an easy flow to him which seemed to glow from within. I only talked to him for a minute, as I felt like Connie standing next to that bull, waiting for him to charge in a musical rage. I did mention the VSO to him, and he was laughing with me at the obvious difference in aspects of my performance and the guitar orchestra.
The brothers performed 4 songs which I diligently recorded digitally, located below. The director David Grimes introduced the brothers which I recorded As well. I'm not sure of the names, they didn't included these pieces in the program. In the following audio clip David Grimes the director introduces the pieces, which were recorded in MP3 format.
The first tune was quick, both time wise and the tempo of performance
A unmistakable Spanish sounding piece which quickly went through it's progression. Listen for the dynamics toward the middle and the tight ending. Also listen for my digital camera turning off in the middle. After that incident I held the camera under my coat when powering up or down.
The second song was really showed the dynamics of the trio
This song was slower and demonstrates the phrasing prowess of the trio. They all swayed to the music to communicate the feel, almost conducting themselves with their movements.
The third tune started out lively then went into slower parts
This song is perhaps the best representation of their playing style. The way the tune waivers tempo and volume confirms the hours of practice that must have sculpted their ability.
The fourth and last tune was shorter and quicker like the first
Notice the diminished scale at the beginning that starts slow and gradually speeds up. There are a couple diminished scales they pull off both ascending and descending within the tune that caused me to take notice. This recording also shows the shotty quality of my editing skills because I forgot to fade out the end. I'm too lazy to go back and fix it, although it probably took just as long to write about not fixing it here...or now it did. Having told you that, along with what I'm typing now, we've actually surpassed the time it would have taken to download the song, fixed it, and upload it again. If I keep typing, soon I'll have wasted enough time to have recorded an entire album, which is forthcoming.
moving on
Grimey conducted the orchestra with skill and flare
They played a modern composition by Bryan Johanson, which somewhat reminded me of something Al DiMeola would do. It possessed an enticing rhythm, and spotlights the harmonizing harmonics I was describing earlier.
Then they did something that surprised us all
I was puzzled over the origin of this verbal outburst
The only other piece I was able to capture without the puzzling technical difficulties was a piece played using contra guitar, which replaced one of the standard guitars in the orchestra.
The young man with long hair in the 4th section was playing the huge contra guitar which is tuned a full octave lower than standard guitar tuning during this particular selection, he and his guitar were quite the force to be reckoned with. His fingers skillfully conjuring up it's bellowing tone. He was smiling and bouncing to the music, thoroughly enjoying himself, but saw little else of the world around him.
This player was blind, and I found myself intent on watching him through an inverted tunnel of glass created by my mind's eye. Maybe I was watching him because he was unable to watch back, ridding me of fears of distracting him from the performance. Somehow I think he knew I was there watching...he looked like Jesus to me, and had nearly the same effect on me.
I wondered what it must be like to be involuntarily free of the distractions that the dominant visual portion of the mind allows in. As I sat and watched him I wondered if the same colors permeated his inner eye as they do mine while I play, handicapped by the light of the distracting outside world flowing in.
I recorded a couple movies on my digital camera, which records .AVI format for no more than 20 seconds. Of course I didn't think about recording until the last measure of the last song of the performance. I guess the the following movies will be somewhat of a tease, but we'll all have to live with it.
(click on image to view movie)
Ensemble Ending
(is my nose really that big?)
Applause and bows
Parting words
and questions - David Grimes, director/conductor
Mr. Grimes explained the origin of the guitar orchestra and mentioned a lot of guitarists playing "in a box", meaning cooped up by themselves. I surely know the feeling. He went on to add that they encouraged ensemble playing along with solo performance to emphasize playing in groups. This caused me to revisit the idea of an ensemble of multiple VSO's, a vision I had right at the beginning. Three VSO rigs played by capable players would surely be a sight to behold, now two find the other to...
They passed around a basket for donations. I threw a couple bucks in despite my lack of employment. This is unfortunately the last time I saw my wallet too. I lost it and have been frantically trying to find it (don't worry mom I cancelled my credit cards already) I may have pitched my entire wallet in the basket I was so overjoyed about the performance. They also offered refreshments, so I figured it was worth it.
In my life, I have had a lot of experience looking for good music.
I would have to say that this time the music found me
I made the trek home after stopping at Jack and Connie's
to return his Jack-et.
He had lent it to me the following night, as it was a bit brisk outside
after sunset.
When I got home I found the cat diligently guarding the can of
the new
Dr. Pepper
Berries & cream flavor that I swiped from Jack and Connie.
Many of you reading this from back east haven't seen this yet as the new products hit here first. Ha ha. After drinking my soda I was as inspired as I was back in the early days of VSO exploration into the symphony, and I had been listening to Vivaldi's L'Estate (Summer) Opus 8 No. 4. which was inspired by Zen over the last couple weeks.
Before I went to bed I listened to it again with new ears, and after hearing it, had no hopes inside of learning it as it sounded too difficult from a technical standpoint to make sound convincing, and worthy of performance.
Yet again, the experts were wrong.
Blog pending.
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Lessons Learned
1) The music should flow through, and not be hindered by the artist, as I have hindered it countless times. The flow and motion should encapsulate both the performer and listener, traveling together, through a tunnel of glass.
2) More isn't necessarily better. Simply being empowered with the means, shouldn't be the engine that drives you.
3) Always keep a setlist while recording
4) Always pack fresh batteries
5) Don't park so close to the flower arrangement that you can't gain necessary access to the rear passengers side door to retrieve equipment for gigs, whether it be in someone's living room, or Carnegie hall.
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Song of the Day
Memory
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Memory
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every streetlamp seems to beat a fatalistic warning
Someone mutters, and a streetlamp gutters,
And soon it will be morning.
Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
And I mustn't give in.
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale cold smell of morning
The streetlamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning...
Touch me!
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun...
If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day
Has begun
I chose this song mainly because "Katherine" was playing it from a book "Paul" left for her to practice with, and also because the memory of this experience is sure to last a lifetime. The haunting melody brought forth from her Clavinova stayed with me nearly the entire ride home until it was drowned out by the onset of Summer, Op. 8, No. 4
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Donations welcome