I've moved!

I was chillin out with my friend Steve Miller, and he asked me if I owned forresttwilliams.com. I then figured that would be the solution to having all my stuff in one place, instead of on blogger, myspace, flikr and so on.

So, after a painstaking runaround to get my domain to import all of my posts from this page, I have officially moved! I give you:

forresttwilliams.com

This will be particularly useful for people to either check out shows I'm in or be able to check my availability before calling to book a gig, now that I have an up-to-date gig calendar posted.

I'll also be posting all the mp3s of music for everyone, as well as artwork.

And all of your comments are intact too!

Tequilla Sunburn

After napping on my stomach on the beach, this song came out. Every part recorded by me, except the trombone solo, from my friend Colin Dean.

tequilla_sunburn.mp3
Enjoy.

BHS plays MFC:

A friend of Jarred Pope (Drummer for Crosby & MFC) is the band leader over at Bakersfield High School, and he decided to work up a little Mother Funk Conspiracy into the program. In this video, around 6 minutes, the band breaks into 'Hammbone Steaksauce' from our last album. What a treat!




Also, here's an mp3 from the Sabroso sessions earlier this month (with an intro on the upright):


Lo Que Va A Pasar.mp3



Enjoy!

Warning, Subtle Political Jab:

I couldn't help it. I saw this picture of Al Gore's home office on Boingboing and I thought, 'What does Bush's office look like?'. Oddly enough, that was the only picture I could find of him working, so I used it.

How good can you make a $30 guitar sound?

Here's a song I wrote and recorded yesterday on a $30 piece of junk guitar. I kind of like the tone though.

I was supposed to be laying bass tracks on some new Crosby material, but I ended up screwing off all day.

The Rain Forest.mp3

A 14 hour workday is like a swift kick in the shin, but you like it and ask for more.

He is done with his work shift at the music store. It was a long 8 hour day for him. Still kicking a bit of a cold, he's standing fairly strong. On the back of his mind is the fact that he gets out of work at 6 pm and his gig starts at 6:30 pm. That gig is done around 9:00 pm and his next jazz gig starts at 9:30 and lasts until 12 am. 'It's going to be a long day' he thinks. Little does he know how long it will be.

He arrives at his rehearsal space to load his equipment into his car. He pops his trunk, steps out of his vehicle, and then it hits him.

"I don't have my studio keys!"

He panics and looks around his car, which is a total disaster already. Even if they are in there he probably wouldn't find them.

He bolts over to the drum shop and sees a drummer that has another room in the same building, attempting somehow to get into his own room but failing. The clock is ticking at this point and he's freaking out and makes a few phone calls. He tracks down a set of keys from another musician he shares the room with and drives across town to get them.

By the time he shows up at the gig it's 6:45. In a mad dash to get setup and park, the band doesn't start until 7.

Fortunately, he doesn't crumble under the pressure of the day, and the band kicks ass. The crowd goes nuts and the Salsa band plays effortlessly. Good times had by all.

Unfortunately, due to the late start time, he doesn't make it to the Jazz Club (only two blocks away!) until 9:20 pm.

That band starts around 9:45 and plays until 12:15 am after one break.

And as usual, Grappolos is filled with gorgeous ladies dancing to our latin jazz all night long, which helps the night fly past him rather quickly.

He walks into his house around 1 am and instantly falls to sleep, sleeping deeper than he's slept in months.

Touching Email

This was sent to me by a friend from out of town. Its very nice, and very re-assuring. It makes me realize that the bass part is important in music.

"I really enjoy watching you play. I have other friends who enjoy watching you play also. It isn't really about the flourishes. Sometimes you will add a flourish and it isn't that I think that is better, it could be that I was floating into la la land and something out of the ordinary brought me back onto the same road as the music. That isn't about the music. It could have been a word or someone behind me started talking and I lost my focus.

Sometimes I am not listening closely, I am watching the interaction of the band with each other. I am feeling the energy you are sharing with us, your audience and I am reacting to that.
And sometimes I am hearing every chord it seems, feeling every vibration and can't be pulled out no matter how hard anyone tries.

I don't really know what other people are doing. "

I felt I should share it, as it is very inspirational. I wish every listener was like this!

Drum Competition Video

From Dan's hand held video camera:



Pretty nerve wracking. And silly too.

And tell me Howard (The M.C.) isn't a huge tool in this clip. What's up with his mike skills?

Oh Snap

The Playbacks were ridiculous last night. Who'd have thought that A Tuesday night would go off. There's a new sound system at Downtown Brew, and it sounded phenomenal. Sam sang his neck off, he hit all the high notes in our notorious cover of 'Sir Duke'! (He sometimes can't hit em...) We played two freakin encores! On a Tuesday Night!

Month Recap

April, my birthday month, has almost always been good to me. This month had some great gigs, notably the San Diego show with Crosby. Also, I did a recording session with the salsa band, Sabroso, entirely on the Upright bass,

I played with some great new musicians, honed my chops with lessons from Jedi-Master Ken Hustead, got some, learned some. Great month.

There were more than 12 gigs this last month. I'm looking to top that in may, I've got 5 gigs this week alone.

And just recently, I won third place in the Drum Competition. That was a hoot. I felt pretty nervous, It's weird having the entire place stare at you for 3 minutes. I'm used to that sort of thing on stage playing bass, but it was different somehow.

There was definitely some grumbling amongst drummers. Howard, the new owner of the Drum Circuit, told everyone that I was really a bass player, and when I got third, some drummers were a bit peeved. It was all in good fun for me.

Video of Drum Competition coming soon....

R.I.P. Ed Richards

So there is this older guy, who was around 70 years old, who was a great Jazz Pianist. I played with him once with Sonny (the Jazz Singer), and I was horrible. This was about two years ago and I still didn't really have any sort of grasp of Jazz at all. He was very patient, kind and encouraging though.

Last night we show up to our regular gig at the Inn at Morro Bay, with Ray Chang on trumpet and Mike Raynor on drums, and it just happens to be that friends and family of the late Ed Richards were holding their wake there.

We dedicated some songs to him, and played okay. We really butchered a couple of tunes though, badly. I have to practice more on the upright bass if I'm going to think I can pull it off at gigs, damn.

But it was a good night overall. There were some touching moments, we played Ed's favorite song and the everyone applauded standing up after that one. We had some nice musical moments (besides the beat getting turned around multiple times and serious faking our way through several chord changes....).

Busy week, off to the Drum Competition right now. Whew.

Public Perception

Grappolos was ridiculous last week. We played mostly latin jazz. The place was packed and everyone was dancing. The energy was incredible. But one thing kept bothering me.

I felt like I played mediocre at best, but the crowd response was there. I would pull out my 'bag of tricks' licks when I ran out of steam and people light up. Which didn't really mean anything to me. In fact, it almost reinforces my lack of faith in the general public.

For instance, when I feel I'm playing inspired and melodic, not relying on flashy tricks and bull#$%*, no one seems to notice. As soon as I play my fast stuff, people get into it.

What does that mean? I understand that the role of music in a club/bar is entertainment. I know that most people there are just there to have a good time, and the live music adds to their good time drinking vibe. I recognize that they're not there for us.

A look at popular music solidifies that train of thought. You can see that the types of music that continuously dominates the top of the charts is more or less background music. Something you can either dance to, bang your head to, or sing along. But not necessarily music to LISTEN to.

Fortunately, there's always a small handful of people in a large crowd who truly appreciate music and understand what's going on. Like a couple of people will come over to the band and say something to the effect of "You guys are smoking tonight, I really like your version of (jazz standard title)" and it makes it worth it. You know from their comments that they know this music, understand this music, and appreciate this music.

That always makes it worth it.

There's two kinds of people in this world....

I've been hearing that statement for years, and always talking about different issues. But the the only version of that statement that rings true with me is the following:

There's There's two kinds of people in this world; Rolling Stones people, and Beatles people.

I personally am a Beatles guy. Music is a drug for me, and the Beatles crafted emotionally richer music that tends to lift me up more than the Stones. I love the pop-melodies that float through every song, the rich production work, the crappy, yet rock solid drumming. And let's be honest. The Beatles were simply better songwriters. Don't get me wrong, I love the Stones too, but I believe that the Beatles are better.

For a long time I didn't quite grasp the full meaning of that statement. Now I get it. It doesn't necessarily mean that you like one band over the other. Many of my friends, for whom this statement rings true, don't listen to either band. It comes down to what you prefer; rock or melody.

Consider this: My good friend Bryce is a brilliant mathematician. He also listens to and plays nothing but punk rock. So he's not the guy I invite to my jazz gigs, but I go see him play whenever I can. All this makes him a Stones man, even though he doesn't listen to the Stones. He likes the rock more than the melody.

Another: My homey Crosby is another gifted man. He knows how to craft a beautiful melody. He didn't grow up on a diet of Beatles, but he would rather listen to a single voice with an acoustic guitar than a whole band rocking out. That makes him a Beatles man, even though he isn't intensely familiar with their catalog as most 'Beatles men' are.

See what I mean?

So what kind of person are you? I'd like to know.

How do you salsa dance? Easy, first drink. A lot.

After working at Grand Central Music all day selling guitars (the things we resort to to survive!) I went down to the Drum Circuit to watch my friend Dale Moon give a free drum clinic. I showed up mainly to support him, I already know his schtick, but I wanted to represent as a friend. To my surprise, it was standing room only. As I drove up people were literally standing outside, straining their necks through the door to catch a view.

Then to Grappolos, the best jazz gig in town. Oh, how I miss that place. Darryl Voss plays there every thursday, and for the last two months, my schedule didn't work with his rotating cast of players. Now it's the 'Darryl Voss Latin Trio' with Larry Errone on Piano, who is a superb latin jazz player.

The vibe in there is so happening. It's turning into the hip spot. The people I recognize were people I know are too hip for me. And I'm pretty hip, dammit!

Beautiful shaking of the hips, people lost in the rhythm. Dim lights, loud atmosphere. Drinks flowing, the owner being a big fan of Latin music. Building up energy with thematic, climactic solos that ecstatic reactions from kids who don't normally listen to jazz.

I'll be there every other thursday for the next two months, and it's now the highlight of my week.

Salsa on Youtube:

Sabroso played last Thursday night. This footage is pretty much a timbale feature, considering the timbale player's wife, filmed it, and it smokes:



The best part in this song is when Dave (timbales) fakes us out with his cue at the end of the solo. It's supposed to be this great, big drum roll, then full band break with a horn line. He rolls the big roll twice before he breaks and you can see and hear us all laughing and yelling!

Drunk Hank has done it again.

So the Playbacks were scheduled to play at the Frog and Peach Pub on Saturday, after getting a call from Hank (the bar manager) two weeks ago saying that another band had cancelled.

Then, Wednesday night, we get a call that the other band now wants their slot back.

Being the poor business man that Hank is, he gives it to them and calls us to tell us that we're cancelled. Even though it's he advertised us in the New Times and I had just put fliers up all around downtown.

Our singer is livid. I'm understandably angry, but I also know that the bar scene sucks and these sorts of things happen?

So I run into the Travis Larson Band last night, and they said that Hank tried to cancel them at the Frog and Peach for their thursday night gig cause Hank had double booked. They were in the paper as well. They went out of their way to contact the other band and tell them to screw off. They are a hard working band, and if the gig is advertised in the paper, well dammit, they're gonna play it.

What a mess Drunk Hank is ending up to be. Twice in one week!

To be completely honest, I'm actually looking foreword to not playing on a saturday night for a change, being that I had already landed another gig during the day.

A funny thing happened to me....

Ray Chang called me and told me that our regular friday gig at Steamers in Pismo Beach was cancelled this week. Apparently, "The restaurant was going to try something different". Which was fine with me, that friday gig was starting to grow weary.

However, not 30 minutes later, I get a call from Sonny Wright, jazz vocalist. She says, "Would you like to play drums friday night at Steamers?" Their normal drummer couldn't make it, and I had recently played a gig on drums with Joe Duran, the bass player who plays with Sonny. He dug my style and told Sonny that I could hang.

So I had a blast. And I hung in there, swinging, latin, funk. Good times.



And audio from the recording session two weeks ago. Because there are some edits to be made, I've just highlighted my own playing in these cuts. I don't want to put someone else's unfinished audio up on the internet. So that's my excuse for being completely narcissistic and just putting up my bass solos....

Up In The Sky

Beautiful Love

Day 16

Today is the 16th day in a row of playing every single night.

8 of those days were paid gigs
8 of those days had work before play
1 of those days was in Fresno
All of those days make me tired.

Ahhh, Fresno.

Our hero pulls into the run-down town of Fresno with all his gear in tow. 'Great place for a gig' he thinks. He's been a little bit jaded as of late, too many crappy gigs for too little pay. But he rolls with the punches and moves on.

Upon finding the place he can't believe his eyes. Its a brown and grey desolate neighborhood. Homeless people walking like zombies through the streets. Some sort of 3-block-large food processing plant across the street. 'At least the club looks decent from the street,' he thinks.

Recognizing another musician's car out front, he knows he found the right place. Parking, and locking every door twice, he steps out. A gust of dirt-carrying wind hits him in the face and he recognizes the smell. It's like a cross between a dairy, a meth-amphetamines laboratory, and dirty socks. Ahhh, the smell of Fresno.

He knocks on the door and looks around him. It appears there is a drug deal going down at the end of the street. The woman, hair nappy and clothes disheveled, walking towards the man on the left side of the street. The man, with loafers and a flannel shirt, is walking from the opposite direction on the right hand side of the street. They both do the old 'look both ways before you cross the street to buy some crack' head turn and meet in the middle of the road. A quick transaction, so subtle it's as if they have been practicing slight of hand with famous magicians. They scatter.

Enthralled in this, he doesn't notice the door opening in front of him. Our hero turns around and instantly gasps a little bit, caught off guard and unsure of how to act or what to do.

The fellow at the door is an older gentleman with a pronounced hunchback and some sort of disease that makes large, round face growths happen all over his head. When he talks, his head shakes a bit and all the skin sacks on his head wiggle around in a hypnotic fashion.

"Welcome to my club!"

Ahhh, Fresno.




Epilogue

The owner was a great guy, I was just caught off guard, you know? He can brew a mean beer too! The gig goes surprisingly well. The place filled up and it turns out we have our first fan club/street team people ever, and they all live in Godforsaken Fresno. Which means Crosby Loggins will be back.

We actually had a great show!

Busy Week

Since last Tuesday, I have played a gig or rehearsal every single night and it doesn't stop until next Mon. That's two straight weeks. I'm running myself ragged here...

Did a recording session Sunday at Blue Universe for Ray Chang. It was Ray, Issac Lang on drums, Darryl Voss on vibes and me on electric. My chops aren't good enough to throw down in the studio on upright yet.

Real mellow jazz, like Ray likes it. We recorded 4 of Rays originals and 1 Cover.
Pretty stoked on my bass solos. I think they all came out pretty good.

Audio coming soon

Great Show

Sabroso opened for Sambada last night, and it was a smokin hot evening!

The band sounded great, everyone pretty much kicked ass. No one made any major mistakes, intonation was great, good times. I did have a little problem with the upright feeding back due to the massive subwoofers under the stage at Downtown Brew. Kip (the sound man AND the guy who runs the building I rent my rehearsal space) is my homey so he did the best he could and rode the faders. Everyone said the bass sounded huge and good.

Dave absolutely KILLED it on the timbales. I asked him about that cause he tends to blow licks at rehearsals, and his response was to the effect of, "Hey, that's in rehearsal. This is live, it's time to do it right!" What a pro.

Sambada is a great band. Afro-Brazilian funk. Everyone in that band can really dance. They all trade instruments throughout the course of the show too, which I thought was cool.

I don't normally dance much, but I pretty much danced all night long with some lovely people. Good times.

Upright (s)kills

I played pretty okay last night. And that's a good thing. Sometimes I don't know why I play this big bass.

The Double Bass is the proper name. It's also referred to as the Upright Bass, the Dog House, the String Bass, the Standup Bass, The Bass Fiddle, the list goes on.

But no matter what you call it, it is by far the sexiest instrument ever invented. It has that great sound when plucked (called pizzicato) and that silky sound when bowed (called arco). No other instrument sounds that good in the low frequencies. And it's got those great curves!

It's very cumbersome due to it's large size. It's taller than I am! That makes it difficult to carry around, put in my car, set up in small areas, etc.

It's also extremely difficult to play. I can play some cool and fast chops on my electric bass, which is around 20 times easier to play, but not on the Upright Bass. It's as if I had to learn how to play an entirely new instrument. It's an uphill battle for me. Having received my Bass and started playing it this last summer, I haven't had enough time spent on it to even get comfortable yet. Which is frustrating, because I want to play all this stuff I know from the electric bass, but I can't do it!

So with all these factors against me, I sometimes wonder why I bother. It's a total labor of love. It's not practical, it is occasionally physically painful to play, it is extremely difficult, the pickup technology hasn't developed very well yet so it's hard to get a good sound out of an amplifier.

I guess it's all worth it when I play jazz on a bandstand. It really sounds better than the electric bass at jazz gigs. It sure looks better. And every now and then, after struggling and hacking my way through a jazz set, some one will walk up and say, 'Oh, I just Loooove the big bass!'. It's like they didn't hear me sucking, they were just enamored with the struggle of getting sound out of it in the first place.

And I think it's times like that where I remember why I play the damn thing. Because it IS a great instrument. And because I felt the same way about it as that person did for so long.

And because it looks cool.

Fist real Salsa gig goes well. The people danced the night away....

Amongst grey clouds and talk of rain, we went ahead and setup for an outdoor gig last night.

Sabroso played our first gig with two more on the books this month. Man, when this band is hittin, it hits hard. And of course, for the level of difficulty of this music and for it being our first live show, there were problems. And it always seems that everyone I know who shows up to see us play always see the disaster songs and leave. That ALWAYS happens.
But we had our moments.

So I worked at the music store from 10am - 5:30, then straight to the gig. Finished around 8:20, hung out for a while, went to Linneas 'Jazz Jam' night and jumped in for a song before heading home.

It was then that I realized why my playing was sub-par this evening. 2 reasons:

1) I didn't eat since lunch.

2) All the salsa and jazz I've been playing in the last 2 months have been almost exclusively on upright bass. Due to weather concerns I played electric tonight, which screwed up everything for me.

and 420 and music don't work together.

Dissapointment.

So an hour before the show tonight, Joe Duran, the bass player, calls in sick. Great. I've been practicing drums all week. And he has the stomach flu.

If it wasn't Joe, a good friend of mine and a bass player who plays circles around me, I would be super-ultra-uber pissed. But I suck it up and end up playing bass tonight for a bunch of songs that I don't know with chromatic chord changes. Great.

Aside from the dozen or so on-stage train wrecks I had a good time.

Whatever.

I was so looking foreword to playing drums.

Bad, Bass, Bad!

Remember all those entries about how good I think I play?

Well it was bound to happen.

I normally go down to the studio after work and practice for a while. It's almost a nessecity when playing the upright bass. That instrument is NOT like riding a bike. If you don't play it for a week, all is lost. Especially when you are (relatively) new to the instrument.

So this week I practiced drums instead. Why? Because I have a gig tomorrow night playing drums in a mediocre funk band. I absolutely love playing the drums. I tell people it was my first instrument, cause I would bang on anything around that produced a tone as a child before I had any guitars around.

So, being all excited about playing drums saturday night, I've spent all my practice time on the kit. Well guess what? I sucked ass on the upright bass tonight at my regular Friday Jazz gig.

And I played worse than I have in a long, long, long time. It was so frustrating. I could tell everyone else in the band was noticing.

Funny part was I took a few solos that came off well and got good response. But those were only good because I played as hard as I could out of pure anger at my crappy playing. Weird how that works.

Lame. Tomorrow should be fun though.....

'06 Music Compilation mp3s

Every year's end I create a compilation CD of the best music I've been involved with over the course of the year. I Make about a hundred copies and give them out to every one I know for Christmas. It's a little narcissistic I know, but people really seem to enjoy it. I've been doing it for the last 4 years in a row and this year is one of the best in my humble opinion.

So here's download links to the mp3s of this compilation for those of you who I haven't given a physical copy to yet.

Enjoy.

Pokin Around - Solo Acoustic
Until We Find It - Mother Funk Conspiracy
Fresno - The Playbacks
La Essencia De Guaguanco - Sabroso
Always Catching Up - Crosby Loggins
Verk Out - Glomsteen
Man Vs. Machine - Solo Computer Programming
Mellow Mood - Solo Acoustic

Ahhh Grappolos, How do I love thee:

Let me count the ways:

1) Without fail, the best jazz gig in town. Darryl Voss (drums), the coolest cat around, and I seem to lock in mystical rhythmic phrases all night long, with a telepathic passion.

2) The amount of luscious looking young women, who wouldn't normally be into jazz, hanging out and grooving. And I mean getting down. Bumpin and grinding and applauding furiously after solos.

3) The place brings something out in my playing. I think I had the best night of my life playing jazz on my Ibanez ATK 5 string bass. I played better solos than I ever have, ever. The crowd acted as a barometer confirming this. Before the gig tonight I spent an hour warming up and practicing. I gotta do that more often....

4) A bunch of soul brothers hangin out tonight were giving us mad props. You know you're doing something right when you get the soul brothers diggin on your scene.

5) Did I mention the ladies?

All this and I still can't solo over "Well You Needn't" worth a damn.

Every time I see a flag half mast,

I think it's for James Brown.

Happy New Years

I was able to play three gigs in a row on the upright over the last three days. And all of them were good.
Last night we played the New Years party at steamers. I was expecting a dead room, or nobody paying attention. It was nice to see the whole place packed and dancing and partying and applauding. It was a good night, fo sho.

Two nights ago we played for a full house, and it was a 'listening' crowd. The pressure's on when all eyes are on you!

After that show we went to Los Osos, my old stomping grounds, to catch Dylan Johnson in action again. The band was great but it was a real treat to see Bob Santa Cruz, local bass elder to us, get on stage and do the James Brown. It was unreal. He can play those bass lines and pull of the vocals to a tee!

Damn, I wish I could sing...