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.

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....

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.

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.....

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.

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...

The Finger's Still Shot.....

We had a surprisingly good gig tonight at Steamer's in Pismo Beach. That gig is always hit or miss. I'm so used to being the 'dinner set' band there, where no one pays attention and we basically play to ourselves. It's even worse that they stick us as far away from customers as possible. So it's always a pleasant surprise when a few people show up and get into what we do.

Tonight was that night. A family of 5, an older new age couple, a local jazz head, two older ladies, and two middle aged ladies hung out for most of our set. Granted that doesn't sound like much, but it's a hell of a lot better than our typical audience of, oh say, NOBODY.

The crazy new age lady would get up during particularly burning solos and raise her arms and close her eyes and look up into the ceiling as if we were gods. It was wild, she kept hooting and hollering and going on. As weird as she was, it really made us play better, and it rubbed off on the rest of the crowd. Everyone started applauding after solos! Amazing I tell you.

Another interesting thing happened tonight. Ray Chang, our trumpet player/band leader, was going around and talking to us individually. He was saying stuff like, 'You haven't been really clicking musically lately and I'm not really stoked on it. Maybe you could listen a little better and focus on the groove, blah blah blah'. Well I'm a good sport and I'm like, whatever man, cool, yeah. I've known him for a while and we're pretty good friends, so I don't want any drama...

Our drummer however got pretty offended. Issac Lang is a studied guy and he knows the language of jazz very well. He pointed out to me that this combo, including Darry Voss on vibes (who is THE premier jazz drummer in the county mind you), knows what we're doing and in fact it may be that Ray is the weakest link.

As a bass player, I have a tendency to avoid drama at all costs and cruise right along. You musicians out there know my type, the laid back bass player guy. So I try not to get involved in that little conflict, and Darryl, well he's above that sort of thing anyways.

And sure enough, the three of us, bass, drums and vibes, were locking in and killing it tonight. We really got cookin' and had some nice moments, as if to prove to Ray that we know what's up.

Meanwhile, poor Ray had a bit of an off night. He was lost the beat a few times and flubbed some serious notes in recognizable melodies, couldn't find the one in 'Take Five' and so on. I looked over at Isaac who kept rolling his eyes throughout the course of the evening. Interesting dynamic.

So needles to say, we playing surprisingly well, and maybe it was because of Ray's little talk. It obviously made us step up and play our best. So maybe he was right?

Whatever.