Drunken Masters at Seamonster Lounge

I wasn't planning on going out tonight, but after getting a fair amount of work and practicing done, I looked online to see what was happening, and found this recurring gig at the Seamonster Lounge, a place I have only been once before, and as a performer at that. I decided that it was providence and hopped in the old Jetta and headed to Wallingford.

Drunken Masters is a trio comprised of Joe Doria, Mike Stone, and Thaddeus Turner. I've known organist Joe Doria (right) for over ten years, and I've always known him be a spark of energy in any musical situation he is a part of, from the early days with my group, the Marriott Jazz Quintet, to my more recent efforts with him in Marc Fendel's Swampdweller. Joe -- known to some as "Hernia Joe" -- is just a straight-up organ bad-ass; I know no other way to describe him. Mike Stone is a ultra-versatile drummer who can play any kind of music you can name, and then some you can't -- I first met Mike when I was 19 at the UW, and I'm always bumping into him across wide array of musical styles, from Wayne Horvitz to punk-rock-jam to whatever. And of course there's Thaddeus, who most people know from Maktub, but he's a guitar force to be reckoned with in any band. I remember seeing and playing with him at the 700 Club back in the late 1990s doing all kinds of things with Vocoders and synths and lots of other toys and goodies.

If you have yet to visit the Seamonster, be sure to stop by on a Thursday. Drunken Master has a great vibe with a real improvisatory aesthetic that keeps every tune flowing from a fresh energy and place. Tunes? Who needs tunes! These guys just need a point to jump off from and they are good to go. Can you say Drunken Master Bandwagon?

Weekend Gigs Recap

While I haven't had a chance to go out and hear any music this last week (with the exception of my regular jaunt to The Owl and Thistle on Tuesday), I had a couple of fun gigs this weekend. I really missed playing in more pop-oriented bands when I lived in New York -- mainly because it wasn't nearly as much fun when it was just a bunch of people I didn't know. Now that I am slowly finding my way back into being a true "Seattlite", I'm also finding my way into projects with a slightly-more commercial bent.

Friday night's gig was a loose, free-form hip-hop space odessey with The MC Project: Live at Waimea Brewery's "Get Lei'd" night. Featuring DJ Kamakaze and MC Matt Cavinta, plus myself on trombone and DJ Frank I adding some help on the turntables and percussion, we played off and on from about 9pm 'til midnight, with the DJ action going the whole evening. The concept of the group is slowly evolving, but the direction and voice is starting to find it's own as we interact more with the DJs. Not to mention that lots of cute Kirkland girls, dancing patrons, and accomdating staff were all present for the night.

Saturday night offered a slightly different vibe, in the form of the soul-groove cover band, Players Club. I subbed with these guys a while back, and playing for this holiday party on Saturday was an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy kind of gig. With a solid book of charts from Michael Jackson to Donna Summers, these guys do a great job with dance music and still make it fun for the performers, too. I've been listening to this kind of music for years, and before I moved to NY I played a few gigs a week in this style, but I must say it sure feels good to play feel-good music with people that just wnat to do the same thing as you: give an audience what it needs to have a good time, and give the band what it needs to have a good time. Playing at the Rainier Club is always a pleasure, as well -- if you ever have the chance to attend an event here, by all means check it out: there's a kind of 19th century ambiance to the place that just makes you feel like old money!

Recording with Swampdweller at Jack Straw

Always a blast to play with these guys, Swampdweller's funky mix of drum-and-bass, abstract improvising, ambient textures, and straight-up fun brought us back to Jack Straw to finish up what will be the new Swampdweller album. With the usual suspects of Farko, Andy, Chris, Joe, Jay, Ari, Fendel, and myself, we explored the following concept:

Imagine Swampdweller is all over the world at a ceremony in space...

We did that for about four hours! With song titles like Fog Mud Queen, and Rocket Take Off and Crash in Swamp, this is sure to be some fun music for the listener -- I can't wait until these sessions see the light of day, and from the sounds of it, Fendel is working on a Swampdweller DVD as well. I have always found that being a sideman can be much more satisfiying than being a leader, and this band is no exception -- Fendel and Ari have a very strong concept for this band, and while it may be related to the musicians via quotes like the one above, I'm convinced that this band is in many ways foreshadowing the future of improvised music. Long live the Swampdweller!

Joe Locke Clinic at the 2005 Ballard Jazz Festival

The 2005 Ballard Jazz Festival played host to master vibraphonist and personal guru and mentor Joe Locke. If you have not heard Joe Locke play his instrument before, rush out and buy one of his recordings -- yesterday! He's recognized both by critics and fans alike as a tour-de-fource of energy, precision, melodicism, and integrity. I was able to attend Joe's clinic, and while the audience was primarily young people, Joe managed to turn it into a fun event for both kids and adults, amateurs and professionals. Here are some memorable moments I pulled from his hour talk:

• Equal fear on both sides of the classical-vs-jazz fence: in his experience, he is just as intimidated by what classical vibraphone and marimba players can do as those players are of what he can do as an improvisor.
• Jazz harmony and theory can help inform a classical player: intuitively, a jazz player would look at a Bach Cello Suite and immediately go about understanding the harmonic development and chord movement.
• Joe Locke does the Monkees: Joe talked about his first drum lessons with the nuns at his Catholic school, and jamming away with the Monkees and their hit, I'm a Believer.
• Pre-teens and Whiskey: Joe talked about the fact that the rock band he played in during his early-teen years (12-15) was named after an Irish Whiskey, Tullamore Dew.
• Music-making = Responsibility: "Music-making is a big responsibility becasue you take the hearts of the audience in your hands -- you affect how those people will feel at any given moment."
• On getting in the zone: there is no way to plan this feeling -- you could be treating yourself right for weeks and practicing everyday, and you still may or may not achieve that state. Likewise, you could have not played a gig in months and still find this place.
• Conversation while playing on the streets in NY as a young man:

  
  George Braith: "You suck."
  Joe Locke: "Yeah, I know."
  George Braith: "Ok, see you tomorrow..."

• Recordings that make certain tunes click:
  • Abbey Lincoln - "A Time for Love" from You Gotta Pay the Band
  • Ella Fitzgerald - "April in Paris" from Ella and Louis
• Matisse and Picasso: both spent much of their early development on the fundamentals of their art -- jazz musicians need to do the same to be creative and able to move the music (art) forward.
• Technique: will always be a means to an end -- Joe prefers to think abstractly, like, "I want to sound like water," and the technique comes from that aesthetic.
• A possible goal: to be one with the instrument, where what is coming out is not really you; you are merely the vessel through which the music comes; it is for you to nurture and take care of, but it is not yours.
• Practicing: a never-ending necessity is order to keep the bar high.

Joe Locke continues to be an inspiration to me, and a model in the jazz world for anyone interested in getting to the next level. Joe - thanks for the clinic!

Mark Bordenet Band / Being John McLaughlin at ToST

I love this place, ToST. It's got a funky vibe, not too yuppie but not too grungy, and lots of great music. Last time I was here was the first time, and for my second visit -- well, let's just say I'll be here ALOT.

Mark Bordenet (see right) is an old friend from here in Seattle and the jazz deparment at the University of Washington. He's been living in Zoo York for a while now, and hopped back into town to play some of the music from his upcoming recording, Everything is Changing...All the Time. Backed by Ryan Burns, Mark Taylor and Geoff Harper, the group made their way through many Bordenet originals, as well as some music from Led Zeppelin. The originals had a great mix of pop-sensibility with jazz phrasing and concept; the simple, folk-like melodies that Bordenet has written work well in his hybrid jazz-pop-groove gumbo. I'll be playing some of Bordenet's new album on the 10th episode of my podcast, Seattle Jazzscene, so be sure to check that out if you'd like to hear what I heard.

And if that set of music wasn't enough, I got to hear Being John McLaughlin for the first time! While they started with Miles' Eighty-One, the rest was all Mahavishnu -- Rick Mandyck looked and sounded like he was channelling that 1970s rock-jazz thing (one might even say possessed!). With Matt Jorgensen and Rick Mandyck added to the already solid group (and Bordenet getting a chance for a drink), Being John McLaughlin, despite other claims, is still and always will be the first and best Mahavishnu cover band. And you know what -- I'll put money down on that! Take me up on it! I double-dawg dare ya!

Christian Eckhart Quartet at the Musicquarium

It's always nice when a local series like the Origin Mondays at the Triple Door's Musicquarium bring in a new artist from outside our Northwest scene, and Christian Eckert was a very welcome surprise. A talented guitarist from Germany and a recording partner of drummer Matt Jorgensen, Eckert's group was finishing up their second set with the classic standard, Invitation. With Jeff Johnson and Mark Taylor rounding out the quartet, I was virtually assured a great third set of music.

Sadly, the crowd was a particularly unappreciative group, with barely an applause when a given tune completed. It even got to the point where during a bass solo on Monk's Rhythm-a-ning, a group of people launched into a loud and racous version of Happy Birthday -- RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF JEFF'S SOLO! The short third set of Rhythm-a-ning, an original minor blues by Eckert, and the Hank Mobley swinger, This I Dig of You, were fabulous, to say the least, with each player shining in their own way. I can only wonder exactly what audience the Musicquarium is trying to cater to: the listener, or the drinker...

With that said, I found Christian Eckert to be a solid and entertaining guitar player. I'm not sure that the style of this band best fit the way that he plays, as the more up-tempo bop-oriented fare didn't seem his forte, but he left me wanting to hear more and investigate his depth further. I hope you will do the same: check out his trio CD with Matt Jorgensen and Gary Versace, or visit his website (I hope you can read German).

Rick Mandyck Trio at Oddfellows Hall

People, people, people. I know somebody out there reading this will join me in helping to support Rick Mandyck's OddJazz project at the Ballard Oddfellow's Hall. I made it for the second set to find a yet again empty room -- DAYUM! The stellar set of Chick Corea's 500 Miles High, Jim Pepper's Witchi Tai To, Wayne Shorter's This is For Albert, and Jeff Johnson's Machu Picchu was fabulous, but one has to ask the question: if a musician plays a note in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, will the forest listen? Next OddJazz: December 4th -- BE THERE!

On Being a Horse's Ass at a Jam Session

Ok, ok, ok. First off, this is an open posting to all those who were at the Owl and Thistle jam session last night. Second, being in a bad mood and trying to get your darkness out by playing is not the best of ideas when you've been drinking for the last couple hours.

This was me last night (see left) to a certain degree. I had been down to see a bunch of friends play at the Triple Door last night, and was super-amped to go play afterwards. The music I had heard was great, and while I wanted to just hang for the rest of the night, I was excited to actually go play somewhere. The usual Owl and Thistle session is always a fun night, but last night I took it a little bit left. Yes, I had been drinking, and I'm a little guy, so I was on the way to a real nice hangover. We played Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise and while it was far from perfect, it was a good time. Somehow I lost a bridge along the way, but who knows how that happened. But when we ended up playing Milestones pretty fast, before the first chorus was over, I knew the form was BUSTED! And, naturally, after trying to get through a couple of more-or-less free choruses, I got really upset. Too upset. I just wanted to play one tune after being really inspired earlier in the night, and I felt like I was playing in some Bizarro Jazz World. And I was visibly dark about it, too. Maybe that's an understatement...

My apologies to all of you who may have witnessed that, especially Ryan Burns who was running things last night. I would like to blame it strictly on the booze, and while it really helped me out along the way, I have to blame it on the bad attitude and dark frame-of-mind I was in when I got there. I am constantly reminded that we as musicians generally communicate what's going on in our lives and minds, and tonight was no exception for me. I was tired, not sober, and negative when I got there, and that totally came out on the bandstand. While the playing part of it was nobody in particular's fault, one must remember that it is a jam session, not a gig or recording session, and things ALWAYS have the potential for weirdness. It is supposed to be fun, not a pain in the ass! And when people like me get all bent out of shape when it gets weird, it just makes it not fun for anyone.

Lesson 1: Take a chill pill before the jam session.

Lesson 2: Dave doesn't need to drink before he plays (a rarity for me, but still worth the reminder)

Lesson 3: Jam sessions are loose -- by design. Don't impose your needs on the group, because it's supposed to be fun!

Ok, all -- that's it for me. Thanks for a fun night last night as always, and just disregard the Dave that was present last night -- see you all next week!

Happy Halloween, Seattle

Happy Halloween, Seattle -- from me and Jimi Hendrix
(carved it myself)

Project Live and Jasmine Trias at Meany Hall

Saturday night: Filipino Youth Empowerment Project (FYEP) Presents American Idol�s Finalist Jasmine Trias with special feature performances by PhyZiKal Graffi-T, Nate, CeCe Cabading and Project Live. Proceeds will go to �Bantay-Bata� Medical Assistance Fund, Filipino Community of Seattle Building Fund and WASL Test Prep Program, UW FASA�s Project Family and Anakbayan�s EYE Program (Empowering Youth through Education).

This gig was a ton of fun, and while we were the "warm-up band" to get the rest of the show rolling, it was a great afternoon of music-making on one of Seattle's greatest stages: Meany Hall. If you've never had the chance to play on that stage, it never ceases to amaze me how great any kind of music sounds out there; I've played in operas, jazz concerts, and everything in between in Meany, and I've never had a complaint about the sound (not to mention the University of Washington was my home for a few years). Project Live really is starting to find it's sound, and this gig really helped to solidify some of our newer arrangments and experiments. More from this band coming soon...