I Don't Do This Enough...

...blogging is not high on my priority list. Some day I'll get this straight. Working on some original material for a project down the road. I already have one project planned for a series of Christmas concerts with Catholic hymns in a modern jazz setting. I may have my hands on another project. This one I have given a pet name recently of "Paul and the False Apostles." More than likely this is the project name and not that of a tune; I'm also partial to "Super-Apostles." Finding these references by Paul of Tarsus brings to mind a comic book style adventure. Whenever I now think of "Paul and the False Apostles" I picture Paul as Christopher Reeves wrestling Zod and the other Kryptonians all over Mesopotamia.

Monday; the Aftermath

Powered through another weekend of gigs. Whatever is left of me is now putting on the booking agent hat. I now have booking responsibilities of Jazzy Chaz and the DelRossi Posse. If you need some soul music for your event or special day, contact me. I have the R+B you need.

New Year....

I'm recovering from a nasty stomach flu. It kicked in about 20 minutes before my New Year's gig. Thankfully the three guys left were pros, took over, and made up for my lack of performance. I learned a couple of things from this gig:

1) Book gigs at hotels: My theory about hotels was proven true. As they are in the lodging business, it might be actually easy for them to comp a room now and again. Like with some of the bars I play; I could get paid $80, or in reality get paid $50 and free beer. The Eastland hotel was kind enough to put me in a room as I was unable to move after my go in the restroom.

2) The following musicians deserve high praise for their work: Tom DelRossi, my frequent drummer and up and comming bassist, Seth Pillsbury, an incredible guitarist and absurdity enthusiast, and Tyler Card, a great saxophonist. If you need any of their respective instrumental talents, I more than recommend them.

3) Shatner happens: The timing was so bad for all of this, but in other nifty ways I was taken care of. I thank the Lord. You can probably interpret this a number of ways; a larger existential being, various higher powers (denomination, non-denominatinoal, or otherwise), or lucky stars from the cradle of a big bang. But I think it worked out too well to be anything less than JC. Rumor has it I might still be getting paid.

I'm going to somehow get my less than functioning body downstairs to pay my rent.

On a brighter note Christmas went well, I think I saw most peoples and family units. As much as I can squeeze in with about 500 miles of collective driving. I recently gave Bitches Brew by Miles Davis another spin and had musical epiphany. Previously I was turned off by electric Miles or the big label of "Fusion." Listening to it now, I get it. Great stuff.

Scott Colley bass intro; "Vertigo"

Put in three hours on this yesterday and finished it. It is quite rubato, tempo fluctuating during performance. Other than a few speed ups, it can be fairly consistent. I chose to notate it by phrase and inserting fermattas where appropriate. The only way to truly get it is to listen to the recording, which I highly recommend, Vertigo by Chris Potter. I may repost this later with the analysis for practical use. I can say upon a quick overview he likes to color alternate tonalities on the same root note. Meaning he pulls many tensions out of this B minorish kind of world. Depending on your interpretation that could be polymodality or other fancy words. Another big feature I enjoy is its a half step above the bass line vamp for the song (written at in on the last bar [7/4 time]). So its like one big tritone sub-dominant of the Bb minor figure.

I'm glad this one is over, now I can get on to do other things with my life. Like another transcription.....


Vertigo Scott

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