So tonight I had what we musicians on the West Coast call a 'casual'. In case I haven't mentioned what a 'casual' is before let me explain; a casual is gig at a wedding, business reception, cocktail party, corporate reception, etc. They usually involve a tuxedo, and a lot of money.

(Let me just throw in a little regional musician dialect for you here; in L.A. we call them 'casuals' but in NYC they call them 'club dates'. Both of these names are odd because they are formal gigs that don't happen at clubs. In Chicago they are called 'jobbing gigs', this seems most appropriate.)

There is no personal expression at a casual, no creativity and no artistic fulfillment. You're either playing unoffensive jazz tunes or classic rock/pop songs. There is nothing more degrading for a musician than a casual. BUT they pay more than other gigs. The casual I had tonight was pretty rough and really typifies what you go through on one of these gigs.

The gig was a wedding reception in the Malibu Canyon. I had some trouble finding the place and called the guy who booked me on the gig. He told me he'd have one of the event planners call me back and help me. I found it soon after but still got the call from the event planner telling me I had to get there as soon as possible and giving me attitude. This was at 3:40 and I was told to arrive at 3:45, already I knew this was going to be a doozy.

Let me take a moment here to tell you about even planners, they are among the most condescending and disrespectful people you will meet in any profession. And I am not joking one little bit.

I arrive on time and am surprised to see that this wedding is going to be held at a horse stable. Well, not the actual stable but a nice lawn area next to the stable. I unload my gear, go park my car and walk all the way back to the stage through the various lawns and horse stables in my suit. The horses were looking at me as if to say "why are you wearing patent leather shoes on this dirt road, sir?" I set up my gear and the event planner begins telling us all how little time we have and how we needed to hurry and sound check before the guests began to arrive. This gig was a little strange as we were going to play in three different locations (one for cocktails, one for dinner, one for the reception). So we sound check not once but three times all the while with the event planner up our asses telling us we needed to hurry.

Luckily we finished before any of the guests became offended by a sound check. So there's an hour to kill before we play, we sit around and shoot the breeze. The sun is going down and its starting to get cold. The ceremony ends, its almost time to play and the event planner literally counts us down to the moment we are to begin, "one minute ... 30 seconds ... 15 seconds ... GO!" As if the guests would up and leave if they happened to pick up their Captain n' Coke without "Girl From Ipanema" playing in the background. Its really cold outside and my fingers are numb but a sharp pain shoots through them when I press one of my bass strings down.

We play the cocktail set and move to the next stage for the dinner set. We were told we would have a 15 minute break but the event planner said we needed to begin playing immediately, I guess the guests couldn't find their seats unless they were provided with a soundtrack. So, no break. We play the set and have to stop a couple of songs when the event planner informs us that the emcee needs to say something or there is a toast to be made. Finally we get a break and by this time everyone is pretty hungry. We are lead to a table with three vats of old and cold picked-over pasta. There was nowhere to sit, no shelter or anything. It was awful, luckily there was another event planner there to tell us that the food was still good and it wasn't that cold outside. It seems we were acting like divas by expecting a decent meal in the middle of six hours of work.

So we go back after 10 minutes of choking down cold ziti and the event planner counts us down again and continues shouting directions while we are playing. This seems to be a good time to mention that nobody at the reception seems to give two shits about the music. No one claps or dances or bobs their head ... I don't know why we had to get bossed around by this fascist planner since everybody else was so indifferent.

We get another break and move to the final location. They rustle up some small pizzas for the band in the kitchen area which quickly get snatched up. A few minutes later yet another event planner comes out, sees the eaten pizza crusts and yells at one of the chefs "I NEEDED THOSE PIZZAS!!" I'm still curious as to what circumstances causes someone to yell for his lost pizzas in such a rage. We get on stage and are told that the wedding party will be walking in to some songs from a CD and we needed to act like we were playing along. You heard me, on top of actually playing we had to act like we were playing as well. The party enters and the acting commences. We then play the first dance and afterwards launch in to a stirring rendition of "Have Negila". After that, I'm done. I hear the band start "Play That Funky Music White Boy" and I leave. I walk all the way across the lawn and through the stables with my bass on my back to get to my car. By this time it was totally dark outside and the horses had on their blinders that they sleep with. If they had been able to see me I'm sure they would've asked why I was still in patent leather shoes and if I was carrying a big guitar or a cello.

I drive the car over to the stage area, load up my amp and finally leave the gig.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the typical casual for a working musician. You work so hard to become a good artist honing your craft and studying the technical aspects of your instrument only to discover that the work that usually pays the most is the worst that usually degrades you the most. And there are musicians who do casuals week in and week out their entire lives. I don't know how they do it. I'm pretty lucky.

For any of you who think I don't have a real job or what I do is 'play' and not 'work' or that I shouldn't be privy to benefits like those who hold a 'normal job' because I enjoy what do, know this: I earned every cent of my money tonight!

I just took the What Book Are You? quiz that Kelly linked to on her blog.

The result I got is quite hilarious:

You're Anne of Green Gables!

by L.M. Montgomery

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage
cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash,
honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt
your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with
kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters.
You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I've been checking out a lot of indie rock lately (for some reason there isn't a whole lot of great new jazz being released at the moment). I've found some really good stuff. Here's the best of what I've been digging on:

Ys, Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom is the most refreshing and talented musician I've heard in a long, long time. She plays the harp and sings with an ethereal tone (some call it child-like which at first listen might be appropriate). I don't know how to describe what it is she does; avant-garde folk? Whatever it is I guarantee you've never heard anything like it. Os Ys the great Van Dyke Parks (who was Brian Wilson's collaborator for Smile!) provides the string arrangements. Her previous record The Milk-Eyed Mender might be more accessible for some. Its really nice to hear something so original.

Mirrored, Battles

Battles provides some truly unique sonic-scapes. Some call them 'Math Rock', I prefer 'Hardcore Prog Rock'. Really interesting sounds, samples, and song arrangements. The band features the drummer from the great alt. metal group Helmut and Tondai Braxton, son of avant-gard jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton.

Let's Stay Friends, Les Savy Fav

Good ol' melodic punk rock. Not much else needs to be said.

Class of 73 Bells, Prefuse 73

I'm not much of an electonica fan, but this extended single really creates a great mood. Very melodic and the beat sounds organic. This one is so new I can't even find the album art online.

The Dust of Retreat, Margot and the Nuclear and So and So's

Here's some Indy Indie rock. The band are local to Indianpolis and they remind me of everything that is good about original music in Indy; melodic, moody, folksy. They have quite an epic sound an an instrumentation that features horns and strings. I bet they're probably great live.

What've you been listening to? Any hidden gems on your playlists?

My gigs over the weekend really wore me out. I didn't get home until 3 AM Friday night after the punk show. Its much to hard staying out that late with a baby in the house. Maybe if we had a bigger house. Then there was football Sunday (go Colts baby), a high school friend of mine who lives in Long Beach came up. We had a great time but I was dead tired by Monday. Milo and I took naps all day yesterday.

I've got a few days with the baby this week. But not much else is happening which is fine. Once October starts I go full-speed until next year.

And in some great news for Kathy and anyone else who likes good TV; Season 4 of 'The Wire' is coming out on DVD in Dec.

In an interesting bit of gossip the aforementioned high school friend told me that another friend of ours from back in the day was arrested for trying to hook up with a 14-year old girl who he knew was 14. Creepy right?

My oh my, makes you wonder how the rest of your classmates turned out.

TV is an entirely new and exciting thing with DVR and On Demand. If you have either you know what I'm talking about. I haven't watched a regular TV series for a while but these days I'm seriously digging on a few really great ones.

Californication-Did you know that David Duchovny can act? He can! And he's really great in this show, he stars as a writer in L.A. struggling with writer's block and trying to be a good father to his twelve-year-old daughter. As an added bonus our friend Amy (who was one of Milo's first babysitters) stars in the first few epsiodes.

Weeds-This series has turned from dramatic and clever to bitter and humorous but its still the best 'sitcom' on TV.

Big Love-The second season just wrapped up and it didn't disappoint.

Feasting On Asphalt-I love Alton Brown. One day I'd like to take a long road trip across the country.

Blind Date, Intervention, Confessions of a Matchmaker-Okay, these shows are crap. Everyone needs guilty pleasures though.


This is perhaps the most diverse week of work I've ever had. Monday I had a recording session for a friend who is writing a transcription book of Paul Desmond solos that is going to be published by Hal Leonard. He recorded the sax solos with a rhythm section for the CD that is going to accompany the book. Desmond was part of the "West Coast" style of the 50's, this brand of jazz was much more laid-back and understated than other post-bop styles of the day. We had to cop the feel of the original Desmond recordings for the session. I'm usually pretty aggressive with my beat, laying back took some adjusting.

Tonight I accompanied jazz vocal majors at MI in performances for their Finals.

Friday night I am playing a gig with my buddy Vinnie's punk/hardcore/art-rock band SPIT. That's right, punk rock baby. I haven't played music like this since high school, its going to be a blast.

Saturday night I have a jazz gig at a rock club in a hip part of L.A. (Los Feliz, the neighborhood popularized in Swingers) with some very heavy cats. It will be some hard-hittin' stuff.


By now we've all heard or seen Britney Spears' debacle at the VMAs on Sunday (Man, remember when the VMAs were cool? That was a looong time ago.) Her lip-syncing was terrible, her dancing was stiff and clumsy, and she did not look well. But doesn't Miss Spears deserve a little slack? This fan certainly thinks so:

*LANGUAGE WARNING*

*PSYCHOTIC FAN WARNING*

I recently read this fascinating article by the NY Times about Rick Rubin and his place in the future of the music business. Its no secret that the industry is in terrible shape right now and less and less records are being sold. Capitol Records (one of the largest and most historic record labels in the history of the music business) has recently hired him to right the ship. The article gives insight as to how the business is suffering and what Rubin wants to do to fix it. So go read it.

Rubin thinks the future of the industry is for record labels to make all the of the music in their entire catalog available online via a subscription service. I guess it would work like Napster does at the moment, you can listen to anything you want while you are a subscriber but nothing is available for direct download. While Rubin has some good ideas I think this one stinks. I'd never join an online music subscription service. I want to own my music, people will always want to make playlists and 'mix tapes' and personalize their collection. Unless you want to be a lifelong subscriber to a label (which I'm sure is his plan), that would be impossible.

And if you hadn't noticed FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!!!

FINALLY!!!

The Colts will defend their Championship missing a lot of team members from last year's roster. The media would have you believe that the Colts are in bad shape because of all of the free agents who have left the team, but they are wrong! Most of the defensive players we lost are of no concern, there are young studs ready to fill in at DB and LB who will be as good as the vets they are replacing. The biggest concern is the DT position. With Booger McFarland out the defensive line is pretty weak. We'll see if these young players can step up. Another concern is the unexpected retiring of Pro Bowl LT Tarik Glenn. There's a rookie in to replace him but there's no way he can fill Glenn's shoes. But offense has never been a concern of the Colts.

I expect a great season from the Colts and it all starts tomorrow. I plan on watching the game with my son as he will see for the first time the football team he will cheer-on and root-for for the rest of his life.

I got back from tour yesterday. It was only three cities but it was pretty eventful. The first gig was in Houston, we played for the Mayor's birthday party for the city. Lot's of rich folks and local celebrities and after four songs we were done. Not bad. And the following day (last Wed.) we had entirely off. This is a rarity on tour; no travel no gigs no rehearsal, nothing. We took advantage by having lunch at hands-down the BEST barbecue place I've ever eaten at, Pizzatolla's. Jerry Pizzatolla is a childhood friend of Steve's and invited the band over (Steve flew to NYC to do some business). We had a great time and some great food.
The secret to Jerry's barbecue brisket is this brick oven/smoker. Ovens like these aren't allowed in Houston anymore because of fire codes, but since the restaurant has been there so long (he procured the place from Houston barbecue legend Johnny Davis) its been grandfathered out of the laws. No secret rubs or sauces in his brisket, just salt, pepper, and about 10 hours of brick oven smoking. There is none better.

Here's a pic of the guys and Jerry:


That night our trumpeter Matt and I went to a Houston Astros game. And you won't believe what happened. After scalping some tickets (for face value as the Astros are kind of sad this year) we sat down to a local guy who goes to a lot of games. After the game starts he leans over and tells me "a lot of foul balls come up here so be on the lookout." I was skeptical. We were on the club level directly to the left of and behind home plate. It seemed like a long distance backwards for a ball to travel. Then in the fourth inning Cardinals Left Fielder Chris Duncan comes up to bat and *WHACK* a ball comes sailing up for us. It is coming towards my left where the local guy is sitting, he jumps up but misses the ball (this I found funny since every time a ball would go in to the stands and a fan would miss catching it he'd shout "GOTTA GRAB IT!") and it bounces high off of the concrete steps to my right. Well, Matt is sitting to my right and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you he's every bit of 6'7". I thought "there's no way I'm grabbing this ball before Matt." But sure enough the ball slips through his fingers and plops right in the unoccupied seat in front of me and I scoop it up.

I'm not sure if you can appreciate how rare catching a foul ball is, it doesn't happen to everybody and I kind of figured it would never happen to me. But the way my luck has been going this year I shouldn't be surprised. Here's my ball which I will of course give to my son (coincidently that day was also his first day at day care):

Matt and I after the game:


The Astros were celebrating the 80th birthday of their broadcast announcer. Guess what his name is?


The next day we flew to JFK and stayed at a hotel by the airport (yuck!) and the next day played a nice theater in the Hamptons. The gig went really well and the crowd had a lot of energy.

The next day we played a private event on Nantucket. I'd never been before and my first impression is this: if you've ever seen the Nantucket/Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard-look in fashion magazines and said to yourself "people don't really dress like that" let me tell you, they do. I saw a 60-something year-old guy in teal and white seersucker shorts, a pink polo shirt with the collar popped, and a blue blazer. There are guys like this all over the island. We played a wedding (rumored to cost $1 million) and the groomsmen all wore blue blazers and khakis. Too funny. But we had a good time and Nantucket even has some pretty cool nightlife.

Home finally. I'm watching Milo all week. We're gonna find some trouble to get in to.