Saturday, July 28, 2012

Today's Home Recording

New recording at home. Zoom H4 was busted (mono channel only). I couldn't dial in the volume (didn't have the time to tweak) of the Nord Piano against the BIAB backing track.

Solar
https://www.box.com/s/b5cfb4eed66b293b34f3

Self-critique: LH needs to lighten up. Some timing issues. Still too busy. Can't sustain the idea. Now this was a one shot recording (as usual), so I just played didn't think about it.

I'm noticing some changes in my approach though that seem to be sticking. And I just have to firm up my style for the longer term.
This is good though. For the gig on Monday, I have an approach (similar to this). Just maybe less and more space.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

First Big Time Gig?

I arrived at our regular venue and then the person in charge said, "Oh, BTW, you're playing for a crowd of 200+ --it's the wrap-party for the movie Raging Bull II".

OMG -- so while we were playing, all these movie stars were around us. I had a picture taken with Paul Sorvino (Sopranos) after the gig, but the rest were around in the middle of the sets.
And they asked me if the Director could sit in on a couple of tunes. I guess he's a jazz pianist. But he didn't actually approach us though.

Anyway, it was so noisy we couldn't hear ourselves so we pumped up the volume and dropped all the soft tunes. Played everything uptempo. We had to stay longer since the crowd was still heavy (and quickly negotiated extra pay).
I made sure to hand out my cards to the production company people. Too bad I wasn't prepared for this. The good news was we got really good compliments on our music so I guess we're good enough for Hollywood :)