random notes

December, 2010

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yesterday i needed some produce. i was told that there is a farmer’s market type store that has all sorts of produce, meats, fish, staples, etc. its an asian style store with in-store restaurants serving sushi, chinese food, korean food and jamaican food (yes there was a lone jamaican working that particular kiosk amongst the hispanic and asian workers but the jerk chicken was very good btw).

in the mail i received a copy of uptown magazine. i dont recall subscribing to it but here it is. i like uptown magazine..in theory. the execution however is a bit extreme (to me). what i mean is for most people, we are in a recession or are so close to one the point is moot. this is not reflected in any of articles or ads from what i can see. there is an article matching exotic cars with designer clothing. there is one that is titled, “don’t hate us for being rich, educated and well connected.” that one really reaches the masses. its ironc i received this magazine during the democratic national convention. a convention that is trying to win the hearts, minds and votes of the middle and lower classes in this country. this issue of uptown magazine seems geared towards black republicans and millionaire hip hop entrepreneurs.

in regards to the convention, i didn’t see michelle obama’s speech last night but i will check it out online. i did however hear hillary clinton’s speech and she made some salient points and did her part to unite the party. i hope her extreme supporters can wrap their heads around the fact that she isn’t going to be president this time around.

at the same time as the convention, there was a replay airing on public television of a documentary on capt. brenda berkman one of the first women firefighters in the nyc fire department. it was profound how bigoted some of the male higher-ups were even when they were interviewed in their retirement. turned out the most support the women received was from the vulcan society which is the african american firefighter’s organization. ironic as these are the same two groups (minorities and women) that are going to propel whatever happens in this election as there are more registered democratic women than men. and note to gpb: take down your chyron when the piece you are airing has text being covered by it.

there are quite a few ways to get black entertainment trash. some is available online, some on the radio and some on tv. the most recent trash tv i have heard folks talking about is the wendy williams show out of nyc. ms williams seemed to me to have very little positive to offer from the little i have heard from her but she has an audience (hearing her show reminds me of that old adage, “before you speak, is it good? is it necessary?”).

but there is a local show down here in atl that just went on air on monday. its the tv version of local morning radio hosts frank and wanda. frank ski seems to be a stand up guy who has sane opinions on things and wanda and he seem to agree on many things.

wanda seems to be a little more “hood” than frank in her demeanor. she had on some homemade soulja boy sunglasses and was miming to a female version of soulja boy’s first single.

and then there is their third radio personality, miss sophia. miss sophia is a very articulate, very funny (how do i put this in a politically correct manner) drag queen. fully laid out in drag, miss sophia adds the punch line to whatever they are talking about. as an example, the three were talking about jermaine dupri’s restaurant closing. wanda did an imitation of janet jackson calling in to explain why the workers hadn’t been paid (and they still haven’t). miss sophia made the crack that janet talks like a baby and her boyfriend mr. dupri is shaped like one. frank and wanda had their heads on the table howling in laughter. so much happens before i wake up in the mornings.

i don’t know if this show will be on long but it is yet another reason i prefer to read magazines, political & financial news sites and books.

for the past couple of weeks i had a folder of audio files from a mariah carey remix contest. as you know im not interested in the prizes (unless they are non taxable cash). but i wanted to explore how ms carey puts a song together. and then deconstruct it. i already knew there were going to be too many vocal parts. in fact, as far as my way of thinking, it was too much everything. but as usual, i digress.

the first issue i had was the audio files and tempo didn’t line up in logic 8 as it should. i even posted a message on the remix hosting site but no one seemed to answer (not even tech support). eventually i downloaded the garageband files and imported them into logic 8 (my preferred working environment). the tempo locked up on files for the 75 dollar product but not the 500 dollar one. and both products are made by the same company (apple).

anyway, i stripped away most of what was the song and used the repetitive (i didn’t say monotonous did i?) chorus to my advantage. i reharmonized it at will with the electric piano part. the moog synth bass part had to be recorded in spurts as i didn’t remember how i reacted to the vocals when i played the rhodes part. the two bar break near the end is a little throw back to “sucker mc’s”.

but all in all i kinda like it.

instruments used:

sculpture (arpeggiated part in the “change” section)
logic electric piano
kontakt 3
minimonsta
apple loop
exs 24II
ultrabeat
(i tried to use reaktor but it was acting a fool)

for the past few days i was in nyc. i checked on family, went to see friends and dealt with everything else that happened over the weekend (bernie and issac’s passings). i made a few discoveries (not inward, but new restaurants and other places). a few funny things happened as well.

i was in harlem one day walking over to the african village area on 116th street and saw a piano store. there was no way i wasn’t going to stop. the owner is a kool kat and we talked shop as a pianist from japan was there practicing on one of the instruments. turns out he was a player in a jazz club in tokyo and i guess hasn’t been gigging in nyc. he had a nice touch and was playing jazz standards in a style of wynton kelly or hank jones. i joked with the owner about his inventory of instruments which had many nice kawai and yamahas. but not an old chickering or other american grand they were rebuilding for some rich client. he did however have a steinway upright from the late 1800’s they were working on. it weighed a ton. he wondered how it had been transported. we agreed that those poor horses probably hated stopping in long island city for another one of those damned pianos. and the ferry boats probably groaned as well.

after that i stopped by to have a look at a men’s spa called bbraxton. i had called earlier in the week to get an appointment but they were booked. but they took me in as a walk in and they do great work. shaves, haircuts, massages, men’s facials, and a bar too!

over the weekend, one of my best friends took me to a birthday party in brooklyn at someone’s brownstone. i’m thinking great, probably one of those buildings that has been rehabbed and modernized and nice friendly brooklyn folks mingling. not so. it was at a brownstone but we never saw the inside. the party was in the driveway (porta potty in the driveway) and garage area (no grassy backyard area). there was no entering the house for the most part. the dj and food were set up in the actual garage. and they were making announcements on getting in line to get a plate. i had insisted we eat before we got there so that wasn’t an issue. what i found amusing was all these beautiful women in these low cut blouses, skirts and high heels in a concrete backyard. and the folks all clustered around in small circles. hardly anyone brought a gift.

leaving there, we took public transportation back to our repective homes (he in harlem, i was staying with family in queens). i have to say that mayor bloomberg has one thing in common with mussolini. they both got the trains running on time. every train line i used between manhattan, brooklyn and queens was clean and hardly a wait for any of them. the long island railroad and buses were poppin as well. all of this was great because the car rental prices were going to be more than my airfare (100 bucks a day for a compact). and then there would’ve been parking isssues in manhattan. plus, when you drive all the time, its nice to be able to walk places and use public transportation now and then (in a city that has it down).

i went to manhattan on sunday to try and take some pictures of the dominican day parade but the only thing i got was wet. the weather was iffy all day but by the time i got there it was raining steadily. so i marched with a bunch of dominicans to the train station. i had dinner with the music supervisor from soul men (alex styermark) and his lovely family. he grilled some fish i hadn’t had before. it was a cross between salmon and trout. i have to get the name of it again. we had just heard about issac hayes and he told me bernie’s performance was really good in the film.

all in all a good trip. the only mixups were at the airport coming and going. coming into town, i had requested a shuttle service to take me to mom’s spot. i spoke to the company the night before i arrived. i knew the price of the service, where to go etc. when i got to the airport, i was told by ground personnel the shuttle service wasn’t available for where i wanted to go. i made other arrangements then called the shuttle company to chew them out (not that i would do such a thing). they said that they did in fact do the service and the smug little twit i was dealing with at the airport had it wrong. so of course i gave lil twit the phone and let the shuttle service people straighten him out. and they did. he apologized.

on the way home, there were thunderstorms in the nyc area around midday. it screwed up the airports for the rest of the day. my flight was to leave around 5pm. i tried to call airtran in the am to find out anything i could because i was taking the shuttle service back to the airport and didnt want to be stuck at LGA all day. this time the van service made up for the earlier mixup i suppose. i was expecting a minivan but instead my 25 dollars got me this:

i felt like it was prom night and one of the girls in the group was going to pop out of the top of this thing and scream at the top of her lungs. i think mom was amused at the sight of this thing as well.

anyway, the limo got me to the airport very early and i spent all day at the airport. well i could have. when i got there around 2pm, i tried to fly standby on the next thing going to atlanta but that was not to be. my flight was cancelled and i was rescheduled to leave around 9pm. i waited around for any kind of news on the delayed next flight out but the airtran rep at the gate pulled a stunt that would’ve never happened in atlanta. he was standing at the desk for a long while. people were looking at the monitors and time changes of flights but still had questions. he got on the loudspeaker and announced that anyone with questions had to go to the airtran information desk as he wasn’t answering any questions. why? he wasn’t busy doing air traffic control work or doing manifests to any great degree.

as the swarm of people increased, i knew i wasn’t going anywhere standby. so i called a friend who worked and lived nearby. i took a 2 dollar nyc transit bus to jackson heights and we met and had thai food. to be able to spend time with an old friend and enjoy a great meal took the edge off and mellowed me out for the rest of the night. since my friend used to work for the airlines, i got her to call airtran and find out what time the flight was really leaving. the recorded message i called before we sat down to eat said 11pm. the actual time was closer to 10pm. in any event, another bus ride and back to the airport. at this point airtran had 6 planes on the ground with two gates available. of course it was horrendous but everyone seemed to take it in stride. but ole airtran rep (the same one) had to make another announcement. and another. at one point he was telling this overcrowded area of people to please take a seat. i yelled out, “where?” (since there were none) and muttered, “dumb ass.” but i was still mellowed out LOL.

finally around midnight i got home and took a new car service we are trying to support out here. he is giving great rates (cheaper than parking at the airport) and is an entrepeneur. i hope he is very successful but i want him to get a smaller vehicle ’cause that big ole jitney is huge.

BERNIE MAC

i got the news this morning that Mr. Mac passed away. when we worked with him on the movie soul men we knew he had some health issues. but working on the music made him energized. when we were in shreveport, he told me that he appreciated how i worked with him and sam (jackson). how i was able to communicate what i needed from them and made it an enjoyable situation. it was the first time an artist gave me an evaluation in the midst of working and i enjoyed every stressful moment of it (the stress wasn’t from them but the nature of the situation).

bernie did more in his 50 years than many have done in twice the time. he was a good man. i am thankful i got to know him. my heart goes out to his family and friends on their loss. may he rest in peace.

i got a surprise in my myspace mailbox. i got a note from bassist russel blake. i have known russel since i was 15 or 16. we used to play in his father’s latin band playing in late night walkups (second floor clubs) and other gigs. russel was a motherfuc*er even back then. i always expected great things from him. he is a great player even though he hasn’t received the accolades some of his peers have. but he is still creative and like me has moved to ga from california.

thinking about russel made me think about some of the great bass players i know and have worked with in nyc. there were some great kats that folks don’t know about. folks like the late shaun solomon, bill dotts, tony bridges, barry johnson, and many many more. so for every tom barney or melvin gibbs, there are 5 others that didn’t get the high profile gigs.

but they all deserve recognition and i thank them for helping make me the musician i am.