Upright Bill

I played classical guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drum machine on a Book On Tape. I played a Fernado Sor piece on classical guitar, an electric blues piece on electric guitar, bass, keyboard and drum machine and finally a heavy metal thing on guitar, bass and drum machine. The blues and metal things constructed on the fly. Three hours in the studio and they used about 30 seconds of each to make it sound like a radio being tuned first by a lady in her kitchen then by the leader of a gang that broke into the her house and finally to the metal thing when they raped and killed her. Not a Jazz album but it was fun.

I can make you a great deal on the Eminence. The Roscoe is sweet, the picture doesn't do it justice. The top is spalted maple, Keith Roscoe has a technique where he somehow fills the holes in the wood so that they are completely filled and smooth but look completely 3-D, when I show it to people they always try to put a finger into the spalted areas.

That is the most amazing, fascinating sad story I've read in a long time. Saw it coming from way back ....

No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. What is it with bars, and nowadays even restaurants, with TVs on constantly? I was playing at The Green Door with my r&b band this weekend and while I was setting up, one of the TVs had some plastic surgery show on where they were actually showing the surgery (it was a tummy tuck) and then showed the big pieces of fat they took out. Totally disgusting. Do we really need to watch that at the bar? I walked over and turned off the TV. Within five minutes, the waitress had turned it back on. Reminds me of when I was doing a gig recently. It was the night of the World Series, the last game where Boston won. It was on the tv at this club. They didn't let us do a gig because nobody noticed us. Till this day I still don't know why. Hmm, maybe I need a new bass player. I'm available!

I really like the Full Circle, after I finished adjustint it. You can change the tone by rotating it. Now that I have it set, through my AI it sounds like my bass. I was using a Bass Max, a piezo in the bridge and microphone pointed at an f-hole. I liked that alot but really suffered from feedback. I have the Contra, an Eden Metro, a Nemesis, and a little Peavey Microbass. For instruments I have the Reiley and an Eminence for Uprights, a Marcus Miller Jazz bass, one of Gary Willis' own Willis Ibanez, a Keith Roscoe six string bass, a hand-made (by me) copy of a 1972 fender jazz bass, and at least a dozen guitars. The Roscoe is sweet! The picture doesn't do it justice. Here's the Eminence:

Playing walking bass lines on a Double Bass my favorite thing to do standing up! Playing chord melodies on my bass guitar is awesome when there are people listening that appreciate it.

No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. What is it with bars, and nowadays even restaurants, with TVs on constantly? I was playing at The Green Door with my r&b band this weekend and while I was setting up, one of the TVs had some plastic surgery show on where they were actually showing the surgery (it was a tummy tuck) and then showed the big pieces of fat they took out. Totally disgusting. Do we really need to watch that at the bar? I walked over and turned off the TV. Within five minutes, the waitress had turned it back on. Oh yeah! Rhythm, Blues and tummy fat

The bass is from Steven Reiley in Grand Rapids, MI. Its a Christopher that Steven modifies. The top is regradulated and the ribs are thinned. I like it very much. I'm using a Fishman Full Circle pickup to an AI Coda. I also have an Eminence, which travels well and sounds pretty good amplified.

No they didn't, I blacked it out in Photoshop!

Thanks Jim, I still pop in now and again. "Stuff" getting in the way, you know how it is. I stopped playing other gigs to play just Jazz and just Double Bass a couple of years ago and basically the net result has been that I've stopped playing out completely. I got a call last night to do a classical guitar gig, passed on it, and its been bugging me all day.

Not quite solo, that's Uncle Skid on the far right playing guitar! Guitarist extraordinaire Rick Hicks in the middle.

Teaching jazz is like fattening frogs for snakes. I don't teach, but I tell kids at clinics what I'd do if I did teach at a University. I'd put them on a bus and paint the windows black, give them ugly uniforms and 400 pieces of music out of order that need all sorts of doubling (clarinet, oboe, flugelhorn). I'd drive them around campus for 30 hours in circles, going nowhere. Then I'd stop, [drop] everybody off, put on the plastic uniforms, set up on a dark stage with no sound system or sound man, tune up, call out a number 1479!...[They'd have to] scramble to put their music in order "All right, now put it all away, hang up your uniform, get back on the bus and drive around in circles for another 30 hours." After a few days, I'd ask them, "Now, who wants to make this their life?" You can save people a whole lot of trouble, because this is what the music business is. It's not about the music. The music is easy! It's all that other stuff. To play with young energy is simple, but to sustain a career in music takes a lot of dedication. You may major in Coltrane, but you gotta play Britney Spears on tour for a living. - Phil Woods (in Downbeat magazine) Made me feel better about the place I'm in musically right now.

Me:

I love all spices with one exception. Cilantro tastes like soap on a good day and like dirt most of the time. The problem is that the people that like it like it ALOT and put too much of it in/on. I think the most common salsa recipe that includes Cilantro goes: Finely dice one grape tomato, add one bushel of coarsely chopped Cilantro Salad with Cilantro: Gently tear one Bibb lettuce leaf, add 3 pounds of coarsely chopped Cilantro If people could just back off a little I'd be fine with it.

Rick Simerly and a very nice person as well.

Ginger Baker's "Falling Off The Roof" is IMO quite interesting.

I'm Slippin Killa. unless I use Upright Bill and then is Drunken Kelp Licker. George Bush is Masta Crack Baby Dick Chaney is Rotten Dick John Kerry is Sweet Skull Cruncha John Edwards is Phat Bitch

You beat my mom, so there must still be time. for the record, i have never met upright bill's mom (let alone "beat" her!) Thanks, I spit coffee on my monitor. On the other hand, she is available and resonably wealthy. You'll have to find out about the beating on your own.

AAHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Happy Birthday!

You beat my mom, so there must still be time.

The waitress gave me a big hug, free lunch and a big cake, ice cream, carmel, pecan, hot fudge thing. Tasty... not exactly the same as that dream last night but fine anyway.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Thank you! Lets see, fun stuff today. First I have to buy donuts for the guys at work, then see a vendor, meeting with a group of guys that screwed up a simple assignment. Lunch at one of my favorite restaurants because my favorite waitress said that if I come in on my birthday she'll have something special for me (I bet its not what I drempt it was last night ). Then tonight I teach from 5:00 to 9:30. Yep, its going to be a good day.