General Music Chat

I played 2 Music Fest's with 2 bands, Tribal Funk (Friday night) & Mystic Bowie out of Jamaica (Saturday night & Sunday @ Kelowna Music Fest) . I also sat in with 4 or 5 other bands on Saturday, they had heard me play on friday night and want me sit in with them ... for me it was totally off the cuff, improvisation, as it all original music. It was a gas ... I love doing that kind of ... off the cuff stuff ... keeps my brain & ears working.

But the highlight of the weekend was sitting in an improvised jam with Stu Hamm & Yossi Fine for an hour set.

A killer drummer was brought in for the set and was a machine with the meter. It was a good thing, because some of the grooves got so funky and syncopated, between Stu, Yossi and myself on B3, that he almost was pulled off the beat on a few occasions, but he held his ground, great drumming .... LOL ... It was amazing .. we ended the set with Cissy Strut (Funky Meters), way cool, I haven't play that song since the mid 70's.

Stu and I hung out at my bus and drank a few beers and swapped lies and told road stories .. nice down to earth guy.

Yossi did his one man live looping act .. woow it was amazing, he gets about 14 loops going, 3 in a group, so he can fade a group out and start and new group with different textures & rhythms. He did a Funkadelic song and layered in all the different instruments and their parts ... it was crazy ...

It's kinda funny ... but these 2 renowned bass players, live in the same city, know of each other, but had never met, until this fest.

Today ... I'm in recovery mode ... the temp were around 100 degs all weekend and I feel I have heat exhaustion ...

Damn! Sounds like a great time was had, man! Wish I coulda heard it.

You must be killer on the keys!

I hope to have it up on youtube in a couple of weeks ... the film crew has to edit it down ... I'll post a link when it done.

YES! Keep me posted on this, cuz this is exactly the kinda thing I really love in music - the rare spontaneous treat.

As a performer, I prefer to have all my ducks in a row, usually, but when I get the chance to sit in & make a magical moment or two - Woohoo!

I'm not familiar with the ppl you played with, either, so it'll be fun to hear new stuff, too.

Killer! Sounds like a great time. I met Mystic Bowie in 2003 when he was touring with Tom Tom Club. Very talented cat. I bought a TTC t-shirt and everyone in the band signed it; I had it framed and it's hanging in my practice room.

Cool Jimmy.. yea he's a good entertainer ... great voice and a very down to earth guy .... he tried to talk me into going to Japan next month but I declined I have prior commitments. He rode with me down to Kelowna in my Prevost tour bus and now he got the bus bug .... LOL

Philly ... I'm a hired gun on B3 and play with a lot of different artists and bands that want to fill out their sound and or add rhythmic support (syncopation) to their bass and drums. I guess I'm known for my taste fully playing and hard work to get the job done (I learnt 30 original songs in a week, show ready, for Mystic and Tribal). I do play in a house band in town, with a bunch of guys I've played with for years, but I prefer not to be in a band, with all the drama that goes with it.

I'm playing with Rita Chiarelli next month (8 time Juno award) draws comparisons to Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge.

Ron,

Good to hear you're still out keepin' those tone wheels spinnin'.

We have a few folks around here that still bring out the good 'ol Hammonds from time to time. The President of our local musicians union is a fine player, adept at useing the bass pedals. Ironic that he displaced so many bass players over the years.

John

Pevost thanks for sharing.

Sounds like you had a great time.

Killer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, please post up a link. I'd love to hear / see you play.

Well ... actually HowlinJ ... at my age, my tone wheel (1958 B3 / 380 lbs) stays at home. I've been using a Clone Wheel (XK3 Pro System / double manual / 40 lbs) with a 142 Leslie for the past 3 years and love it, great tone and it's laid out like my real B3.

jw123 ... it was a blast ... I love playing funk ...

I tend to play off the bass player and the better the bass player (slap & pops) the more room it gives me to play syncopated rhythms off the bass player who is playing syncopated rhythms off the drums ... so it can get pretty wild on the beat and if you're not playing with drummer that can hold it .. you can easily pull him off the beat ... I've had it happen a few times and it's ended in a train wreak.

... it's was one of those things that go on the bucket list as done. I'm 56 and have been doing this for 40+ years, so I don't know how much long my hands will last, all is good now, but you just never know when CTS or something like that will hit you.

The sweet thing is we had a film crew recording Friday & Saturday, then follow us down to the 2nd music fest. So I should have lots of footage when they get their editing done.

The film footage goes to a plan I have, getting my grandkids interested in learning to play a real B3, "Oh look there's grampa playing with all these cool people". To me playing a B3 is as much about operating a machine as it is playing a keyboard, and I feel that the art of playing a real B3 is somewhat being lost because of the clone wheel ogans with poor drawbar interface / expression petal and on and on .. and there seems to be less of us that have learnt on a real hammond to pass that knowledge on.

edit: Most artists that I work with don't allow filming or recording so I have very little footage for the grandkids or myself for that matter.

Thanks guys ... I've keep you posted..