Phoenix J was to open the show tonight at Cat's Art MusikCircus. Unfortunately, I had a commitment with some medical appointments and could not get back in time for her set. Even without having heard it, I know it was beautiful and she will be back in two weeks to sing at the MusikCircus again.
Tonight Joaquin Gustav did not play any pop songs and instead he went back to what he does best: jazz. To many, jazz means cold and impersonal but that's not at all how it goes with Joaquin as his sets are always romantic and they often attract couples. He's had a reputation for that for years.
Joaquin's play tonight was nimble and brisk with very fast and delicate finger work in his play. This is very much the best side of his music. Sure, that's a judgment but everything is. The problem with a judgment is when it's biased in some twisted way. So it's my opinion that Joaquin does best playing jazz rather than pop covers ... but Joaquin loves requests. Ask him to play whatever you like!
In the last week, Voodoo Shilton was out of town for jams. That's always good but what makes it complicated is that he took a large part of his kit with him to do it. There's one thing you can be sure every time you move your kit: nothing will work anymore. Last night he was back home but that meant setting the kit back up all over again.
Voodoo messaged me before his set to ask if I could help test his sound. He can't tell from his end what it will sound like in Second Life so he needs a straight man to give him some feedback. I'm a bit less than straight but I can help with that so we had a go at it. That was fairly effective but he has a complex kit and there was no way to check out all the combinations. This became significant as his set proceeded.
The set was going very well even if there were still some anomalies in the sound levels but Voodoo was twisting knobs all the way along. There's no other way to fix these kinds of problems and you keep turning knobs until the sound comes into the focus you want. That's not something you want to do in a set but many times it will come down that way and that's what happened last night. The problem was that this took time away from the other things you do during a set and made it possible to go into a long and complex song with the guitar out of tune.
If you're playing an electric guitar with a twang bar, a string going out of tune usually means you have to re-tune all of them but an acoustic guitar can have one or more out of tune without affecting the others. Unfortunately for Voodoo, more than one string had gone independent on him.
Playing a song is one thing but playing it when you're in trouble is a whole different thing and quite a brilliant thing if you can do it. Of course you could hear mistakes as failing to hear them would mean Voodoo is playing the same whether he does well or has troubles. The beauty is in what he does about a mistake as his recoveries were exceptional and this is when your mind is thinking just as fast as it can possibly go. He definitely recovered the song and he played it through. The easy recovery is to stop the song, cop an apology, re-tune it and start over ... but Voodoo didn't do that and instead brought it home. It was quite an extraordinary feat.
I told Voodoo after his set that I feel a bit guilty in writing reports about his set in that I haven't been mentioning his guitar work so much. It's exceptional and he's easily one of the best guitarists I've ever known but what has been striking, particularly in its difference to what he has done before, is the way he has brought a flute and a sax into his set.
It is worth remarking again about the flute and the sax as Voodoo got another keyboard controller for playing them and the result is astonishing. Cat didn't think too much of me calling the sound 'organic' as that word gets bandied about so much but it's still a good one to describe the sound that comes from Voodoo's wind instruments. It's true that, to a point, they're synthesized but they don't sound synthesized and, to me, that's a huge thing. Miles Davis once said that all synthesizers are programmed white ... but not the way Voodoo plays one. There is a whole lot of soul in what he plays and you will definitely feel it.
So, once again my report is turning into a book and I know I sound like the Voodoo Appreciation Society but I'm fine with that. So long as what I write is as objective as I can make it I'll shamelessly call myself the Voodoo Appreciation Society. Check him out. The man can play.
And I can dance so here's one dancing with Lady Cat, Queen of the Rats!
Yes, we still wear our New Year's Eve hats but celebrating on only one night is SO limiting, don't you think. Europe is so much more hip to celebrating than America. Any holiday worth having is worth doing for a couple of days and they do that for lots of them.
Tonight Joaquin Gustav did not play any pop songs and instead he went back to what he does best: jazz. To many, jazz means cold and impersonal but that's not at all how it goes with Joaquin as his sets are always romantic and they often attract couples. He's had a reputation for that for years.
Joaquin's play tonight was nimble and brisk with very fast and delicate finger work in his play. This is very much the best side of his music. Sure, that's a judgment but everything is. The problem with a judgment is when it's biased in some twisted way. So it's my opinion that Joaquin does best playing jazz rather than pop covers ... but Joaquin loves requests. Ask him to play whatever you like!
In the last week, Voodoo Shilton was out of town for jams. That's always good but what makes it complicated is that he took a large part of his kit with him to do it. There's one thing you can be sure every time you move your kit: nothing will work anymore. Last night he was back home but that meant setting the kit back up all over again.
Voodoo messaged me before his set to ask if I could help test his sound. He can't tell from his end what it will sound like in Second Life so he needs a straight man to give him some feedback. I'm a bit less than straight but I can help with that so we had a go at it. That was fairly effective but he has a complex kit and there was no way to check out all the combinations. This became significant as his set proceeded.
The set was going very well even if there were still some anomalies in the sound levels but Voodoo was twisting knobs all the way along. There's no other way to fix these kinds of problems and you keep turning knobs until the sound comes into the focus you want. That's not something you want to do in a set but many times it will come down that way and that's what happened last night. The problem was that this took time away from the other things you do during a set and made it possible to go into a long and complex song with the guitar out of tune.
If you're playing an electric guitar with a twang bar, a string going out of tune usually means you have to re-tune all of them but an acoustic guitar can have one or more out of tune without affecting the others. Unfortunately for Voodoo, more than one string had gone independent on him.
Playing a song is one thing but playing it when you're in trouble is a whole different thing and quite a brilliant thing if you can do it. Of course you could hear mistakes as failing to hear them would mean Voodoo is playing the same whether he does well or has troubles. The beauty is in what he does about a mistake as his recoveries were exceptional and this is when your mind is thinking just as fast as it can possibly go. He definitely recovered the song and he played it through. The easy recovery is to stop the song, cop an apology, re-tune it and start over ... but Voodoo didn't do that and instead brought it home. It was quite an extraordinary feat.
I told Voodoo after his set that I feel a bit guilty in writing reports about his set in that I haven't been mentioning his guitar work so much. It's exceptional and he's easily one of the best guitarists I've ever known but what has been striking, particularly in its difference to what he has done before, is the way he has brought a flute and a sax into his set.
It is worth remarking again about the flute and the sax as Voodoo got another keyboard controller for playing them and the result is astonishing. Cat didn't think too much of me calling the sound 'organic' as that word gets bandied about so much but it's still a good one to describe the sound that comes from Voodoo's wind instruments. It's true that, to a point, they're synthesized but they don't sound synthesized and, to me, that's a huge thing. Miles Davis once said that all synthesizers are programmed white ... but not the way Voodoo plays one. There is a whole lot of soul in what he plays and you will definitely feel it.
So, once again my report is turning into a book and I know I sound like the Voodoo Appreciation Society but I'm fine with that. So long as what I write is as objective as I can make it I'll shamelessly call myself the Voodoo Appreciation Society. Check him out. The man can play.
And I can dance so here's one dancing with Lady Cat, Queen of the Rats!
Yes, we still wear our New Year's Eve hats but celebrating on only one night is SO limiting, don't you think. Europe is so much more hip to celebrating than America. Any holiday worth having is worth doing for a couple of days and they do that for lots of them.
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