Erik and Chicago Jazz Up Cat's Art MusikCircus

For this one I will have to recuse myself from any audio review as there was substantial distortion in my system and I don't have an explanation for it.  I even logged out and cut over to headphones because my speakers have been degrading for some time.  Still the distortion was there but Cat said she couldn't hear it so that left only the computer as the source of the problem.  I have no good answer for that but this is not the time to find it.

Erik the Bassist returned to Cat's Art MusikCircus last night and I don't have the review but I do have the hot pics.  Erik is definitely the image of the bad-ass bass man.

Note the number of strings on Erik's bass.  A traditional bass has four strings tuned E,A,D,G.  Maybe some whizkid came up with a better way to reinforce the neck as a bass these days may have 5, 6, or even 8 strings.  (Guitar Center:  Ibanez 6-string bass.  Be prepared to dig deep as it's almost four times as much as a 4-string bass ... but it sounds so cool.  Note:  I am not recommending this bass as I have never played it.  The link is strictly informational.)

The advantage and disadvantage of a bass with an extended number of strings is that it can be played to give a stronger sense of melody.  That's an advantage because it gives you a wider range of expression and it's a disadvantage because the guitar guy will hate you because he wants to do it.  This is the stuff that makes bands cool, tho.  You work it out or you start another band.

The wider expression of Erik's six-string bass gives him the opportunity to play his interpretation of "Little Wing" and this is a song no-one should ever touch unless you are going to own it.  Trying to play it just like Hendrix is a loser before you ever tune the guitar.  Just don't.  However, that's not what Erik does as he gives his own interpretation and comparing that to Hendrix is pointless because that isn't what Hendrix did.  My own long-time mantra has been it's not important to play like Hendrix, it's only important to think like him.  That's exactly what Erik the Bassist does in his interpretation.

Erik has said his future gigs will only be with an accompanying singer and that sounds like an excellent move for him.  Trying to do a solo act with a bass is a bitch as people are tuned to listen for the rhythm but not so much to listen explicitly to what the bass is really doing.  However, in combination with a singer, Erik will bring his musical knowledge and skills and a singer will bring his or her talent but usually they aren't musically-trained.  I sing because I sing ... because I sing ... and that's a perfectly good reason.  It also makes a perfectly good combination for musical synergy and that will every time be my preference as I would much rather hear multiple musicians than something similar being effected with electronics.  Either way is cool and I do the latter a lot myself but if I have to make an A or B choice, I'm going to listen to the band and I suspect most others would as well.

So, whatever you do, Erik the Bassist, break and leg and enjoy the fracture thoroughly!

Chicagosax founded The Missing Links in Chicago in, I think, 1967 and that's the band that went on to become Chicago Transit Authority, later Chicago.  I don't know which of the original players were in it but everyone in that band was so incredibly talented that it would be an honor to jam with any of them.  When Chicago covers a tune, oftentimes he will talk about meeting and sometimes jamming with whomever wrote it.  A lot of times stage patter from musicians is something you'll edit out of the final mixdown but Chicago tells stories you don't want to miss.  He not only knows the music, he knows the people who made it and continue to make it.

This cat has been around.

He talked of how there was a time when went down to Jamaica a couple of times a year and one time he was sitting in the hotel bar where he met a lady named Rita ... Rita Marley.  Yes, that Marley.

That aspect goes back to a discussion Cat and I have frequently regarding music and this one shows the difference for me as I see a musician's life as the art and the play is the expression of it.  I'm not going to try to resolve that here as the discussion can go on all night long.  This one is probably close to religion in which everyone will have their own answer.

Chicagosax is in the running for this year's AVI Choice Awards so please do vote if you have some time.  Cat's Art MusikCircus was not listed the last time I looked but I did a write-in vote and hopefully it is by now.

You will walk a long time before you can find anyone who can blow a horn like Chicagosax.  He knows jazz and he knows those blues as he's been playing both for a long time.  He was pleased to note last night there is increasing acceptance by professionals of the Yamaha WX-5 wind instrument. They say you can't teach old dogs new tricks but it looks to me like the old dog is doing the teaching as Chicagosax has been playing one for quite a while.  That he, as a natural saxman, digs the feel of the MIDI synth instrument tells me all I would ever need to know.

He's diggin' it alright ... and so are the Guy Fawkes guys.


So was Cat.  It set her afire, in fact.

Ordinarily it's a problem when your date catches fire but in Second Life you take pictures.

I caught fire on a date once, at a Pink Floyd concert.  My pants caught fire and, after observing for a while, my date said maybe you might want to take care of that.  This is when I knew ... never take a date to a rock show.  There are things she will not understand.  (I'll tell the whole story another time)

There's catching fire and there's starting a fire and here's the woman who can do it.

Of course she's dangerous!