Souljazz Orchestra US Tour: Day 0

The time has come.

Just about seven hours from now, the Souljazz Orchestra will embark on a tour nearly seven years in the making.  

Welcome to the Rising Sun 2012 US Tour:  11 days, 10 shows, 6,000+ km, 1 van.  No driver, no soundman, no t-shirts or hoodies with catchy logos, no hefty tour advance, no grants, no per diem, and (best of all) no idea where we're really going or what to expect when we get there.  Just five soul brothers, one soul sister, and four albums of music we've been dying to share with you, America.  Thanks for your patience :-).

Here's what our label, Strut Records has to say about it.

I'll be blogging regularly throughout the next two weeks, and I'll also be capturing lots of video footage for a possible Funkyleaks tour documentary.  As for Wednesday, we'll be starting off marathon-style with a 700 km drive from Ottawa to Providence, Rhode Island for our first show @ Fete.  Oh, and if you're into this new thing the kids are using called the Facebook (I know I am :-)), here are some links to our official page and an event page for the entire tour.

Finally, to any fans who may be reading:  If you happen to see me post any messages along the lines of "Mom...I'm stranded in Kalamazoo...please send money" just disregard them please.  See, um, my mom and I joke around like that all the time.  Yeah.

OK, bags packed & I'm off to bed.  Take care of yourself, Canada.

The Week In Pictures

Ottawa has finally succumbed to the snow gods.  Usually this is the cue for me to disappear into studio hibernation, but I'm determined to get back into snowboarding this winter after about 10 years off.  Spent a wonderful evening with the family at Edelweiss and I was excited about how quickly it all came back.  Next time maybe I'll be brave enough to bring my iPhone with me on the slopes, but here's a quick shot from the parking lot as we arrived just in time for the sunset.

The January 14th show at Mavericks with Slim Moore & The Mar-Kays was our first of 2012, and easily the coldest night of the year thus far.  Plenty of great people still came out though, and Slim really had some spectacular moments!  

On Monday I had to say goodbye to one of my favourite students.  Felix was visiting Ottawa from Germany as an exchange student.  He's returning home this week and I'll definitely miss his presence around the Shine studio.  Always on time, always prepared, always positive...I wish you all the best and hope to see you in Germany later this year!

Thursday night was reserved for a special get-together at Metropolitan Studio with the Souljazz Orchestra and engineer Jason Jaknunas.  Traditionally, the last tracking session of every new SJO album is reserved for group vocals.  Standing in a circle with my 4 brothers around a single microphone reciting the chants we've heard in unison from crowds all over the world as these songs have developed over this past year was an electrifying experience.  We toasted the wrap with a bit of London gin and sat down together for one last listen to the entire album in its raw state before Pierre and J.J. delve into the mixing process.  There is some real magic on this record...I really can't wait for you all to hear it!

Two days later, we were back at Mavericks for the first Souljazz Orchestra show of the year.  A couple degrees warmer outside than the week before with the Mar-Kays, but inside the thermostat was stuck on full funk!  I'm always blown away by the dedication of our Ottawa fans who brave the cold winter streets to line up for our shows early and stay until DJ Zattar spins his last record.  Thank you!!!  We're headed to the US for a while in February, but we'll be back home soon to continue the endless rhythm!

The Language, Pt. 1

Aaron Miller & Brent Jensen, December 2011.  Photo: Zakari Frantz

"We want to have just an off-the-cuff chat between you and me, us. We want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand." 

 -Malcom X-

I didn't always see music as a language per se.  I used to joke that my French was terrible because I was focused too much on learning to speak Trebble Clef.  French people don't really like that joke.

I've heard this metaphor recited many times by some of the best jazz musicians & educators at masterclasses, workshops, in their many instructional DVD's and books, and it's something I tell my students on day one & throughout our time together.  But what's it really about?

The first person to really explain this in remedial English for me was saxophonist and educator Brent Jensen, a teacher I first met at Boise State before he went on to head up a wonderful jazz program at the College of Southern Idaho.  He taught me (paraphrasing, as part of the lesson i guess) "At first as a baby you learn to say 'goo goo gaa gaa' and it's cute.  Then you learn 'ma ma da da' and immediately useful things like 'juice' and 'poo poo'.  3 year old kids do not say 'father, may I please have some juice'...that comes later, but usually not from the textbook like that (for fear it could come off as uncool or even suspicious, depending on the circumstance :-)).   It becomes personal, like 'dad, a little OJ please?' or a process of communication, like 'dad / yeah / can I have some juice / sure, son / thanks' or as a subtle hint like 'man am I thirsty', which requires some nuance & body language to be interpreted correctly..."

There is so much to understand about the unspoken language of instrumental music, and my conversations with Brent and a few others are always personal lessons that make their way back through my horn on stage more often than the things I read in a textbook these days.  Even if the conversation is about politics or religion.  Well, especially if the conversation is about politics and religion, because it requires some nuance & body language to be interpreted correctly.

I'd like to continue down this road throughout the coming months, not only as a much needed exercise in this whole blogging endeavour, but in an attempt to expand on some of my *gasp* opinions as to how people 'talk' these days...how we communicate, what we say, what we shouldn't say, what we're told to say, how it's interpreted, and hopefully a little call & response! :-)

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...OH, and please don't forget about the Monday night jazz debut at Le Petit Chicago with Curiosity Killed The Quartet!  There is information and discussion available on Facebook, as well as on my own website.  We'll be there every week from here on out, so we really hope you'll come and start your week off with us.

Musicare

Musicare Inc., Carlsbad Springs, ON.  All photos:  Zakari Frantz

I really love my instruments.  Each one is a member of my musical family.

The alto I play is a Selmer Super Action 80 Series II.  It was given to me as a gift in 1993, along with a matching soprano of the same year, from my parents. Although the soprano is still original save a couple dead pads, I've had a lot of alterations done on my alto over the past 17 years.  I had an incident on a flight from Portland, Oregon to Boise, Idaho once that left the horn flat on one side.  Although it was a nightmare at the time, some positive things came out of the rebuilding process and the horn seemed to gain some low end after all the stretching and reforming of the bow.  A cork half-cylinder was mounted inside at the top of the bow to speed up airflow (a trick from the 40's & 50's to fix 'warbling' on the low notes).  It's sans lacquer except for on the inside of the bell and has formed an amazing patina since I removed it in 2006.  It also has a set of old-school plastic conical resonators and a new brass thumb hook, installed today by my favourite 'local' saxophone technician, Andrew Abraham at Musicare.

        

Carlsbad Springs is a good 30 minute drive from Kanata, but it's always worth it for me.  They have an ultrasonic cleaning tank, great technicians, and customer service that puts most other music stores to shame.  I broke a spring in a really awkward place over the holidays and went to every instrument store in Twin Falls looking for someone to replace it with no luck.  Andrew did it in 15 minutes while I waited, and even oiled my entire horn for me when he was finished.  While I was waiting he gave me a sneak peek of another customer's Mark VI that had recently been found still in the plastic.  The mint case alone had me drooling!

Another great coincidence was that Andrew was working on my buddy Raymond Murray's new toy, an old Keilwerth tenor he recently found online.  I got some photos of it while it was still disassembled...check out the funky retro key guard!

As I was packing up, I mentioned I was on the search for a brass thumb hook.  Andrew had an extra and drilled it out to fit my horn.  I really feel a difference already in the way it's vibrating, and look forward to experimenting with it more in the coming days.  Students take note:  take the time to search out and make nice with your friendly neighbourhood sax technician...they'll teach you a lot more than you'd expect!

So there you have it, a little sax geekdom to the 12th degree.  See, this blogging thing ain't so hard ;-).

Le Petit Chicago

ZF & Mike Essoudry, Le Petit Chicago, Dec. 2011.  Photo:  JC Batista.

One of the biggest motivating forces for me coming into 2012 has to be my new position as host of Monday's jazz proceedings at Le Petit Chicago.  When I first moved to Ottawa in 2005, you could catch Brian Asselin's group with Jeff Asselin, Steve Boudreau, and Jake Von Worden every Monday.  I've met a lot of Ottawa musicians for the first time on stage there sometime 'round midnight...it's always been the region's un-official 'jazz co-op' to me.

After Steve & Jake left for Toronto for their respective universities, Brian & I formed a group with bassist Alex Masteronardi and drummer Jeff Asselin, which quickly turned into a quintet called "SearchEngine" with keyboardist Eric Disero.  We'd work on standards and hard bop, and it was really centred around the 2nd set jam which kept the ideas flowing.  Unfortunately things got busy for me and I left the group after about a year to focus on the Souljazz Orchestra, but Brian kept the group a quartet and (with the help of other bands including the Richard Page Trio, The Mike Essoudry Octet, The Talk Back Organ Trio, etc.) continued to keep Petit Chicago rockin'.  SearchEngine released their first album, "I'm Feeling Lucky" in early 2011 and I was fortunate to perform on 2 tracks during their session with drummer/producer Ian Froman.

Recently, SearchEngine decided to pass on the Monday night ceremonies, and the gig was handed off to me.  Brett Delmage & Alayne McGregor recently wrote a piece for their website OttawaJazzScene.ca discussing the transition.  Check it out here.

I'll post more about my plans for the coming months later in the week in preparation for the launch of "Curiosity Killed The Quartet" on January 9th, but tonight I'm playing with a very special guest, guitarist Lucas Haneman, as well as drummer Mike Essoudry and bassist Marc Decho.  Come down and check it out if you're in the Ottawa/Gatineau area!

Happy New Year!

2012.  Holy crap.

I've decided to start my blog this year.  Really do it...like 'post-every-day' do it.  Yeah, I'm sure dJouls is sitting cross-legged on the floor of his Paris apartment giggling about now, but I think it's time.

Why now?  I've tried the whole blogging thing a couple times before, usually under the grandiose idea of the 'daily tour blog', which always starts off great but the idea of 6 paragraph drunken rants on an iPod Touch at 4am after a show in Birmingham gets really old about 2 weeks in.  Plus I didn't have a way to upload photos or video at the time.  I recently got an iPhone 4s though, so I'm hoping that will inspire me in my goal to post daily.

So thanks for reading and happy new year!  Here's a quick improv video I made to celebrate the day.  Enjoy!