Evolution

Yeah, I'm a career man. Spamalot has pretty much taken over my life: traveling on the bus or plane for most of the day, show at night, sometimes twice a day, sometimes a 5 show weekend, rinse lather repeat.

But, the dream is still alive. I picked up some new gear to add to the collection. I was kind of excited, this was last set of purchases I needed to make things complete!

This clip on mic (which I cashed in from a Christmas gift) will help with more hands free, and mic stand-free playing. I always wanted one of these, and now that I'm getting regular pay checks, I thought I'd splurge for one. Of course, I learned the hard lesson of how condenser mics need power of their own, so I had to buy a phantom power box to make this work.

I had been walking around aimlessly in Cerritos, California, and found a music store with guitar stuff. It was there where I saw pedal I had never seen before, the Boss PS-6 Harmonist. Of course, the fear factor has set in. It stayed in the box for an entire day before building up the courage to try it out.....how does it work? I have to learn how to make this thing work?! Will it work with trombone?!! Why can't I just be in a normal band? I'll keep you posted on it, but with an afternoon of toying around I think there are some good possibilities with this doohickie.

Anyway, I leave you with a youtube clip I found the other day. I'm still gonna give the busking go, but I don't wanna be a caricature. Though Dick Van Dyke puts on a good show....

Still alive!

OK,
So I got really lazy over the past 6 months and haven't blogged. In that time, here's what's happened:

-I took a gig being the trombonist of the National Tour of Spamalot
-I moved out of my apartment in NYC, and put everything in storage
-OBVIOUSLY, the busking thing is on hold for now
-In 5 something months, we've traveled 30-something states, and have done 125 shows (so far)

But I DID bring my looping equipment with me. I FINALLY had an opportunity to use it in public with a company cabaret in New Orleans, Louisiana. We used it as a fund raiser for Beacon of Hope. Most of the performers were our cast members performing show tunes.

I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. All I had done in the past 5 months was play this show, so to get out of the norm can throw your psyche for a loop. I tripped down the stairs holding my trombone trying to get to the stage, I had the sound man give me shit for not having a cable (I just thought there were extras). Did I mention this was on Bourbon Street?!

Anyway, here's how things went. Luckily, my friend Wayne filmed it!



I hope you're all well. Peace out.

~Bone.

Toys, toys, toys...

Man, I am really dragging my feet on this one.  Sorry for any yearning fans waiting to hear me play (if there are any).

I've learned (even before starting) that busking can be a daunting task for the ideas I have in mind. So, remember I wanted to busk?  I find the whole "playing on the street sans accompaniment" gets kinda lame after awhile, especially for a wind instrument.  So here we go,  piece by piece....

The idea starts with an amplifier (though I really bought it last, as I have one that's been sitting around for years unused).  The criteria for a good portable amp had to be:

-lightweight
-inexpensive
-loud enough
-battery powered

Some ideas work well in theory, but not exactly in practice.  And plus, my gimmicky-loving nature gets the best of me.  Thank you "return policy".  I had tried these  Altec Lansing inMotion SoundBlade Bluetooth Speakers.  It looked like a cool idea, but in the end not so good for what I had in mind.  The thinly designed speakers, though meeting the big hopes of being light, cheap, and battery powered it wasn't gonna cut it.
I ended up returning this rather quickly and get something with some loudness to it.  I assumed I needed to go with something that was more of an "amplifier" rather than a "speaker".

By it's name, the Roland Cube Street amp was going to be a cool option.  It's outer casing is designed where it angles up.  It's an attractively structured with lots of knob settings with a tuner (mainly used for guitars).  Ultimately this was a no go too, as it was too pricey and didn't include rechargeable batteries.   I would've had to pay for SIX rechargeable AA batteries with the time consuming act of taking the batteries out to charge over night, then putting them back in.  Sure, I could but in the long haul that gets to the point that you'd rather try and avoid doing it.

And verdict was finally settled on the Crate TX15 Taxi Amplifier.  Kind of an unassuming look to it.  But it's completely effective, practical and reasonably priced!  The rechargeable battery is installed within the amp, and can be charged with a power adapter which is detachable.  It's suppose to supply hours and hours of charge.  I've hardly had to crank the amp for volume, so I should be able to use the amp for many an hour without worries.

The amp is more used as an accompaniment device.  The main idea is to play along with "Aebersolds".  To all the jazz aficionados out there who completely oppose, I agree to a point.  Some of the recordings sound really bad, some of the songs have rushing tempos, and are cheesy.  But,  shifting through the catalog, I found a handful of tracks that work just fine.  I have a lot of tunes memorized, so that makes it easier not to carry a music stand and make it look like I'm reading.


The coolest thing that I have in mind to put a little twist on the busking is a guitar "looper".  I dunno why they call it a GUITAR looper, since I'm pretty sure any instrument can use this.   I had seen many instrumentalists use this tool as part of their music.  The first person I thought that was pretty effective was Robin Eubanks.  It took me a while til I figured out how people actually did it, but apparently there's this entire loop-subculture, lots of people out there looping to make music.

After the originally skepticism over price and best option, I picked the Boss RC-2 Loop Station. It just seemed like Boss was a tried and true product that was very practical, with a huge assortment of pedal options.  I got a gift certificate for Christmas that helped out with the purchase on Amazon.

It actually sat on my table for a few days after getting it in the mail.  I was literally afraid to use it.

The basis of looping is relatively simple: create a musical groove of set number of bars of choice, once recorded, this phrase can be looped over and over again.  The pedal allows you to overdub music over top of the phrase and record it, adding to the loop.  Rinse and repeat!

Luckily, I've had a microphone in my collection of stuff, so I didn't have to worry about this for now.  But getting the cables set up to get this to work was the problem.  Looping guys have told me that you need a special pre-amp to power the microphone, that the looper handles signals from a high-guitar-signal so, and since the mic is low-freq it would need some electronic help.

 I wasn't quite gettin' much help from Guitar Center people (chick at the counter said "it's not gonna sound good" right off the bat), so I went to Sam Ash, where the guy figured out what cables to supply me with.

Funny thing is, I figured out that one of the cables I bought was faulty!  When you know absolutely nothing about electronics, it sucks when you buy a bad cable.  I managed to exchange it for a good one, and low and behold it works pretty well.

It took awhile to figure out how the looper works, but I figured out the tricks of the trade after awhile.

So, after awhile of toying with the RC-2, something was missing. I was missing the depth of sound.  I can sort of play in the high register, trombone was made for mid register, and as you get lower, you rely on the limitations of the instrument.  And yet I need LOWER. Anyway, thanks to a friend, I got the Boss OC-2 Super Octave Pedal.  Remember how Boss has a lot of stuff to offer?!

There's the setup right now. Pressed down, it turns down anything going through the microphone down an octave.  It's pretty cool.  It's not a bass trombone sound, it's not a bass guitar sound, but a lower sound nonetheless.  It fills the sound out pretty well.  You press the pedal down to turn it off.

I ended up buying the Boss BCB-30 as a nice protective case for the pedals.  They are fixed into the case, so I don't constantly have to plug and unplug stuff. 

So, to carry all this stuff, I bought this expanding rolling crate from Staples.  I like this better than the travel carts with the bungee cords (stuff is more likely to fall out, and that bungee cord has a death wish if you're not careful). 

This was a perfect fit for the Crate Amp, looping case, cables and anything else I might have to carry to the park. 




So for at least a month now, I've just been toying with loops with this entire set up in it's completion (well, close to it).  I've taken a few mock travels to friends' places to test out it's durability and passed pretty well.  But when to take it to the park?!  We shall see...

lx.

Branching out on my own...

So, what IS the plan?

To make a long story short, I have been living in New York City for the better part of 10 years now.  I have had some successes, and A LOT of failures. I tend to be a workaholic...when work comes my way.  I think I take every gig that comes my way, whether I want to do them or not. 

Don't get me wrong.  These gigs (some of which I call trench work), have taught me what no school ever could.  Real life can make or break you.  It's how you handle the failures that will lead to your success (probably the best quote I've ever made that I've never stolen from anyone).

I felt it was about time that I had to do some project on my own.  Every year it's something new I conjure up, being either writing music for somebody, or try and be part of someone else's group.  It's great to be part of something, but there are times when the music just turns into "work",  and becomes a real drag.   You get that band leader/boss that irritates you over their demands,  eventually not paying you the right amount or in a timely fashion.  The music world is a different beast. 

This whole busking thing means I can be my own boss, set my own hours and have ultimate control creative wise.  So when things DO screw up, I got no one else to blame but me. Busking seems kinda archaic and demeaning.  Is it really possible to make anything out of this?  We shall see.

I know for one that this is gonna be a challenge.  How do I make busking with a trombone interesting?!  That last sentence alone could make you laugh and/or cry.  But I'm gonna take this thing seriously for the summer, and see what happens.

I remember a great line from a movie.   What did Will Smith say in Men in Black?  Something like:

"All right, I'm in. 'Cause there's some next level shit going on and I'm OK with that. But before y'all go beaming me up there's one thing you gotta remember: You chose me... so you recognized the skills, so I don't want nobody calling me son or kid or sport or nothing like that, cool?" 

Eventually you get Tommy Lee Jones goin':

"Cool, whatever you say, slick, but I need to tell you something about all your skills. As of right now, they mean precisely... dick."


I have a feeling this isn't going to be as easy as sittin' around playing trombone in the park, and people just throwin' their money at me. All this musical ability in my hands and brain.  Time to make use of it. 

   The landlord also discovered I was getting free cable in my apartment and shut it down, so I gotta use of my time somehow.


~Bone.

The Idea...

"Why?"~My little nephew.  

All right, let's get to it.   Why are we here?  I tend to write tonnes of e-mails with absolutely no real direction.  This blog has gotta keep people interested, for you and me both.

A few months ago, I was hanging out with a friend. Let's call her Rebecca.  De Mornay.  Right.  We got to talking about movies we've watched recently.  I get in such a funk with watching the same movies all the time, that I forget there's new stuff out there.

So, Rebecca De Mornay asks me if I had ever seen the movie "Julie & Julia".  I had seen commercials about the flick and promptly replied, "No".   I'm all about chick flicks to be honest, but give me "Dude, Where's My Car?" any day of the week.

But, I tried to keep an open mind about it all. I actually found  a copy of the movie while overseas.  The movie must be so good that it immediately went to DVD. I had made one request when I gave it to her.  That we watch it together.  At least I could get dinner out of it.

To make a long movie (uh, I mean, story) short it's about two separate stories of people who take on extracurricular activities that eventually lead to success.  Julia Childs is stuck in France, starts cooking, writes a book about it.  Julie, some 50+ years later is an unhappy person living in Queens (boy, can I relate) who works at a call center for distressed World Trade Center mourners, decides to write a blog about cooking everything in Julia Child's book.  Voila, super Hollywood blockbuster hit.  Both happen to catch the interest of many followers, with fame and fortune coming their way.


After the movie was done, I was drilled with questions by Rebecca (De Mornay) of what I thought of the movie.  Secretly, I thought this might have been the edited version.  Perhaps they left out the part where Julia Child was kidnapped by the Nazis, and through cunning detective work, Julie uncovers the secret truth that she was in fact a spy.   But no, this was just a nice story where two people struggled to find their niche and found happiness though their struggles.  I told Rebecca DeMornay that "the movie...was...nice".  Surely I can't get in trouble for THAT, right?

Suddenly, the idea struck.  Rebecca DeMornay (did I mention I thought this code name is friggin' hilarious?) said:

"Why don't you write a blog?"

She suggested, along the same lines of the movie, that I write a blog about busking in every subway stop in New York City.  I looked it up, there are 468 stations in the 5 boroughs.  I actually tried to play in one of them once with a friend.  The subway traffic was so loud, I almost killed myself trying to be heard over screeching subway brakes.  I didn't think that was gonna fly.

 

However, the idea wasn't completely dead.  I did have in mind to possibly play somewhere.  I thought possibly changing the idea to playing in every outdoor park in New York City.  I looked that up too.  There are nearly SEVENTEEN HUNDRED parks in the city.  I don't have the attention span to pull that off.  

After brainstorming some more, the plan was narrowed down to Central Park.  It's pretty scenic in the summer time.  Beautiful sections of the park when it's maintained.  Built in acoustics.  I bounced the idea off some of my more hard to please friends and family.  They actually thought it was a good idea.  

I realized that this couldn't just be any regular busking job.  It's gotta have a shtick to it.  Something unique.  As the hours, the days, and months went by the idea kept forming and forming.  The fact that I had thought hours, days and months about meant I couldn't just give up easily.  I was too far into it.  After 10 years in New York City, I knew I had to do something finally on my own.  I think this idea is it.  Stay tuned, the ideas will about to be shared!

~Bone.

"Say My Name."

"We need a name. Give us a name."~The Delivery Man from the Seinfeld Episode-The Race asking Elaine who the order is for.

You know, I thought long and hard about this one. It's easy enough just to point out my real name and call it a day. But how boring is that?! I can't stand being me most of the time, and the thought of telling you what I do during the day might bore you to tears. It would most likely go something like this:

8:30:00am-Alarm goes off (forgot to turn off the alarm from the other day's important wake up call).

8:30:45am-Hit the snooze, have no clue where I am, or what's going on. Go back to sleep.

8:35:00am-Alarm goes off AGAIN (still realize I didn't have to get up, but forgot to turn off the alarm still).

8:35:05am-Lay there, can't sleep. Stare at the wall. Contemplate life's ill-decisions.

Yeah, like that.

So anyway. Like I was sayin'. It dawned on me that I need to liven things up. I need the "alter-ego". Just be SOMEBODY else (for this blog). But how to go about this without being completely pretentious? The self-declared nick name has a certain amount of "stupid" to it. It's gotta be something cool that you like to be called, and yet you want others to think you're cool with a cool nickname. I once worked with a guy who had the self-proclaimed "Bass man" , but he turned out to be a lame-o.  Without him knowing, we started calling him "Ass Man" (*actual nickname and pseudo nickname have been changed to protect the idiots).


Nicknames have never been able to stick with me, except for the bad ones.   Why bother keeping with a demoralizing alter ego?  

First off, I am a trombone player.  This is very key into the whole summer project thing I got goin' on.  So it's gotta be something along the lines of a trombone-reference.  I gotta tell ya, there aren't a lot of cool names with 'trombone' as an underlining reference.  We'll get into it more the better we know each other.

 We could go with "Bones", but that name is so iconic in our pop- culture.  You say "Bones" and you get William Shatner's voice uttering Dr. McCoy's nickname.  He's the cranky doctor on the starship Enterprise who doesn't get along with Vulcans.  Yeah, I'll be the kid who gets picked on for playing trombone AND being a Star Trek fan.  No good.

Also a big no no is the fact that one of the top trombone players around goes by the name "Bones".  Tom Bones Malone has been with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra for many years now.  You see him usually with a purple or blue jacket with the horn section doing silly stuff on Late Night with David Letterman at 11:35E.  Still don't know who he is?

His biggest claim to fame was probably in the movie "Blues Brothers",  where he was introduced to the movie when Jake and Elwood  walked into a dingy night club to hear Murph and the Magic Tones and were playing this...   

This is suppose to portray once great musicians resorting to cheese music to stay afloat, wilts playing in the slums for less than enthused audiences.  I've been there...A LOT.  I might be the only one who thinks this recording is pretty awesome.

I actually met Bones a few times.  Each time, I say, "Your acting on Blues Brothers was Oscar worthy."  He gets a chuckle out of it.

How could anyone in my generation not forget Richard Milhous Stabone?  He was Mike Seaver's best friend in the show Growing Pains back in the late 80's.    Nickname.... BONER.  How that one ever got past the FCC is beyond me.  Every guy on a tv show back then had a dopey side-kick with no brains and always getting into trouble.  They tried to give him some street cred, as his character left the show to join the Marines.

In an interesting twist, the actor who played Boner (Andrew Koenig) is son of Chekhov, the guy on the ORIGINAL Star Trek (who worked with Bones, catch-22).  Sadly, Andrew took his own life this past February in a bout with depression.

OK. So we got Bones and Boner that are off the list.  Not a lot of choices left.  Then it dawned on me: the only nickname I've been given that's stuck for many years.  And so, I am hereby named:

  BONE. 

This is not a self-proclamation.  In fact, I was given this name as we sat around in the middle of nowhere at an Applebee's more than 7 years ago.  No prefix, no suffix.  My friend just gave me the name "Bone".  Bone really was only used on tour,  and when I chat online with my friend who we keep in touch to this day.  I was also given an element of coolness when my nephew said that he likes to use my avatar character when he plays on the Wii.  One day, I'll include real pictures of myself as we move along.

Well, that took entirely too much time to explain.  But that's it.  I like it.   We'll go with that.

~Bone.

So far

Hey everyone!


Before I go on, I must say it's pretty cool to have some followers.  If you look to the right of the blog, there's a cluster map showing where some of my readers are based.  I got me some Canadians, Americans, someone from Austria, I've not a clue who could be from Great Britain, and all the way to China.  Pretty neat.

If you want, please be sure to click the icon that says "FOLLOW" to the right so you I can keep you posted on what's up.  Check in while you can, I'm trying to write as fast as I can!