Purple Haze [Live]

Here's a live rendition of Purple Haze, played and sung by yours truly. With the Petie's Place open mic house band. Petie's Place is a bar in Tarzana, CA that hosts open mic sessions every Wednesday night. This is the first time I've ever done Purple Haze live. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/purple-haze

Orlando Figueroa-guitar, vocals
Art-bass
Jim X-drums 
?-keyboard

Hey Joe, Musical Update

Hello ladies and gentlemen how has life been treating you all? Life has been great for me. I've been really refining my jazz guitar chops. Unfortunately the metal band I was in broke up, now its just me and the drummer still jamming together. Yesterday I jammed with a jazz drummer and we're going to keep getting together to work on standards. He said he didn't want to do a band with me but that he wants to continue jamming. His reasoning? Said I have to work more on my time, especially my swing feel. 

That was a bummer but I think I'm going to take this opportunity to play with a real jazz drummer and improve my chops, particularly my swing feel and time in general. The metronome has become a true friend now. 

I've improved a lot and my music mentor, a new music composer named Frank Abbananti (find his music https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=labor+studies+cd+baby) has been teaching me music from across the country, via email. He's taught me many things about chord voicings, music theory, and practicing to become better in general. We exchange email often and I think about everything he says as if we were in an academic setting. 

He sent me a new music (avant-garde) piece meant for me to perform on electric guitar with distortion. I played through it today a couple times and my dad said it sounds like Robin Trower if he did new music. Pretty great compliment from pops. He's going to send me more pieces to work on and perform and my goal is to record it for my Soundcloud. 

In addition, he said the next time I go to Chicago I can perform these pieces with him on a concert. 

Anyways, why am I sitting here when I should be practicing?! 

But before you go check out this cover of Hey Joe, the guitar solo was especially inspired. Dig the Jeff Beck reference at the end of the tune!

 https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/hey-joe 

Open Jam Tracks

Here's the tracks from last week's open jam at the local pub. I played two songs, Spirits of the Dead and Hey Joe. Spirits of the Dead is an original doomy death metalish sort of thing that I wrote on the first of October. This version here the vocals are a lot more cookie monster than I would've liked. I think I'll work on making the vocals coarse but not so 'cookie monster'. The cool thing is that this is probably the first time the song was performed as it was intended-screaming vocals and all. Not bad. I even threw down a solo in the song when there wasn't meant to be one. My drummer friend Martin's playing was splendid.

The other tune is Hey Joe, a Jimi Hendrix cover. On this one it was pretty rough. My guitar is sorely out of tune and we fucked up royally on the intro. But hey reader we made it through it. As you can hear even my guitar part goes off you can hear Martin is holding the beat steady on the drums. He has really improved his playing a lot. The longer the song goes the better it sounds, me thinks. The solo was well done by yours truly. Martin's fills at the end of the song are great.

Enjoy the tunes!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-1
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/hey-joe

8/31 jam from Peties

So I got my last jam from Petie's Place recorded. This was more of a two guitar blues, jazz, and rock kind of night. The first tune we played was Stormy Monday but I totally improvised everything I played and went for a more round hollow body jazz sound, really jazzing up the changes. I think I did a really great job with the blues leads in this one. Then we did a simple rock riff instrumental that I created that's based off of Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin. Its a bit faster and has more metal style riffing in it than say pure Led Zep. Then for the last piece we played Hey Joe. I actually ended up doing the solo like how it actually goes in the recording, which was pretty cool because I usually prefer to improvise most of my solos. The singer on Stormy Monday and Hey Joe is this guy named Shane that I've been working with since these jams. Tonight we played Smoke on the Water together. He's a cool guy. Anyways, enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/stormy-monday-shane-vocals
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/rock-riff
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/hey-joe-shane-vocals

Nun chuka kata by Buckethead

      So I'm starting a new series where I write more about music, in particular writing about favorite songs and/or songs that I think people should hear. The first song for this series is Buckethead's Nun chuka kata.

     This is a great tune that sounds like a pure heavy metal climax that mixes the music up with techno and hip hop beats. At the same time it sounds like a pure quiet gentle sort of sound. The guitars are pure rock and roll power chords but the lead guitar parts are these harmonious melodies that sound sad and euphoric. What he's doing is this tremolo guitar riff for all the melodies. It sounds like a countdown to something that was once great. The whole tune is kind of a linear progression until the end where Bucket plays a super fast orgasmic guitar solo. This is the stuff that Big B has been known for all his life since he was young guy first featured in Guitar World. He's doing a ton of 3-4 per string scales and trying to add some melody in there with the flare. There's even some bluesy lead guitar stuff that sounds like Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page but with Big B's gymnast-like technical prowess. It sounds like he just recorded this tune live, especially the guitar solo. Although the solo shows a lot of grandiose guitar technique it still sounds very sloppy in parts which is strange because all his newer guitar solos all sound flawless on record.
     I heard this song when I was around 18-19 and at the time it was one of the greatest rock guitar instrumentals I've ever heard. And trust me I've heard a lot of instrumental shred guitar stuff back in my day. I've since moved on from shred and rock and now mainly focus on jazz. But when I hear a song like this it brings me back to my shred guitar phase. I've even seen Buckethead in concert in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I went with a friend and I can say that although Buckethead played amazing, sounded great, and looked cool he only played for about 45 minutes and the show was over. For a while I heard that he was retiring from music but recently I heard he's playing a concert in Milwaukee again. The album that this song is on is Monsters and Robots and its the final song on the album, probably the best. 

Update 2.0

     This is just a general whats up kinda post that I wanted to do. I haven't written for a couple days and I don't the blog to get too stale. I gotta keep up the content to keep things interesting. Life has been good, better than usual. Last couple of weeks have been rough at work because I was getting over 40 hour weeks with one day off or no days off. It was all good though because of that money! This week is super relaxing and I've got a couple days off to boot. I even got to hang out with friends earlier this week and today I was chillin' at my friends house playing the Overwatch beta.
     In terms of music I've been listening to all kinds of stuff. I got my Ipod loaded up to the max with rock, metal, and jazz music. Right now I'm listening to Yngwie Malmsteen's 1996 album Inspiration. The album opens up with a cover of Kansas' Carry on Wayword Son, such a good song! I remember in high school doing a marching band show while playing trumpet and opening up with that tune. Brings back many memories. It sounds so much more bad-ass and neo-classical when Malmsteen solos over the changes. There's even a sick cover of Hendrix's Manic Depression on this album. Malmsteen does a sick Hendrix impersonation!
     Speaking of Malmsteen, I have his autobiography. I got it not too long ago but I haven't finished. The beginning part of it is all about how he was such a great musician but nobody noticed him in his native Sweden. It wasn't until he came to the States and played with some bland hair metal bands that his talent was appreciated. Other stuff I've been listening to is Eric Dolphy, Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Symphony X, etc. All the standards that I've come to know and love over the years. I'm always searching far and wide (through the net) for new music to listen to. It comes in any and all forms really. Lately my new thing has been electronic music, which is a little strange for me because in the past I'd always hated electronic music because I thought it sounded bland and soul-less with no musicality. But tastes change as time goes by. Who knows, maybe there will be a time when I don't really want to hear the sound of post-bop saxophones?
     Lastly, gaming has been fun. Last night we had a smash-fest at our friends house. We were playing five player smash for a bit and it was really fun! I've played eight player smash before and that is just absolutely stupid because there's too much going on and you can't even really see the screen and what your character is doing. Once we started playing 1v1's I absolutely dominated, defeating everybody in the room convincingly. I would say my neutral game with Bayonetta has improved a lot and I've learned to switch up my style mid-match more if my opponent starts baiting and reading me. The weekly smash tournament at Fire and Dice is tomorrow (today, technically speaking) and I'm excited to go and try out my newfound skills on people there. The people at Fire and Dice are really good, some of them are even way better than me but I can still beat them if I play a nearly perfect game or pull a rabbit out of my hat. It's going to be rough but I'm going to give it all I've got and see what happens.
     I've also been playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm and Diablo III. Today I got most of the set items for Immortal Kings, a good set for Barbarians in the game. It gives me all kinds of buffs, its really sweet! In addition, I want to get back into playing more Street Fighter V but I just haven't been up to it lately. Maybe I'll play a bit tomorrow after the tournament. Life just moves so fast and there's only so much gaming you can get in on a busy day when you still have other commitments. For a while I was focusing on playing only smash but I felt like I burned out pretty quick. I have to get a variety of games in otherwise I just don't feel it. I'm still working on the Fire Emblem Fates Conquest campaign and I gotta say that the game is hella difficult. Chapter ten took me three tries to beat and all it was just a hold out mission where you had to hold out for eleven turns. Doesn't sound difficult but it took everything I had just to win. Looking forward to more chapters like that lol. I've also been watching a lot of anime at night. That's it for now, sayonara!

New Music III

      Right now I'm listening to this girl play a version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) on an ancient Korean instrument. It sounds so good! One of my guitar friends from Facebook shared it. She does justice to the tune and makes it sound original.
      But lately the main music I've been listening to is video game remixes done in a dubstep and trap style. I've gotten super into it. I listen to it when I'm just chilling late at night, relaxing, and working on the blog. The music is simple and is basically just patterns of electronic noise organized into a rhythm. I would like to learn how to use Pro Tools so I could make some sick remixes like some of the stuff I've been hearing. Check out this version of Sonic's Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud (Green Hill Zone by DreMcCloud) That beat is so infectious. This is what they call in rap music candy beats. You got a simple melody going on and underneath it is a crispy beat. Everything about this just oozes chill. It reminds me of playing Sonic when I was a kid. But nostalgia aside this is a great remix.
     Another one I've really liked is this one (Mario and Luigi Victory remix by Raisi K) This tune is another super chill tune with a some more candy beats. Once you start to hear one of these tunes you tend to kind of hear them all because they all sound similar. They're all electronic stuff made on computers by synthetic instruments. But I've come to really enjoy this stuff. I've still been listening to jazz here and there as well. Today I re-listened to Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, something I do quite often.
      Lastly, its always cool to find new music that appeals to you. The music I've listened to has always changed over time. Let me just leave you with this gem I heard the other day. Melee Where you at remix by HuggerMugger What do you think of vgm (video game music). Would you even consider this stuff video game music or is it more dubstep/trap/edm. I consider this stuff video game music but I think it also stands high next to any kind of modern dubstep out there. It's been a blast looking up these tunes on YouTube. The search for good music continues! I've been trying to get back into buying new jazz albums and doing reviews for them but I've just been so side-tracked and haven't gotten to listening to all the latest jazz musos. I will get to it at some point, and then I'll blog about it. Until then, stay classy readers!

Thoughts on Andre 3000 Hendrix film

   

     This was an interesting movie because it features none of Jimi Hendrix's music whatsoever. Instead, this musician created little bits of a Hendrix style that was nowhere near the real thing. However, that doesn't make this a bad movie, its just a little empty in terms of the actual music. Andre 3000 plays a great Hendrix, probably the most thoughtful Hendrix. He's seen as an intelligent thoughtful person in this movie. The movie focuses on the beginning of Hendrix's career with his British girlfriend Linda Keith (formerly Keith Richards girlfriend) trying to hook him up with studio executives and managers so he can get started on forming a good career in rock and roll.

     Chas Chandler(bass player from the Animals) eventually decides to manage Jimi and he's seen as a overall nice guy but Mike Jeffries, Hendrix's other manager is seen as a knife throwing eccentric in a suit and shades. At one point Hendrix gets a red-headed British girlfriend and she beats Jimi up in one scene. A really cool scene was the one where Hendrix got up on stage and played with Cream, and Eric Clapton got off the stage because he felt like he was being upstaged. Hendrix mentioned he only wanted to go to England if he could meet Clapton. 

     Although this movie lacks the music of Hendrix its still a great portrayal of Hendrix before he made it big. If anything it shows that Hendrix was more thoughtful instead of just the usual naive and quiet-spoken.