Scalloped Neck Guitars: What Is It?

What is a scalloped neck guitar? 

Tonight at the bar I had the privilege of running into a guy who bought a Malmsteen scalloped neck guitar from a pawnshop. I asked to play it and I played it while he was on break from his performance, so I soundchecked it for him. And then later in his gig I asked for one song with the singer, who was also playing acoustic guitar. I played "Now I wanna be your Dog," with him on vocals and acoustic guitar and me on electric guitar. I took two long neoclassical/hendrixy blues solos [one in the middle of the song, and one at the end of the song] on this immaculate conception of an electric guitar. 

A scalloped neck guitar is a guitar where the neck has been 'scalloped,' meaning the wood under the frets has been shaved off and deeply cut, more like an acoustic violin, than an electric guitar. The most popular guitar player that uses, and has popularized scalloped neck guitars, is Yngwie Malmsteen, mostly known for his work in the 1980s with a short lived LA metal band called Steeler. 

Steeler was popular because of Malmsteen's fast fiery technical guitar work, using a scalloped neckboard. The guitar I played tonight at the bar, ironically, through a guy who bought it at a pawn shop for $800, was Malmsteen's guitar, probably one of his older models that was still in good condition. Enough to get him a decent amount of cash at a pawn shop. The guy might be going through some hard times or maybe he just needed some quick cash. But I digress, the guy is a living legend on the guitar. 

Moving on, so now you know what a scalloped neck guitar is. Think of it like a violin but as an electric guitar. That's it. 

Next, so if my electric guitar has a wooden fretboard like a violin, how do I play it, how does that change the sound? 

Well, for one thing, it makes the sound better in a more classical way, like a violin. 

Also, when you play chords, its way easier because the scalloped neck makes holding many notes easier, like a violin. 

However, when you play single notes, it makes playing solos harder, again because its more like a violin. 

Lastly, when you're playing it live onstage with another guitarist [on acoustic/and/or singing] the guitar is harder to hear when the sound is contrasted with other sounds [it sounds more acoustic even though its electric still] to play so you have to control the volume of the guitar more with either the volume control button knob or either by using your right hand more or less [palm muting/lighter touches and/or harder touches.

A Hard Day's Night

Salutations. I just wanted to jot down some notes about a good open mic I played last night. I performed with my friend Jason Thomas. He's an excellent alto saxophonist player. The night started early for us. We got to the Sugar Mill Saloon bar around 10 pm. We ended up waiting until nearly 1am to perform. We had beer.

There were a lot of performers. Most of them were comedians. Terrible comedians. But there was one fat comedian who kept making jokes about how he's bisexual. Things got pretty awkward. However, he was the funniest comedian so I give that guy props. 

Eric Shaffer played a terrific set on his shiny Stratocaster guitar. He does improv with loops and pedals. He makes beats by drumming on his guitar and sliding his hands on the strings. He's quite good at it. He even wears a suit coat.

We ended up going on around 1am. There was still a decent amount of people. How the heck does this bar bring 15-20 people on a Tuesday night? Even staying till nearly one in the morning? I guess the open mic is getting popular. I used my Hagstrom Super Swede Les Paul and a bass amp. However, my guitar tone was super clean, too clean, because I plugged in my guitar in the low input jack. A female friend of mine who's also a good musician said my guitar tone needed more bite. Should've brought a distortion pedal she said, lol. Clearly, she's clueless? Lol.

In terms of my guitar tone, I thought it was good for what we were doing. Which was straight-ahead jazz. We played Footprints by Wayne Shorter and Freddie Freeloader by Miles Davis. 

Jason's tone was good per usual. You can hear him on my recordings from Soundcloud. However, a good musician friend of mine said that when he was soloing and I was comping, that it seemed like we were just getting into it when I returned back to the theme and ended the tune. It's good criticism but we also had a time limit. I was limiting the songs to about ten minutes each. We played for a considerable time. Considering.

Are you supposed to feel great after a performance? I usually feel really great after playing an open mic, and then the next couple days after. It's the one outlet I have to perform music in front of an audience. I really need to be playing in a band but I've not the organizational ability to form a band nor the time to really invest in a serious gigging band. One day soon I hope to play in a band. That's really all I need. I have the talent already.  

A lot of times after performing I critique my playing pretty hardcore. I would say that my friend Jason is a better musician than I am, certainly a better jazz musician. But I also think that because of his conservatory training, sometimes when he performs live, especially with new people for the first time, he comes across kind of stiff. But that's okay. At least our set sounded great. We've only been rehearsing for a year together, lol. 

After the bar shenanigans, a bunch of us went to an after-party at a friends' house. I usually get home safe and sound through a friend of mine. But she was in a rush to get home so I ended up sleeping over and taking off in the morning. I live a few blocks away but carrying my amplifier and wearing my guitar on my back was rough walking home today in the hot afternoon sun. I tried to get my friend to call a lyft ride for me but he claimed his phone was dead. You don't get to party all night long hard without facing some repercussions. So I guess the moral of the story is that when your lady friend checks out for the night, you should always go with her. 

And that's all she wrote.

Jazz Duo Project

Here I'd like to share some of my recent music projects. I've been doing a jazz duo, myself on guitar and Jason Thomas on alto saxophone. We're doing standards but we're also doing a lot of free form improvisational stuff. Check out some of our music. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/all-blues-2 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/all-blues 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/st-thomas 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/improv-1 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/funky-improv-1 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/freedie-freeloader 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/blue-bossa 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/jazz-duo-metal-jam 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/body-and-soul 

Also, we performed last week at an open mic at Petie's Place, a bar in Tarzana, CA. 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/footprints-live-at-open-mic
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/all-blues-1
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/blues-jam-dminamaj7-vamp

I actually thought the live open mic recordings weren't so hot when I played it. However, when I look back at it I see that there was a lot of inspired playing there. My guitar tone was especially good during Footprints, that greasy chorus-infused synthetic sound adds a lot of flavor to the modern jazz guitar sensibility. Likewise, the alto saxophone sound is unique, clean, but full of all kinds of permutations. We played especially well on the improvisational blues jam vamp, where there was an extended alto saxophone solo. The drum solo really adds a lot of momentum to the jam. It was here rather than in the two jazz standards that this impromptu band started to sound like magic.

Blues Concert

On Sunday, October 28th I went to the b.l.u.e.s bar in Lincoln Park, Chicago. We saw this cool blues band, the Billy Flynn band. Flynn is this older white gentlemen with glasses, who plays a mean blues guitar. He played this semi-hollow body Epiphone or Gibson that had a vibrato arm, whammy bar on it. He had another guitar playing primarily rhythm guitar but took a few solos, a bassist, and a drummer laying down the beat. 

The second guitar player was really good, although his solos weren't nearly as unique or characteristic as Flynns'. The drummer played the same beats for most songs. The bassist had a great tone, playing an Ernieball music man bass. They played a lot of what I would call Chicago blues, meaning that electric city blues with influences from BB King, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker, that unique city blues sound. 

Flynn's voice sounds nearly identical to aging Eric Clapton's voice, but I think Flynn is much more nuanced and careful with his guitar licks than say Clapton, who probably plays a lot more than this guy, a Chicago native. A lot of the songs were blues standards but a lot of them were also originals or songs going back to the 50s or 60s that were done by the greats of the blues tradition. 

The b.l.u.e.s bar is this small hole in the wall. Its even smaller and crappier than the bar I perform at open jams here in California. The mens room didn't have a lock, so that was kind of unexpected. The place is quite great though. The cover charge for the show was only $7 and there's no drink minimums. I did buy a Stella Artois which tasted great. There was maybe about 10 people there, the smallest audience I've ever seen for a concert. Well, this was a Sunday night in a college area so that's not too surprising.

I went to a classical and jazz concert during my trip to Chicago. I had to do a blues concert just to see three different genres, plus Chicago is a blues city, it would've been wrong not do see some great live blues. Flynn's guitar playing was inspirational, it takes me back to the roots of my playing, rock and blues. Sometimes all you need is one note to make a difference. 

Chicago blues! 

Electric Funeral

Here's Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath played at the open jam I play at regularly, on 9/19. We have Jim X (Ouii3) on drums and a jammer on bass, the bass player kills it here.

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-x-drums

Poachers Live With Percussion

Hello everybody! Just wanted to share this new track from last week's open mic at Petie's Place. 

https://youtu.be/D-rHftwnEW8 

This is Poachers live, a piece written for me by new music composer Frank Abbinanti. It's quite avant-garde, it has its moments of melody and makes use of what I'd call "noise chords", real noisy chords. 

We played this piece last week and at the time it was quite nerve-wracking because I'd never played the piece live in front of anyone other than just by dad when I was practicing it. However, the nervousness comes out in a good way. I hit a few bum notes in the beginning but nothing that sets the piece off balance. 

Jim's drumming was quite remarkable. His fills, while keeping time in between is quite good. He played it like a real jazz drummer. My favorite band I've seen him perform with is a jazz-rock fusion guitar trio. He's the best musician I get to play with at these open mics, and its great making music with the guy. 

I do think the piece would've been cooler if that guy didn't yell "Yeah!" at the end but even some of the best classical performances are cluttered with coughing. 

Anyways, enjoy the tune!

Personel
Orlando Figueroa Guitar
Jim X Drums
Frank Abbinanti Composer

Open Jam Tunes

Hey, what's going on everybody? Here are two tunes from last week's open jam. First we have Hey Joe, a Hendrix cover.

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

I did my best to cover the vocals, I'm still working a lot on my singing. When it comes to the solo I do my best Hendrix-esque guitar licks. I think I do a pretty job of keeping it in that 60s rock guitar vein. 

Surprisingly the solid state Line 6 amp used for the jams sounded pretty great here. I really like this drummer on this one. He's a guy that comes occasionally to the jams. Its funny, he wanted to do Manic Depression but when I could barely play the riff (I forgot it) we had to stop and play Sunshine of Your Love instead (laughs). 

However, I did learn Manic Depression and I'll be ready to play it the next time he's there. 

Anyways, I think that this is my best cover of Hey Joe I've ever done live, so there's that. 

And then for the next tune we have Sunshine of Your Love by the Cream, a song I've been playing at the jam for a while now. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-most-recent-version

Hearing this back now I think I've done a lot better with my vocals. Still needs work (better tone) if I want to be more professional but its not bad as of right now, at least to my ears. The Hendrixian guitar licks are plentiful and are sounding good as usual. One thing I need to work on is singing louder and with more oomph, ya know. Add some more power and energy into it. 

With this solo here I think it sounded pretty good. Not too much wankery (shredding a la guitar pyrotechnics from the 80s), focusing on hitting the good sounding notes, bending the strings, beginning, middle, end, and then back to the vocals. I like it. 

Enjoy the music! 

More music

Here's some more music from the open jams. Its pretty crazy I have something like 24 weeks of tunes I've played at this open jam at Petie's Place, this low-key bar in Tarzana on Reseda and Oxnard. If you live in the Valley you should come check it out sometime. Anyways, here I played with the house band, we did Sunshine of Your Love (a favorite of mines) and John Coltrane's Mr. PC, a jazz standard I learned from the Real Book. Enjoy the music! Leave a comment, let me know what you think. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/mr-pc-coltrane 

Jam notes I

I ended up playing with this older guitar playing friend that plays a Steve Vai Jem guitar while I used my Jackson 7-string. These are pretty much just jams we did, no songs or anything. However, this cool girl named Melinda helped out on vocals on the first jam. Lotta soul!

I think it ended up sounding pretty darn good. I distinctly remember the drummer, my good friend Jim X (from the jazz fusion band Oui3, whom I just saw at the Baked Potato on Sunday) saying that its not really a good idea to have two guitarists soloing at the same time. There are moments where it worked really well. I guess it just depends on how you do it. 

Interesting to note that I thought I was super loud, much louder than the other guitar but after listening back its the other guitar that louder. 

I've been practicing a lot of drop2 jazz chord voicings and learning a lot of rootless inversions as well. I brought my friends' bass to the shop for repairs, I gotta go back and pay them $40 for a a $100 bass, expensive for sure. Haven't had band practice for a while but hopefully we'll practice tomorrow or Friday.  

More Jam Tracks

Got more jam tracks for you all. This was a totally impromptu jam as my drummer was out of town in Mexico and couldn't make this session. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer-guest-guitar
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/bad-horsie-guest-on-bass
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-guest-guitar-and-bass

I think this version of Buckethead's Soothsayer is the best I've ever played, that guest guitar player really filled out with some nice chordal and rhythmic riffing comping, it was fantastic, he really made my solo pop out more with the emotional response, which is exactly what you need to play like Buckethead. Bad Horsie was also really well done, at some point I should bring my wah pedal so I can really make it scream like Steve Vai. Enjoy! 

Jam tracks

Here's the tracks from last week.
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer-buckethead
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-most-recent-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/bad-horsie-improv

This was the last jam with my friend Martin on drums before he went off to Mexico. The first track isn't Soothsayer but actually an original tune that me and Martin play for our death metal band, called Wolves to the Slaughter. I think my vocals were a lot clearer and louder for Sunshine. And Bad Horsie is Bad Horsie lol.

Working on recording the band soon, we have a bass player now! More updates and blog posts coming soon. 

Last week's jam tracks V

Here's the live tracks from last week's open jam we played. Here we started the show off with Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Then we segued into Steve Vai's Bad Horsie and ended everything with my original black metal style tune called Spirits of the Dead. We've been playing these songs a lot at the bar and there's a couple different variations of these tunes on my soundcloud page. However, this stands apart from all those because I think the vocals were especially well done on this night. You'll see what I mean when you hear it. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/paranoid-best-vocals
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/bad-horsie-most-recent-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-best-vocals

In addition, good news everyone! So my two man band (this music is me, my friends, and house band musicians at the bar) but now we've decided to work with this metal vocalist named Alex. Its going to be a while before we have some good arrangements and until I get used to his screaming vocals (haha) but we had a practice yesterday and it went really well. I liked the whole two man White Stripes/Black Keys thing but its better off if I only sing the songs I write, and mostly focus on the guitar chords. Really excited to be working in a 'real' band now and hopefully soon we'll get some songs arranged, and be able to play our first gig really soon.

Last Week's Jam Tracks III

Here are the live tracks from last week's open jam at Petie's Place, this bar I frequent a lot.

The first tune we played was Black Sabbath's Paranoid, pretty easy song right? Well, I did kind of mess up the song last week because I forgot to come in w/ some verses and instead just went into a guitar solo, then found my place back within the song. That's how you cover up a mistake folks, go into impromptu guitar solo mode! I'm still working on bringing more emotion into the singing.

Next, we played Sunshine of Your Love by the Cream. This has been like our swansong so to speak. Sometimes hearing my voice makes me cringe hard but when I hear the guitar playing I think again (lols). My vocals are definitely getting better but its still hard to get past that speaking voice to singing voice transition. Ken, the percussionist playing tambourine (and records everything for me, thank you) is really on point with his rhythm here. With him and my friend Martin on drums its like playing with two drummers. Martin takes care of fills and colour and Ken takes care of timing with precision.

The last tune we played was an improvised version of Steve Vai's Bad Horsie. I have a habit of doing impromptu versions of guitar instrumentals by shredders (check out this version of Buckethead's Soothsayer here). The melody from Bad Horsie is pretty strong here, a bluesy funky sort of melody that runs into some metal riffing. The way we did it this time I stopped playing and motioned Martin to do a drum solo. As you can hear it sounded pretty damn good. My friend Martin is really coming into his own as a rock and roll drummer. At the end I did some tapping and held a note for what seemed like eons while Martin played some crazy rolls. That's pretty cool.

Here are all the tracks, enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/paranoid-forget-the-verse-ha
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-latest-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/steve-vai-bad-horsie-impromtu-jam-version

Last Week's Jam Tracks II

Here's last week's jam tracks from Peties Places' open jam that I go to every week. Peties is this really cool bar that I've been jamming at for a while, one drink minimum, a pool table, and free popcorn, wow! Its a cool place and this is where I've met the drummer I'm working with right now, my friend Martin.

The first song we started off the set with (three song set) was Black Sabbath's Paranoid. This one we started off like a bat out of hell and it sounded great. I was pretty happy with the performance as it was the first time we've ever played the song live. I think I did a great job on the solo sounding like Tony Iommi, that pentatonic box shape man! 

Next, we played Smoke on the Water, which we've done in the past but not nearly as well as this rendition. My vocals were a little spotty in certain sections but overall I would say I pulled it off. I really enjoy the hand percussion on this piece, I think I notice Ken's sound a lot more in this particular recording. I liked what I was doing with the vocals on the chorus, giving it that more British pronunciation. This song is a long time coming with Martin, it took him a while to get the drumming down, he does a good job. The improvised guitar solo has some sections where it sounds like things Blackmore would play, but is also unique.

Lastly, we ended with Spirits of the Dead, which has been a 'cult classic hit' for our 'band' (just me and Martin). I've been enjoying posting many versions of the same song because I really like the song a lot. I wrote and recorded it on the first day of October and I was heavily inspired by black metal when I was recording it. Think about coarse singing into a microphone on the first morning of October, bad ass.

You can find the tracks below.
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-most-recent-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/smoke-on-the-water
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/paranoid

Check out my Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17
And my other Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763

Long live rock and roll.

Last open jam set of 2017

Here's the last open jam set I played of 2017 at Petie's Place, on Reseda and Oxnard Street. I'm pretty happy with the recordings, mostly because my vocals are a lot better than they've ever been. I've really come a long way with my singing starting last year. I'm really glad I started singing rock and roll. It's a lot smarter and easier, as I don't have to rely on other people to do vocals.

We started off with Sunshine of Your Love with this dude named Allan (a typical blues rocker long hair w/ a Strat). He did a great job jamming with me for the first time ever, I especially liked his leads on Spirits of the Dead, the second song we played. I really liked my solo on Sunshine, I was going for my Hendrix style there.

On Spirits of the Dead Allen's leads really give the piece a new dynamic melody. And then there's me doing black metal style coarse/scream style vocals. Pretty funny! A lot of people say to me that they don't expect that when they see me play. It's cool to have one death metal song, and this is my only one as of now. We played the song a lot faster than we usually do but again Allen's leads really pave the way for a great tune, especially when I repeat the chugging bridge riff and he takes some bluesy leads over it. Spirits of the Dead!

And the last tune we have for you is Blues Improvisation no.1. This tune was just a blues Allen and I called in A. I stuck to dominant and ninth chords in the key of A. I might have switched it to minor ninths near the ending too. Added a little bit of the power chord blues shuffle in there too for contrast. I think my blues solo really hits the heart strong. When I do a blues solo I always try to go for the Hendrixy emotion.

Allen's blues solo on this tune was quite something, as you can hear. He hits a lot of the common cliches but it always sounds good. He's a great player and I'm glad to have jammed with him on the last open jam of 2017. I'm going to do even better to sing better and become a better performer in 2018!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-2
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-2
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/blues-improvisation-no1

Second Soundcloud account

So my first Soundcloud (music sharing website) account got full quickly so I ended up creating a new page. You can find it here.

This was from an open jam session at the local pub. I'm on guitar, my friend Martin is on drums, and friend and house-bassist Art is on bass. On Jazz and rock for entertainment there was a great jazz guitar player but I noticed he didn't want to take too many solos or anything when we had this jam.

Sunshine of Your Love is the first time I sang live in front of an audience a whole tune. Before I only sang choruses. Looking back to it I think my voice needs a lot more work. I got the words (fumbled a bit though) but I need to work on my pronunciation and melodic sense within my voice. That will take time and work.

There's an instrumental heavy metal jam called Soothsayer by this instrumental rock musician named Buckethead. He was an influence on me when I was getting into playing really fast stuff. We've been playing that tune at the jam a lot because it gives a lot of room for emotional melodies as well as a great rock feel and shred solos for the climax.

My friend Renee, a work associate who introduced me to the open jams sang on all three but her voice doesn't necessarily carry that well. At times it sounds like she could be mumbling. However, I thought her vocal improvisation on Jazz and rock for entertainment was wonderful.

You can check it all out below
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17

Avant-garde classical concert, Quartet for the End of Time

When I was in Chicago I got to attend another great concert (first one being a jazz performance). This was an avant-garde classical (what we call modern or new music like Phillip Glass, John Cage, Xenakis, etc) concert that took place at the Green Mill, a famous club where the gangster Al Capone was known to hang at. The show was important for several reasons. I learned how important classical music (and harmony, theory, counterpoint) was to my music education and it gave me new ideas on music.

The concert ended up being too long but the beginning was so terrific that I don't think I'll see anything that great for probably a long time. They played Oliver Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. I've never quite heard anything like it. Sure I've heard Webern and some atonal classical stuff but this music was different. It has squeaks, what sounded like musical jokes, fast riffs, jazz riffs that reminded me of Eric Dolph's Out to Lunch, a memorable violin solo, and wonderful cello playing. I think I got a lot out of it because I saw how much four people could do on their instruments without even having a drummer. In a lot of ways the drummer was the pianist, bass was the cello, and the two horns were the clarinet and violin. I can think of it that way if I compare it to jazz group.

The Green Mill was a great place to take it. There wasn't that many people there but I do think its important for this kind of music to be played in different places other than University or say a church. What else can I say about the Messiaen piece? It was performed by Depaul University of Chicago students who were probably around my age. They played with such virtuosity, humor, seriousness, and even fun (which is rare to see in a classical performance). The violinist introduced the piece and said,"I'm not gonna say anything about the music, but if you have questions you can buy me a drink and I'll be glad to answer any questions." I thought that was kind of funny coming from classically trained violinist. The performance really opened my ears to different sounds and harmonies. It made me realize that sometimes you don't even need a drummer.

The rest of the concert wasn't as great. The memorable moments was a piece where this percussionist recited poetry while hitting motorcycle helmets to produce different tones (high and low almost like timpani). I enjoyed that very much. Her snare drum playing was phenomenal, I've always like the sound of a crispy snare. Also, there was a performance of this guy playing a clarinet piece using toys that made noise. But he ended up taking so long that I lost interest.

The main reason why we went to this concert was because my dad's composer friend Frank Abbinanti was playing an electronic piece using accordion. However, the electronics were so low volume that you could barely hear anything (from the electronics) while Frank played his accordion. He did sound good and I sort of see where he going with the music and the accordion but the volume was so low that it didn't mesh the way he wanted it to. I wish the guy running the event could've realized that and just turned up the volume, its a very easy fix but didn't happen. 

The next day I went over to Frank's house and he taught me about music for a while. I learned a lot and it opened up my mind and made me realize that if I want to do music as a career (eventually, God willing) I have to study more and take it more seriously. I can't hope to find fortune in playing death metal or crap like that. After you've heard Quartet for the End of Time you don't go playing death metal, at least not me. So the concert really helped and changed my perspective on music. For the better I would say. I'm studying music notation and scores, reading jazz biographies and history books, and practicing a lot more with detailed focus. And it was all inspired by one trip to Chicago. As my younger brother would say,"interesting". 

Dan Bruce Beta Collective live at the Constellation

Last night I saw a pretty cool jazz band with my bro. I looked up shows around Chicago and I noticed that my jazz instructor (from six years ago when I was at University of Parkside-Wisconsin) Russ Johnson was playing with this band at this modern jazz club called the Constellation. Russ is a great trumpet players that is involved with various groups probably all around the Midwest and New York. He's pretty well known in the jazz community. Anyways, the group is led by a guitarist composer named Dan Bruce and the band features Russ Johnson (trumpet), Chris Madsen (tenor saxophone), Rob Clearfield (keyboards), Clark Sommers (bass), Jon Dietemyer (drums).

We only stayed for the first set because we took two buses and the train and it took like an hour and a half to get there. In addition, my brother has work in the morning. However, that first set was pretty great! Dan Bruce took the majority of the solos but there was a great tenor sax solo that was just about reaching into free jazz territory. I heard some squeaks! It was great hearing that because this is more of a new jazz concert. By that I mean the music sounds very modal and its all original music. This was an album release concert after at. Very few people in attendance. Think Ole Coltrane if it had electric guitar, effects, and electronic keyboards. For the most part they were reading the music off manuscript paper but it was obvious when they went off the cuff and started to truly improvise.

Dan Bruce is a great guitar player with plenty of chops but it seemed like his improvisations were a little too perfect. Too rehearsed. I would've liked to hear some mistakes from him. I like to hear some struggle sometimes from jazz musicians. That's not to say he isn't a good improviser at all because what I heard was all great stuff, very musical and tasty as they say. I would say I was more impressed with his chord voicings and comping rather than say his composing ability or single note lines. I thought it was cool that he was using some electronic effects with his guitar too. I wish he would've used more of that, at least during the first set. After all whats the point of effects if you're only going to use them very sparingly?

Chris Madsen on tenor sax had a great solo that really stood out. There was a musical buildup slowly to a climax with squeaks thrown in there. It almost seemed like what he was playing was out of time, out of sync with the band but it still sounded great. He was even doing this blowing technique where you blow very lightly into the horn and get this sort of raspy tone. He also had a lot of bebop licks thrown in there too. That was a turning point at that part of the set.

Russ Johnson was mostly playing in harmony (melodies) with the guitar and sax but he did have a pretty great solo on the last tune. I was pretty impressed. He's the elder statemen of the band being the oldest so he probably has the most experience in playing jazz and he's probably been on more records and stuff than the other guys. His solo started off with a couple flubbed notes. My brother said "he needs practice" but my brother doesn't know enough about jazz to realize that what he was doing is actually a trumpet technique. I believe he was doing the same thing Madsen was doing, that technique where you blow into the horn but just barely enough to make some raspy tones.

Anyways, his solo was probably the best. He built it upon a theme, expanded upon it, and ended it with some virtuoso fast stuff. His high notes sounded superb. I used to be a trumpet player in high school so I know how difficult that is to do. His solo almost had a Spanish vibe as my brother said.

There was also a keyboards solo but I think it was more of "set the mood" sorta thing rather than a solo. And there was also a bass and drum solo but in a way they were kind of overshadowed by the compositions. It seemed like their solos were shorter than the others but I may be wrong.

After the show I talked to Dan Bruce and said,"great guitar playing man, that was like masterclass on chord voicings". I geeked out pretty hard seeing such great guitar playing. Then I asked if Russ was around and I talked to him. He remembered me from UW-Parkside, which I briefly attended about five years ago. It didn't work out at that college but the fact that I saw him at the show was probably a shock for him. Of course he asked,"what are you doing here?" Lol, it was kind of funny. We shook hands and I told him I've been practicing a lot of guitar, working on jazz standards, and that I've started a band. He said to keep shedding, a musicians catch phrase to keep practicing. Great moment of the Chicago trip so far. Who would've thought right?

It was a great set and I'm really glad my brother enjoyed it even though he isn't a fan of jazz guitar as he says. Maybe I'll get to see more great live music out here in Chicago, particularly jazz.

Jazz isn't dead. It just smells funny. -Frank Zappa

Buckethead cover Soothsayer

Here's a cover I did at the open jam of a very well known Buckethead song called Soothsayer. I winged it pretty hard, learned the song that day, and the drummer didn't know we were playing it until that night. I'd say we did a pretty good job. I could've shredded harder but I wanted to keep things simple, before anything fell apart lols. I played the song on my 7-string Jackson. The song has a lot of emotional and heart felt feelings because Buckethead recently came out saying that he has a heart condition, an irregular heart beat. He was and still is a big inspiration on my guitar playing and I hope he lives for many more years! Anyways, here's Soothsayer by Buckethead. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/soothsayer-by-buckethead

Live Tracks from 9/27

Here's the live tracks from last week's open jam. This was the first time I brought my 7-string Jackson to the jam night. I think it sounds pretty astounding. On Smoke on the Water I got a much heavier (more metal) guitar tone. The instrumental improv with Thelma was really sick as well. And the jazz instrumental was a jam with many roads traveled (including a blues) haha. Enjoy the heaviness of 7-string guitar. I notice even though its a much heavier sound it can also get really good trebly tones as well. Also its funny you can hear me doing back up vocals on the chorus of Smoke on the Water. My voice really stands out there haha. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/jazz-on-a-7-string
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/smoke-on-the-water-metal-version
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/thelma-proto-metal-jam