Live Jazz Performance! 2/24/22!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/503683607883879

Orlando Figueroa, Guitar

Jason Tomas, Alto Saxophone

Recorded on a brand new Fender Squier with better tuners on them, given to me for free from a customer at work, going through my Marshall avt 275 on the clean channel setting. This was recorded yesterday, 2/25/22. Enjoy, thanks for listening. 

Live Music Session 11/11/21!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/1062070257878268

This was recorded on November 11, 2021, on my phone. Featuring myself, Orlando Figueroa on guitar and Jason Tomas on alto saxophone. 

We've been practicing together for about a year during the pandemic. We've done a few open mics but mostly we jam and record everything like a jam band. We play standards but also just do jams based on jazz chord changes in a straight ahead context. 

When performing today, I was thinking a lot about filling up the space with lots of strums, and give Jason complete melodic control with his horn. Like a drums/singer sort of combination. 

During a lot of this session I was thinking about playing in terms of a modal sort of style. The straight ahead jazz sound signature. 

I used my Jackson Dinky 6-string with a floyd rose whammy. The tone selector allows a plethora of sound options from thick full bodied tone sound, more typical of a jazz box sound, as well as allowing the other option for more clean bright chord sounds, typical of blues, funk, and rnb. Although I initially bought the guitar to be a heavy rock and roll machine, it's also come to be one of my best guitars for jazz improvisation. 

Gracias por escuchar! 

Jazz jam session 11/4/21!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/474208377194713

Here's footage from my jam session today. Featuring Jason Thomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa on guitar. 

Jason and I have been jamming for about a year now. At the moment we've been playing on my balcony and attracting all the neighborhood with our duo instrumental straight ahead jazz sessions. We play once a week for an hour but its been consistent enough for us to develop together musically. 

My jazz guitar style has improved a lot, and I've learned a lot about chord voicings, taking solos, and how to tell a story with a solo. 

In addition, another aspect of the music that I've been adding is the nature of the feelings of the moment. The time of day is a factor, my mood or attitude is a factor, Jason and his feelings are another, these sorts of variables that have been added to the music is something I've learned from other kinds of improvisational music, like world music, especially Indian ragas. 

At this point in the pandemic things have become much more strict. At Starbucks today, I had to show my vaccination card to sit down and dine in. I've decided to quit playing video games and spend my time focused on guitar, reading, and writing. 

Gracias por eschuchar. Bonne Nuit.

Acoustic live performance

Here's an acoustic improvisational performance with a few riffs and melodies from standards. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Performed 11/22/2020 in the afternoon.

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150/videos/1722193324618661

Lullaby

Here's a recording from within the last two weeks that I really liked. It's essentially a two-chord vamp, Cmaj/G7. We called for a jam in Cmaj, and this is what turned up. Not bad. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/lullaby 

Orlando Figueroa, Guitar
Jason Thomas, Alto Saxophone 

Enjoy

Equinox, in September

I had a good jam session today with the jazz duo. Here's my favorite recording from today's session, from September 17th. Trane's Equinox, with a lot of improv.
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/equinox

Orlando Figueroa, Guitar
Jason Thomas, Alto Saxophone 

Jazz Trio Recordings

Back with more straight-ahead jazz recordings. This is a new trio that just formed today actually. I've been working with Jason Thomas [alto saxophone] for about 2 months and now Scot Sommers [trumpet] has joined the group, resulting in an eclectic trio.

We're playing standards out of the real book for now but I plan on composing tunes so that we can start to have originals as well. I plan on having the group play some open mics at Petie's Place, located in Tarzana, CA.

This is the beginning of something. I actually wanted to get a bass player rather than another horn but this is a great playing situation. Scot's style reminds me of Freddie Hubbard in Dolph's Out to Lunch. He's actually not a free jazz guy at all, which surprised me. Jason's alto playing is stellar, he was a lot more relaxed once Scot's trumpet entered the mix. Before when we were playing as just a duo, we were playing a lot more conservatively, more reserved.

On my solos, you can see where I was on the very edge of my seat, about to lose control. Sometimes its good to see that spontaneity, especially in jazz music. A lot of what we played in terms of the free form improvisational jams [not the standards], it sounded like a lot of ECM stuff I've heard. A very white kind of sound, literally. [laughs]

Enjoy the music.

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/all-blues-jazz-trio
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/first-jam-jazz-trio
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/footprints
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/freddie-freeloader-jazz-trio
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/second-jam-jazz-trio
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/third-jam-jazz-trio

Open Mic Night 11/28

Here's three tunes I performed last week at my local open mic on 11/28/18.
We did three songs
Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath
Hey Joe by Hendrix
Spirits of the Dead (original tune)

It was an interesting night because I had a full band, a trio with my friend Martin on drums and his friend on bass. During Hey Joe the friend got off, and another guest bass player quickly plugged in.

It was a fun night. Not very often that I have a full band. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-1128-full-band-arrangement-trio
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/hey-joe-1128-full-band-arrangement-trio
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-1128-full-band-arrangement-trio

Band Update: We're a death metal band called Wolves to the Slaughter, playing a show soon!

Hey, just wanted to do a short update on the band's status. For a short while I was just practicing and performing at the weekly open jam as a duo, two piece band with my drummer friend Martin but now we're working with a metal (screamer) vocalist, we're playing death metal with a little bit of black metal influence, mostly in the drumming. My guitar playing is more straight death metal with 80s shred guitar and progressive rock (jazzy distorted chords) bits here and there, a bit of black metal influence there as well. But I digress...

What happened with Martin's other group was that they decided their guitar player was holding them back so they kicked him out and recruited me to join. I reluctantly joined because at first I left that band (some months ago) because I didn't want to play death metal. But I changed my mind and I've been working with Alex (vocals) and Martin (drums) for a while now. So far we've only been practicing two hours a week but I think we're already ready to gig. We need a bass player but I think I've already found one, one of my friends.

We've got four songs down already that are originals, more if we count covers but we're not sure if we're going to perform covers, you see we've already got a gig lined up. We're going to be playing a backyard show at Martin's friends' house downtown LA (more information available as I find out more) on March 2nd. 

So yeah we're playing a show on March 2nd on a Friday. Unfortunately we aren't getting paid but it will be my first real official gig in California (not counting the open jams). I haven't played a gig since 2013 so this is quite a musical milestone for me and I'm quite pleased with the band, even if we ain't playing jazz (I wish I could be in a gigging jazz band). These guys couldn't play jazz anyways but they are pretty good rock and roll musicians.

It's all quite exciting and cool. Oh, and by the way the band is called Wolves to the Slaughter, I thought of the name and everybody agreed on it that it was cool. Hurrah for democracy! 

I'm using my 7-string Jackson for the band, I'll bring my Marshall amp for the gig, straight through the amp, no effects. The drummer plays a small jazz kit (even though he's a metal drummer), he likes the sound of small snares. And the singer has this whole vocal effects setup with his own personal microphone. The gig will probably go great. I'll post more information once I learn more about the gig. 

Another thing I'm gonna prioritize for the band is recording. I think we're ready for it, I could even record the bass parts if need be. 

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