Live Jazz Muzak! 12/7/22!

Here's a live jazz performance of some standards and improvised musique. I didn't have time to setup a livestream this time around, so I recorded with the Soundcorset app on my phone. Hope you enjoy the muzak! 

Blues Raga alto sax/guitar https://soundcorset.com/r/Yf56fo24i8?fbclid=IwAR1rEqsrjO3-zZYFNJWb_5R-4hCgirViM6IM2ZftQdceg-X1C3XtRiD8jFA

Winter Leaves alto sax/guitar https://soundcorset.com/r/gTuo88m1Yr?fbclid=IwAR14yGV_ZiIlEXgiPyYvt2Pra1ynzOLKHl3cYute3UwusV6ew24DMYnlJcY

All the things you aren't https://soundcorset.com/r/vFsNwdJNYO?fbclid=IwAR0r5osRRRDG01qjUO_HQVw9Yyj165dar18AkyS-N6qtU7DT7UfR5pYiYoQ

Spanish Blues alto sax/guitar https://soundcorset.com/r/AQ8KA-ceeI?fbclid=IwAR3Bc6knRp-sj6pdEU7YHGgb3q5XuZ5ikDgWh7_Na5xSD-HvWjwA_z5NFGc

Featuring Jason Tomas on alto saxophone and Orlando Figueroa on guitar, recorded in California 2022, on Android phone via Soundcorset app 

image ai generated 

My drum progress, Recordings made with Soundcorset

Hello Musicians and Muzak Fans,

So I started playing drums back in August, at the end of the summer. I've always wanted to play drums as a kid and often spent a lot of time in the classroom trying to play a beat with a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other. I bought a cheap plastic/wood Kibaga snare drum practice and got some black painted ziljin thin sticks and got to practicing. My coworker told me how to play a basic rudiment and I got started from there. 

Now it's November so I've been playing and practicing for three months. I've been recorded various drum solos at guitar center on their three thousand dollar Ludwig kit all this time as well as playing at home with a snare drum and cymbal that I got from this rock and roll guy who wanted me to be his drummer. These are all recorded with an Android free app called Soundcorset, it's very cheap, as in free. 

But I digress, here are the recordings, enjoy. Arranged in order from earliest to most recent. Thank you in advance for showing interest and curiosity.  

https://soundcorset.com/r/A0kVQeM6Gh?fbclid=IwAR2p6rVdRFoG-785xgc_gvHWDqm5Ix9bu28hv4tYiFxhvO8pirq8zZ_ZPs4 [Drum Solo No.4]

https://soundcorset.com/r/AvXQoK6pCp?fbclid=IwAR2lODFdEWXAxyTQzrLYRuPp46wUVdZLdIChL2fnSSXb3IpIDlnviEsIb9E [Drum Solo No.5]

https://soundcorset.com/r/hd1hMqvf3e?fbclid=IwAR1LJIvJ_5OdxQ-DZE2_0I3dte7bjqDwV58sRhyF4H-1B6aABk9N82toC58 [Lied vor der Arbeit, Jason Tomas alto saxophone, Orlando Drums snare/cymbal]

https://soundcorset.com/r/YY1EV9Ca9v?fbclid=IwAR3EGlq8YUy8RS5CD-uQ5y_pN_8dHPB8ZVlJE-RnYuCw59hvBg8SFrA5oic [Heavy Blues, Jason Tomas alto saxophone, Orlando Drums snare/cymbal]

https://soundcorset.com/r/9h-WEVEeqY?fbclid=IwAR16sa_MTa_bTMNB1QB4OHp_xNf_IdH4gM1G9pJ2HSx5p2I4JP-ewoQC4_g [Speculation Band, Orlando Drums, Mike guitar/vocals]

https://soundcorset.com/r/xYrrAAMYzj?fbclid=IwAR3VQLFUG1s4TYwTQ5F2hpqfEYRDNtKZEF61AEzN1iXa7p9SZ-_CBRUhvUY [Johnny B Goode, Orlando drums, Mike guitar/vocals]

https://soundcorset.com/r/7G3QFABqpH?fbclid=IwAR2D_p8xWSDmkZ3GFn-mFQxoUbHMHeFu8nEACLfpBMtM78CnmSyvHC-H-T8 [Drum Solo No.6]

https://soundcorset.com/r/YD6jYoTvHY?fbclid=IwAR133ioMCOqmhwupUJ2dx_7nmIqRgqhxr-9hMpjI-nvX_HUb4Q4Pl6HGFYo [Drum Solo No.7]

https://soundcorset.com/r/wv-fdYamiA?fbclid=IwAR3xxxCtf60UwdXrL4KkPAR23ndtGvGFZfVCFe40_LvCTJ7k4Ae7v4tpefM [Drum Solo No.8]

https://soundcorset.com/r/SPu6MIMlIP?fbclid=IwAR0TvY_2mnwx8FPefmPBfYLVpvFSfIZ-tVQAcoqAdO5hKfVnOA95TCejBWI [Drum Solo No.9]

https://soundcorset.com/r/1c5NoDpC3s?fbclid=IwAR1gVYHefRTtI5BegNW1x_MZ0I9_KkTRdlF2HZCOhmB3yy4xQy_zwE0fWCA   [Drum Solo No.10]

https://soundcorset.com/r/J8UoWUwkXo?fbclid=IwAR0oW-ABFdVeeKtcq-0XFwY36MhMBUNK8QVxsLDtGniU1jqh4rWFokqyZZY [Drum Solo No.11]

https://soundcorset.com/r/4jPHRMv-BY?fbclid=IwAR3AnGuyh8OTxxVggJisiYTMzu2qXiKPUgN8oD6_5orL0LToBNm8pDw6q6M [Drum Solo No.12]

https://soundcorset.com/r/CFSBQa8QrM?fbclid=IwAR25qpVKJqY6zDvl8EBg_lLmXlmMVidjmOZcBKnpUxo1eA5XcQGuL67fNT4 [Drum Solo No.13]

https://soundcorset.com/r/C377XapOKq?fbclid=IwAR3QP0ZJHA6l4ktscExanaAMKvBGTvHv9A0TUataYSduK3MAdnA0YlR1pBs [Drum Solo No.14]

https://soundcorset.com/r/-8jaSCZnW3?fbclid=IwAR3-Qp56bHGzIByZ82ZzJZ8NU7oT9PWkueNxOiVPpz_SF9uv2vpAozp_oJI [Drum Solo No.15]

https://soundcorset.com/r/QPlLp2yXoB?fbclid=IwAR06W3w9tnhjM_5GURYYOBshDVLzlHPygq-SibqRAJ2qCLRoMazGnsmu5rM [Drum Solo No.16]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeIJ94gG3js [Live Jazz jam session 12/15/22]

https://soundcorset.com/

image ai generated with stable diffusion 

Live Jazz Trio! 9/14/2022!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC4eRvDbS88&t=218s&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RhMMStW7-8&t=1715s&ab_channel=MegaFigueroa007

Live Jazz Trio, recorded live from Facebook on 9/14/2022

Feather Robley on percussion

Jason Tomas on alto saxophone

Orlando Figueroa on 7-string guitar 

Thank You

Live Jazz! 9/9/2022!

Listen to it or be square! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq57g1C2fWA&t=868s

Jazz Trio Recordings

Well, how-day! How's life been treating you all? I've been playing a lot of music lately. Here are a couple of jazz trio recordings from last week. I managed to find a bass player to join us but it turned out to be short lived, a one time jam session. Still looking for a bass player. They are very hard to find! However, I dig manage to get some good recordings out of it. Here it is. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/freddie-freeloader-jazz-trio-1 
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/blues-in-f-jazz-trio 
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/footprints-jazz-trio 
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/blue-bossa-jazz-trio 
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/all-blues-jazz-trio-1 

2019 Motivation

Its two weeks into 2019 and like me, you've probably come to the sudden realization that life is tough, and that if you want to keep your new years resolution, and do more, and be better, and accomplish more in life its going to be a mother fucker. Life isn't easy, in fact its hard, and more often than not it sucks. "Life's a bitch and then you die," said the Chairman. This is my riff on Chairman Mao's "life is struggle and contradiction" quote, something my dad told me a few years ago.

I've been having these mini awakenings since 2019 started. 

I have to work out to lose weight. Daily.

I have to stop hanging out with my friends so often. Absence makes the heart fonder.

I have to spend more time by myself, and away from work to smell the roses. Money isn't everything. Money can't buy you love.

I have to work on music more, record more, learn how to use Ableton software to make better drum tracks for my music, and finish learning Sequenza by Berio for classical guitar.

I need to write more and become a better writer. Which I've been working on a lot!

I should learn a new skill, like how I've been doing programming tutorials, just to see if I even like it at first.  

I need to quit and lose any bad habits I have currently.

These are all very difficult things to do. In fact, just for me to realize that if I wanted to achieve my goals, that I had to do all these things, it was pretty damn difficult to accept. There is a cost to everything. Time is an important factor. Energy. Emotion. Drive. Etc. 

So the next time you think about taking time off and away from your 2019 goals remember that life's a bitch and then you die. You might as well make life your bitch and then die on your own terms. 

Go for it. 

New Year's Motivational Speel

Life has been pretty grand. Christmas is over and 2019 is two days away. Its that time of year for that classic social media status: New Year, New Me. Yeah, yeah, we get it, you're gonna push yourself hard, work out, and get everything you ever wanted done, or at least try your best. Its good to be motivated, but its also good to be practical about things. Time is the killing blow for most people. If you don't have enough time you won't get things done. 

I've been trying to stay motivated with my usual activities; reading, writing, and playing guitar. In fact if I had a New Year's resolution its this: to play more guitar, learn more songs, and record more on my own as well as with friends. I also plan on learning more about computers in my free time. I don't think I'll become a computer programmer (even being a bad one is hard), but I'd like to learn as much as I can about programming just for my own personal knowledge and such. I've just finished this 500 page computer book on how hardware and software work, and before that I read Hackers by Steven Levy, and that's kind of what caught my interest. Also, about a year and a half ago I signed up for Codeacademy, a free online programming tutorial app. I think I'll actually give that a second go this year. Its complex stuff but its also interesting enough to look into. 

I also want to work more on recording, my own recordings in particular. Add more music on my YouTube page. Reading is a must as well. And I want to write more short stories and start an actual novel, a short one, maybe like 150 pages, something like that. I have some ideas for it already, it would be a near distant future sci-fi story about everyday type of people and workers, more literary than spaceships and laser guns. Maybe more like speculative fiction than true science fiction.

However, its hard to stay motivated. Sometimes after an eight hour retail shift I don't feel like playing guitar, I just want to listen to music or play games. The reality is that if I don't practice guitar at night after work I probably wouldn't have played guitar at all that day. I've realized that in order to get the results I want in life I have to push myself, I have to be disciplined because nobody will be disciplined for me. My music mentor, Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer, lives in Chicago so when he says to learn Sequenza by Berio, I have to have the motivation on my own to actually work on it, otherwise I'll never learn it. Likewise, if I don't learn how to record better songs, and actually do it, I'll never have new songs to post on my YouTube channel. 

Its not going to be easy and I suspect some nights I won't play guitar, write, study, or read. But I won't let that stop me from achieving my goals. 2018 was a good year for me but in 2019 I want to get more done. Read more novels, write more short stories, begin a novel, record more music, play and record more guitar, and of course have fun with my friends and family. 

Keep working hard at the things that matter to you and you'll really get what you want out of life, that's what I've learned. 

Life is good! 

Jazz Improv

This is short jazz solo I recorded at my producer friend's house. It got us warmed up to recording that day. I try to play bebop with a lot of modernism and some outside free jazz sort of stylings. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/jazz-improv-1

New Track titled Voodoo Ritual

This is a new tune I worked on with my bass player friend named Dennis Tabor. He's a great bassist with a lot of style. His bass playing on this track just makes everything sound so heavy. So much low end with also great melodic trebly tones thrown in there as well. The main riff is a simple power chord riff but the chorus is this clean toned chord. Then there's solos on the theme. It's simple but I like to think we did a good job. I think the clean part makes it sound metal af. You can hear the track https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/voodoo-ritual. Enjoy!

New Soundcloud tracks

Hey, good news everyone! I made friends with the percussionist at the open jam I go to at Peties Place on Reseda and turns out he records everything. So I asked him to send me all the tracks I've played on thus far at the open jam nights and I've decided to post them on my Soundcloud page. The quality is pretty good, I kinda wonder what he uses to record. Probably some small little device. It actually sounds rather good, you can hear the drums, bass, and guitars really well.

I've been super quiet when it comes to recording but all of a sudden new life has been breathed into Professor Plasma (nickname for my solo projekt). I'm going to keep going to the open jams and ask him to send me more stuff so I can keep posting more live jams. I like my sound and style when I'm playing with other musicians more so than composing myself. This is like the poor man's way of recording and sharing music-through the power of your friends! Haha, thanks for checking this post out and remember to check out all my new tracks at https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763.

New Track-Overworld Theme

So I created another new track recently. I think I did a much better on the drum programming with this one and I even did like 7 guitar tracks! Craziness. It sounds a lot better than I thought it would be. My next step is to get better with my drum programming to get more varied beats and eventually fills. This soundclip was created with a video game in mind. Think of like walking around in an rpg (science fiction rpg like Xenoblade Chronicles X) and you're walking around the town or you're just getting into a fight, maybe even a boss fight? I don't know. Enjoy, let me know what you think on Soundcloud or even here.

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/overworld-theme

New Track

I uploaded a new track to my Soundcloud. Its my first track with drums, although its just a repeated drum loop. Its taking me a while to learn Ableton but once I get the hang of it I'll be able to compose great stuff on my own. The track is called chug it! and its a metal groove. Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/chug-it

Soundcloud

So I created a Soundcloud page where I'll be posting music from now on once I work on more recordings. It will probably take me a long time to add more stuff because I want something more than just guitar tracks, I want full arrangements with drums and stuff using Ableton. But yeah I want to use this soundcloud page to post weird experimental jazz influenced guitar stuff. I'm also interested in using vocals down the line too. Right now all that's on there is two recordings I made for a European pop album that's going to be released soon.

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763

Recording

So I ended up investing in some recording equipment. I've been working on recording every night and I'm even working with a producer from Poland on what I'd describe as emo europop music. I bought a Scarlett Solo interface and I run that through from my Marshall to my laptop. It's a lot of wires but I'm actually recording pretty good quality stuff. So far I've just been laying down guitar parts for these emo europop music with this producer that found me online. I see working with him as my first step into recording.

Eventually I'll start working on my own stuff and have a Soundcloud page and stuff like that for people to check out my guitar playing and later down the line complete songs with guitar, vocals, bass, and drums. I can already record guitar and bass its just the drums I'd have to create. This is my second goal that I want to achieve pretty fast. 

It feels great to be working on music and recording every night. It has become in a sense a job because I have to learn the music softwares and figure everything out but once I get all the technicalities out of the way I should be able to create some great music.

My plan is to create basic demos of sketches of song ideas and then refine them into songs through the recording process. It's going to be a lot of work every night. I prefer recording at night after work because everything's quiet. Everything doesn't have to be so loud so it works out perfectly. I have the Marshall and laptop setup in my living room. So in a sense my living room and my laptop is my studio, how about that! Haha, I'll keep you all updated on when I have stuff posted online to listen to.