[For a chronicle of the last two benefit shows (and a link to Paul Roub's photos), see yesterday's post]
Much thanks go to Cathy Seeley for these photos:
Alex Nelson of Frenjen:
The Fantastic 5:
playing with Frenjen/F5:
[For a chronicle of the last two benefit shows (and a link to Paul Roub's photos), see yesterday's post]
Much thanks go to Cathy Seeley for these photos:
Alex Nelson of Frenjen:
The Fantastic 5:
playing with Frenjen/F5:
This past weekend I played a second benefit show for Cal Robbins, and I just realized I never posted pictures from the first one.
The Funky Buddha Lounge in Boca Raton was gracious enough to host both shows, and both were a blast. The first show was held on June 16, and five acts played -- we raised over $500 to split between the SMA Foundation and Cal's fund. The CD's arrived the day before, and we sold a bunch -- however, there was a misprint -- a photo of Cal underneath the CD tray was partially obscured, so I haven't been selling the CD's except at the two shows. As soon as the sleeve reprints arrive (hopefully today!) I will put up a Paypal page for ordering copies.
Here is Paul Roub's photoset from June 16: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulroub/sets/72157600382862890/ (let me know if the guest pass expires). Paul came all the way down from Melbourne to play a set, and we ended up pulling off an impromptu version of Jawbox's "Cooling Card" after rehearsing it once before the show. I also joined Alex's band Frenjen for their entire set. Since three other cellists weren't readily available to instantly memorize parts to 8 Jawbox songs, I finished the night playing a set of tracks from the CD against a backing tape (with the "vocal" tracks removed). It ended up working a lot better than I expected. Alex went above and beyond the call of duty again at the end of the night, when we pulled out a surprise encore of Metallica's "One" -- the Apocalyptica version rearranged for cello and acoustic guitar. THERE WILL BE A VIDEO OF THIS posted soon, I promise!!!
The Funky Buddha asked me back for a second show, so last friday (July 6th) I played two solo sets of mostly classical music, with the Jawbox stuff at the end. It was strange playing two Bach suites, Hindemith, Cassado, and a Harold Meltzer piece at a bar, but it worked (sort of). People seemed to enjoy it -- at one point, a crazy, immaculately dressed Italian guy bought ten CD's and handed them out to random people, while demanding that I play The Godfather Theme. In between sets a friend downloaded a midi version of it to his phone, which I learned and played on the spot (to the guy's delight).
More pictures from both shows to come soon!
(note: for those of you wondering why I'm recording cello arrangements of Jawbox songs, please see the original post below)
It has been several weeks since I've seen any update on Cal's blog regarding his condition; I can only hope that the winter is being kind to Cal & family, and has not brought any more colds or complications. Likewise, internet traffic regarding Cal seems to have slowed lately; I'm hoping that as this album gets closer to completion, there will be a resurgence of interest.
Speaking of recording, I had a marathon session with Alex last Saturday -- we recorded three songs in six hours flat. The diplacusis thankfully has not come back, and I managed to go through the whole session with the headphones only on my left ear. Saturday's session added "Whitney Walks," "Savory," and an odd re-interpretation of "Consolation Prize" (from the album Grippe) to the seven songs completed so far. The latter song's arrangement was something I heard in my head while falling asleep one night -- I woke up thinking "damn, which song was that???", luckily figuring it out a few moments later. It ended up as basically just two tracks, one being the original vocal melody, and the other loosely based on the guitar line -- I'm happy with how it turned out. "Savory" was a challenge, as I'd never done it before, but it came out well too.
Sometime next week I'll rotate the samples on the MySpace page -- right now you can hear clips of three of the songs from Jawbox's self-titled album. Feel free to add the profile to your friends list.
On Monday night I checked out Uncle Sam's Music in Lauderhill -- Alex and I are currently working to set up a benefit show for Cal there for sometime in April. It's this awesome record store -- basically the closest thing to a Newberry Comics in South Florida -- and the owners have built a loft over the back half of the store where they hold shows. The vibe is fantastic, I can't wait to play there.
I'll take real pictures soon, but in the meantime, here are some cell-phone camera shots of the recording process: