The Woodshed

Well folks, the time has come for me to begin a new era.

For those of you just joining us, a recap of my personal music history. I started out as a jazz guitarist, then a bass player in a few local Gainesville bands. All the while, I was writing and recording my own music, but I kept it to myself. It took a lot of nerve for me to go public, but I’m glad I did.

From Dark Side Summer (the summer of 2005) until October of 2006, I recorded the tunes that went on my first Jamendo album, evolution. However, as you can see from my performance in FAWM, I am a prolific songwriter — during this same period, I recorded 50 other tracks.

Now, by the time evolution was published, I had already changed styles — I had learned to play conga drums, and become much more proficient on the keyboards. This second period led to my next Jamendo album, handmade. However, while I was recording this, I didn’t want the 50 tracks from the evolution era to vanish into obscurity. So I chose the 12 best and released these as a compilation on DMusic: apocrypha.

But now I’m finished with handmade. There was a curious afterparty with FAWM, but I finished that a few days ago. Where to next?

The Woodshed.

My friend Henri Roger (on DMusic) just released two tracks that really got me to thinking. On the first, “Macca my dear,” he shows us the Henri we already know — a lyrical pianist with incredible chops and a deep feeling for musical composition. Then, in contrast, he released something unexpected: “Index,” in which he shreds on electric guitar like Hendrix.

One thing became obvious to me: this was a true musical master. And how did he get that way?

The Woodshed.

Charlie Parker once tried to sit in with a jazz band in his early days, and was so terrible he was laughed off the bandstand. He went out to his mother’s woodshed and practiced obsessively, performing songs in all possible keys at berserk tempos. When he came back, he was making the rules.

From then on, jazz had a pretty high bar. Parker and friends would toss out goofus wannabes who wanted to sit in with them by playing some tune like “Cherokee” (a fast tempo song) in a difficult key (for instance, E, which transposes to C# for alto saxophonists).

Well, when I was learning jazz, I did the same thing. I’d take a tune and draw a random card out of a deck I’d made, each having one of the 12 chromatic notes on it. Whatever it was, I had to play the tune in that key, transposing by sight at first then by ear later.

I developed everything this way except speed. Even today, one key is much the same for me as any other key — I have no favorites, not on bass, guitar, or organ (conga drums are a different story; I like the sound of the drums with the notes G, C, and D, but use other tunings many times to go with whatever tunes I’m playing).

Well, the time has come. I’m going to the Woodshed. There will be no new recordings, no new albums, until I gain some new skills. I’m thinking I will spend March, April, and May just learning new skills and practicing. When summer vacation comes, I will start recording again. Hopefully, by August or September, my next album will be ready.

And it will be fantastic.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress here.