Furreeldough

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Trust and believe being married to a singer that has the technical and emotional prowess that my wife has, has the potential to play a head game with you. Often, when I am trying to do something as simple as to record a quick example of what I'm "hearing" in my head so that a vocalist can re-create it at a later date I'm thinking of many things related to my shortcomings in the vocal department as compared to my nuptial buddy.

But then, as she often reminds me we are in two completely different worlds musically (she favors "Classical" and I like writing "Pop" tunes) and the voice serves two radically different purposes for what each of us are trying to achieve.

I was trolling around the hard drive tonight and I found this un-done track from a few years ago and I said to myself "What the hey, embrace your warts!" There's some work to be done structurally... we need to figure out where we are headed and once we figure that out we need to find a great vocalist who can bring this to life. Until then, we have a story and a general preview of what is to be.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

"Talk To Me" is a work in progress... this song marks the beginning of how I want to change my work and my progress. I've been fortunate to work with the fantastic ladies of Favour for a few years now. I'm predicting that in the latter part of this year into 2013 we will get some forward momentum through good old fashioned hard work. Along with the aforementioned work we will be harnessing the wealth of talent that is contained within all who are and will be associated with this project. This team is so much bigger than I or 1.

This recording is a rehearsal of the contemporary gospel composition "Talk To Me". To capture the moment I set up a Zoom H2 at the back at the church and hit record. So what you will hear is not necessarily balanced and it's definitely not mixed but that's not the point here. The purpose of this is to capture a moment in time, an idea and to have something that you can then build a foundation from. For some odd reason the thought occurred to me that "You play music with live musicians every week so why not record in a similar manner???"  There is a programmed version of "Talk To Me" and it's great but I wanted to see how the ladies would respond to taking the music from the "track" world to the "live" world and respond they did.

This was our second run down of the song... you will hear me at the outset of the recording discuss with Tameka Evans (who wrote the song and sings lead) lowering the key from the track version which is in F minor down to Eb minor. I had told my musical compatriots on this recording: Bassist/Vic Brown and Drummer/Greg Brown about this wonderful group and that we needed to get together and play through some of their original material and see what might happen.

Everyone clicked on a musical and personality level and I'm looking forward to when we can get together again and take some more of their catalog through this "workout" stage and move "Talk To Me" further along into some basic tracking and finally into a full scale production.

"Talk To Me" - Rehearsal 5/19/2012

Favour - Tameka Evans, Jervonne Barrow, Tremaine Evans

Ivan Orr - Keyboards

Vic Brown - Bass

Greg Brown - Drums

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

I would say that I plunge headlong into many endeavors that I often never return to... this is something I did years ago just on a whim to see if I could come up with something for this short section of film.

Basically the process was I found a short clip of this film that I liked and removed all the audio so that I had a blank slate. Found a few element samples so that the door opening, rain, the wiper blades and Emily's breathing would be maintained and then just a really simple string drone and short piano progression. I would love to at some point do an updated version with my updated musical rig. But for now I just wanted to revisit a small roadmarker.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

"Right! You know why we were always in tune? The way I started the school year off, I would tune for thirty minutes. If it took forty-five, I’d tune for that long. I would NEVER PLAY out of tune. So, when we got to playing, if anyone got out of tune, the band would stop and look around. This is what developed. The students would pick up on the mistakes! They wouldn’t play out of tune! They’d say, “We have to straighten this out.” - Conrad O. Johnson

stonesthrow.com

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Not a lot commentary necessary here... just some great music to enjoy. I caught this last night while wandering around you tube. A voice for the ages and it seems like so much fire and fun emanates from Chaka when she sings. Great arrangements here of classic Khan, enjoy!

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Language

lan·guage [lang-gwij] 

noun

4. any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people, who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another.

For the purposes of this little discussion today I wanted to deal with this particular description of such a powerful word. I was spurred on to think about language because I often question if we are in a period of rapid transition and the old rules simply don't apply.

I'm very hard on myself when I use language in the written form and make typos. Using the verbal equivalent of language I'm often very aware of my speech when in public (at home is a different story). I've noticed though, that language is shifting through the use of various forms of shorthand and according to some people the shortcomings of many people expressing themselves who may have not had the benefit of, or didn't take advantage of the educational opportunities afforded to them.

I didn't want to deal here with the ever present debate of good vs. bad, proper vs. improper and on and on. Just thinking about the change and whether or not when you chide someone for spelling errors or some other faux pas that it is more a relic of someone who believes that 78 rpm records are better suited to the listening experience than mp3's. Does it really matter? Or does the importance lie in the intent and the ability to get that intent across so that those receiving the message understand?

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Funny but true story... I guess I have been "transcribing" music for years and didn't know that's what I was doing. Growing up in my later high school years I would put songs on and just try to figure them out, first on saxophone and then later on piano with my limited knowledge of chords.

Anita Baker has always been a seminal figure in the process for me. Her music was some of the earliest music that I was curious about. In 10th grade I can recall learning Don Myrick's solo on "You Bring Me Joy" for no other reason than I wanted to be able to play something that I considered "hip" and yet at the same time it was familiar to a number of people I knew.

Soon after I bought the songbook to Rapture and because as I stated earlier my piano skills were somewhat limited, I painstakingly learned a few of the songs that I liked a measure at a time.

Fast forward a few years later to the album that I consider Ms. Baker's Tour de Force Compositions. This recording with its revolutionary approach of mainly "live" tracking and minimal overdubs was my soundtrack from the Summer of '90 well into early '92. By far "More Than You Know" was my favorite song of the entire set.

The other night I got curious again and decided that I would explore what was contained herein this song, whereas years earlier I tried but I didn't have the ears. Not that the song is overly-complex but if you aren't tuned into that area where Anita resides (which is somewhere between R&B Ave. and Jazz Central) you may miss a few things.

A sonically warm song that starts off in D minor, there's plenty of color here with harmony that extends well beyond the commonplace 7th chord. There's also a great half step modulation up to Eb minor as the lead into the guitar solo.

I miss music like this. Sophistication should not have an age placed on it... you can be young and sophisticated I believe. I think what we face now is not that there are not folks out here who want to be or are willing to be sophisticated, I believe that many may face the same challenge I faced: not being able to hear the sophistication. Coupled with this inability to hear is the refusal to ask for help and the humility of the work that is involved in reaching a difficult goal. We just need better inputs for better output.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Chorus:You're A Dream

            Not Reality, On My Screen

           Touchless and Out Of Reach

           It Just Seems That This Love

           Just Can't Connect

          And Bring Us Both Together

          With This Yearning We Feel

The instrumental solo, last chorus and interlude of "Dream" a song currently in production that tells the story of a man consumed with his ideal woman who he just met online. He feels that he may be experiencing love at first site(pun intended), yet at the same time he is somewhat conflicted by where and why he crossed paths with his imagined paramour. She, on the other hand is quite clear in her intentions and cautions him to take things slow so that he might realize the truth and not be hurt in the process.

Coming Soon To The Audio Theater Of Your Mind!

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

You know there's something to be said about being part of a team. I've been involved with many teams: in the world of athletics, academics and even business. Very excited to be involved with the genesis of this team of of musicians who are dedicated to music.

There's a lot of work that has been going on in preparation and we have a lot more work to do, but you can trust that the end result will be music that will not dwell in the mediocre. We respect her so much more than that.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

One of my more progressive tracks which I find somewhat difficult to share in any forum just because of my often overbearing conservative persona. Currently this is still in loop form but may develop into a few other sections. This track will probably remain in the electronic realm.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

A track that was written with a few key instrumentalists in mind... my mockup version will be used as a model, but a few of the parts will change once it is re-tracked with the actual players. I haven't decided what direction I want to go lyrically yet, but I'm sure there's a story just waiting to be told.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Just when I was about to rail/rant about the issues that I have with this segment from Bill O' Reilly feat. Bernie Goldberg... along comes this great post and quote from Toni Morrison. After reading the post from #theSmithian I figured my work is done on this front. I'm going to heed Toni Morrison's sage words and fight against my innate urge to let others define me. They don't and I won't.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Hoping to finally get around to working on this piece from Stan Getz this week. An unfortunate series of events put me on the outside of the shed last week and so I've been playing catch up for a few days on some other goals I've been working on.

Something about that Getz sound...

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

I had not listened to this project in a while (almost a year) but it was a lot of fun to do and hopefully I will go through some more of the wonderful acapella tracks that my buddy JD Green so graciously shared with me.

I don't do a lot of remixing, but I think with time I can get the chops together. I do enjoy the process of re-imagining what someone else has written. I believe it allows someone to simply take a different route to the same destination. I didn't take the long way round on this one, I kept it pretty much on the main road and gave a big nod to the era where I learned to really create music: The 1990's.

I'm sure given the opportunity, I would enjoy taking on more projects like this. Make sure you check out JD Green  and if you or an artist that you know would like for me to take a shot at painting some musical goodness behind some completed vocals give me a shout.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Not surprised that the comment section is disabled for this video on you tube. I took a peek at this last night and no different from many of the BBC produced documentaries that I've viewed it is excellent and scholarly.

You know the real shame though... the folks who really need to see something like this either never will or they will do what they normally do (when confronted with information that challenges their assumptions about the world) stick their fingers in their ears and yell to make it stop.

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Krispy but no Kreme

KK: Good morning! Welcome to Krispy Kreme how may I help you?

Me: Yes, I would like 4 original glazed donuts.

KK: I'm sorry?

Me: (Looking at the price of one dozen) I'd like one dozen original glazed donuts.

KK: We're out of original glazed donuts.

Me: (Blank stare) Ok, well thank you. *Peels out of drive thru lane*

[chiefdonutmaker-blog]

Visit Original Link

From the "What the Hay Files": It's Monday as we now by the collective gasp heard round the cubiclesphere, don't worry I will join many of you in a few hours as I delay my Mondays by working evenings.

You know I had a kooky idea the other day, which was to challenge myself to pull out all of my wrinkled up papers and files of ideas to post to these here internets so that

1. I'll have a record of productivity as well as giving me something constructive to do in the area of marrying my two favorite forms of communication: writing and music.

2. All the cool kids are doing it and I figured (insert title of post here).

I'll post material in various forms of development... some completed works, sometimes a snippet, sometimes just a completed instrumental track like today's post.

My naming convention is not that revolutionary, like a lot of folks I'll use the date and if I have multiple works started on a particular date I'll put the 1, 2, 3 etc., after the last digit in the date. Then of course I have a folder for each year and on and on.

This started off this morning as always with a few chords and then I decided based on the sound of those chords that I would really push the envelope of convention for myself. For many of you this will not sound that "out there" but for me I often temper that side of my musical personality. I don't think that I do it for any real apparent reason, but today I just wanted to experiment with some textures in different places that would be somewhat dissonant and then of course it wouldn't be me if I did put in some of the pretty stuff.