#joel cummins

[heckyestaylorhicks]

taylorhicksofficial

Every 1000 no’s equals a yes in the music business. Joel and company do a great job of explaining the in and outs and the down and outs. I appreciate being a part of it.

[thebowerypresents]

Umphrey’s McGee Cap Beacon Theatre Run on Saturday Night

If it’s winter in New York City, Umphrey’s McGee are due for a visit. The veteran jammers settled back into their traditional mid-January Beacon Theatre weekend after switching it up last year with February shows at Brooklyn Steel. Saturday really was winter in NYC with just about every kind of precipitation falling during the day. Umphrey’s matched the weather with their own exploratory wintry mix, cramming multiple styles and genres into their two-set show. At the 15-minute mark of the opening set, my show notes were already a page long, marking the passage from chugger metal guitar to a drum-bass room pulse to an electric shred from guitarist Jake Cinninger to a chilled-out keyboard interlude led by Joel Cummins, then a two-axe climax with Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss in each other’s faces center stage to a darker minor-key full-band smolder to a bright anthemic arrival to a prog-rock pretzel and so on. Rain, sleet, snow and combinations thereof, the camera-ready lights shining just as many permutations of colors and geometries into the venue. And that was the first just-getting-started 15 minutes or so.

The highlight stretch of the first set came in its second half. A without-a-map version of “Nothing Too Fancy” found the band clicking in several spots over an extended improvisation. They say, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” but on Saturday on the Upper West Side, Umphrey’s filled 26.2 miles of distance with seemingly infinite 100-yard dashes of ideas, quick spurts of jamming, beautiful, then gnarly, funky then ecstatic. The first set ended with the band bringing out NYC guitar stalwarts Mike Stern and Leni Stern for a four-guitar take on Miles Davis’s “It’s About That Time,” both Sterns taking multiple turns leading the outsize version of the band and thrilling the full house. The five-song second set opened with Umphrey’s McGee paying tribute to Rush drummer Neil Peart with a high-energy cover of “Limelight” sung by drummer Kris Myers.

The rest of the set was a “What song is this again?” blur. “Der Bluten Kat” gave everyone a spot in the limelight, with frenetic stop-start guitar forays, an excursion led by bassist Ryan Stasik and a nice simmer-down section fronted by Cummins under muted pastel lights. “Booth Love” was a dark-funk dance party under triangles of green, orange and yellow, Cinninger moving over to the keyboards to bring an extra dose of groove, Bayliss grabbing phones from the audience to take pictures from his vantage, the crowd of faithful fans going full boogie. The set ended in appropriately triumphant fashion, a jubilant arms-aloft take on “All in Time,” with maybe another guitar solo or two thrown in, like those last few lingering snowflakes from the passing storm, for good measure. The temperature in the theater sufficiently raised to melt the slush, the roads all clear, Umphrey’s McGee capped off their 2020 Beacon run encoring with their somewhat rare version of Pat Metheny’s “Last Train Home,” a fitting end until, we can only hope, next winter’s visit. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photo courtesy of Aaron Stein | @Neddyo

[festivalgear]

PHOTO RECAP: Festivus of Funk @ TRiP, Santa Monica 12.16.16

PHOTO RECAP: Festivus of Funk @ TRiP, Santa Monica 12.16.16

The 1st Annual Festivus of Funk went down at the intimate Santa Monica club, Trip, on Friday night. Produced by Spin Cycle Presents the night included musicians Marcus Rezak, Joel Cummins, DJ Williams, Tycoon, Pete Griffin, and Jason Joseph. The band weaved some funk classics including “Let Me Ride”, “Nautilus” and “Jan Jan” as well as a beautiful Joel Cummins piano solo of “Linus & Lucy.” Along…

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[livemusicblogon]

The 1st Annual Festivus of Funk went down at the intimate Santa Monica club, Trip, on Friday night. Produced by Spin Cycle Presents the night included musicians Marcus Rezak, Joel Cummins, DJ Williams, Tycoon, Pete Griffin, and Jason Joseph. The band weaved some funk classics including “Let Me Ride”, “Nautilus” and “Jan Jan” as well as a beautiful Joel Cummins piano solo of “Linus & Lucy.” Along with an ugly sweater contest, there was indeed a ‘Festivus pole’ where you could air your grievances. Check out the photo gallery Stephanie Port brought back! – Editor

PHOTO RECAP: Festivus of Funk @ TRiP, Santa Monica 12.16.16 The 1st Annual Festivus of Funk went down at the intimate Santa Monica club, Trip, on Friday night.

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Umphrey’s McGee - “L.A. Santa” (Live 12/10/16)

Umphrey’s McGee brought some Halloween cheer to Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger’s annual holiday show in Chicago, dressing up as the Doors for “L.A. Santa.”

While it must have sounded like a good idea in theory, the “L.A. Woman” spoof sounds bad in practice. This, despite fine musical performances and a bit of “Linus and Lucy” tossed over the bridge.

Cinninger’s vocals are unlistenable and make Jim Morrison sound like a crooner in comparison. And the newly revised lyrics are just stupid - the band seeing a “big fat Santa in the Christmas lights;” enjoying some “egg nog risin’;” and having a “little snowman in a Hollywood igloo.”

“I tried to use the same signature linguistics as Morrison, stressing his consonants and vowels but substituting holiday phrases,” Cinninger said on Umphreys.com.

“To be honest, once I got started, it essentially wrote itself.”

Sound Bites doesn’t blame Cinninger for deflecting credit - or blame - for this musical lump of coal. He wouldn't claim authorship either.

“L.A. Santa” is available for streaming on the nugs.net app. But it’s not worth the trouble.

Grade card: Umphrey’s McGee - “L.A. Santa” (Live 12/10/16) - D-

12/15/16

[livemusicblogon]

Members of Zappa, Umphrey’s McGee, SCI and FlightWave have a Superjam in Santa Monica Last night Spin Cycle Presents produced one helluva jam session in Santa Monica, CA. It featured some of the community's finest musicians in an intimate 80-100 person venue aptly named TRiP.

[yahoolive]

Umphrey’s McGee’s: Brenden Bayliss, Joel Cummins, Ryan Stasik, Andy Farag, Jake Cinninger, & Kris Myers are coming home to Indiana to ROCK #YahooLive TONIGHT!

Show starts at 7:45pm ET, you don’t want to miss this! Click here.

[umphreysmcgee]

Mill-eh-wah-que, Algonquin for "the good land" {WATCH} Happy Friday.