StickNews Digest Issue #284 - 05/23/06
An online digest about The Chapman StickŪ published by Jim Reilly.Please send your posts and responses here: sticknews@stick.com
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CONTENTS:
CHECK ME OUT
- Through the air and in cyberspace.
- Steve's plate is as full as ever.
- The Latest from the new boy at SE.
- New Music X 2!
- A SoCal gig opportunity.
- Ron keeps things moving in the EU.
- Relationships.
- With Two Five Ones.
- And Locking Hands.
- Tom Griesgraber tells tales from behind the scenes.
LIVE AND ALIVE
Hello All,
Hope all is well as we rush headlong from spring into summer. I've had a couple of adventures recently that I just can't keep to myself.
First of all, I've cut the chord. That's right, no more strings, wires, cables or bonds - I've gone wireless. I was in a music store last week and stumbled upon a really inexpensive, used wireless unit. The price was just too low to pass by so I bought it on the condition that if it didn't work with my Stick once I brought it home that I could return it. And did it ever work! With my ACTV2 in mono of course but the sound was truly just as nice as plugging directly into the amp and I can literally play through my amp from any room in the house! What fun. Highly recommended, only hope I don't start picking up air traffic control (I am pretty close to the airport actually.)
The second bit of Jim Reilly news - after ages of hearing about and seeing all sorts of folks putting pages up on sites like myspace.com, I finally decided to check out just how easy it would be to upload some of my stuff. So I did. It's here: http://www.myspace.com/jimreillybluestick. So far I've only uploaded a couple of pictures and haven't used up my four-tune limit yet. Hopefully by the time you've finished going through StickNews, playing all the lessons and checking out what's going on I'll have had a chance to get more up there. But don't hesitate to check it out, and be sure to say 'Hi'.
Technology Rocks!
Take care,
Jim Reilly
FROM THE EAST, WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH
From: Glenn Poorman [glenn.poorman@autodesk.com]
Subject: 2006 Midwest Stick Seminar and Stick Festival
Date: Thu 18/05/2006
Hello all,
It gives me great pleasure to officially announce the 2006 Midwest Stick Seminar as well as the 1st National Chapman Stick Festival both happening in Ann Arbor, Michigan Thursday to Saturday, July 13-15.
This year, we're offering our best lineup of teachers to date. In addition to a power lineup of Steve Adelson, Bob Culberson, Tom Griesgraber and Greg Howard, we also have the pleasure of having Emmett Chapman in attendance this year. That's a first for us here in Michigan and we're hugely excited about it.
The seminar will take place on Thursday and Friday, July 13-14 at the Go Like the Wind Montessori School in Dixboro, Michigan just outside of Ann Arbor. The school is in a beautiful rural setting just minutes away from the University of Michigan's north campus.
On Saturday, July 15th, we'll be closing down a block of Liberty St (a main drag) in downtown Ann Arbor and hosting an all day outdoor Stick festival. Performers will include all of the teachers listed above with additional performances by Gary Jibilian, Steve Osburn, Glenn Poorman, Coup Detroit and the Darktown Saints. There maybe be other additions to this lineup time permitting.
When making arrangements, also keep in mind that all day Sunday is free for impromptu get togethers.
The fee for the seminar is $200 if you register before July 1st. After July 1st, the fee goes up to $225.
For more information about the festival, the seminar, how to sign up, etc, etc ... visit the web at:
www.stickfest.org
www.stickfest.org/seminar
Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions.
Glenn
From: SteveAFran@aol.com
Subject: a review
Date: Mon 10/04/2006
I appreciate the time and effort this reviewer took to go beyond the usual surface listen.
www.soundreproduction.com/music_reviews/steveadelson/review.html
Steve A
From: SteveAFran@aol.com
Subject: Blog two Sticks on a Jazz Guitar site
Date: Fri 14/04/2006
Nice blog for Jazz Guitar and this week, "Two Sticks"
www.noidlefrets.blogspot.com
Steve A
From: Stickist@aol.com
Subject: New Woods Photos on Stick.com
Date: Sat 22/04/2006
Hi all,
We've got some new images of the tropical hardwoods up on the stick.com page. There will be more to come in the near future...
www.stick.com/instruments/hardwoods/
Happy viewing,
Greg
From: Stickist@aol.com
Subject: Stickistas, new featured artist at stick.com
Date: Fri 28/04/2006
Hi all,
We've just posted a review of the first compilation CD from the Stick Center in Spain, now available from Stick Enterprises, and also from the Stick Center. "Stickistas, a Compilation of the Art of Hispanic Chapman Stick Players and Composers," is an inspired collection and a tribute to the growing phenomenon of Stick music around the world. "Stickistas" features a diverse array of compositions and arrangements of Stick and Grand Stick, solo and in ensembles with a wide variety of instruments, some with vocals. I find the pieces that feature the 8-string Stick Bass particularly interesting for their "complete approach" to this instrument.
Congratulations to Guillermo, the Stick Center, and all of the players from Central and South America who contributed as well!
Read more at:
www.stick.com/features/artist/
You can find out more about the Stick Center in Spain at:
www.stickcenter.com
Happy Tapping and listening,
Greg
From: Tonya Buchanan [tonyab92027@cox.net]
Subject: Re: students play?
Date: Thu 04/05/2006
(The following was sent to SN, with the request to post it. They've had Stick players there before and are looking for more. Now's your chance, go out there and rock! JR.)
We have music on Friday nights from 7 to 10, but we could do it any time. We don't have much of anything booked right now (it always falls apart in winter and then we get it together in time for summer) but I think the last Friday of each month is taken. If anyone is interested, have them contact me: tonya@oldcalcoffee.com.
We are located in San Marcos, in Restaurant Row next to The San Marcos Brewery. Old California Coffee House & Juice Bar, 1080 San Marcos Blvd, San Marcos CA 92078. 760-744-2112.
www.oldcalcoffee.com
Thanks again!
Tonya
From: Lee Jones [lee.jones123@comcast.net]
Subject: My Stick CD- Spherical Music for sale on CD Baby
Date: Thu 11/05/2006
Hello Stick Community,
My name is Lee Jones, and I have released my first CD-Spherical Music, and it is for sale on CD Baby: cdbaby.com/cd/ljonesmusic
The CD consists of 10 spontaneously improvised tracks, played on a Graphite Grand with a little GR-33 guitar synth thrown in too. You can check out sound clips at the CD Baby link, and also at my website: ljonesmusic.com/
Thanks to all at SE and in the Stick community.
Lee
From: Stickist@aol.com
Subject: New Splendore CD at stick.com
Date: Fri 12/05/2006
The new feature CD at Stick Enterpriese is Virginia Splendore's "Different Things." Virna's a great composer, using The Stick in many different ways. Some great arrangements as well, with drums, guitar and some really soulful clarinet playing. Find out more at:
www.stick.com/features/cd/
Happy Listening,
Greg
From: Ron Baggerman [rbaggerman@yahoo.com]
Subject: Stickmeeting Tilburg
Date: Sat 13/05/2006
Hi All,
The following is a link to our dutch Stickday photo review: www.galaxygypsy.nl/page.php?pid=en_781.
This was organized by Rob Rieter in the Rockacademy in Holland.
All the best,
Ron
From: SteveAFran@aol.com
Subject: new group
Date: Mon 15/05/2006
After a few successful informal public jams, we've decided to do some official trio work. Just booked Sept. 30 at Trumpets in Montclair, NJ. The Steve Adelson/Chieli Minucci Band. More to come.
Steve A
From: Ron Baggerman [rbaggerman@yahoo.com]
Subject: Levin link
Date: Tue 16/05/2006
And here is another link, this time to a review we made of the Tony Levin Gig in Zaandam/Holland: www.galaxygypsy.nl/page.php?pid=en_769
All the best,
Ron
From: Kira Arrillaga [arrillaga@verizon.net]
Subject: Third Door Down/Kira and Casey
Date: Sat 20/05/2006
As our long silence may have implied, Third Door down has been on a long break. Casey has been pursuing his degree in music and has been composing freelance. Please visit www.ArrillagaMusic.com to hear some. Various band mates have split off to do their own wonderful things as well. More on that at the end of the email.
We found have not lost our love of song and stage however, so we (Kira and Casey) are embarking on shows of our own. For instance:
On Thursday, June 1st at 8pm
Kulak's Woodshed
5230-1/2 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91607
818-766-9913
www.kulakswoodshed.com
Us - THIRD DOOR DOWN (Kira & Casey Arrillaga); if you're one of the few people on this list who haven't heard our music, visit www.thirddoordown.com.
LISA TURNER - a wonderful singer/songwriter who is off in Richarson Texas (as I write this), competing as one of the 10 finalists in the Wildflower arts and music festival.
DANIEL McFEELEY - a singer/songwriter like the rest of us, but also the host of this show; Daniel puts people in a good mood when he walks into the room, he's that cheerful. And the songs are really, really funny.
***As always .. this show will be broadcast live on the web.... so if you've a reeeeeally good reason to not COME to the show... please tune in... you can even send us an email live on the air.
So, you ask, what is everyone else doing? In no particular order:
Barry - performing audio magic at www.otheroom.com
Tracy - web design and script writing www.tracyberna.com
Colin - saving the world and making music www.smalldogoddio.com
Teresa - fighting racism and homophobia through an amazing one woman show www.eeniemeanie.com
Since we cannot possibly keep you up to date on all these things ourselves, we hope you'll check out their websites, get on their mailing lists, and tell them we say hi. In the meantime, Kira and Casey will be using this mailing list to send out notices about shows they are doing, all involving the music you liked us for in the first place. We'll probably use the names "Third Door Down" and "Kira and Casey" interchangeably for a bit, but we suspect we'll just "Kira and Casey" after a while since it seems more to the point.
If you don't need email from such a list, please don't hesitate to let us know, and we'll take you off.
Love and light,
Kira and Casey
Tolerance is good... Acceptance is better
CAN'T THOSE HANDS JUST GET ALONG
From: Chris Crain [stickmusic@earthlink.net]
Subject: Relationships
Date: Mon 24/04/2006
This month, I'm going to discuss relationships. No, not with your loved ones, but between string groups of your favorite instrument. Before I start, let me say - this lesson is aimed toward beginners using Classic or Baritone tunings and Classic tuned Grand. Inherently, all of the Matched Reciprocal tunings have an obvious bass to melody string-group relationship - thus not addressed here. Likewise, you probably already know your way around the Touchboard if you are using an unconventional tuning.
With that said, you will need to download the accompanying file. This file contains three charts for you to pick from - Classic, Baritone, and Grand. Print out the chart that applies to you and we'll get started.
The relationship doctor continues here:
From: SteveAFran@aol.com
Subject: TWO FIVE ONE
Date: Thu 27/04/2006
Yes, I that is my bowling average. Been practicing a lot. No, that's not what this column is about. It's about ii - V - I.
Chord progressions that sound good are usually not random (Nirvanna tunes excluded). There is a science to voice leading within a series of chords that follows the laws of nature and all the harmonic sound waves that keep our planet on its axis. Without these laws, the earth would probably split into pieces. There is speculation that this is what happened to Krypton.
Chords tend to descend by FIVE. This is true for Baroque music, as well as pop and jazz. Bach descended by five as often as he could. Mainstream jazz tunes wouldn't exist without these progressions.
For more, click here.
From: Ron Baggerman [rbaggerman@yahoo.com]
Subject: Locking Hands
Date: Tue 16/05/2006
Here's the latest from Ron, and what a nice little exercise it is. Two hands playing interpedently across the fretboard. Instant counterpoint. I use this technique a lot myself, interweaving two parts into one, with each hand supporting the other. It works best or me when I try to see the bigger picture, get a sense of the over sound of the piece and concentrate on it as one, not two individual lines. Have fun.
The key to open the lock is here:
BEHIND THE WIZARD'S CURTAIN
From: Tom Griesgraber [tom@thossounds.com]
Suject: Some thoughts on the new Marotta/Griesgraber CD
Date: Tue 18/04/2006
Hi all,
First off, thanks to Greg for mentioning the new Marotta/Griesgraber CD in his Tony Levin tour e-mail (and congrats Greg on the new relationship with SE!) Stick Enterprises should be posting a review of the CD soon, but this being one of the most interesting projects I've been a part of, I thought it might be fun to share a few "behind the strings" memoirs.
The CD as Greg mentioned is available now from Stick Enterprises. I've also got it on my site of course, and there are sounds clips up there from every track: www.thossounds.com/wtdcd.html
This project really started with Jerry and I meeting when I was opening for the Tony Levin Band at a show in 2002. We were both hanging out at the merch table off and on throughout the night, and as I remember it, the conversation went something like:
TG: "I love the way you play"
JM: "I'd like to play with you sometime"
TG: (stunned silence)
Of course the part of the conversation Jerry remembers more vividly (and somewhat jokingly) is:
JM: "How many CDs did you sell tonight?"
TG: "Eighty."
JM: "You should come to Woodstock."
And go to Woodstock I did.. The first trip was just Jerry and I and engineer Pete Caigan at Jerry's studio for about a week. We were starting from scratch and just playing around with either him laying down grooves, or me presenting some spare Stick riffs. During that week, a lot of what became the pieces "Third Estate", "School Clothes Shopping", "Bad Day at Coney Island" and "Lowered Skies" were put down. So.. we were off and running.
A month or so later, I made another pilgrimage to Woodstock, this time for about two months. The first thing we did was actually a short week long tour around the north east, to sort of play in some new ideas and "tune up" the duo. Then it was back to the studio. The setup was basically the same, with Jerry, Pete and myself working maybe ten hours a day, five days a week, and myself sleeping on a spare mattress at night on the studio office's floor. Mind you, Jerry did offer some better lodging, but I realized early on that a thirty year studio veteran like Jerry (who as drummer also doesn't necessarily need to think about things like chord progressions) was much quicker than me at getting his parts together and recorded. I also really didn't want this project to just be either a "jamming" type recording or a "Pro Tools" cut and paste frenzy, but to have a good sense of composition and purpose to the music and a good sense of performance. So, sleeping on the studio floor meant I had a few extra hours every night and every morning after the rest of the team went home, to keep experimenting with new parts, sounds and ideas.
Jerry's approach to this album was probably a bit different than almost anything he's ever done. In his life as a session man, I think he's probably always had some form of producer or artist saying to varying degrees what could and couldn't be done. But this was his own baby, a labor of love and for possibly the first time a real "Jerry album." You can hear it in the music.. with just the two of us working on things, there was lots of space to go around at first, so our roles naturally expanded greatly from what they might be in a larger group setting.
Jerry quickly started to do one of the things he does best; orchestrate layers of drums and percussion. His studio is equipped with both a large rock drum set, and a whole "ethnic" or "Flintstones" type drum set up comprised of Taos drums, and various African and Ugandan drums. Even his basic rock kit is a bit unusual though with three snare drums, two floor toms and special toys like brushes and "rattle mallets" (timpani mallets with maraca beads in them). He also has an electronic drum kit from Yamaha that got used a few times for background loops, and of course hand percussion too numerous to go into.
I quickly found myself playing against some amazing layers of percussion, sometimes with time signatures stacked on top of each other (like a 4 groove over a 6 groove in "Bad Day at Coney Island"), or even simple rock patterns flip flopping on themselves at regular intervals (check out the full track of "Lowered Skies" where the snare and kick placement flips every few bars). My response was often to take the same sort of layered approach with the Stick. Most of the parts were done with my faithful old Shedua Stickup Grand, but I also had a graphite PASV-4 Grand present as well. While things are definitely centered around the Stickup, the PASV-4 proved a great asset with its pickup switching capabilities. You'll hear things on the album like the PASV-4's "out of phase" melody setting doubling a Stickup melody played an octave higher (on "Third Estate") or used to make something of a pitchless reverb wash (opening sound on the full "Sorrow Smiles"). On some tracks, I actually recorded parts with both Sticks and then we would debate about which fit the mix better, generally choosing the Stickup, but sometimes like on "Cluny Afternoon", the PASV-4 seemed to help hold a melody together better against a dense background. It was great to have both instruments around.
I also had at the ready, my (fresh off the line) Musicman 5-string fretless bass, and Jerry's collection of electric guitars. Jerry was always pushing me to stick to just the Stick though (no pun intended) so I think "School Clothes Shopping" is the only track that actually saw a guitar creep in at all (a 12-string electric, hitting chords opposite from and together with the Stick). Stick-synthery and effects are a big part of this album as well. I was constantly diving into my sound modules and effects units late at night looking for and tweaking tones to add to the palette. Some of these parts are like "hidden" voices in the background, but some are quite prominent.
On the track "Lowered Skies", with encouragement from Jerry, I also did quite a bit of looping as a means of generating some unusual textures. We wound up using an Electrix Repeater with all four of its tracks set to separate outputs. After having created an interesting wash of synths and Sticks in it, I "played" the Repeater itself as an instrument, riding all four of its output faders and recording the result in real time along to the track. This track is possibly the densest of the album. We threw all kinds of things at it. Jerry spent a day in the guitar room, playing his lap steels, and sort of randomly plugging in stomp boxes while I was running Pro Tools in the other room. Occasionally he would come up with some great melodic fragments, so I grabbed a Stick and started echoing them while still running Pro Tools. With no window in-between the two rooms there were a few funny moments when he thought it was his randomly configured stomp boxes making the echoes and didn't realize a heavily processed Stick was chasing him.
After this extensive period of work, Jerry brought in his friend keyboardist Harvey Jones to add still more parts and layers. Harvey appears on most of the album and was a wonderful person to work with. He's probably best known for his work with trumpeter Chris Botti, but appears on a lot of the projects Jerry produces at his studio. Harvey's rig was centered around an Akai sampler, where he had a huge library of sounds stored. He's really a "texture" type of player, and a real analog synth guy, but rather than haul around an arsenal of separate keyboards, he's made samples of all of his and can just spin a wheel to call them up. He's also the kind of guy that will sample sounds or even voices off TV or radio shows, and he's the one responsible for all the unusual voices on some of the tracks (including a few foreign women, and what he described as a frenchman trying to seduce a young woman). Another favorite sample of mine that he threw in was an old recording of Jerry playing a cymbal with a violin bow (happens in the track "Sorrow Smiles", right when the main drum set part comes in).
The final touch for us was when Tony Levin came in and added bass tracks to the pieces "77 Times" and "Cluny afternoon." We were lucky to catch him for an afternoon during a period where he just happened to be home for only a few days between rehearsing with Peter Gabriel in England and touring with Peter in Mexico. It's always fantastic to watch Tony work. As busy as he was, he only had time to listen to the two pieces the night before, but came in with charts drawn up and nailed both tracks in one or two passes. I think we might have done two takes on each just to have him give us a slightly different approach each time. And of course it didn't phase him at all that one of the tracks was frequently shifting from 7/4 to 15/4 and 13/8 or that a Stick player was already playing low notes for whole sections. Such a pro...
When it was all said and done and we'd made all the noise we were going to make, Jerry brought in engineer Roman Klun to mix it. Though he lives in Canada, Roman makes frequent trips down to Woodstock to work on Jerry's projects and has done work for the Tony Levin Band, Sara McLachlan and the Survivor TV show to name a few. We left him alone for a time, and then met up again to hear what he'd done and make suggestions. Finally, Jerry took things to his good friend Chris Athens, Senior Mastering Engineer at Sterling Sound (Johnny Cash, Jeff Beck, Coldplay, Ozzy Osbourne, the Grammys, Peter Tosh, Faith Evans, Ben Folds..etc etc). I'm no expert on mastering, but I certainly know the name Sterling Sound and was happy to have them involved.
I'm also quite happy with the way the artwork turned out. Through my friends in the California Guitar Trio, I was introduced to two brothers in Belgium who do a good amount of art for CDs, DVDs, etc. They call their company Milk (www.milk-graphicdesign.com). What makes them really interesting to me is that with most of their projects (like ours and CGT's Whitewater cover) they start by creating original art pieces, often using charcoal I think. It seems most people who do graphic design these days typically start from photos, or computer based art, which is great, but to me starting from something "hand made" just gave things a different twist. I really enjoyed seeing the original ideas and sketches they came up with as starting points.
So.. there you have it.. a small "behind the strings" glimpse at what this album is all about. Hope you enjoyed it.. and hope you enjoy the album!
Thanks for reading!
Tom Griesgraber
www.thossounds.com
Please send your posts and responses to: sticknews@stick.com.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Reilly, all rights reserved, except where noted. The opinions expressed by subscribers and contributors to this digest are not necessarily those of the publisher. Any business transactions arranged by readers of StickNews are solely their responsibility, and not those of Jim Reilly.
Stick and Chapman Stick are registered trademarks of Stick Enterprises, Inc., and are used in the title of this digest with permission.
Archives of previous Sticknews Digests can be found at sticknews/archives.
End of StickNews #284.