Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Something occurred to me that prompted me to add this little footnote to my thoughts. It isn't Mustang Sally that I don't like. It's Mustang Sally done by copy bands. Mustang Sally as done by Wilson Pickett with that great Muscle Shoals house band was killer. <...snip...>

Yes, the 'swampers' were among the best studio musicians of the day.

Mustang Sally was originally done by Mack Rice (the songwriter) and the second recording was done by The Young Rascals. Wilson Pickett followed with his fine version after the Rascals, but I've always preferred the Young Rascals version.

I did my own MIDI backing track, loosely based on the Pickett version, but I sing it in my style and play my own improvised sax solo, which of course to me is the high point of the song. I would have preferred to do it loosely based on the Rascals version, but I've been at this long enough to know what the public wants to hear.

I'll completely rearrange a song that isn't requested as often as Mustang Sally, for example we do You Are The Sunshine Of My Life as a swing jazz tune, and people accept it, but for one of the 'standards' I feel it's better to do it closer to the version they want.

And I agree with Eddie and Bob about bands that don't rehearse. The majority of the should, and the few that don't need to are a joy to listen to, but they definitely are few and far in between.

Jam sessions are different. I belong to a jazz/blues org that holds monthly jams. The house band gets paid well, and most of the players are my buddies. It's a lot of fun making things up as we go along over the changes we all know too well.

It's mostly blues and blues that has bled over to rock though. Jazz is pretty much dead around here. Oh how I'd love to do Joy Spring (thanks, Bob - I have the Stan Getz Quartet version playing right now) but there is no audience. The one jazz group that plays for $25/man (they all have day gigs and do it for the love) sticks to the old war horses that most people know.

Back in the early 1980s I was in a Sunday jazz band. The leader/guitarist used to teach at the University of Miami and also played with Ira Sullivan for a few years. Monsters came in to sit in that were way out of my league, it was challenging to keep up, and a lot of fun.

My jazz chops are all but dormant now. I don't mind, I'm having fun gigging with Leilani.

We constantly learn new songs and rehearse them before taking them to the audience. It's the right way to do it.

I do my own backing tracks, and it might take a few days to get the track right (depending on the song, some go in a day). I want the groove to be right, the mix to be right, and even the choice of instruments (I have MIDI sound modules with thousands of different variations of the common instruments and plenty of uncommon ones).

I play the parts live into a sequencer, sometimes I use BiaB for the comp work (if an appropriate MIDI style is available). I first have to figure out the parts, learn how to play them, then record them.

Then I choose the patches. We just learned Seger's Still The Same for a very good customer on our weekly going on 10 year house gig. I played the stock piano figure into the sequencer, and by the time I mixed, I tried about 70 acoustic and bright acoustic piano patches until I found the one that fit the best. This is another good thing about MIDI, and not only pianos, I have about 100 different clean guitar sounds, Teles, Strats, LPs, 335s, and so on.

My musician friends who buy karaoke tracks think I'm crazy to do all that work, but it's not work, it's just what needs to be done. When I'm happy with my track, I'll enjoy singing/playing over it.

But they don't have a once a week gig that has lasted for 10 years either.

I've purchased a couple of karaoke tracks for throw away songs like the obscure first dance at a wedding, and they always pale in comparison.

And new songs go through stages. At first a new song is exciting as you are still exploring what you can do, what works, what doesn't work and what you can get away with. Stage two is when the song peaks, you are settling into what works best for you, and you soar through the song like an eagle on the wind. Then the song loses some of it's peak excitement, but it is comfortable, like having dinner with a good friend.

I suppose if I had a day job, I could have spent my life doing 'art music' (jazz or whatever), but I would have had to work a day job. Instead I'm not working for anyone other than myself, nobody is running my life, I'm not a wage slave, I'm living it on my own terms. I take the gigs I want, turn down the ones I don't want, play music for a living, whether I'm making a backing track, gigging on stage, or playing music into a sequencer that will eventually become a new BiaB style. I make music with my lover/best-friend/bandmate Leilani, we enjoy life, and are pretty much free.

Life is good for me. I'm lucky to have been born at a time where a musician can make a living doing music and nothing but music.

And I'll play all those songs until they are retired by the audience.

My philosophy: You can play for yourself, you can play for other musicians, or you can play for the general public. If you are good enough, you will get the audience you asked for.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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