So, I've parted with my childhood axe

At the beginning of this summer I went on a trip with my friend and boss to buy a collection of guitars upstate. When I first walked in my head was all full of old crappy assumptions. New wife, she wants him to get rid of his toys, that kind of unkind material. Nothing real, just me making a hurtful image out of my own hurt. This cat was a Beatles fan and was about the same age as Paul. He had a collection of guitars that blew me away, all Beatles style. It was an emotionally painful change. A blind man could see that. And I empathize with both this fellow and his wife.

As they were making the deal I got into a conversation with his wife. She is a spiritual shrink and a psychic. It took me 30 seconds before I felt a wave of joy and some tears, she is exactly the right person for this mans life. Took no convincing. We talked about isolation and letting go of the past to make room for the present. She figured me out in less than a minute saying "you have gone through a painful shift about 2 years ago is what I see" Yup. I hit my bottom in Los Angeles around then. Ego smashed to pieces. She also said this summer will be financially challenging, difficult but "don't scare for nothing" she kept saying. "Just do your work, clean your house cause your life is about to take off!"

I have no doubt she is right on point. No doubt.

I came away convinced it is time to part with my childhood black Stratocaster. Lovely guitar. But it represents a person who no longer lives in this form. It represents that 14 year old Jimi fanatic who bought 100 bootleg recordings and did his best to be someone else. It represents that 22 year old that bought this guitar to achieve a dream in a material form, that guy my friends from long ago are comfortable with, the young man who played louder than necessary with the dreads and who attracted a bunch of female attention. It represents a young man who didn't know who he was who was trying desperately to be cool. It represents a big fish in a small pond destroying his own chances at success.

Best Stratocaster ever but I played it so little after I decided to be myself.

The strange thing about fanatics and worshippers is they wind up depriving themselves and wind up poor and rather dirty. I've said that before. And, that was me. I couldn't see it, but that was me.

Funny thing is when I was a kid I had this dream of moving to New York and I played a big ol' archtop with flatwound strings making some rather wierd and wonderful music. Composing, playing, enjoying this life. That's happening. Today was the best day of my life. I like that trajectory. I like being me. When you are young it helps to have a hero perhaps, but it hurts to become that hero. If I go out and play baseball as Jef Brown, I won't hit anything, but if I pretend to be Jackie Robinson, I'll hit a home run. I may even get the same bat he used. That's fine until you get your own bag together. What you don't want is to stay stuck in that illusion.

So, I've parted with my childhood axe, or better yet, parted with my childhood. I feel really good about it. I don't miss it yet, maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't miss my youth either though. I appreciate my past but don't miss it. And I'm glad someone else will be able to enjoy that old guitar.

JB

Showtimes. How long do you enjoy playing?

I read an interview once with Gore Vidal where the reporter asked "Where are all the great writers today?" and Gore asked back "where are all the great readers today?"

While I agree with neither statement, there are great writers today, we may just not see them cause we compare to the past all the time, and great readers? How are we to know what is in another's mind? But I do think there is validity to both statements as well.

I was once at a concert in Portland watching the guy who wrote Louie Louie. I got into a conversation with a young man about music. We talked a bit about the length of shows. Myself? I would love to play 2 or 3 sets a night if I can. Music gets really interesting if you play and play and play. I had just seen Mahmoud Ahmed in a warehouse in Portland play 3 one hour and twenty minute sets. The energy in the room was higher at the end of the night than at the beginning. It ended past 3am. Now that my friends, is a show. I saw a friend perform last year at The Knitting Factory. She had just gotten a writeup in Pitchfork saying hers was the album of the year. Packed house, she was headlining. 22 1/4 minute show. Disappointed audience. Lotta moans and grumbling.

So while myself and this young man were talking I made the point that our grandparents partied way harder than we know how to. The music they dug, those bands worked. Duke Ellington, Basie, Chick Webb, Trane (he was known to play until the sun came up!), the attention span must have changed over the years for us in the United States. (Yeah, Mahmoud Ahmed is Ethiopian. There were about 12 hipsters there including myself and 200+ Ethiopians and Somalians eating up every lyric!)

So why the change? I said to the young man, "well think about it. Think about the first 18 years of your life. 1st grade through 12th. Your time is compartmentalized. How long is the average class? How long is the average musical set? At first you are into it, by the 40 minute mark you are WAITING FOR THE BELL TO RING! Ding, class dismissed, NEXT!"

I myself have done enough rock shows with 5 band nights where there is anxiety about getting enough bodies in there to get paid. This doesn't make for great bands or great audiences and certainly doesn't make for great experiences. What to do? I think saying no to opportunities that don't pay is a great start. You don't need the publicity a Monday night at a dump can give you. Shoot higher. Shoot for the stars you may hit the moon. Shoot for the treetop you may hit a window! Next is really work on the vision you have for your group. If you are satisfied playing 22 1/4 minute sets and that is what your audience can handle, great! Don't change a thing. But if you aren't start working on how those needs will be met and be vigilant. What kind of venues do you need to play in to be happy. What do they feel like etc.

More later!

It's getting hard to earn in music these days with (fill in the blank)

 I often hear "it's hard these days" when it comes to making money in music, selling product etc. I don't know about this. I think it's noisier today with all the internet stuff and digital downloads, yes, but the life for musicians has never been easy. 100 years ago Jelly Roll Morton went from purely live performances to making piano rolls to 78s just to keep food on the table. He adapted. It wasn't easy. Eventually only his negativity destroyed him. 300 years ago musicians were the lowest of the low, that isn't the case anymore but I think we still believe that in ourselves down deep. It isn't at all true, never was.

All we really can do is make the best music we can and be creative about getting it out there. One of my dear friends has made a million a year scoring films. We both dropped out of college at the same time. What is his secret? He goes to parties. shakes hands and makes connections. It's that willingness to do so. You can be Beethoven with a Reverbnation page, a myspace, facebook, soundcloud, a bandcamp, but if you aren't willing to show up and meet and greet, nothing will happen.

I've never gotten a job with a resume. All this social media, they are like resumes. Kinda lazy. They get thrown in a pile and forgotten. Every job or gig I've gotten has been through walking into a place and saying: Hey, my name is ______, and I'm your new guy, here's my music.

The music business has always been in a state of change since day 1. The only constant is making an actual impression.

JB

GOspel Of Mars live at Stanhope House in Stanhope New Jersey 7/13/13

The Stanhope House is a roadhouse that features blues and jazz mostly though tonight it was hip hop and free jazz. Cannibal Ox rocked the other room filling in our quiet passages with "Let me see your hands!" 2586 times while we played, kinda like one big happy 2 room mash up.

A young man took pictures of my saxophone up close and said to a patron he saw Jesus in my horn. Yeah, Stanhope House was built in the 1700s. Lotta ghost there, maybe even a holy ghost.

Can't wait to return. One of the best gigs I've had in a long time.

Mailing list

One of the oddest problems many of us musicians have is the resistance to self promotion. I don't understand this yet I have this problem as well.

Last year Gospel of Mars did a great gig at Zebulon with the Lawrence Clark trio. I learn alot from playing gigs with better players than I, but this night what really impressed me was watching Lawrence walk around the room with a clip board after his set and talk to every person in the room (with warmth and a smile!) and ask if they would like to be on his mailing list. I would never have thought about this had I not seen it. I played with Lawrence in Washington Square a few weeks later. I watched him approach lunch eaters in between songs with a cloth bag for money and that clipboard for emails, again using a gentle and warm approach.

I think the block comes when we think we are being invasive or pushy like a sleazy used car salesman with a pencil moustache and Marlboro mouthwash breath. There is no truth there, we needn't see self promotion this way at all. People want to see your performances! And in this noisy world with social networking and so much grabbing our attention, people want warmth, a smile and to be approached by another actual human being.

I did another gig this winter as a hired saxist for this fellows band. Nobody came. I insisted on being paid, it was time and energy spent so I got my fee. I asked him "what do you do to promote your shows, you do have 4 albums under your belt so you have been doing this for a while right?" His response killed me. "People have been giving me their info for the last 10 years and I usually just throw that info out!" I replied, "you do see that this isn't sane do you? You do see this as an insult to your fans right?"

10 years of gigging, 15 people at your gig. Why bother? And that's with 4 bands on the bill who are hoping that the other 3 will bring in more people. 10 years of people giving their info and the response is like "piss off, you don't really like my music anyway!" 10 years of people giving you their email is a lot of people. Why reject that? Some wierd pious "I'm not a capitalist, I am above that behavior" jive? Why reject a good thing?

So those gigs were months ago and I've only started to use Lawrences approach. I've collected 10 this week alone and will be giving those folks a shout when I book the nex gig. It'sa good band and these folks want to hear more.

A good friend said to me "have you ever signed an email list after a set when it's sitting there next to a pile of merchandise?" Gotta admit the answer is no I haven't. Gotta strike while the iron is hot. Have a friend walk around with that clip board during your set and do that job. And when the set is over don't do like I used to do and hide out, approach people. Sure someone is going to say no or "I never sign list" like 1 cat said to me the other night, but a whole lot more will say yes and want to talk to you. Take the praise, you've earned it!

JB

Gospel of Mars at Silent Barn 7/10/13.

Played Bushwicks very own Silent Barn Wednesday night, thanks to all who showed up, thanks to Sarah Halpern for putting together the event as well. I enjoy nights like this. Started out with Jeanne Liotta showing some lovely films, the last of which was a film about the moon. Perfect way to launch our set.

I love playing shows like this. The room has a great lively acoustic sound, the audience had great attention. It's easy to be of service when the vibe is this good! Sarah is a dear friend from Portland who used to take lessons from me. She's been making films here in NYC for the last 7 years and it's been great to re-connect. That's how things happen. It's all about connection. You never know where you may end up, but if you are in the arts, chances are a friend is in the town you land in. The world gets smaller the bigger it gets. I like it

The Keepsies!

Here's a session I did last year with my man Austin Brown. Playing sax and doing backup vocals. Really love these guys sound and ideas, classic and immediately WARM. Really grateful to have been a part of this session. Enjoy! Buy their tracks!!!!!

http://thekeepsies.bandcamp.com/

Oh, and that's my man Jason Kelly on drums, one of the finest.

Nice footage of Gospel Of Mars at Spectrum, 6/12/2013

 We really enjoyed this performance. Hope you do too. Beautiful space on Ludlow Street.

http://vimeo.com/68329276

Sustain

Music, art, love, business, raising a family, these don't work as a popularity contest, they are an endurance race. It takes daily sustained action to do anything well.

I've given up my rehearsal space which is a good thing. As a saxophone player the city of New York is a great practice space with 8 1/2 million potential viewers. I've traded up. My old space, I walked in and there was a pile of amps on the floor that looked like a trash heap. Couldn't do it anymore.

Tricky part is getting in front of people and practicing. I've always lived the 'musician as solitary creature' myth. Nonsense. Practicing in front of people for an hour is the equivalent of practicing in a box for 10. It's not difficult to master scales, arpeggios, learn tunes. it is difficult, at least for me, to connect with people.

I read a great article with Joe Lovano and Lou Donaldson in the Oregonian. They were both asked about practicing. Joe gave a beautiful though long answer about balance and spontaneity, Lou however, kinda nailed it. "Man, I'm trying to practice less so I can get worse on my horn, that way I can connect with the people better! All these kids coming out of these schools, get them on the bandstand back in the day and we'd throw them off before the chorus was over playing all that school jive!"
I dig that.

I admit since giving up my space I've fallen off the band wagon in my practice routine. Have hardly touched my horn though i have been writing and playing guitar. I start feeling wrong when I don't practice that horn, start getting irritable and resentful. I played for an hour and a half tonight, learned "Brilliant Corners" by Monk and right in this moment I feel serene again. I'm a better horn player than I was yesterday and better than I think I am overall. It's easy to lose touch with that and start beating myself up for not working. Just an hour can reset the batteries.

And by the way, right now Ike Quebec is THE MAN!!!!

Love, JB