Last night, I saw the senior recital of Kelyn Crapp (guitar) and Jeff Randall (drums). After their recital, they played two funk sets at the Greenhouse. The whole night was fantastic. I think I saw Kelyn burst into flames at one point. His original tunes were excellent and had everyone in the room nodding their heads. Jeff is very good at restraint and economy when it comes to a groove. Lots of drummers will throw too much extra junk into a groove, which diminishes its power. Jeff doesn’t do that.
Both these guys are in the 3 O’Clock Lab Band with me this semester. Bassist Scott Mulvahill is also a part of that rhythm section and their combined pocket is one of the tightest I’ve experienced or heard.
So I haven’t really updated this very much, but that’s ok.
My summer has consisted of a good bit of practicing, and recently a fun project. My friend, drummer Sean Philly Jones called me to do some keyboard parts on a track he’s recording. The idea is to meticulously recreate “Rock With You,” from the Michael Jackson album Off The Wall. This project was started so Philly could learn to use his recording program, Digital Performer, better. At the beginning of the week, all Philly had down was a completely accurate drum part.
One day, I played the main rhodes part and a functional synth bass part. Over the next few days, we added synth string parts (which will later be replaced with real strings) and additional synth parts. Yesterday, Scott Mulvahill added the true bass part and Kelyn Crapp laid down the guitars. I also played most of the flugal and trumpet parts. The track has a ways to go (Quincy Jones as producer made the original track immensely and intricately layered), but it already sounds really good. I may post it when it’s finished.
Even though Philly is doing all the tracking and mixing, I’ve probably been the next most involved person and I’ve adopted it as my own project too. The most likely candidate for our next project is “Peg” from the Steely Dan album Aja. Philly, Brian Stark and I are going to see Steely Dan in August when they come to the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, TX.