Here’s the press release:

Chicago Afrobeat Project w/ Vibe Syndicate

Friday, September 29, 2005
The High Noon Saloon, Madison, Wisconsin
9:30 pm / $10 cover $8 Advance
21 AND UP

Chicago Afrobeat Project is a dynamic 10-piece collective rooted in ’70s funk- and jazz-infused afrobeat. As the Midwest’s afrobeat messengers, CAbP continues the legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti — the political activist, outspoken radical and creator of afrobeat — in its own urban, contemporary style. Upon his death in 1997, Fela left behind him an incomparable realm of music that connects jazz, American funk, African highlife and traditional African rhythms.

Nominated “Best R&B Band” by the Madison Area Music Awards 2004, Vibe Syndicate performs original songs and arrangements that deliver an infectious groove.

I found time on Sunday to work on recording a solo for a Vibe Syndicate original instrumental cut we call “Check Yourself”, based on a catchy horn line I came up with during a practice jam (the copyright is ours!). Chad and I laid down the horn section pieces, but had put off doing soloes (to be fair, Chad’s solo here is a scratch track).

Here’s an mp3 of Check Yourself with a tenor sax solo recorded with the new Yamaha horn playing great after getting a tune up at the shop.

Check Yourself - Vibe Syndicate ~5.3 MB

Also, check out Vibe Syndicate at the band’s web site.

I took the new tenor to the shop yesterday and had it looked over by my favorite repair person, Karen at Ward-Brodt. She put the light stick to it and found a bunch of pads that weren’t sitting quite right. We also identified a bunch that will be getting replaced. But aside from that, her report was very positive. She suggested moving the alignment of the bell ever so slightly to help the lowest note pads to line up a little better. She noted that the keywork was set pretty low, but that if everything was playing in tune, then there wouldn’t be any reason to change that. Myself, I like the quick key action–that was half the reason I wanted to get a nicer horn to begin with.

All in all, the horn checked out. It’s in the shop for the next few days, but should be ready by Friday. She assures me that it will play as smooth as a hot knife through butter when I get it back. The leaking pads make such a huge difference in the ease of play, especially in the low register that I’m excited all over again! Karen has done such a nice job tuning up my YTS-23 in the past that I can only imagine how much fun it’s going to be to play the 61 after she’s done her magic!

Wow! Last night was the first gig where I was able to play the new tenor. The most noticible difference in my playing was the ability to hit every note in tune. In fact, the Clyde band horn trio collectively had such better intonation last night that I’m embarrassed to think how much I must have been contributing to our ever sounding out of tune.

What is intonation? Find the answer here, or check us out next Monday at the King Club.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to play the new ax and the Ponzol mouthpiece. My only regret is waiting so long to get a nice tenor sax. I probably should have done this years ago!

I finally decided to get a new tenor saxophone. Until now, I’ve been playing a student line Yamaha YTS-23 that I picked up ten years ago for about $325. That horn has served me well and certainly deserves respect for playing as well as it has for price. But lately I’ve been realizing the limits of a student horn and seriously began pining for something better.

Photographs
Pic 1 | Pic 2 | Pic 3 | Pic 4

I turned to my friend Eric Koppa and asked him what he would recommend. These days he plays a killer King SuperSonic 20 that is amazing! He’s also a true professional saxophonist and deserves and can justify owning a horn that commonly sells today for $5,000 to $6,000. That was a little out of my budget! So I considered the horn he played throughout college and still keeps as a back up, a Yamaha YTS-61.

I’ve been doing a lot of research over the last two months and have learned a lot about saxophone history, from vintage brands to the most modern designs. The Yamaha 61 was Yamaha’s first professional saxophone to sell in America. It was manufactured in Japan and introduced to the United States in the early 1970’s. From what I gather from saxophone forums, people approve of this horn. It has an asthetic appeal with it’s mother-of-pearl keys and “hot rod” fender key guard. The model I bought was a very early release, serial number #40xx, and shows an even higher degree of craftsmanship than higher serial number 61’s by having a huge left-hand pearl thumb rest. Some saxophone engineers and designers think this is one of the best Yamaha tenors ever designed. Some have said the 61 is “the closest Yamaha ever came to making a Selmer Mark VI”.

What made this horn so intriguing to me was not just it’s fine appearance, but the fact that it was being sold by Peter Ponzol. For those who have never heard of Mr. Ponzol, he was a professional saxophonist in the 1970’s and 80’s who got involved with engineering and customizing saxophone design. He lived in Europe for many years and worked with a variety of German manufacturers, most notably Keilworth, to develop modifications and improvements to their horn line. Today he specializes in designing custom mouthpieces, necks and saxophone reeds. More about Peter Ponzol’s story is available here. This horn was one from his personal collection, so I figured it couldn’t be a sour purchase.

Well, I’m excited to say that the horn arrived safely last Friday. In a gesture to Peter Ponzol, I also bought a new Ponzol mouthpiece (an M2+), a piece he recommended for getting a bright, edgy sound like Lenny Pickett from Tower of Power and Saturday Night Live band fame. It’s a great step up for me and so much fun to play! I’ll be taking her for my first gig tonight at the King Club with the Clyde Stubblefield Band. Ain’t It Funky Now!

Earlier this summer I got an accidental mention in the local Isthmus about the Bob Corbit Trio at the Hemingway Lounge on Thursday nights. It seems local entertainment writer, Kenneth Burns (not that Ken Burns, but Madison’s own) heard that things were jumpin’ off on Thursdays and that he should check it out. Of course, he’s right. Where else can you see Clyde Stubblefield, Major Hamberlin (an accomplished pianist from Milwaukee) and Bob Corbit (who Clyde calls “the best saxophonist he’s ever played with”) for free?!?!

Sweet Thursday: Stubblefield keeps the beat a Hemingway Lounge

Photo credit: Maurice Thaler - more of Maurice’s photos

The funny part is I was subbing for Bob Corbit the night Ken showed up, so I got a mention in his piece. I guess until I make a name for myself, I’ll have to keep riding Bob’s coat tails! Thanks, Big Daddy Wando, for the publicity!

** This was a blog posting from July ‘05 that I thought I’d move to groovology.com **

It’s about 92 degrees outside and 98% humidity and the Vibe Syndicate band is chillin’ in the studio laying tracks for a new album. We have been here setting up and recording all Sunday afternoon and evening.

We’re in the large studio space at DNA Studios, voted the 2005 Best Recording Studio by the Madison Area Music Awards. John Mesoloraus, our bassist, has been engineering the project, proving he’s just as comfortable running a Pro Tools session as he is playing a funky bass guitar. We’re trying to get solid takes of the drums, bass, guitar and organ/keys. We’ll do the horns and vocal track later at one of our own studio spaces.

It’s a lot of work trying to get it right, though the quality of the recordings we’re getting is terrific. There are only 20 minutes left in our 10 hour first day. It took four hours to set up and we’ve managed to get “keeper” takes of four or five songs. Tomorrow we’ll do another 10 hours and hopefully have at least 12, if not 14 songs in the vault.

The Wisconsin State Journal ran an article featuring Madison’s growing recording industry. It sounds good to me (no pun intended)!

“Word is Madison is a Great Place to Record”

I stumbled onto this article describing a DJ’s fantasy, starting with him imagining himself inside the cover of Dj Shadow’s Endtroducing album in a hoodie still searching for the ultimate vinyl collection. There are a lot of cool references to things I hold in high esteem, like DJ Shadow’s art, the documentary “Scratch“, as well as a reference to finding “Everything Clyde Stubblefield ever recorded.” Amen!

Well, for better or worse, I spent most of the extended weekend playing gigs. On Friday night the Clyde Stubblefield band entertained a wedding at the Monona Terrace. The next day we traveled to Ho-Chunk Casino near Baraboo, Wisconsin and played Saturday and Sunday night at the local pub.

On Saturday, Little Richard and Chuck Berry played on the convention center stage next door to us. Later on after their show, the saxophonist for Little Richard’s band stopped in with a national soul legand and Milwaukee resident, Harvey Scales. Harvey, dressed in a some amazing purple threads, took over the singing duties for Charlie Brooks and led the band through some famous R&B standards, including My Girl and What’s Going On. It was great to meet Harvey and the rest of Charlie’s lifetime soul brothers.

Oh, and Conga Paula won $625 and Dave’s (bass player) girlfriend, Wendy, won $675 on a slot machines! And the luck didn’t stop there–I played the slots one time with Dave at the very end of our last night and won $25. With gas at $3.25 a gallon, I’ll take it!

On Monday, day four of our extended gig schedule, we played back on our home court at the King Club for our Funky Monday. It was a long weekend, but we sound great after four straight days of playing. The funk torch is lit and we’re holding it high!