Well, 'tis the season after all! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah! Peace on earth--even now--is still within the realms of possibility. Never give up, never surrender!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMwz9XEUBo
An 8 bar blues progression that had to be shortened to 8 because my looper, at the time, didn't have the space to store anything larger.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwA8W2ucyNo
A recent Sidewalk Cafe performance with Matty D. for the Venice Art Walk.
Matt's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJSogyveK5RoEn2GlpQotg
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTZn-4FvG8
This is a lesson on what I call 'artificial pentatonic scales.' These are pentatonics, within which one or two of the notes get tweaked outside of the natural pentatonic formulas. The effect of these sound like no other scales and in fact, perform more like the Indian Raga than they do Western scales. This is great because you can get a somewhat exotic sound by way of this tweakery.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AitFcoDtpoI
This is the most avant garde piece on this record. It wasn't meant to be on this album but found its way there because it would've otherwise been discarded. There's a bit of an oddball tale behind this work:
My producer, George Madaraz, was commissioned with a task to come up with some music for an exercise video. This wasn't just any exercise video, however. The exercises were sourced in Carlos Castaneda's infamous teachings. Because of this, the project had an air of mysticism to it. This system of movement is known as Tensegrity. Sort of a Mexican Shaman's version of Hatha Yoga. I must say, it was a bit cultish. But that aside...
After using different musicians to come up music for the project--including George's wife, Debbie (RIP)--all had been rejected by the people who commissioned the project. Probably quite frustrated by all of this rejection, George turned to me in a last ditch attempt to come up with something they wouldn't reject.
One of the executives of the Tensegrity project showed up to kind of head off the project. Let me tell you, it's hell to deal with non-musicians who know nothing about music, trying to tell a musician what they want and how to proceed.
The first notion I got from her, the executive of the production, was, "I want you to create music that isn't music."
Hmm...right? I tried a few ideas and all got rejected. Too musical, apparently. But I was determined.
I said to her, "You and I need to do a Vulcan Mind Meld. I want you to start throwing words at me that describe the feeling behind these exercises and I'll try and come up with a sound that I think will express that."
On completion, she appeared to be entirely happy with my work. That was pleasing considering the mental bureaucracy I had to deal with that day.
Weeks, months went by. I finally called George to ask him what happened with the video project and whether they used my music. He told me that they sampled ??? ?????? ???? from the track I created. They used that one single note dispersed around the video. Since they didn't use my track save for one note, I put it here on this CD.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uy_wIR69tQ
Another backyard jam presented to you by the Elegant Strangers.
~Moondance~
Harmonica, Flute, Tenor Sax: Stan 'The Baron' Behrens:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvF7hzsrsGM5SR7CxcHLr0Q
Simultaneous Keys and Drums, the inimitable, Rob Mullins:
https://www.youtube.com/user/planetmullins
Guitar, Vinnie Caggiano, Eclectic Guitarist:
www.facebook.com/vinstrel
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3F4gS1KOQs