House Concert

Lauren and I played a show last night at the Black Sheep Ranch in Clinton, CT, hosted by Andrew and Suzanne Wallach. Also playing that night was Sarah Blacker from Cambridge, MA.

I'll be honest with you, I had no idea what to expect. But coming away from the show, I have a whole new respect for well organized house concerts. There were about 30 people there, all for the single purpose of listening to the music. Because it's still cold out, we played in the living room, so it was very cozy. I actually sat on the edge of the couch while I played, so it was a lot like playing at home minus the flannel pants. We go back in July to play outside, where they say there are sometimes 50+ people filling their backyard.

Lauren sold some of her CDs, a lot of people were interested in both performers upcoming releases, signed their mailing lists, etc. Some of the guys there even noticed some of the nerdy music stuff I do when I accompany Lauren, something that doesn't usually happen. It's always kind of fun to geek out with somebody about the lack of well placed voice leading in a guitar accompaniment.

If you know of similar house concert series around you, or you live close to the Black Sheep Ranch, I suggest checking them out.

Live recording coming soon

The sound guy recorded our show last night. Rose Live Music is a relatively small club, but mostly in that it’s narrow, and the stage faces across the width of the room. In other words, there’s a space to walk past the front of the stage, then a row of tables along the wall with chairs facing away from the stage and a booth style bench on the other side, looking in.

The close quarters makes you keep your volume down. For a funk band, lower volume is actually a good thing. There’s a deeper groove when you don’t hit the drums as hard, and a lot more dynamic space to build to a frenzy whenever necessary. This played in our favor, and along with an agreement to PLAY LESS, it could have been one of our best performances.

The sound engineer needs to bounce down the recording at his studio, but I have my fingers crossed it comes out nicely, because I really feel that musically, it was a step in the right direction for our group.

Tonight @ Europa Night Club

Tonight my trio will perform at Europa Night Club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's a night of groove focused jazz/funk/jam music organized by yours truly. I could use as much support as possible, so please come on out!

Cameron Mizell Trio @ Europa Night Club
9pm - 10:30pm
Featuring Brad Whiteley on keyboards and Kenneth Salters on drums

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Europa Night Club

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're part of a night of performance art where bands and painters will collaborate to create a larger experience. If you're in NYC, come to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to and be a part of the event:

Collective Pursuit @ Europa Night Club
11:30pm - 12:30am
Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Bobby Avey (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Europa Night Club
98 Meserole Ave. (at Manhattan Ave)
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Getting over the hump

You know how the first gig with a new band is always exciting? By the next gig the excitement is worn off and everything that's going wrong is pretty obvious. Then a few gigs later, everything clicks and the music just happens, you take the little risks to make the music better, even if it means there may be a little mistake, but the feeling is all there.

That happened at the gig last night. We got passed that invisible hump. Sure, I have a list of things I need to work on, but now that we have our cake recipe figured out, the rest is just the icing.

Lauren Zettler tonight @ Rockwood Music Hall

Tonight I will be performing with Lauren Zettler, a very talented singer/songwriter I've had the pleasure of working with for the last several months. She has an EP available on iTunes, a free download of a show we played in LA, and more studio material coming soon. If you're in NYC, come down to the Lower East Side and check it out:

Lauren Zettler @ Rockwood Music Hall
7pm - 8pm

Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street (between Houston & Stanton)
New York, NY 10002

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Collective Pursuit tonight @ Lucky Cat

Tonight I will be performing with Collective Pursuit, an 8 piece jazz ensemble packed with talented players. We're playing some of my music as well. If you're in NYC, come to Billyburg, Brooklyn to check it out:

Collective Pursuit @ Lucky Cat
8pm - 10pm
No cover! Featuring Cody Brown (d), Craig Akin (b), Assaf Glizner (p), Cameron Mizell (g), Luke Malewicz (tb), Michael Eaton (ts), Jackie Coleman (tp), and Kt Chauvot (tp)

Lucky Cat
245 Grand Street (between Driggs and Roebling)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Visit my calender to see more of my performance schedule.

Craziest gig, ever.

Summer of 2002. The last summer I spent in my parents house in St. Louis. I was working as a waiter and trying to find gigs wherever possible. With the amount of running around I was doing, I figured a cell phone would help people reach me for gigs, and within 24 hours of activating my first cell phone, while shooting pool and drinking beer at a friend's house, I got the call.

Me: Hello?
Unidentified Voice (w/ heavy Italian accent): You play guitar?
Me: Uh, yeah?
UV: You know some jazz chords?
Me: Yeah?
UV: You gotta suit?
Me: Yeah, who is this?
UV: How long will it take you to get to the Hill? You gotta car?

The Hill is the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Sort of like Little Italy in New York, but less touristy and in my opinion, a lot more authentic, so probably more like Arthur Ave. in the Bronx.

Me: Maybe an hour and a half. Wait, who is this?
UV: It's [not named to protect myself], I'm a jazz singer that sounds like Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean... you know, I'm a jazz singer. Meet me at [unnamed restaurant] in an hour. I need a guitar player. I've got all the music.

And so I asked a couple more questions to make sure I'd get paid, got something that resembled directions, and went home to get my suit. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

While sitting in traffic headed downtown, he called back to tell me that he and the sax player were running late (Ok, now I know there's a sax player), and he needs me to cover for them until they get there. In 2002 I could play about three competent chord melody solos on guitar. At least, there were three I felt comfortable performing. So I crossed my fingers that they weren't running that late.

When I got to the restaurant, a rough looking man in a suit named Guy showed me where to set up. "Where's [the singer]?" he asked. "Oh, he'll be here soon. Traffic. I'm going to play some solo guitar in the meantime." Gulp.

Nearly an hour later, they showed up. It was just the two of them. That meant I was the entire rhythm section, and would be playing plenty of chord soloing whenever the saxophonist laid out. After setting up the small P.A., a binder of music was thrown in front of me. Opening it up, I didn't recognize a single song. These weren't jazz standards, these were Italian songs. Half of them were written for mandolin! I was a goner.

The scariest moment in my life happened a few tunes later, when he called Mi Amore. Finally, something I sort of knew! Before I had a chance to look it over, he was counting off the tune. And by counting off, I mean he was doing some weird foot stomping, fist swinging motion while singing what I imagine was some sort of trombone part from the arrangment stuck in his head, "Bah, Bah-Dah, BOP!" As soon as I started playing my best boom-chick-chick waltz pattern, he got right in my face and while playing air mandolin, starting singing some high notes, wanting me to play that, doing some tremelo picking, at the same time. I don't remember the next couple minutes, but things seemed to settle in place. But then it all fell apart. The key changed or something, but not in my music. Wait, where's the final barline? Where's the rest of this lyric? I'm missing a page!

And that's how I fucked up Mi Amore in front of an all Italian audience in the most Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. I was pretty sure my car was going to blow up when I turned it on.

Yet ironically, Guy and everyone else loved my solo playing at the beginning that they forgave me, and just teased me about it afterwards. Plus, once we did get to the jazz standards, I more than made up for it. Literally, I played like my life was on the line. After the gig, which went until the last customer left a little after midnight, the chef made an amazing pasta dish for the three of us. The owner broke out a few bottles of vino and we kicked back, smoked cigars, had some lemon dolce, and shot the shit until about 4 am. My car started without incident and I felt successful.