Happy New Year from Rob Birdwell and BirdwellMusic.com

Just wanted to thank you for being a valued BirdwellMusic.com visitor and wish you a happy, safe, and musical new year! In celebration of the new year to come, I wrote a new tune, "Los Compadres," which is in the style of what I affectionately call "cool, Latin funk." If you're a gigging musician or just enjoy playing new tunes, here's one you might like to explore!

Download an MP3 recording of Los Compadres - MP3, 1.57 MB (a spontaneously recorded on the final day of 2003!)
Download the B-flat Lead Sheet for Los Compadres - PDF, 70 KB
Download the C Instrument Lead Sheet for Los Compadres - PDF, 73 KB

Consider this your late stocking stuffer! My hope is that you will enjoy playing the tune and possibly even performing it - I hope to be performing it as well with the groups that I play with. Let me know if you perform it and/or any comments you have - naturally, I'm very interested if you record it on your next CD (yes, I highly recommend that by the way) - just let me know so I'm sure to get my $0.03 royalty check!

Happy new year 2004! Here's to peace, tolerance and friendship everywhere!

Sincerely,

Rob Birdwell

Sonny Rollins: Blue 7

Blue 7 - nice article on this solo, the players - I highly recommend it. When I was listening to this track early today on the radio Sonny's solo and his mastery blew me away. I don't know how many times I've heard this track and even played the tune - but man, a 1000 times would never be enough. This group is stellar. The Jazz equivalent of a slam dunk, grand slam and possibly even lunar landing - and beyond.

Wynton Marsalis at the Hult Center: Friday, March 5, 7:30 pm

Wynton Marsalis at the Hult Center: Friday, March 5, 7:30 pm - note to self: be there!

Tickets: Purchase all Now Hear This tickets at the OFAM Ticket Office, at The Shedd, 868 High St (E. Broadway & High) - Phone: 687-6526 (Eugene) or 800-248-1615 - Fax: 541-687-1589 - web - email. A $1.00 charge will be assessed for each ticket order that is mailed. Please give us a call, or drop by -- we'd love to help you out!

Poor Keiko: Pneumonia means Harpoon in Norwegian!

Click here to hear a funny Audio Post by my Dad! - as usual, my father showcases his wit and humor in this spontaneous audio blog. (There is much truth in jest.) Naturally we're all saddened to learn of Keiko's untimely passing - in fact, my family and I saw Keiko a number of times at the Oregon Coast Aquarium - I looked upon him with mixed feelings: a sense of awe, wonder and sadness. Whales should live where whales live - in the wild, in the Ocean.

Though this is not technically a "musical" blog entry (which I'm usually pretty strict about), you can hear what a great voice my Dad has. Enjoy and thanks for the great day trip down to Corvallis mom and dad - fun stuff - love Rob!

Adondo Corporation

Thanks to a post on the Adondo Corporation FAQ page I now know the cabling requirements for connecting my Cell to my PC:

* A Y-Adapter Audio Cable, $6 (e.g. Radio Shack 42-2428)
* A 2.5 mm Stereo Cable, $5 (e.g. Philmore 70-206)

Although my interests were purely musical (how to run the output from my mixer into the cell and to the internet) Adondo Corp envisions a world of being able to call your PC to get your info. A neat idea.

Rob

A Beautiful Momment?

Piano/Voice over Cell Phone - a Beautiful Momment... ... or perhaps a garbled mess? Mmm...not sure this is really all that flattering musically speaking. But just for yuks my experiment was to just put the cell on the piano and try the first verse/chorus - definitely garbled and cutting out. Not sure if that's a cell thing, position of the phone, the level of my voice, the instrument, etc.. Is there some sort of mono-mini-cell-audio-input cable with an RCA or 1/4 inch stereo plug that I could use to get the output from my mixer into the cell? Maybe that would work better - at least provide a cleaner audio signal? I have a head-set w/mic so it must be possible to route a signal from a mixer to the cell's audio input port - anyone done that?

I also played a bit of Harmon muted trumpet - just noodling and nothing scientific (or even artistic) here folks. However, the cool part was that, upon listening, you'll notice that all the cell distortion, overtones (or undertones...or maybe just noise) seem to produce a mystery sound an octave lower from the pitch being played, giving off a spooky, synthesized sound. We'll hey, that might be useful to know.

Okay, I'm taking off my lab coat now. Bed time.

Farmers Market / Stian Carstensen

Farmers Market / Stian Carstensen - what an amazing group of musicians. The JazzScene radio interview with Stian Carstensen is excellent - very enjoyable. Would love to hear these guys live.

Solar, the youngest jazzband

Solar, the youngest jazzband - wow! These guys are great! I've added their "repetoire" list to my own group of tunes to woodshed:

Footprints Wayne Shorter
Whittlin' Pat Metheny
Four on Six Wes Montgomery
Solar Miles Davis
Minuano (Six-Eight) Pat Metheny
So May It Secretly Begin Pat Metheny
Chiltlins con carne Kenny Burrell
Spain Chick Corea
Canteloupe Island Herbie Hancock
Nardis Miles Davis
Eye of the Hurricane Herbie Hancock
500 Miles High Chick Corea
Bright Size Life Pat Metheny
Love For Sale Cole Porter
Captain Marvel Chick Corea

Check out their rendition of Four on Six and others - very amazing stuff. Their ages, at the time of this recording, were apparently between 13 and 24! Very gifted indeed.

Audio Posts - the future baby?

Rob's First Flugelhorn audio post powered by audblog

I couldn't resist - this could be a neat way to exchange musical ideas, give lessons, collaborate... maybe some day I'll report my incredible quarterly earnings via this tool - ha!

Hats off to the folks putting this together.

Rob Birdwell

The Buddy System

Buddy Collette interview - the dark, wet, dreary days of winter in the Pacific Northwest aren't getting me down (much). Sure, I long for those sunny days to return (and they will) but meanwhile, more time in doors mean more time for writing, practicing, study and...well, just dreaming.

I once new a composer who arranged at least one piece a week, every week, no exceptions. This kind of dicipline was intimidating at the time - but now it makes sense. It turns out that when you love to do something, there's no reason not to work on something all the time.

Last night I wrote "Los Compadres" (a jazz head tune) - the week before was "1-4-U" (a modal tune a la Maiden Voyage)...before that was "Beautiful Moments" (a vocal jazz tune)...and next week? Who knows? These days I'm finding that my little offerings are less fragmentary and more full-fledged tunes or charts. Maybe it's just a case of all my half-written works finishing themselves off - I'd hate to think it's a "maturity" thing!

I recently dug out my Buddy Collette song book that I've had in my "books to play through and study" collection for over 10 years - a great composer, performer and educator, my copy of Buddy's book bears his autograph and some kind words. Buddy was offering a clinic several years ago and I was inspired by his wisdom and gracious way. He shared many pearls of advice and his approach to Jazz; he listened, played along and gave out his song books. What a wonderful thing to pass on to students of Jazz!

Thanks for the music Buddy! It's a ray of light in these gray northwest days!

Mike Leach - Musings and Observations

Mike Leach - Musings and Observations Like his ideas and musings.

ALLOFMP3 - Russian site offers entire CD downloads - but is this legal?

ALLOFMP3 - Russian site offers entire CD downloads - but is this legal? - www.allofmp3.com is operating under "Russian" laws governing intellectual property. It's not clear to me what that means, but their disclaimer seems clear - they punt on the issue and put the onus on the user of their service to remain in compliance with their "local" laws.

Is the catch here that users can't get CD quality downloads (but very close) - is that what enables this "service" to be possible?

Hey ASCAP, BMI - what do your organizations think about this? Are the artists getting their residuals?

SNL - where's the LIVE in music performances?

NBC.com > Saturday Night Live > Message Board - week-to-week the musical guests vary - some are actually interesting. I would be the first to admit that I can't keep up with all the latest music groups on the scene, so SNL is one of the rare times I actually tune in to TV and indulge.

One question I would like to pose to the producers and writers of SNL: why not feature the SNL band sometime? And do it right! Sure they get the occasional backing opportunity from the wise and progressive performers, but most acts invariably hit the stage with with their own pre-recorded karaoke machine with a few imposter musicians and backup singers thrown in to make it look...err, LIVE - maybe that's harsh and even unfair, but let's face it - it's the truth. It's also a shame.

Can you imagine being one of the talented players in the band and watching some "popular" performer dance his/her way through their number while pretending to sing? That would really suck, but that's exactly what happened recently (October 2003).

Why are the SNL producers allowing this? Although her Act II number was clearly sung live (and no comment there) why was Brittany Spears allowed to perform an aerobic exercise (Act I) sans any singing whatsoever (as it was evident to me that no human could sustain the kind of polished and slickly produced vocals while doing the head twists and various jungle gyrations she was doing)? The choreography was fine, if you like that sort of thing, but whatever happened to the LIVE in SNL as far as musical acts are concerned? Or does that only apply to dancing?

Yes, this is a rare rant from me - enjoy it while you can!

One For The Road - a documentary about Glenn Tilbrook's life and work on the road!

One For The Road - a documentary about Glenn Tilbrook's life and work on the road! - a great singer and songwriter. I'm really looking forward to seeing this - it sounds like they've made some progress and that it might really make the screen someday...soon!

This is a great site for those who enjoy Glenn Tilbrook's work. I saw him perform at a small guitar shop in Los Angeles in 1988 - Chris Difford was there too. It was such a nice evening - what talent!

I've always dreamed of being on the road - ah, the romance and adventure! Naturally, I'd want to bring my wife and kids along (plus the dog and cat!) - mm...I hope they make really big RVs! Maybe someday we'll try it - in the mean time, I'll try to keep our mini van humming along and keep working on my little jazzy offerings and live and learn vicariously through Glenn's adventures!

On Composing & Programming - Part I

The relationship between programming and music - some further commentary on this from my own "musical blog": although there is a great deal in common between the so-called "art" of programming and composing, there are significant differences.

I'm still formulating my thoughts on this, but will say without a doubt that creating music (composing, arranging), although not without its own frustrations, is far more satisfying than the end result of writing code, even though the latter, in my case at least, pays more.

Never has a software app made me weep (unless it crashed my system). Never has a line of code made me think of "the great ones." Never has a software app convinced me that the world will be a better place for it being here (okay, Finale, SONAR, and MS Word are enabling technologies and make me happy, most of the time, I concede). No, writing software is arguably more akin to painting a house, working on a car, taking out the trash. Sure, thought and planning are required. Useful and times, necessary at others. Perhaps a bit of invention and creativity are summoned at certain points in the process, but nothing compared to the feeling of waking up one morning to review the previous night's offerings, only to shake a weary head in wonder, exclaiming: "Great gods of beauty and wonder...where did that come from!" - that's music; that's something rare; that's a horse of a different color.

The lure of software, like music, is its titillating promise: here are the tools - go forth and create! And we do. The reality is, at least with most software (and some could say music too) it usually stinks. Oh, the software may limp along with its faults and frailties for a while, but eventually falls off the emotional radar, rarely to be thought of with any of the other faculties we might otherwise associate with fond, warm and loving things.

In its defense, software helped finance the very thing enabling you to read this. So I am humbled. (I bet they play wicked guitar too!)

Music, on the other hand, is akin to magic. It's mysterious. It can be intellectualized and theorized, yet never ceases to mesmerize. A song or composition can take on new life long after its first inception - long after the life of the writer. The creation of music feeds the soul, warms the heart and broadens the mind. Music cannot be designed or managed by committee - it's a wild horse; attempts to tame her fail. Music needs no OS. Music needs only an audience of one but prefers many.

Now, back to mine.

MP3.com Acuired by CNET

CNET acquires certain MP3.com assets - interesting! This might mess up a few indie artist's ability to make rent this month!

Freddie Hubbard - When your chops are shot

Freddie Hubbard - When your chops are shot

I had the pleasure of meeting the great Freddie Hubbard when I was in college at the U of Idaho ('85 I believe) - our meeting was was very brief and consisted of an introduction, a shake of the hand and some small talk. A very warm, gracious and kind in person - like his music.

And wow, did he deliver!

He was playing double Cs in some of his improvizations! I distinctly recall Dale Curtis, a great trumpet player and fellow U of I student who had the honor of picking Freddie up at the airport (and no one deserved that honor more than Dale!), expressing some amazement how FH just jumped right in and played, with very little warm-up. This, of course, went against everything I was being taught, but hey, if it was working for Freddie... But warming up is obviously something very important.

I continue to enjoy his Freddie Hubbard's amazing flow of ideas. His comments on musician's finding their own voice is an important point - something all musicians must strive for. The only comment I took issue with was the slam on "people like" Wynton [Marsalis] - in my book, Wynton is as "hip" as they come and a great voice for Jazz, whether he's serving as a player, composer, leader or educator.

Freddie's tips on taking care of the old chops seems to go hand in hand with finding one's own voice. To thy own lip be true, lest you be blue.

Transkriber 2.0 - slow down those tricky licks using your Windows or Mac PC

Transkriber 2.0 - slow down those tricky licks using your Windows or Mac PC - I'm looking for something like this, but in a hardware device so I can capture audio excerpts from a tape/cd/record and/or .wav/.mp3.

Rob's latest work-in-progress: Beautiful Moments - many songs come quickly, others take longer. I wrote the first verse to "Beautiful Moments" while just messing around and not even trying to write anything. I let it stew for a couple days before tagging on the remaining verses and bridge, which is drawn from the same fabric. I like to keep an archive my early demos of my songs because often times they have a spark that the produced version lacks.

No, the performance is not polished and my mistakes are rarely flattering - but there's something to these work-in-progress recordings that I love.

Anyway, I'll be posting more works-in-progress, if nothing else than for my own amusement and for some of the folks I perform with.

Veterans Honored - wow, this was a very entertaining tribute. Very moving narration and the performers did great. If you're local to Corvallis, don't miss the 2nd and final performance on Tuesday, November 11, 2003: 7:00 pm, Corvallis High School. Tickets are only $5 for adults, kids are free. What a deal and proceeds go to a good cause.

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times :. Entertainment: "LITERARY
'Magic Barrel: A Reading to Fight Hunger,' 7 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 115 S.W. Second St., Corvallis. Nine authors, a jazz quartet, complimentarty desserts and autographed books and prizes highlight an evening aimed at fighting hunger. Money raised goes to fund local food banks. Suggested donation of $5 at the door. Information: Robert Crum, 737-4472."

And that "jazz quartet" is really a quintet - the Right Relation Quintet, Susan Peck, Jed Irvine, Jim Guynn, Pat Megowan and Rob Birdwell. Another good cause - should be some fun music too - some originals, some standards and some "fanfares" or at least that's the plan.

-Rob

Honoring veterans with music - this is for a good cause and features LOTS of area talent. I'm playing with the Hill Top Big Band on a couple little offerings and will be the "Bugel Boy" behind the very slick and excellent sounding Free Range Chicks' rendition of the "Boogie Woogie Bugel Boy" - should be fun!

Let's celebrate Elvis Costello - he breaks new ground with "North"! I'm looking forward to exploring this new offering very soon. The site and the interviews are superb - I especially enjoyed the Digital Elvis section of his site, which educates the listener about his musical journeys and ultimately enlightens. I'm inspired. As I listen and read through the material on his site I pull away only briefly to blog these thoughts, and turn to my own piano! Thank you Elvis!

The Stranger By The Bay - 10-27-2003 blog entry - still cranking on getting this produced and ready, but it's basically DONE!

BirdwellMusic, Citizen of ACIDplanet.com - yes, I'm a citizen. I dumped my MP3.com membership last year. I like the underground feel of this site. I don't have much on this site, but I'm thinking of doing a non-commercial ACID Jazz CD for fun - this is where I will likely post some of those offerings.

Rob

Hard to Find and Imported Music - this site lists my and Wade Marsten's CD, Two Voices. Search For "Bird From Mars" and you'll find it or at least you could as of this writing. This was/is a great progressive, alternative, pop, folk, CD - it was the culmination of my songwriting partnership and friendship with Wade Marsten - our music defied category and this CD failed to provide us with the industry "break" we were hoping for, but the music lives on. (Okay, okay - so it's imortalized in the hall of loosers, but alive and kicking nonetheless). Bitter sweet really. Here I am, serving up burgers and fries at my day gig (okay, so their bits and bytes, same thing really) and out of curiosity I run accross this...damn!

The $24 price tag for the CD is steep - there must have been a deal at some point. I've got my masters so I'm happy. I know Wade has his share too, not to mention the amazing costs of producing this puppy.

I've got many audio offerings of this fine CD on my site - check them out - following the music links or search for Bird From Mars - you'll find 'em: BirdwellMusic.com

Rob Birdwell

Virtual Trumpet - top seller on BirdwellMusic.com

One of my top sellers for the last 36 months:
Virtual Trumpet Home Page

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