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.