CreateBands.com - Create A Band Online

CreateBands.com - Create A Band Online - Wow! This is a very cool and creative offering!

One note: the band did seem to fall apart after about 5 minutes of jamming without switching loops. Ah, but that's entirely forgivable as it happens all the time with most "real" bands anyway!

My highest recommendations to CreateBands.com - well done!

Rob Birdwell

JAZZ MUSICIANS' PROTOCOL (by Ken Watters)

JAZZ MUSICIANS' PROTOCOL (by Ken Watters) - a very nice reminder list - after reading through this I found myself saying "opps" as I've stepped in a couple of these blunders once or twice (especially playing a solo again after I've already taken one! nothing like trying to redeem oneself - some of that may be slightly forgiveable though, depending on the venue, audience, or lack of one!). I loved the suggestion about trying not to develop a contempt for the audience - ha!

Wise words of advice and insight for the working musician - and not just Jazz musician - I think these comments and advice are applicable to just about all gigging musicians regardless of the style of music they play.

Rob Birdwell

iRiver iHP 140 Jukebox

iRiver iHP-140 Jukebox - I've been looking long and hard at the specs on various Jukebox audio (MP3) player/recorders. I had a brief moment to experience the iRiver iHP-140 for myself and was impressed with its sleek look, small size, great sound and it's amazing features, especially the ability to copy files without any special software (just drag and drop your audio library/files to the HD via USB), and ease of navigation options.

The iRiver iHP 140 looks very promising, especially for a musician who currently records gigs with a MiniDisc unit. Although I'll need a powered mic, it just may be possible to take this unit to gigs. The built in mic seemed plenty good to my fairly discriminating ear. Like MD recording units it seemed to be picking up everything (room/computer noise) - nothing like listening to one's own music library, only to be inspired. What a great way to capture those little hummers of ideas (that's how I do a lot of writing, by singing riffs, licks and often strange musical fragments into my cell phone voice notes - one can't have enough devices to capture those fleeting gems!).

The key purchase points for me (and I haven't purchased yet but will strongly consider it) are ease of use/reliability, storage capacity (40 GB seems pretty good), ability to record audio, small size. This device meets those demands with high marks - plus it sports the ability to navigate in a way that works best for me, either from the ID3 tag data, or by the file folder, and I believe by various other categories. Nice. The FM radio is also nice. The optical IN and OUT are very nice. Noticing a theme here?

The price (rhymes with "nice" but currently around $450 US, or maybe even a bit higher as of this writing) is probably worth it. But when the price comes down (hopefully), that will be even nicer!

However, it's time for me to hang hang up my red sweater, take off my white sneakers and head up to bed...please sing along with me:

"Would you be mine, could you be mine - won't you be...my jukebox!?"



Rob Birdwell

Fixing scratched CDs

Fixing scratched CDs - I found this article to be interesting. I presently have a CD of music tracks and backups that I can't access! ARG! I'm going to try this for one of the less important CDs to see if I can recover the data!

Clinic with Bobby Shew

Clinic with Bobby Shew - this is a good article. I'm especially interested in the reference to the yoga book, "The Science of Breath."

Yep, air, air air.

Musical Web Jam over the Internet

Web-jam - over the holiday break I've had a bit of time to enjoy myself, time with family, and even time to practice (I love to practice, really!). Over the holiday (December 27, 2003) I was thinking how cool it would be to jam with friends or other kindred spirits on-line. The trouble with that, besides time zone, stylistic, and language logistics, is that musical "jams" are often fleeting. When playing or rehearsing in person we have the liberty of eye contact, dialog, etc. So although in-person is the way to go, the mere idea of being able to play with musicians around the world is enticing.

Undaunted, I found a place to Web Jam! I navigated to The Web Jam site (a German site with parts in English) and dowloaded the backing track, got out my flugelhorn, loaded up SONAR 2, and began the process of jamming along.

I emailed a link to my MP3 file (it was about 8 mb) and the result, after some very nice mixing by the "Web Jam Master," was this groovy little Web Jam Mix with Rob's Flugelhorn!

I really liked the backing track chord changes - they were challenging to play over and that made it fun too. I'd like to produce some play along tracks like this too and host some of my own web jams or whatever I end up calling them. Meanwhile, I'll look foward to the next Web Jam offering to hear how the tune evolves.

Rob Birdwell

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!