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Hi all… Been a little while. If I haven’t written in a bit its just because we’re out there living life and making the music. It’s hard to find a time to sit and write. It’s also just so damn hot. Yuck. My building is made of brick and collects the sun all day long. It finally cools down around 4am just in time to wake from a fever dream.

I lost my voice this week. I actually enjoy loosing my voice. I caught a cold from being in airplanes with snot filled screamers and returned from my tour with Gato Loco all sinussed up. Cut to singing six sets a day with Tin Pan and now I have no voice left. I sang a wedding last night with no voice whatsoever. Zoo was teasing me cause my falsetto squeak was “a white noise approximation of in tune.” Thanks. Kick a man while he’s down. But I do like singing and talking with no voice. I feel like the pain involved in doing it makes any expression a struggle and lends the instant sonorous resonance of passion to even the most banal sentences. “Good morning, baby. How bout you make me some breakfast.”

Been starting to get some internet air play… We got on a pod cast or two this week: Bandana Blues with Beardo and Spinner. Beardo seems like a cool guy and I like his chilled out demeanor. I could easily see myself spinning yarns with this guy in a bar. Sometime soon. You hear me Beardo? Next time you’re in New York, I’m buying! Also thanks to Beardo for introducing the show with a Bill Hicks clip. One of my favorite comedians. Also for including us on a radio show next to idols like Willie Dixon and Albert King. YES! Also check out Freddie Roulettes version of Sidewinder on this podcast. Holy awesomeness!
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Starting this week we’re also on the playlist at the Blues and Boogie Station and the Dirty Dog Blues Station alongside Muddy and John Lee Hooker.

Tin Pan was on NBC this morning.  Looking good too!  We’re at the very end of this clip!

Lights, Camera, Action! | NBC New York.

Alas Dear Reader!!! i have returned from my pilgrimage to the land of Giant Salmon, Bald Eagles, Totem Poles, Sasquatches, & large quantities of beer that shall hither-to be known as “Alaska”…

Now why did your humble narrator journey to this mythical land of the Great White North? it all began with an invitation from the Startled Salmon, an arts organization and recording studio located in Ketchikan, Alaska. It seems that the young locales of this small island (population 6,012) have taken an interest in the musical arts and were looking to explore this new found world of expression. At this point I received a call from Ketchikan fisherman, Batuuta Kasuwe, asking if I would be interested in coming up. The tickets were booked and on March 20th of this year I flew up North…WAY North.

The first noticeable thing of Ketchikan is the hyperactivity of the area’s Nimbus Clouds. Producing a constant rain everyday, these Nimbus Clouds of Ketchikan soon become an accepted, wet part of your day. In order to battle this daily inconvenience your humble narrator was forced to purchase an Alaskan Rain Disbursement And Protective Apparatus. With my head protected from the elements I journeyed around the island to witness the wonders of the mileu…

Upon my first sighting of a Bald Eagle I was truly gassed. A huge, imposing bird of prey flying majestically through the sky, landing upon the branch of an evergreen tree so forcefully that the tree bent in its direction. This diving, solitary predator was a marvel to behold until I realized that there were at least 3 more in the area…as I walked through the town I noticed more & more of these skybound fishermen. “Egad!” I cried as I realized that our national bird is as common as the purple pigeons of New York City…

TO BE CONTINUED…

For those of you that may or may not know (doesn’t matter), THE MIGHTY TIN PAN recently rocked the Wonderneath Show at the House of Yes…

A swirling good time of flying women, giant human eating plants, silk tentacles spewing scantly clad girls overhead, and Baby Hands smiling profoundly at learning of the mystical dance move known simply as the “Box Step”.

Jesse & I met with the cast early in the run and started working with the girls to pick the correct tunes and reshape them to fit the show. It was really fantastic that the Lady Circus gravitated to mostly original Tin Pan songs and it was great to write new lyrics to Jesse’s melodies to allow them to tell the narrative of our heroine.

For my part, I was busy catching transitions, mood, story arc, & choreography to begin working on underscoring ideas and musical direction for the dance numbers. I always love working in the theater and get a kick out of the split second musical choices that drive the action on stage home and really pride myself on creating the right sounds to convey the scene’s intent without drawing attention to the musicians*.

It was great to use much of our current repertory but I hope that the next time we score a show it allows for more original parts & arrangements. I feel that between Jesse’s songwriting chops & my theatrical scoring we could really give Andrew Lloyd Webber a run for his money!

I was super tickled with a particular section of the show I call “Tin Pan in Turkey”:
While 3 lovely ladies danced with fist-fulls of fire, Jesse was holding down the proverbial fort with a serious djembe & tambourine-snare-esque groove while I joined in with some Whirling Dervish strumming upon my trusty ol’ National guitar. I told
Stefan to get busy serenading the spitting cobras that dance in his mind by playing some SERIOUS Cor Anglais (The English Horn or “Oboe Gordo”).

But the most miraculous and unexpected part of this new little step into the soundworld of the Tin Pan was the UNABASHED, UNWARRANTED, & TOTALLY KILLING Double Bass soloing of one Peter “Baby Hands” Maness…

Yes, you heard right: The Benevolent Dictator actually requested, approved, & outright enjoyed a Five minute arco bass extravaganza!!!

With both a bass solo & Saints Super Bowl victory happening so close to each other I can hear legions of “Left Behind” readers running to get on the mythical “Escalator to Heaven”…

All in all a great experience & one I hope Tin Pan gets to repeat soon & with much regularity!

Here are some fun pics & a short review from Atlantic Records Art Director, Alex Kirzhner:

New Shade of Black

And let it be known that I totally rocked the French Horn every night of the run!

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*For more on this topic see: “PSYCHO Shower Scene” score by Bernard Herrmann.

Somehow this just makes me very happy!

It wasn’t till I had successfully created the Flame-O-Phone (thanks to the brilliant expertise of Ben Bartelle) that I started digging into the real history of pyro-instruments. It was in this mysterious and sordid history, buried deep in the annals of the internet, that I discovered Boots Hughston.

A legendary character of the west-coast rock scene, he began his career playing in The Hoodoo Devils. Lo and behold, I found him on Facebook, and sent him a message. I heard back :

“I used to shoot out 2 or 3 feet of flame, set off sprinklers a couple of time, singed the hair on my arms a couple of times. I hope I do not need to tell you this is dangerous – one of my friends stepped on my tube connecting to the propane tanks when I lifted my horn the connector separated while I was pushing the switch – Propane accumulated around my feet, when it ignited I went up in flames. luckily I had enough sense to stop pushing the switch and stepped out off the fire ball. No one got hurt, the hair on my arms was singed and the hair on my head was a little shorter – It made for great PR – Sax player explodes on stage, you should have seen the press.
Good Luck and Be Safe,
Much Respect
Boots”

Boots : We youngsters revere you as a true trail-blazer, and only wish that one day, 30 years from now, someone will ask me, “Hey, I heard you made a flame-o-phone years ago”, and I can refer them back to the legend of Boots.

In 1887, Jerry Thomas wrote one of the 1st published collections of cocktail recipes in the United States.

In 2009, the fantastic friend & cellist, Joel Noyes, asked the all-knowing Lucinda (of Little Branch fame) for a “refreshing whiskey based drink”…and our little posse of friends was introduced to the sublime “Vieux Carre” cocktail.

In 2010, I found a copy of Jerry Thomas’s cocktail book on eBay and won it. While looking through recipes I noticed a drink that could only be considered the precursor to the Vieux Carre.

That drink is the Saratoga:

-1 Part Brandy
-1 Part Rye
-1 Part Sweet Vermouth
-2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir on ice, No garnish…

Simple as pie and damn good…the Mighty Vieux Carre only adds a little Benedictine and Peychoud’s Bitters with some citrus and brandied cherries on the garnish side…

This drink is really good and a great way to get in the world of the Vieux Carre but sit on the “Spicier” side of the drink.

Salud!!!

If you’re a jazz head you’re already thinking about Steve Bernstein. Ok. I hear ya. And good for Steve for taking something unwieldy and obscure and making it synonymous with his name. If you see me playing bass clarinet and name drop Matt Lavelle, I’m gonna just smile and say. “Wild man, heavy.”

If all this just goes right over your head and you’re thinking “What a cute little baby trombone. What is that?” then we’re on the same team. This thing is a mystery to me too. Clifton, a man with quite an instrument collection, lent me his mini-trombone about 5 months ago and I’ve just managed to start using it performance in the last month. It’s an unwieldy and slurpy but a very fun little monster. Of course, when it came time to create the music for The Wonderneath, and I learned that A) I had the option of decking out one of my horns in Swarovski crystals and B) that I would be playing the horn on stage surrounded by trapeze artists, fire dancers and circus performers, I immediately thought of the baby bone.

So now I really have to learn how to play the damn thing. Maybe even in tune. So, I’m taking a break for my lip’s sake right now to write this but then back to shedding. As with many theater pieces with multiple vocalists, the songs wind up being in strange keys and I am learning some old spirituals and dance numbers in the hellish C#. Oh god of the baby bone! Hear my prayer! Give me the strength and silliness to play kinda sorta in tune!

If there is a god of the baby bone he is wearing a diaper.

Welcome to day 18 of our month 28 day Blog-A-Thon. We’ve been bringing you highlights of drink recipes, flaming saxophones, concert reviews, and a back-stage passto our Tin Pan world. Happy to have you with us.

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This week at Googie’s Part three of our continuing series on our residency at this well-trafficked venue. A truly wonderful thing happened again at Googie’s on Friday night. We invited the wonderful Clem Waldmann play our second set with us. I know you are at least a little familiar with our music and presentation. We put a lot of work into getting some tight arrangements that have some sudden and dazzling twists and turns, hairpin mood shifts, and expressive use of tempo. Having a drummer sit in with us is fraught with peril. Either they will just miss certain changes or they will railroad the beat into something that suits their style but isn’t the groove or feeling that the rest of the band is going for.

Enter Clem Waldmann. This guy’s playing was so joyous and seamless. The bass drum wasn’t too persistent. The shuffle was impeccable. The accents were in the right places. The groove was buoyant and light when needed and thick and swampy when required. He didn’t not miss a single cue, transition or feel! Frankly, and this is going to sound strange, Stefan and I FORGOT THAT HE WAS EVEN THERE. It was such a good accompaniment and so obviously supportive of what was going on that it allowed us to focus all our attention on being in the moment and maintaining the connection with the audience. It’s hard to tell a story when you’re looking over shoulder trying to accomodate the new guy. In this case is was the opposite. Even with the very first few sounds he made, he just built confident gesture and agreement on to every moment of the music. Every once in a while he would add something delicious and fun and I would remember that we had this whole extra layer to what we were doing. It’s like when you’re walking, after the first few steps you really don’t have to think about your feet. It’s only when things get shaky would you need to concern yourself with balance. Clem was as solid as possible in that regard.

Stefan said so to Clem right after the gig while we were still on stage.

“I forgot you were there.” The truly terrific part is that Clem understood the HUGE compliment in this comment and rejoiced in it.

He clutched is hands and pumped them over his head with a huge smile like he just won a prize. Clifton reports that over at the Blue Man Group theater (where they have worked together for a few years already) Clem told another drummer how excited he was to receive that feedback and they both high-fived about it!

I think that might be the sign of a drummer that I want to be working with. They place a very high value on time-keeping, solidity, confidence, and taste and are confident enough to not be so concerned with being noticed for flashy playing. Clem, you nailed. Thanks! Listen for Clem on our next record. We start recording in March.

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Another first to note at this gig. The deliciously talented Katie Hasty sang a few songs with us on this gig. She managed to sing the material without falling into the obvious tropes of female jazz singing that we tend to avoid. She brought all her personality, wit and sauce into the mix. Her stage presence made standing next to her a joy. It was really fun. She tore it up. More please.

Some members of the audience were commenting after the show that Tin Pan is a pretty male, testosterone-driven experience. We all are gruff and going for it with boatloads of Yang energy. Katie’s presence on stage (even for justa few songs) helped members of the audience feel more comfortable and assured by balancing out the vibe. It also drew a sharper contrast making for a more compelling show. And there you have it. Thanks for the feedback.

And while we’re talking aesthetics: Clem reflected after the gig that he felt like Baby Hands and I come off like trained musicians who have too much sauce to sound like school and just want to rock-out. Clifton and Zoo on the other hand come across as rockers who somehow wound up with an acoustic guitar or a clarinet in their hands and are making the best of it.

As I stepped through the doorway of Curry Hill’s famous Kalustyan’s I came face to face with an enormous wall of bitters.

What Delight!
What a Rarity!
What Beauty!
What a trove of delicious flavors!

A seemingly endless variety was placed in front of my eyes:
Rhubarb bitters, Celery bitters, Peach bitters, Clover bitters, Lemon bitters, Grapefruit bitters, Chilean bitters, German bitters, even Bitter bitters…

I couldn’t help but notice the lone, empty aisle where the Trinidadian classic, Angostura bitters normally resides…but alas, I shall survive the drought with my own personal stash!

I grabbed a bottle of the New Orleans stalwart, Peychoud’s as well as Regan’s Orange #6 (quite a hard one to find!) and then reached up and took the last bottle of the German Bitter Truth Aromatic bitters…this is quite a find! Coming in at 3 times the price of the others this is one of the most sought after bottles by mixologists in our fair city. Supposedly it is the Aromatic that the famous Angostura was modeled after yet has never had distribution outside of Deustchland…

It’s mine now!

So now I await the time to experiment!