my typical gig pt 2: The party was at 7:00 P.M so we got there around 5:45 P.M to set up. Obviously, we didn't have a lot of setting up to do since we are minimalists and don't believe in using a lot of equipment. I brought my Goya guitar, Yamaha nylon string and my vintage Ampeg amp and a mic. The piano player brought his synth and a small keyboard amp. Bass player brought his upright Kay bass and the drummer a short set with Latin percussion. It took us maybe a half an hour to set up, a short sound check and then we went back to our rooms relaxed a bit and changed into some fancy duds. It was a fancy black tie a...

Latest piece: is called stress management. And it really has been. Can't hear squat out of my right ear so I'm stuck with doing everything with one ear. Hopefully I've got the mix down well enough but if I don't I'll go back to it and correct it. It was a little tough even playing as I really couldn't focus on what I was hearing as everything seemed to be way too loud and unbalanced. We really do take our hearing for granted! Once I stuffed some cotton in my left ear the sound got muffled enough for me to make sense of what was going on in the background. Don't know how well this stress management is ...

blue dreamer: my latest pieces, is one of those complex smooth jazz tunes in which the tenor sax and guitar do some intricate parts together. It took a lot of practice to get the timing down so we would be in sync with each other. I could have easily just fudged over the recorded notes (clips) to get them in sync but then as musicians it just wasn't acceptable for us. Our goal was to get it as tight as we could playing it. We have already been working on another one with similar difficulties and practicing a couple of hours every day for the last 2 weeks. It's almost there. Another week of practice ought...