Cabo Loco, our kind of place

For whatever reason, I'd like to become the house band at Cabo Loco. Even though we gobble up the dance floor space with our numbers, we seem to go over there very well. Last night was our second gig, and for the second time the manager said, passing me the money at the end of the night, "You guys are the best band that's ever played here."

Even though there was another band advertised (Memo to self: Check this sort of thing out BEFORE the gig,) and we had 4 people subbing and sightreading the book, the evening had many memorable moments. Javier took on all the singing in Jimmy's absence and he would have done the canary tunes I'd planned if I had goven him the nod. Besides showing up with all his uncles and cousins who aided in the applause for the more bashful patrons, he has more balls than anybody I've ever seen when it comes to singing new material. You'd think he was using that wonderful concept enshrined in our constitution--innocent until proven guilty--applying it to a song he'd only heard a couple times or not even at all. He can sing it, to summarize, unless he's proven NOT to be able to sing it. And after all, who can prove a negative?

Kudos to Paul Baker subbing on bari, Matt Wood on trombone, Marty Mitchell on bass and Joe McReady on drums. This band has the deepest sub list ever.

Tradeshow Blues

In my other life I do tradeshows. In my nightmare, however, I come into an empty hall as big as several football fields put together and I have an hour to not just set up my booth, but the whole show as well.

We just finished Texas Bandmasters at the San Antonio Convention Center, which is one of the biggest state shows in the country. Move in was Friday, show days were Saturday, Sunday and half Monday and we moved out of there this afternoon.

My feet are killing me.

But the line was received with some enthusiasm by the band directors. I saw a pretty nice concert (except for the percussion section which did some wavering) of the Austin Symphonic Band.

Now I have rehearsals to set up with the subs in our band for the gig on Friday. We have a sub drummer and a sub bass player and a sub baritone (the least of my worries, as it is Paul Baker who can read as well as anyone in town) plus we're breaking in the new canary and Javi will be singing some new stuff to fill the void of Jimmy's absense.

Next time we see the sunrise it'll be Tuesday. Lots of work, not much time.

Be-Bop Charlie

I just found out that Chuck Niles died in March. It's July now, and I suppose that's how it is when a guy dies who had local influence, or at least the perception of local influence. I'm 1300 miles from Chuck's stomping ground now, and word travels slowly sometimes.

When my family moved to southern California in 1960, there was Chuck, spinning records and doing Alber's Grits commercials on some whacky station called the Jazz Knob, KNOB in Long Beach. Chuck had a quality about him that the other guys on the Knob lacked, which was how he connected with the music. I remember him having a lot of cats in the studio for interviews, and it always felt like they were talking from adjacent barstools in some very groovy joint on a break. I was ten at the time, but I was drawn into jazz by the relaxed nature of Chuck's whisky baritone long before I picked up a saxophone for the first time.

In 1965 I met Chuck at the counter of Dick Charles Music in Glendale. He was buying drumsticks, I was paying for a lesson with Dick Houlgate. I heard that unmistakable voice and I told him I was a fan and regular listener. He was genuinely floored that, during all the commercial rock invasions, here was this kid who'd listen to Basie and Sonny Stitt every afternoon on his curent station, KBCA. (They Alber's Grits commercials conveyed. There was also an advertiser who offered to fix your Corvair!) He took the time to get acquainted with me and I've never forgotten that.

KBCA became KKGO which led to Westwood One. Twenty years after the incident at Dick Charles Music, Westwood One decided to dump jazz as a format. Some quick moves by fanatics at KLON in Long Beach preserved the best jazz record library on the west coast, and brought Chuck to where he always belonged--public radio, Here Chuck could slow down his delivery and enjoy himself, plugging local talent and guys passing through on the road. I'd see Chuck everywhere, in the clubs and concerts, wherever jazz was being played. Once, at work at a job I'd rather not remember, my sense of the absurd was heightened beyond belief by Chuck giving a traffic report in the afternoon announcing that sheep were wandering all over the Pomona Freeway. Nothing breathless about his delivery, just sort of stating the facts punctuating his low rumble with meaningful silences. It was artistry, pure and simple.

There was a time when I was playing in several big bands in Orange County and Los Angeles, and the one chart they all had in common was Bob Florence's Be-Bop Charlie. The title was inspired by Chuck. What a great chart! It's a showpiece at an up tempo. Slow it down a little and it's a great dance chart. Either way, there's a transcendent moment where the tune modulates up a third, where a very simple melody is restated, where if you're in the band or an astute civilian you might just feel yourself floating,

That's how I felt about Chuck Niles. He could just suspend time, gravity, and reality so I could listen and really hear jazz music, so I could float with it. I wonder how many people Chuck touched this deeply, no matter where he was on your FM dial?

KLON, which is now KJZZ, has renamed their building the Chuck Niles Studios. How bittersweet a tribute to a voice we'll hear no more.

Arranging for fun and profit

The whole week's been nonstop writing. Finale is holding up very well, certainly better than me. But I have a stack of paper to show for my efforts, one less ream of paper, and I am out of scotch tape again. Yikes. Knock on Wood, What Does it Take, ah I can't even remember them all.

There's a fly in the ointment next week. I have to work the Unison booth at Tx Bandmasters from Friday through Sunday, then I have to figure out the always-delicate calculus of getting 10 people in the same room at the same time for the same rehearsal.

Then we play again at Cabo Loco on Friday night. I like the little rehearsals we've been having--just Leroy and Javier and me or the whole rhythm section if we're lucky.

Variable costs

Here's an education for those who think that these charts arrive at my doorstep in a basket clamped in the jaws of the Easter Bunny.

This afternoon I ran out a few charts, around ten.

When the dust settled, which it is actually starting to do in my house, I had run through an entire ream of paper. When I taped up the parts, I had run through 2 rolls of 1000"x3/4" scotch tape.

The book is the star

Today I resurrected a bunch of charts based on the requests we got last Saturday, the additions to personnel, and personal preferences. Those are The Tide Is High, Shaft (!), Saturday in the Park, Proud Mary (Ike & Tina version), More Today than Yesterday, Mellow Yellow (!!), and a Tom Scott tune, Rock Island Rocket.

Emailed Bobby the Booker and I told him we were firm for Aug 20, but he was skeptical because my brother couldn't make it and we had a substitute bass player as well. Without hesitation I replied "the book is the star."

Unlike other bands where one person's conflicts determine when the band can work, this band has the potential to work constantly because every note is in the charts. There are maybe 10 bass players who can cut this book without rehearsals. Maybe 5 drummers, maybe 5 more.

Singers are another matter, yet with Javi and Brenda we are pretty well set even when Jimmy and Gary aren't on the premises.

Of course there's just one Fenno Brother on the upcoming gig . . .

But the book is the star!

Do the Perf Walk

Maybe we can do a couple originals, the kind of thing could get Dr. Demento to spin. What I have in mind is this:

A tribute to the insane businessment who caused all that wealth to disappear as they became so greedy to test the limits of the Bush crowd when it siezed the White House.

The title of this song which is rattling around in my head tight now is "Do The Perf Walk."

I'd also like to remake "Beep Beep." I already have a chart which our buddy Laigh Langley (http://www.laighlangley.com for those of you looking for quality entertainment around Atlanta) sang with us at the 2000 SXSW Dr. Demento Showcase. I'd like to update it so the POV singer is driving an SUV (no doubt a Hummer) and the car which comes up alongside is a Corolla. (It tried Civic, Prius and a few others but trust me Corolla works best.

They're just not making novelty records like they used to.

Maybe we can squeeze it in when we make the demo over at Leroy's studio.

Another gig, a canary trained on karaoke kicks musical butt

The booker callled with another new gig this afternoon. We have our choice of Saturdays in August. Excellent.

The rhythm section and I got together this evening with Brenda, who sings in another band that Jimmy plays with. Very pleasant experience. Once again someone young and devoid of adult guile and cunning.

After we worked on a couple common things like I Will Survive and Respect I decided to give her a little test with a couple tunes that she did not know. We did Son of a Preacher Man, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, and Jazzman. She listened to each tune, took a big, deep breath and slammed each out like she owned it. Where are these kids coming from? Can I have an unlimited supply? Brenda's experience to date is largely Karaoke. She does contests. She wins them. I can hear why.

We all leave whistling Jazzman.

Arrogance, Benny Carter and Santy Runyon (who each had none)

Man, I found a source for a chart on Prince's record Arrogance, which I barely knew, but which pretty well covers America's current position in the realpolitik. We're doing a canary audition tomorrow night and Jimmy's house.

I LOVE the itunes music store! I just bought the only tunes I LOVED on Maria Muldaur's Waitress on a Donut Shop, namely It Ain't the Meat (It's the Motion), which I wrote a chart of for Marilyn, and Squeeze Me, that wonderful Fats Waller tune. Both charts are by the legendary Benny Carter.

Dr Demento told me that Maria contacted him asking if he could recommend some tumes for the upcoming album which became Waitress, and he sent her a few, among them It Ain't the Meat, recorded by the Swallows (?) in 1952, back when you could only say things if you didn't come right out and SAY them. I had to thank him! And I sure thank Benny, who died last year.

Last year also saw the passing of Santy Runyon who was as old (and as loved) as Benny. Between them they did 188 years of saxophone innovation. I'm not making this up.

More good news

We got a couple more gigs out of this weekend's festivities. The booker and the bar manager were effusive with their praise. Things are devinitely looking up. One of the dates we thought we had, however, was already given to the remains of one of the bands I have a history with. The leader is notoriously late for every gig, and true to form was 2 hours late starting the first time he played there and an hour late the second. He was also too loud (he's transformed himself from a rat pack act into a seething rock band without horns) and downright abusive to the customers and the staff. Why this guy ever gets gigs, or ever gets invited back, is beyond me. Anyway, the booker was going to see if the manager would rather have us. Judging from the feedback I've heard it's a real possibility. The thing the bookers and the bar managers and the public doesn't ever see is how abusive this guy is toward the musicians in his band. Enough though. He sounds like he's committing carreer suicide all by hinself, and the good news for us is that as his rat pack act goes by the boards we have more than enough material to fill the gap left in his wake.

Trumpet player and tenant Jon Vander Gheynst and I had a good talk this afternoon about the band. He had a similar band in Illinois when he lived up there and he's got some ideas how we might attain some of the financial gaols they enjoyed. Also had good conversations with Leroy and my brother Jimmy this afternoon. We're going to get together on Wednesday.

Yeah!

Can't write charts? Buy them!

In the chaos of home improvement I have been unable for over a week to write charts, because my Finale computer is sitting mute and unplugged on the dining room table, which is in the living room. So last night I cast my net and found two charts that I need (Shining Star and Soul Vaccination) for thirty bucks, delivered by email. You bet I bought them,

The charts were written for a band in Columbus, Ohio called the Hoo Doo Soul Band. Here they are playing Soul Vaccination, one of the great Tower of Power almost-hits: http://www.chrisyoungmusic.com/files/Soul_Vaccination.mp3.

How 'bout that bari part?

Working the Big Horn into the act

I was kidding around with Javier the other day and it dawned on me that we might be able to use the bass saxophone as a regular part of the act. We already have a bari sax in the band. I used to play it when I was feeling less feisty, but now Chris Kapral does the duties, and very well. The bass sax is huge, low and unweildy. When it came down to loading the van we had more people than I had planned so the bass had to go.

What I'm thinking of doing is playing the Isley Bros' It's Yo' Thing, before the vocal comes in, and have a little fun doing an open vamp on the famous bass line.

Well, maybe next time.

Our "First" Gig

My brother and I have been playing around Austin for several years now. We've played for most of the jerk leaders in town, who are far more numerous than the public suspects, keeping their sidemen in a permanent state of fear and servitude. These guys—each one of them—grow wealthy while their musicians live in poverty. Want me to name names? Duck Soup's Sam Irwin. Mr.Fabulous' Dino Lee (none of which is his name). There's two. I've beginning to feel my bile well up so I'll stop now. But you get the idea.

In December of 1999 I left Duck Soup, the first rock band I'd played with in my life. I came away with the idea that a band that could do Sinatra tunes and rock tunes could find a lot of work indeed. But not wanting to have a band full of proud non-readers, I set out to write a book of charts that could be played by anybody with the good sense to read music. (I found myself calling non-reading musicians last night "one legged marathon runners." No flys on one legged marathonners, though. I've just heard this explanation why it's a musical advantage NOT to read.)

Eventually, I wrote about 400 charts for 4 horns and 4 rhythm. Lots of work, aided by unemployment insurance when South by Southwest laid me off in 2002. We rehearsed on and off, over and over, for a couple years. The book eventually found its way into the hands of another bandleader, who hired me and my book for about 2 and a half years. Every once in a while we'd book a gig under the name Goose Gumbo (get it?), but basically we were just rehearsing tunes as I wrote them.

Despite all the antecedents, we've managed to emerge with a band that played its first gig for the public last night, July 3. Performing under the name The Fenno Brothers Band, we played Cabo Loco in Lago Vista, and we knocked them stone dead. They usually book rock quartets and trios up there, but we came at them with everything we had.

We made the big noise with 4 horns, 4 rhythm and 3 singers. For the record, John Vander Gheynst on trumpet, Jerome on trombone doing an excellent job of sightreading, Chris Kapral on bari and me rounding out the horns on the high chair. Rhythm was young Javier Cruz on guitar and vocals, Leroy Rodriguez on piano and organ, Gary Feist on bass and vocals, and my brother Jimmy on drums. I wanted to have a girl singer too, because without Aretha's Respect something is lost on the evening, but alas Marilyn is mourning her father's passing. I also wanted to have my son come out and do latin percussion, but he plays in a band that actually called a rehearsal on Saturday night. (Gigs, yes. Never heard of rehearsing on a Saturday night.)

Jan (spouse) came up and because so excited that she started taking notes on the performance. She announced that she would be able to hook us up with some of the Advertising/Marketing students at the business school at UT, where she teaches in the accounting department. She's thinking they could use us as a case study.

Musical highlights of the evening: Jump Jive & Wail with the vocal lead shifting around. Javier singing My Girl, then my brother doing Mustang Sally (two indispensibles for a band of this nature, about which more later), followed by Where or When like Sinatra meant it to be sung (Jimmy again), Then we Did the Hustle, had a little train wreck on With A Little Help from my Friends, redeemed ourselves with Soul Man (needs a little work, though not enough that the crowd noticed), Choo Choo C'Boogie (Jimmy again swinging), Skin Tight with the astonishing Javier, Jazzman by Carole King with me doing it as an instrumental, Fly Me to the Moon (Jimmy does Sinatra once again), and Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire ripped by Javier.

Second set was Soul Bossa Nova, Ain't Too Proud to Beg (JF), The Summer Wind (JF), What's Going On (Javier), I've Got You Under My Skin (Gary, should have been JF though), What a Wonderful World (JF doing his best Louis Armstong, but almost trainwrecking it when we got to the end of the first chorus. No harm no foul.), Banana Split for my Baby (Gary redeeming himself), and Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody (JF, need to work on that ending) rounded out the set.

Then the third set was Pick Up the Pieces, Smooth (Javier kicking ass!), Just in Time (JF), followed by Rainy Night in Georgia (JF kicking ass!).

I post these from memory, The third set was about 20 minutes long so we could get out of there around 12:30.

The bar manager was effusive in his praise, the crowd was sad to see us go, and we've already booked another gig there the end of the month.

I experimented by taking the set list and comparing it to the tune list for the band, and I've decided we could do 4-5 gigs this length without repeating a single tune. Very nice.

Now the star of the evening award goes to Javier Cruz, my son's old friend from school band, who is only eighteen but has an incredible sense of musical maturity, This kid rose to the occasion, taking on a bunch of tunes in three afternoon rehearsals and hours of practice time. His proud parents were at the gig, and they have lots of reason to be proud of Javier. It's my hope that his enthusiasm will infect us all!