Why is it important to be unashamed when asking for support for your art? Two takes that hold strong conviction. First up, my friend and band-mate, Douglas Stone:
Next, my future-friend,
Amanda F. Palmer
If we're looking to make a living as musicians, and re-legitimize the lifestyle as a profession, we need to get organized with the way we do business and take some pride in what we do. When jazz musicians live up to the "good enough for jazz", disorganized, oblivious, attitude we're hurting ourselves and what little amount of community remains around us.
Also, coincidentally, Quintopus is having a fundraiser to get the money back on releasing our first album. Artist-to-artist and fan-to-artist support is the best way to help out, so let me know if you're doing anything like this and I'll support it too!
Quintopus Kickstarter
And lastly, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is awesome. I might get "DRUM" emblazoned on my BD head.
CT
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Kickstarter
I just launched a Kickstarter page for the new album that we're looking to get mastered and duplicated in the next month. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing scenario, so if we reach our goal ($1600) we get the money, if not everyone gets their pledges back. You can get all sorts of great rewards for pledging, ranging from copies of the CD to live performances by the group. It's a great way to reserve the album and help us out a lot!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1977607537/quintopus-debut-album-voyage-to-ornoc
I'll be posting some video blogs this week talking about the album and interview with the band, so stay tuned!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1977607537/quintopus-debut-album-voyage-to-ornoc
I'll be posting some video blogs this week talking about the album and interview with the band, so stay tuned!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The process of tolerance...
So it's been a long, ultimately productive week. Quintopus recorded 10 songs for our upcoming album last Friday. Everyone played great and had a lot of enthusiasm through a long session. We got the mixing going this week, but because of technical problems (don't worry nothing was lost) and scheduling we won't be able to finish the mixing until July.
Been trying to figure out how to do as much of the album work on my own to save costs; I think I'll learn a lot about PhotoShop in the next couple of weeks... We're really going to gloss this album up, so get violently excited about an August/September release (don't hurt anyone).
Other projects coming up this week as well! Gave myself a crash course on making click tracks in Garage Band, so if anyone wants help with that... too bad, I'm not doing any more!
I'm looking forward to getting back into the networking/community organizing part of being a full-time freelance musician. People who are dedicated to making music a sustainable source of income are the best, and really inspire me to keep going here in Rochester! It's certainly not easy dealing with selfishness, ignorance, and apathy and I have to give Bruce Fife and Fair Trade Music a lot of credit in dealing with a comment to their recent article in the Oregon Music News. I'd recommend reading up on FTM music, this article is a great introduction. But, the first commenter to this article doesn't quite agree that musicians getting paid fairly for their services is a good idea:
"This is a fucking HORRIBLE idea. Live Music is NOT necessarily a skilled trade with implicit, tangible value. Bands aren’t coffee growers, or plumbers. Any jackass can start a band, and play shows. They’re not entitled to shit if the have no draw, and have not put in their dues."
I'd recommend reading the whole article and all the comments, but here's how Bruce (the President on Portland's American Federation of Musicians, Local 99) responds:
"Steve, I think you’re missing some very important points. Playing music is a skilled craft, though not everyone is skilled at it. If there was no tangible value to performances at venues, why would a “for profit” business use music. Even bands that have a draw don’t necessarily benefit from their draw until after everyone else has been paid. Why the soundman and doorman before the musicians? We recognize this is not going to work in every venue, as there will always be clubs that offer startups a chance to perform or are willing to take advantage of a musicians desire to be on stage, but at its core, the goal of FTM is to support and build the business at venues that support live music and fair compensation for musicians. As stated, this should be a win win for all."
Hell yes. Get involved.
CT
Been trying to figure out how to do as much of the album work on my own to save costs; I think I'll learn a lot about PhotoShop in the next couple of weeks... We're really going to gloss this album up, so get violently excited about an August/September release (don't hurt anyone).
Other projects coming up this week as well! Gave myself a crash course on making click tracks in Garage Band, so if anyone wants help with that... too bad, I'm not doing any more!
I'm looking forward to getting back into the networking/community organizing part of being a full-time freelance musician. People who are dedicated to making music a sustainable source of income are the best, and really inspire me to keep going here in Rochester! It's certainly not easy dealing with selfishness, ignorance, and apathy and I have to give Bruce Fife and Fair Trade Music a lot of credit in dealing with a comment to their recent article in the Oregon Music News. I'd recommend reading up on FTM music, this article is a great introduction. But, the first commenter to this article doesn't quite agree that musicians getting paid fairly for their services is a good idea:
"This is a fucking HORRIBLE idea. Live Music is NOT necessarily a skilled trade with implicit, tangible value. Bands aren’t coffee growers, or plumbers. Any jackass can start a band, and play shows. They’re not entitled to shit if the have no draw, and have not put in their dues."
I'd recommend reading the whole article and all the comments, but here's how Bruce (the President on Portland's American Federation of Musicians, Local 99) responds:
"Steve, I think you’re missing some very important points. Playing music is a skilled craft, though not everyone is skilled at it. If there was no tangible value to performances at venues, why would a “for profit” business use music. Even bands that have a draw don’t necessarily benefit from their draw until after everyone else has been paid. Why the soundman and doorman before the musicians? We recognize this is not going to work in every venue, as there will always be clubs that offer startups a chance to perform or are willing to take advantage of a musicians desire to be on stage, but at its core, the goal of FTM is to support and build the business at venues that support live music and fair compensation for musicians. As stated, this should be a win win for all."
Hell yes. Get involved.
CT
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Quintopus Recording/Rochester Jazz Star
I'm very happy to say that Quintopus will be recording our first full-length album this Friday at Eastman. We should get in 10 tracks, 4 tunes by Mike Frederick, 5 by me, and a cover of Bjork's "Innocence". Doug, Dave, Chris Geoff, and Mike are smokin' on some really hard music. We have one more rehearsal tomorrow and then we give it a go. We will be working with the incredible Lou Chitty and shooting for a 'rockier sound'. Electronics, overdubs, little cymbals on my snare, we got those.
In preparation for this, I've been practicing the charts a lot and working on creating actual drum parts (more common for rock/funk) on some of the songs rather than just improvising one on-the-spot (more common for jazz). This has been an interesting challenge to work on making a beat that's consistent while still allowing room for improv. A good test to not overplay and structure the way that I play off the soloists.
Looking forward to getting the cd done so we can open other routes to touring and gigs out of town.
Quintopus has also been participating in the first annual Rochester Jazz Star competition. Basically anyone could submit a 50 second video that you could then vote on an unlimited number of times. Usually in contests like this (American Idol-types) there's an initial round of preliminary screening to get to the voting, but not this time around. So, as you could imagine, there was a wide range of talent in jazz, jazzy, jazz-like, and even self-described non-jazz individuals and groups who submitted.
There were some problems with the voting system from the start (mechanically speaking). You could initially click the vote button on the artist's page, fill out a little code, and submit that vote in about a second. Since everyone obviously voted for themselves and close friends a bunch, the numbers skyrocketed (someone had over 10,000 votes in a day). So it was a contest of commitment to the process of clicking a button repeatedly to then get into a top 10, then another round of voting to get into a top 5, THEN you got to be judged by some greatly qualified musicians.
In the first round, (before Quintopus got entered) there were supposed 'bots' in the system that caused the counts to jump. The system was shut down for about day, the 'infected votes' removed and a new system of voting put in place. This way, everyone had to put in an email address, then click on the email that was sent to count the vote. Still could vote unlimited times with any email address.
But ---- the system only worked intermittently until the last 2 days of the first round. I logged about 8 hours the first day we got in trying to vote to catch us up to get to the next round (where we would get to do a tv interview and win everyone's hearts), and there were only about 15 minutes per hour that the voting was open. This meant that all voting stopped, not just one group.
I started a spreadsheet to log the times and who the top ten voters were. If people were voting at my speed when the windows were open, it looked like most of the time just one person was voting for each (meaning the leader voting for themselves, as I was). This worked to my advantage, and to that of the artist that figured it out. This lasted until the last day, when the voting opened full-time because the website switched to a new server. Then, voting skyrockets again but at a measurable rate that looks like it's just one or two people voting for themselves constantly.
These are all just observations of the process, none of the changes in voting windows, or that it wouldn't work all the time was outlined in the rules and regulations.
(We're almost to the end of the catch-up)
Voting shuts down for 2 days then the top ten (including Quintopus) start over at zero votes and the frenzy is open 24-7. I voted a bit the first day, but it got to be mathematically impossible for me to catch up unless I voted constantly, and honestly that was not a healthy prospect for my mind-state. So I stopped, we got a bunch of votes from (gasp) other people and have been sitting around 3500 votes for a few days. Mike and I did our tv interview, got a little publicity and have let the process continue without us (voting ends Friday, check http://rochesterjazzstar.com/entries for ours and the other entries).
A huge thanks to everyone who voted and hopefully watched our video, especially to Kim and Mike who put in some serious hours as well.
So, I'm very glad to be well out of the running to be evaluated by qualified pros. I hope that the contest might change its voting process next year because this first month of voting has zero to do with music. I didn't watch it, but apparently someone submitted a video lip-syncing to a pop song and almost voted themselves into the second round. The contest is pretty tainted at this point, but I hope that someone legit gets in the top 5 to give the contest a chance to be salvaged.
For a little levity, check out this great episode of 3rd RFTS:
The regular cast is great as usual, but the episode also features not-yet Senator Al Frankin. Sweet.
CT
In preparation for this, I've been practicing the charts a lot and working on creating actual drum parts (more common for rock/funk) on some of the songs rather than just improvising one on-the-spot (more common for jazz). This has been an interesting challenge to work on making a beat that's consistent while still allowing room for improv. A good test to not overplay and structure the way that I play off the soloists.
Looking forward to getting the cd done so we can open other routes to touring and gigs out of town.
Quintopus has also been participating in the first annual Rochester Jazz Star competition. Basically anyone could submit a 50 second video that you could then vote on an unlimited number of times. Usually in contests like this (American Idol-types) there's an initial round of preliminary screening to get to the voting, but not this time around. So, as you could imagine, there was a wide range of talent in jazz, jazzy, jazz-like, and even self-described non-jazz individuals and groups who submitted.
There were some problems with the voting system from the start (mechanically speaking). You could initially click the vote button on the artist's page, fill out a little code, and submit that vote in about a second. Since everyone obviously voted for themselves and close friends a bunch, the numbers skyrocketed (someone had over 10,000 votes in a day). So it was a contest of commitment to the process of clicking a button repeatedly to then get into a top 10, then another round of voting to get into a top 5, THEN you got to be judged by some greatly qualified musicians.
In the first round, (before Quintopus got entered) there were supposed 'bots' in the system that caused the counts to jump. The system was shut down for about day, the 'infected votes' removed and a new system of voting put in place. This way, everyone had to put in an email address, then click on the email that was sent to count the vote. Still could vote unlimited times with any email address.
But ---- the system only worked intermittently until the last 2 days of the first round. I logged about 8 hours the first day we got in trying to vote to catch us up to get to the next round (where we would get to do a tv interview and win everyone's hearts), and there were only about 15 minutes per hour that the voting was open. This meant that all voting stopped, not just one group.
I started a spreadsheet to log the times and who the top ten voters were. If people were voting at my speed when the windows were open, it looked like most of the time just one person was voting for each (meaning the leader voting for themselves, as I was). This worked to my advantage, and to that of the artist that figured it out. This lasted until the last day, when the voting opened full-time because the website switched to a new server. Then, voting skyrockets again but at a measurable rate that looks like it's just one or two people voting for themselves constantly.
These are all just observations of the process, none of the changes in voting windows, or that it wouldn't work all the time was outlined in the rules and regulations.
(We're almost to the end of the catch-up)
Voting shuts down for 2 days then the top ten (including Quintopus) start over at zero votes and the frenzy is open 24-7. I voted a bit the first day, but it got to be mathematically impossible for me to catch up unless I voted constantly, and honestly that was not a healthy prospect for my mind-state. So I stopped, we got a bunch of votes from (gasp) other people and have been sitting around 3500 votes for a few days. Mike and I did our tv interview, got a little publicity and have let the process continue without us (voting ends Friday, check http://rochesterjazzstar.com/entries for ours and the other entries).
A huge thanks to everyone who voted and hopefully watched our video, especially to Kim and Mike who put in some serious hours as well.
So, I'm very glad to be well out of the running to be evaluated by qualified pros. I hope that the contest might change its voting process next year because this first month of voting has zero to do with music. I didn't watch it, but apparently someone submitted a video lip-syncing to a pop song and almost voted themselves into the second round. The contest is pretty tainted at this point, but I hope that someone legit gets in the top 5 to give the contest a chance to be salvaged.
For a little levity, check out this great episode of 3rd RFTS:
The regular cast is great as usual, but the episode also features not-yet Senator Al Frankin. Sweet.
CT
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Dave Binney/Lists
Finally picked up the newest record by alto saxist/composer David Binney today. The disc...record... (what do you call it when you download the album but there's no physical product... I guess the album works) is called "Aliso" and carries on a tradition of great Binney discs on the Criss Cross label.
I've only listened to the album twice today, but the playing is consistently fresh and surprising, and the original tunes are phenomenal. Dave's writing has always caught my ear because of his willingness to work with unashamedly pop-like, but deceptively quirky, melodies. Dave also has a great website, http://www.davidbinney.com where you can download audio from gigs as well as all of his original charts for cheap.
I've been suffering some amateur writer's block in trying to work on new Quintopus tunes, so I'm going to be playing through a lot of the Binney charts I have for inspiration.
-----
The organizational tip for this post will be to recommend keeping lists of what you want to accomplish. I know, it sounds obvious. I've taken to writing out a plan at the beginning of each week and saving it as a Google document (all you need is a Gmail or Google account, totally easy). Relating it to a bigger-picture monthly or project-plan list helps to keep me motivated to get through all of the little tedious stuff that goes into accomplishing bigger plans. Do it now!
I've only listened to the album twice today, but the playing is consistently fresh and surprising, and the original tunes are phenomenal. Dave's writing has always caught my ear because of his willingness to work with unashamedly pop-like, but deceptively quirky, melodies. Dave also has a great website, http://www.davidbinney.com where you can download audio from gigs as well as all of his original charts for cheap.
I've been suffering some amateur writer's block in trying to work on new Quintopus tunes, so I'm going to be playing through a lot of the Binney charts I have for inspiration.
-----
The organizational tip for this post will be to recommend keeping lists of what you want to accomplish. I know, it sounds obvious. I've taken to writing out a plan at the beginning of each week and saving it as a Google document (all you need is a Gmail or Google account, totally easy). Relating it to a bigger-picture monthly or project-plan list helps to keep me motivated to get through all of the little tedious stuff that goes into accomplishing bigger plans. Do it now!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Getting Organized - a few steps...
I'm still figuring out a daily routine that works on ongoing projects (recording an album with Quintopus, booking gigs, general practice) as well as accommodating for tasks that come up on the fly (practice for a specific gig, listening to gig recordings, meetings, rehearsals).
I took a few hours last week and organized my filing cabinet (thrilling!) to make my teaching materials readily available, as well as get a lot of other junk out of the way.
Additionally, after filing my taxes last week (a post that features 2 separate mentions of filing, I think I'll subscribe to this blog!) I treated myself to a new computer chair, a personal rotary trimmer (for making new business cards), and a garbage can:
Tools for comfort and organization!!!! I think this is really going to enable me to buckle down and making everything more efficient when it comes to practicing and teaching in my little space.
All of these items plus a printer ink cartridge cost $79.98. An exciting and worthwhile investment.
I gaurantee that the next post will contain less mention of filing, and even contain some music.
CT
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Additional Material
Hello reader, and welcome to the first installment of "5 Tentacles", (in reference to the band Quintopus, which of course has six members).
These entries will cover the process of music making, the practice/rehearsal process, teaching, and the business of getting the information you make to people who aren't you.
Comments are welcome. Feel free to link to my page, I'll link to yours if it has similar or otherwise exciting content.
These entries will cover the process of music making, the practice/rehearsal process, teaching, and the business of getting the information you make to people who aren't you.
Comments are welcome. Feel free to link to my page, I'll link to yours if it has similar or otherwise exciting content.
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