January 6th - New York, NY
Happy New Year everyone!
I got a chance to be in Hawaii over the holidays. The weather was fantastic and I had a great time playing music with some dear old friends. I played a gig at The Honolulu Club with none other than Gabe Baltazar, who is the first real bebop player I ever worked with. He really taught me a lot and instilled a good foundation in me for later on! He's equally at home on bass clarinet as he is on alto saxophone (his main instrument). I was only nineteen years old at the time, and the drummer then as well as at this last gig was my old friend and high school bandmate Noel Okimoto. Another monster talent, this guy plays awesome drums already, probably since he was born. But he also is amazingly adept at orchestral percussion (like timpani and chimes, etc.), Latin percussion and is especially talented on vibes and marimba. His only problem is finding drummers that can keep up with him when he plays vibes, or vice versa! It was a terrific reunion, and even though I felt like I was really out of shape to play that kind of music, it was a whole lot of good fun and wonderful memories!
I also got record some great songs produced by my friend Roy Sakuma and written and sung by this young talent he found named Alex. He's going to be someone to watch in the next while I think. We recorded at Pacific Music Productions, owned and operated by another old pal of mine Kit Ebersbach (co-founder of the first punk band in Hawaii, The Squids, and currently the musical mastermind behind the new wave of lounge, Don Tiki). At the controls was Milan Bertosa, engineer extraordinaire, making the job a whole lot easier for me. (Especially once he gives me that awesome Fender Precision he has... heh, heh...)
So you can see it was a really cool and fertile time, even though it was also a "holiday". And anytime spent in Hawaii for me is important and necessary time.
And, for those of you really counting, and like to connect dots... Squids, Rudy Trubitt, Sonya Mendez... (heh, heh...)
March 8th - Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
It only takes 10 hours or so to fly here from NYC. And truthfully, things had been so crazy and hectic that by the time I actually left NYC, I really wasn't into going out immediately and "hitting the streets" as it were, of Buenos Aires. It looked really cool, and I'd never been here before, but I was beat. So this section of the little journal will be a tad boring. It's already on it's way...
Anyway, I just slept and ate the first day of the South American Tour. Lame. But that night we did a long soundcheck/rehearsal, and it was fun to play.
Then the promoter bought us a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant somewhere. Then I went back to the hotel and slept, while doubtless some other band members went out and had a proper good time. I also started reading a really cool book by Alan Warner called "Morvern Callar".
March 9th - Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Show day! I slept. Woke up. Ate breakfast in the hotel. Slept. Played catch up with some email that's been sitting around forever in my inbox. I did look out my window once or twice. Nice view. Good coffee in the lobby. At this point I'm starting to feel really retarded.
But we did play a show that night, and that was really fun. I'm trying a new stage setup where I'm right next to the drums and up on a riser. It sounds great there! I love it. I'm also using an Allen & Heath mixer, for my different basses and eventually, for my laptop and samples and synth bass. It's working out very nicely! Many thanks to Stephanie Seimovich for expediting matters.
March 10th - Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Leaving Buenos Aires had it's comedic element, albeit on the dark side. We left the hotel at around noon, pretty civilized. The plan was this: Get to the airport, take a special Aerolineas Argentinas charter flight to Santiago, Chile, get to the hotel, day off. So we are heading to a city, it turns out, that is also receiving the newly elected president of Chile, as well as presidents and dignitaries from other countries in the region. So okay, a little more security hassles maybe.
We get to the airport, pull up to the curb, thinking we are getting out to check in, as per usual. Road manager says "everybody stay inside", and we actually take on a couple of people. They are some of the liaisons from the charter company. One, a pleasant ex-pat Scot named Paul, announces that it wasn't supposed to be him, but the guy that was scheduled to handle us collapsed in the Miami Airport on the way here. Something about his sinus medication and his blood pressure. So poor Paul is dragged out of whatever situation he was working on in the States to come directly to Argentina. He looks a bit frazzled.
It is then explained to us that: the day before, there was a huge riot at the airport. Aerolineas suddenly decided to call a strike, and immediately canceled flights. There was no warning, or days of picketing and negotiation, where you are half way prepared to deal if a strike should happen. No, it was just one minute "We're flying!" and the next minute - "Sorry, we're not flying now!"
Now, you
know how usually when flights are delayed or canceled due to weather
or equipment, there's always that element of exasperation, frustration,
and sometimes people getting outright loud and hostile? You know the
scenario, you throw your hands up, saying what the hell, and maybe have
a few heated words with the counter person, maybe even use a couple
of expletives.
Well, this time, the style was this: set fire to part of the terminal,
break a lot of things, and beat up as many Aerolineas employees as you
can find.
And so, on this day, the day after, we are being led around, actually sneaking around, to a back entrance, so as not raise the ire of the other patrons, who are not getting to fly or not getting to wait in any nice lounges. There was a definite look of concern on the faces of the handlers and the airline employees, eyes furtively darting about, wondering if they would see angry flyers running after them with clubs, irons or even torches. It was quite hysterical, actually. Tommy said it was like a scene from Woody Allen's "Bananas"
Not that our lounge was nice. I don't think the actual lounge was "in service". What we had was a makeshift holding area that was, at the moment, an unused gate area. Quite dismal, but at least no one was ready to lynch us.
But we got on the plane and everything was fine, and they were all really wonderful. It was a shame that it all happened, though. To be sure, it was a crazy move on the part of the airline management to just do that to people with no warning whatsoever, and the situation did have it's humorous side. Still, I just hope no one got seriously injured. Boy, humans - we just can't have nice things, now, can we?
[Extra note: As pointed out by a fan, Andrea, the above passage could be construed as a dig at the people and culture of Argentina. Please be assured that this is NOT the case. The situation described of course has a lot of sides to it, and I obviously only scratched the surface. Something like that could happen anywhere (I could write an entire book about where I live), and the incident was not even that terrible, when you think about a lot of other goings on in the world. I certainly did not mean to trivialize the complexities of life on this planet. I have slightly re-worded the above passage, so hopefully the humor of the incident will be more the focus. Thanks, Andrea for caring and helping point stuff out!]
March 10th, 11th- Santiago, CHILE
Fun trying to get into the hotel. Lots of security, metal detectors, etc. This is because we happen to come in on the same day that the new Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet is to be inaugurated. So the hotel is positively infested with politicians and dignitaries, like Condoleeza Rice, and the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil among others.
Also just checking in that day were the entire touring troupe of Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco. So the lobby scene was filled with lots of different types of people: very formal and distinguished looking older people; younger, very well-built and muscular people in tank tops or t-shirts, shorts and jeans of various colors and some colorful hair; and scraggly rock-band types. I'm sure the security staff that were conspicuous everywhere had a great time.
But it's a nice city, and we had a great walk around the town. I still had laryngitis (a remnant of a chest cold I had gotten just before we left), but I felt okay enough. Didn't see much of Santiago, but it was very pleasant, and it could have been a lot of other pleasant places in the world. The people seemed very nice and friendly, even with my awful Spanish-speaking skills.
The show was great fun as well. I'm really liking my new place on stage, and some of my new set up. I'm able to hear the rest of the band much more clearer, thus get to have way more fun! And many of us in the band hung out afterwards in the hotel with several people from the Cirque, and that was a lot of fun. They were a really sweet bunch!
March 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th - Porto Alegre, BRAZIL
Woke up on the 12th with ears very stuffed up. I mean really stuffed, where I could hardly hear! This did not bode well for the upcoming flight to Brazil. So after seeing fellow Bay Area musician, bassoonist extraordinaire Paul Hansen, who is currently playing with the Cirque, we all went to the airport.
Landing in Porto Alegre was an exercise in extreme pain. i think the flight attendants were wondering whether or not to call a priest to perform an exorcism. After we landed I was sort of dazed, and my ears were so plugged up I was almost deaf. And of course every time I spoke it was like I was yelling in my own head, very annoying. I also still had laryngitis! Made me just want to remain silent for the rest of the tour. I guess that would be preferable for some people, come to think of it, heh heh.
But I had a friend in Brazil who had a cousin who was a doctor in Porto Alegre, and I got hooked up with examinations, meds, etc. so that got taken care of fairly quickly so I could get back on the road to recovery. Then we went to dinner! Had a great little Italian meal at a very cute little place called Usina. I wasn't feeling really up to a big meal and a party, etc., so I kept it simple with Italian for that first night.
The next
day was fun, and I was feeling a bit better already. My friend Juliane
(the doctor) 
took me and Jeff to a churrascarria. I wish
I remembered the name of the place, it was really a quaint place, old
fashioned, not glitzy at all. It was the other kind, where you just
order what you want and they bring it to you. (As opposed to the style
that's more common, where you sit there and they keep coming around
offering you this or that cut of meat, sort of like dim sum.)
It was really good and we were brutally stuffed, the first of many brutal
stuffings to come. We then drove around a little and looked at parts
of the city.
The next
day we ate at another churrascarria called Montana
Grill. It's apparently owned by two guys (brothers? I don't
remember) who are big folk music stars in Brazil. At first when you
walk in, it looks like one of those horrid "family-style"
restaurants we have here in America, like Olive Garden,
or Carrow's, you know the type. Brightly lit, also
offering a buffet, salad bar, etc. Except the service here was excellent
and the food was outstanding! It was the kind of churrascarria
where you have a little round coaster-type thing that's green (for "go"
or "keep the meat coming!") on one side and red (for "stop"
or "please, no more, I'm about to explode!") on the other.
It was great, and at the end there was this guy whose sole job seemed
to be to make everyone drunk (something you probably wouldn't see at
Olive Garden). He was serving some yellow drink that even Juliane
couldn't explain to us. The name on the bottle was "43", though.
March 16th, 17th - São Paulo, BRAZIL
This was a different city than I had thought it would be. The way it was described, and how my imaginings went, it was supposed to be a big, dirty nasty, business-only city. In fact it seems like the "New York of Brazil". There is lots to do and see and experience; lots of culture, music and art; and plenty of great food. Feijoada! I guess more prevalent here in the north, from what I've been told. So after three days of eating at churrascarrias, and thinking all that meat was a lot of heavy eating, we go to (supposedly) one of the best feijoada places in São Paulo. And then we discovered what a "heavy meal" really was... It was fantastically good, and the caipirinha was very smooth and refined - and free! Well, rather, it came with the meal. But it felt free.
That night Jeff and I and a bunch of friends went out to see some music and met a wonderful singer named Bia Espiritusanto. We all went over to her house afterwards and had a terrific jam session with her and her two friends on guitar and cello, and me playing guitar a little, trying to hang with them musically. I barely did, but they sounded fantastic and a great time was had by all.
During the show, I played a song during my solo called "Romaria". It was the first Brazilian song I ever heard, back when I was twenty. I fell in love with Brazilian music, Elis Regina, and that love affair has lasted to this day. It just so happened that the daughter of the composer (Renato Texiera) was sitting in the audience. When I started playing it, she called her father on her mobile phone so he could hear. I was at once amazed and honored, but also a bit horrified... i hadn't really played it as well as I would have liked. I've known the song for a long time, but never actually learned it as a bass solo. So I was really just kind of winging it. I think i got the vibe across, but I wish i would have worked on it a little more before presenting it to the world.
March 18th - Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
We got into the hotel in Rio, at around 2am, after the 40-minute flight from Sao Paulo. We were greeted with free caipirinhas again! What a country! (Of course my tongue is placed a bit in my cheek) But it was kind of nice. Me and Dennis and Michael Shrieve talked about a lot of stuff at the bar. It was quite an honor to be in the presence of first off two amazing and legendary drummers, and then on top of that, the very first drummer with Santana talking to the current drummer for Santana. Bookends!
Later that same day, we went early to the gig for a soundcheck. After a short check, I accompanied Raul to a little botanico so he could buy some candles, incense and other rumba stuff. Raul knows a lot of that Yoruba singing, and he and one of the really elderly gentlemen in the store had this great exchange of old chants and songs. The old man was quite impressed with Raul's repertoire!
March 19th, 20th, 21st - Lima, PERU
Day off where I spent most of the day sleeping or eating. It was a little sad, because while Peru has of course it's own long and splendid history and culture, I was pretty much spent. It was such a rich experience in Brazil, with the music and the people and the food, that it was like I had been to an immense and grand buffet - and now I had to fast for a bit, I'm overstuffed! It's a shame, really, because I know Peru has lots to offer, and they're getting short changed in the "benny's attention" department. I'm sure they'll survive, though.
We did have a cool moment however, when Karl called me in my room to say that Ruben Blades was on TV performing "Pedro Navaja", one of his big hits that the band had just been talking about for the last few days (it's one of mine and Tommy's and Karl's and Jeff's all time favorites). So I switched on the TV, and then IM'd Jeff to tell him about, he turned it on in his room, and then with his iSight camera (he was iChatting with his very musical family) he showed them what was playing on the TV. So it was this big Pedro Navaja moment...
The next afternoon I ate some goat. It was rather tasty, and it was prepared with some Lima beans! When in Rome... or something.
April 29th - Helsinki, FINLAND
Well, here we are again.