notes from the road

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Archive - 2005

November 11th, 2005 - Paris, FRANCE

Paris is always nice to visit, burning cars and all. Just kidding of course. Typically, the media made it look disastrous, cranking out headlines like, "Paris is burning!" and so on. So I got lots of emails and phone calls and texts from concerned friends and relatives telling me to be careful, etc. The only fire I saw was from a brandy snifter at the next table in the hotel bar! That of course does not minimize the actual problems that do exist socially in France, much like just about everywhere else. The whole world needs to take a look at how we view our fellow human beings. But I digress.

Anyway, we were here to do a rather silly show called Star Academy. It's sort of a French version of American Idol, but also a reality show, and with an extra heinous twist. The "winners" get to sing their songs with the actual original artists from whence the song came from!

Op-ed alert (in my best Andy Rooney voice): Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE karaoke (I often try to go to karaoke bars on the road) and think everyone should get a chance to sing their hearts whenever and wherever they want to, regardless of talent or experience. I only have issues with a) "judging" the singers, as if it were some kind of swim meet or something, and b) the way the studio audience (and to an extent the viewing audience) are manipulated into cheering and applauding. (In the TV studio, they are told to cheer wildly, no matter how the singer sounds.) To me that makes a kind of false impression to people who don't really know music but have ears. Instead of trusting their instincts, the forced applause may read to some as "oh, I guess this is good. Look at how much applause they are getting! Even though it sounds kind of funny to me... I guess I must be wrong." But, again, that's only my opinion, and not anybody else's, okay? Anyway, the singers themselves aren't to blame (the two I met were very nice), they're just having fun and trying to make something of themselves, and it's a lot better than having nothing to do.

There were two contest winners, a male and a female. Don't know their names, sorry, it was so chaotic (as usual) backstage. Tommy and Andy had to go early to coach the contestants on how to sing the songs or whatever, and the rest of us went a bit later. All very disjointed, things were of course running behind schedule, business as usual. Unfortunately we again had to play to a track. It was all quite amusing and bizarre, but in the end, hey, no one got hurt and some people got the thrill of their lives, so how bad can it really be?

The good news really is that we finished rather early, around 5pm, so I got to go to a really nice new restaurant in Paris called Cinq Mars. At least that's what the small, artsy, non-standard size business card says. Some really good food and, being France, really good wine, even if it's just the "house red". I also met, ate and drank with some very nice people. So this whole tale has a happy ending, which is we got to play a little music, give a lot of people some happiness, and we had some fun in the process, hanging out with bandmates and friends.

[Warm, happy music up under credits]

November 10th, 2005 - Milan, ITALY - Paris, FRANCE

In Milan I got to buy some new clothes, which I wore for the rest of the trip. My luggage got lost on the way from Barcelona to Milan, and so all I had was the aforementioned coffee-stain shirt and another white t-shirt. I'm not a big fashion guru, but it was hardly appropriate attire. So out came the credit card. (Hey, I wonder if I can send the receipts to Clive Davis?) :^)

we did this really interesting, and maybe a bit weird, show called Rockpolitik. The host of the show Adriano Celentano is, or was, a singer, musician, writer, etc. His idea, from what I could gather in all this mayhem, is he has this show where he has musicians or other artists come onto the show, they play/dance/sing/whatever, and then they talk some politics. (Please keep in mind that I don't normally see any of these shows, we're usually in some back room waiting to do our little number.) Maybe something like Politically Incorrect in the U.S., but with a circus thrown in. There seemed to be a lot of different bands, this time mostly local, and I think also a house band. Kinda cool idea, or quite possibly a horrible one. I'll leave it to the Italian fans to figure out what it is. Unfortunately we were backing to lip-synching, except for Carlos and the singers.

Then, guess what? Right! We went straight from the TV studio to the airport to fly to Paris.

November 9th, 2005 - Barcelona, SPAIN - Milan, ITALY

So today was the Barcelona TV show. I never quite found out what the name of the show was, things are starting to become a blur. But I know it's like the David Letterman of Spain. Or something like that. What I do know is this, we were shuttled over to the studio at around 6pm and we were out of there at 10. No fooling around, these guys were good. And we played live to boot! Imagine that, we got to play our instruments, and have sounds come out of them and everything, almost like real musicians! Actually it was quite fun. But here's a special note for the fans in Spain who watched the show: The reason my nice dark green shirt had a huge coffee stain on it is a dressing room accident. We were all in a small room again (most TV shows have notoriously small dressing rooms for bands). I made myself a little cappuccino from one of those automatic machines (you know, the ones where you put the little packet in and press a button). I had just made it, it was nice and hot, and quite delicious. I turned around and Scott, the manager for Walt Lafty was telling some story and gesticulating wildly (as most of us do when telling a funny story) and I ended up being in the path of one of his arm swings and voilá, I have hot coffee on my face, shoulder and chest! Luckily it wasn't too hot, and I was wearing my glasses, so there was no real harm done. Only thing was I had no change of clothing, since we were leaving right after the taping again, and our luggage was picked up at the hotel and taken to the airport beforehand. It really wasn't that big of a deal, though, since you hardly ever see me anyway.

And, as usual, we headed straight for the airport after the taping to fly to Milan, me with still a very hoarse voice and smelling like coffee.

November 8th, 2005 - London, ENGLAND - Barcelona, SPAIN

All day affair today. Lobby call at 10am, go to the BBC studios for soundcheck/rehearsals for Later... with Jools Holland. We are actually going to get to play live, fancy that. Three songs, another miracle! It's quite exciting for me, since I watch the show semi-regularly. It's a cool concept, where Jools Holland has a bunch of different people or bands playing live, taking turns, arranged in a circle. It's usually quite an eclectic mix, although the show we were on was less so. But it also featured John Cale, Paul Weller, Sheryl Crow, Sigur Ros and Bettye Lavette. I like Sheryl's new album (especially a song called "Chances Are"), but I was too scared to actually tell her in person. She seemed like she didn't want to be disturbed. Sigur Ros was also really good, and Bettye Lavette has a great voice!

Anyway, after the morning soundcheck it was back to our hotel to pack our bags and check out. We then went back around 2pm to do "camera blocking", meaning a rehearsal for the cameras so they know more or less what to expect, to cut to, solos, etc. Then after that a bunch of us went nearby to Portobello Road for some food and drink at The Electric Brasserie, a pretty nice place with a great veal milanaise!

We then went back to the studio for the taping. It's taped as live, unless there are some "technical difficulties". It was interesting in that usually we are kept backstage or in some "green room" during most of whatever show we're on, but this was a music show, so all the bands are actually on set the whole show. Pretty cool, since we get to see the other bands. And there's a studio audience also, which really helps. So many kudos to Jools for having such a great concept and keeping it alive on TV.

After the taping, around 11pm, we drove for an hour to Luton, to fly to Barcelona. By this time I have lost my voice due to laryngitis, and am just a hoarse whisperer for the time being. We finally got to our hotel in Barcelona at around 3:30am.

November 7th, 2005 - London, ENGLAND

Day off in the Marylebone area of London. Mostly slept or ate or caught up on business back home. Later on had drinks with George Cole, the writer of a great book on Miles Davis' last period of music called The Last Miles. It was very nice to finally have been able to meet up with him after all our email correspondence about Miles.

November 6th, 2005 - Frankfurt, GERMANY - London, ENGLAND

So we took a commercial plane (Lufthansa) from Frankfurt to London, and nearly got killed in the process.

It was already grey and rainy, and quite bumpy and the plane was really rocking left to right. As we were coming in for a landing, about 30 seconds before the plane should have been touching down, the plane suddenly pulled up - way up - hard and fast, at a much steeper angle and higher velocity than a regular take off . The engines were whining loudly and straining as the pilot kept accelerating. It seemed like a mighty long time, but it was only a minute or two later and we were back to about 20, 000 ft. The very pleasant sounding purser's voice came on and in a reassuring tone said "Well ladies and gentlemen, you will have noticed that we didn't land when we were supposed to. We had to abort the landing at the very last minute based on instructions from the tower. I can assure you that it's all very normal procedure, and we are going to do a turnaround and land again in about 15 minutes. You will soon get more details from the captain."

We continue to cruise around, not being able to see a damn thing because of the grey clouds all around us. A few minutes later a much more grumpy and not-very-professional voice comes on and rattles away in German. I look at the stewardess as he's talking and see some very odd and alarming expressions on her face. (Damn, wish I spoke German now!) Then he switches to English and tells us that the landing was "aborted at the last minute" - basically because there was another airplane on the landing strip that was in the way! So we had to pull up fast and sharp in order not to hit it! It was a very close one, close enough to really make you think about things.

Then about 15 minutes later we were making the final approach again, and the plane was really bouncing and rolling the whole time. We finally did hit the ground very roughly, kind of skidded a little, and braked very hard. The engines were roaring, and then there was a quick sharp jolt while still coming to a stop. We finally came to rest, the engines died down, and after a pause the first, very-pleasant-sounding purser came on again and said, in a darkly sincere fashion, "Wow... that was some landing..." As you would think, people were much more anxious than usual to get off the plane.

The funny thing is that it took us an ungodly long time to get to the hotel in London. Immigration was slow, and then the traffic was horrendously glacial. It was excruciating to several members of the band, who wanted to either smoke really badly, or were still a bit shaken by our flight in. But we finally got to the hotel, safe and sound. I showered, waited for my luggage (which also took an unusually long time), and fell asleep for about two hours. When I woke, the extremely helpful concierge, who was a Radiohead fan, directed me to a very nice Indian restaurant, and I had a great dinner!

November 5th, 2005 - Frankfurt, GERMANY

Today we didn't have to leave that early, like about 7pm, so the day was spent in hibernation or eating. There was absolutely nothing around anyway. We were in some sort of outskirts of Frankfurt, not in the main part of the city at all. Probably just as well.

It was more waiting around when we got there, but not that much. Right before we go on, Carlos has this idea for a different ending. So we discuss it briefly and think, yeah, that'll be fun! Problem: The only people going out on the air are Carlos' guitar, and the vocals. Everything else is just track, meaning there are drums and amps, and they're on, but nobody can hear them except for the studio audience, and even they can only hear them a little (no P.A. system). But we do it anyway, so I'm sure it sounded kind of weird on TV at the end. But there was no harm done. I also took the liberty to play lots of other crazy stuff that no one except Tommy could hear. Whee, what fun!

November 4th, 2005 - Frankfurt, GERMANY

Severely jet lagged, we somehow made it to our hotel rooms in Frankfurt. It was like 5am local time, which meant it was around midnight our time, the same day as waking up at 5am to do Good Morning America. Several of us were a tad confused, overly jocular, and maybe even a bit grimy. Raul didn't even go to his room, he went straight from the reception desk to the breakfast room, ate breakfast for about ten minutes, and proceeded directly to his room to sleep for hours. I think I made a tactical error in wanting to shower, change clothes and feel "fresh" for breakfast. It didn't help, and it just prolonged the sleep that I actually needed to get. But it was a nice breakfast anyway.

I then went to sleep for about 3 or 4 hours. I would have loved to do more, but it was time to go to Mannheim to do a rehearsal and run through for Wetten Das, apparently one of the biggest TV shows in Germany. And it was a one hour drive to the place as well! We were there at the cold and not very comfortable TV studio from 3pm til about 11pm, and we actually ran through "Just Feel Better" twice! But hey, there was some free food, wine and coffee, so it wasn't too bad. But we wanted to sleep badly, and there weren't enough couches for everyone, so only a few guys got to crash a little. I just stayed up, and tried to catch up with other business (at least we could get online).

That show, it's a weird one.

November 3rd, 2005 - New York, NY

Woke up at 5am to get to Times Square and the Good Morning America site. It was cold, we were tired, but it was still a lot of fun. Poor Michelle Branch was trying to get over a bad cold, though, so it was a bit rough for her. She got through it, though. It was a taped segment, though, so it didn't air live. They may play that particular song (I'm Feeling You") at a later date. The band also did "Black Magic Woman", and Walt Lafty (from a band called Silvertide) sang "Just Feel Better". He and Tommy sounded great together, I thought. Anyway, we did our rehearsals and soundchecks at 7:30 to 8 in the morning. It was sunny, but a bit chilly at 48 degrees. Not bad really, except when the wind picked up. Then we hung around a bit, doing paperwork, last minute music discussions about tempo and feel, then it was time to plat again. We went on around 8:35, and ended around 9 or so. Lotta good clean fun there!

Then we went back to our hotel in Midtown. (Where's that?) We left two hours later to go the airport and fly to Frankfurt, Germany

November 2nd, 2005 - New York, NY

Show day at the Hammerstein Theater. It was a lovely place, never been there before, a couple of blocks away from Madison Square Garden. Meaning of course that it's in an area of NYC that I consider "out of town". (Pretty much everything except the East Village and Lower East Side is "out of town" though).

We got there for a soundcheck/rehearsal around 2:30 in the afternoon. It actually was a fairly awful-sounding place, really boomy. So again, the low end people suffer. But the gig was fun anyway. You can read all about the guests elsewhere, I'm too tired right now to list them all! (We just got off the plane in Germany. Yes, I'm writing this after the fact). But I can tell you that a highlight for me was when Kenny Garrett showed up unexpectedly to play "A Love Supreme" with us.

November 1st, 2005 - New York, NY

I am tired as hell! Really feels like day of the dead... Last night was Halloween, the Santana Band taped a segment of The View, one of those morning talk shows. It's the one with the three (or is it four?) women, who I assume were picked so as to represent some sort of "cross-section" or (even more timely and correct) "diversity". I think it may have started with the best of intentions, all those many years ago, of being a "different" kind of talk show, more meaningful, a kinder, gentler talk show. It's mostly just inane banter like the most of the rest of them. But that's only my opinion, and they in no way reflect the opinions of my employers, etc. It was fun playing, though. We did "I'm Feeling You" with Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, her partner in The Wreckers.

Speaking of Michelle and company, they actually showed up at my gig at The Living Room! I couldn't believe it, it was so nice of them to take the time out of their busy schedules to come to my little weird jazz/funk three-ring circus in the Lower East Side. The gig itself came off pretty well, considering how ill-prepared I was. The musicians were great and had big ears and followed along flawlessly. I had several amazing guest singers, also. Deborah Charles did a cool haunting version of Nirvana's "All Apologies" and a reading of Peggy Lee's classic "Black Coffee", complete with a spoken word section. Andy Vargas came up and threw down a killin' rap and made up a great party song on the spot over "Red Baron" and got the audience going. Lisa Cariddi, who appeared last month as well, did "If Love Were A Red Dress" and "Bang Bang" as part of a tribute to Quentin Tarantino. She also mesmerized the audience, and I can't wait for her to do her own thing again. Lisa also played acoustic guitar for one of Sandy Cressman's songs. Yes that's right, Jeff Cressman's talented wife also sang two Brazilian tunes, Elis Regina's "Romaria" and "Encontros E Despedidas", a Milton Nascimiento song. She did an beautiful and amazing job. Check out her CD on CD Baby.

Speaking of the Cressmans, Jeff tore it up by playing Jaco Pastorius's "Teen Town" with me. And I mean, he played that crazy bass melody with me. It was pretty astonishing, and many people commented on it later. His solos were also great, as was my other Santana Band compatriot's, Bill Ortiz. Those two, along with Maria Eisen on tenor sax and flute made a terrific horn section. Especially on tunes like "Bacalao Con Pan", their contribution really made the night come alive.

Speaking of "Bacalao Con Pan", Bobby Allende tore it up and that one, and most everything else! He just comes in and glues everything together. And the rest of the core band, Gintas, Wes, and Manu were outstanding in deciphering my arcane and mysterious signals, and basically played their asses off! So I owe a big debt of gratitude to all these people, because they made the gig a very successful one indeed.

October 16th, 2005 - San Francisco, CA

Last show of the tour, big to-do, what with it being a benefit show for Carlos' Milagro Foundation. There were a lot of cool musical events before us, like the kids drum corp, which was my favorite. The other thing about playing in the Bay Area is that there are always people I haven't seen a while - old friends, family members, people we as a band interact with on a daily basis on only one level (like our dentist or accountant). It's always great to see those people out for an evening, just being able to hang out and not be "professional". It's fun for me, and they enjoy it too.

The show went pretty well although I have to say that the acoustics are still pretty bad on stage, quite boomy. Makes it very difficult to play at times and feel like your playing the right thing, at least for me. But everyone had a blast, and it was a good end to the tour.

October 15th, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA - San Francisco, CA

It was so nice to be back in the Bay Area, the weather was gorgeous, the air relatively clear, the bay and surrounding mountains beautiful. It's really a special area, I have to say. The traffic sucks worse than ever, the housing prices are completely insane, the summer fog in certain neighborhoods is oppressive, and there's sometimes an annoyingly overly-political bent to many things. But I still wouldn't mind living here again, at least part-time.

October 14th, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA

Fun show in Carson, CA, the Home Depot Center. Don't you hate the names of some of these venues? Anyway, it was a lovely, clear night, the people were great. It sounded pretty good up there, too. It was also great fun to have Herbie Hancock sit in on a couple of tunes. He's like the architect of all modern jazz piano, but also a very wide-thinking being as well, and he's been that way his whole career! amazing... if you haven't you should definitely investigate.

October 13th, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA

Day off in sunny L.A.!

October 12th, 2005 - Tucson, AZ - San Diego, CA - Los Angeles, CA

Flew to San Diego, played a gig, and left that night for L.A. I think I remember it as a pretty fun gig. Where did we play, again?

October 11th, 2005 - Tucson, AZ

Fun show tonight, Tommy sang "Get Back"! Carlos just decided before the show to do it, so we listened to it to refresh our memories, worked out an ending, and away we went! The crowd was great, and we had a good feel for most of the night.

October 10th, 2005 - Tucson, AZ

Day off in lovely Tucson. It's a little chillier here, but very sunny and nice. Great place to hang out for a day. Beautiful mountains. All I did was hang out by the pool to recuperate, catch up on business at home (the date for my gig changed due to communication errors), catch up on personal life matters, etc. Also my left had is feeling better also. (I had accidentally whacked it on a pillar in a hotel as I walked by, and had a bone bruise. Made it a bit difficult to play.) So it was all in all a nice day.

October 9th, 2005 - Albuquerque, NM

Back to being outdoors for this show, so of course all day it was rainy and cold. Which means I was forced to wear those silly-looking fingerless gloves (bought at Urban Outfitters) and the Santana wool cap that I got from the merchandise guy back at that other cold outdoor gig in Denver. Serves me right for packing like I was not going to experience anything less than 70 degree weather. So it was about 50 or so that night, but at least it wasn't windy. That would have killed us.

Crowd was great, some really inspiring dancers in the audience. So, even though my bass tonight was very difficult to play, and it was cold up there, it was fun being there because the audience was so there and enjoying themselves immensely. How can you help but want to do your very best?

Since the next day is a day off, we had an impromptu party in Bill's room, with pizza and pasta and scotch and beer and "About Schmidt" playing on TNT (who of course horribly butchered Alexander Payne's wonderful film - take my advice: NEVER watch any movies on TNT or USA Network. You'll get a bad and misleading experience, like playing a piece of music on laptop speaker with one side turned off) But it was a fine party and good hang with Bill, Jeff, and Tommy.

Oh - note to the Hotel Industry: wireless Internet (or "wi-fi") may be a cool concept, but often it doesn't seem to be implemented very well in these hotels. So please just give me an Ethernet connection any day, and save the wireless option for your lobbies and restaurants and bars. (Speaking of which, you shouldn't have to pay separately to use the Internet in your lobby or restaurant if you've already paid up for use in your room. I mean come on, we're still in your hotel. That's mostly a brilliant idea by Wayport, actually...) Please.

October 8th, 2005 - El Paso, TX

Well, this was certainly an interesting show, I got a cup of beer thrown at me!

We left San Antonio this morning and flew right to El Paso, got to the hotel, spent two hours there, then went off to a soundcheck. The venue was pretty nice-sounding, at least from the stage.

The show started off pretty nicely. I was having a bit of a bass neck problem, not too sever, but noticeable to my fingers. The crowd was really great, though, very spirited and really into it! Saw some great dancers out there who really went with the music, not the space-dancer type (although I enjoy them too!). That always makes it all worthwhile for me.

BUT - there was this one dissatisfied customer who either hated the music or took issue with Carlos' statements about George W. Bush. I was standing there playing, closing my eyes when suddenly I felt all this rancid wetness on me. Some lady had thrown the beer from the front of the stage (it was a large size plastic cup), and while I'm sure she meant to throw it at Carlos, she mostly got me instead, being that I was just behind and a little to the left of Carlos. I had beer all over my effects, on my bass, and some on my pants and shoes and a little on my head and arms. I was worried that my nice new Brazilian Soccer team shoes would get ruined since they're partially made of a type of suede, but happily they're fine. Oh, and my gear is okay, too. The incident was even reported in print! Cool, huh? Mark Brown of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver wrote:

". . . Some fans griped when Carlos Santana made political talk from the stage at Red Rocks. It went over less well in Texas, where bass player Benny Rietveld was showered with beer as Santana dissed the president. . . "

Boy, some people are really touchy, aren't they? Anyway, the rest of the crowd was so great and fun, that we all had a blast, and it really didn't phase us one bit. I thought it was kinda funny, it was like playing in some sketchy bar. I mean, I know, everyone has their own little belief systems and truths that they need to live by, and sometimes one person's set of ideas doesn't necessarily match another's. And we all do have to work at trying to see the commonality even among the most disparate of individuals. And yes, you can even get mad and argue (sensibly and intelligently, of course), all that is good and healthy.

But come on... beer? At least a good single malt ... :^)

October 7th, 2005 - San Antonio, TX

We had a full day off again, the second (and last) of this tour. By "Full day off" I mean a day where there's no performance AND no travel, a rarity in the traveling band world. I mostly spent it sleeping, eating and catching up with business and life back home, like lining up future gigs, etc. Plus it got really cold and damp out, and it was a nice hotel.

October 6th, 2005 - San Antonio, TX

Bused to San Antonio, did the usual drop off at hotel, hang out for about two hours or so, the go to the venue. This show went a lot better, the crowd was excellent! The band sounded good too, we had a great time.

October 5th, 2005 - McAllen, TX

Bused to McAllen, soundcheck (I went earlier to try and sort out some bass issues), and a decent show. I didn't think we sounded as good as last night, we seemed a little sluggish, but other band members disagreed. But that's the beauty of it all, right?

After the show, Jeff, Raul and I ended up at a really cool restaurant/bar called España. It had a really great outdoor lounge section - reminded me of New York City! I'll probably play there at some point.

October 4th, 2005 - Corpus Christi, TX

Found a great place called Aqua Java here in Corpus. It was one of those modern, slightly hippie, slightly organic feeling coffee shops (you know the kind), but done right. They offered the usually pastries, bagels, etc., but also a couple of hot food items. The breakfast panini was damn good, and at a great price! Nice decor, music, wireless, and a very good staff. What more could you want? I wish them the best of luck.

The show was really fun, the band sounded great, it felt good, and the audience was awesome.

October 3rd, 2005 - Corpus Christi, TX

Lots of fun today... took our tour bus on a four-hour drive from Houston to Corpus Christi. It was such a hot day, too. Wow, I don't know how you guys stand it down there without a beach. Anyway, I went to sleep in my bunk, amidst a flurry of channel-changing in the front lounge.

I awoke from a deep sleep to the sound of skidding, gravel and brake squealing, and felt g-forces that I normally don't feel, going in directions that they don't normally go while sleeping on a tour bus. I braced myself and try to assess the situation. ("hmm... feels a bit out of control, lots of of grinding noises from underneath") Seems like some kind of accident is happening, and we could even be headed for some major disaster. So I just held on and waited for whatever was suppose to happen to happen.

When it was over about one long minute later, I could feel we had come to a complete stop, but pitched rather severely to the left. Climbed out of the bunk and then got the whole story. Seems there had been a blowout of the left front tire, we went out of control, went into the median area of the highway (a thankfully wide grassy strip that was scooped out like a curved valley), almost going into the oncoming traffic (a disaster averted by nothing but the heroic and strong arm efforts of the driver), and finally ending up back on the other edge of the strip, slightly tilted to one side.

Luckily we were only about a half hour outside of Corpus Christi, so one of the other drivers on the tour came out and picked us up with his bus and took us all to the hotel. And amazingly enough, there wasn't any real damage to the bus either, just some cosmetic damage to the front and of course the tire itself. What a ride!

---

Corpus is an interesting place, I rather liked it a lot. The area we were at, downtown by the water, was really empty. And it was like that at nearly all times of the day and night. Kind of eerie, reminded me a bit of Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed "The Birds". Jeff, Karl and I went out walking, ate at a nice Thai restaurant called Thai Spice, went looking for coffee, and found a great little bar called Havana Club. We ended up watching the Packers vs. Panthers game there. They had one of my favorites, MacAllan Cask Strength there, and a good time was had by all.

October 2nd, 2005 - Houston, TX

Weird being here, now that I'm used to saying "HOW-ston" instead of "HUE-ston". It's hot and muggy, and I forgot that this was an outdoor gig. I was dressed horribly inappropriately, wearing shoes when I should have been barefoot, long pants when I should have been wearing shorts, regular t-shirt when I should have been wearing a tank top ("guinea tee" if you're from the East Coast, "wife beater" if you're from the West. Don't ask me why, I just report 'em as I sees 'em)

So my bass still has neck problems, and I fear that my earlier assumption may be correct - that he is just too overworked. You have to remember that this is the first time that Santana has had an actual rhythm guitarist, and it's not as easy a thing as it might seem. This band is pretty wide musically. We cover a LOT of ground, and our instruments have to be super fine-tuned like, ALWAYS. No small task even if you're taking care of one person, but with two people... well it's a recipe for disaster. (I just like that phrase, but I know it's a bit over dramatic.)

It was tough to play tonight for me, but I still had some fun. The crowd was great. I always love it when people really lose themselves dancing in front of the stage. That helps me play, I feel like I'm doing my job when people are just unabashedly losing themselves in their dance, totally uninhibited. So keep on dancing, as No Doubt would say! The jam was great again tonight as well.

October 1st, 2005 - Dallas, TX

Still felt a bit ill, maybe it's some intestinal bug. Hate that, makes it difficult to play. Oh well, so it's been a slightly problematic tour for me so far. It could be a lot worse. At least I got my laundry done today.

The show went okay, some things were a bit too slow, or maybe it was just me feeling kinda lousy. Also, my bass neck problems crept back in, so it was even more difficult to play. I was wondering if maybe this bass tech has a lot on his plate, since he also has to take care of Tommy's guitars and amps, and that's already a lot of work. Oh well, let's see what tomorrow brings. At least there was no bass solo, since some guy from WFAA apparently didn't like the drum and bass solos, which he describes as an "11-minute solo, which was 10 minutes too long". Oh well, can't please all the people...

September 30th, 2005 - Dallas, TX

Tonight was the first show of two here in Dallas. We played at Nokia Theater, which is only about two years old. It was a nice looking theater, but sounded a bit funny onstage. The in-house food was very good, though. The show went pretty well, but I had yet another bad night. Those of you who are bored by gear and tech talk are advised to skip the next paragraph.

TECH NOTE: It seems that by accident the output level from my main pedal board (the Digitech BNX-3) had been turned down by more than half of what it normally is set to, probably in all the moving and jostling around that all gear on the road is subject to. So it made the levels from my amp and from the monitor all wacky. I couldn't get any definition, especially with all the loudness on stage. I almost blew the monitor speaker up due to the overcompensation. I could smell the melting solder. That was cool. I haven't melted a monitor speaker in awhile...

But it was still a fairly fun night, especially the jam part with Robert Randolph. Tonight we went on a journey through "Whole Lotta Love" with Andy rapping over a metal funk groove. There was also a bit of "Rocky Mountain Way". Carlos played some amazing stuff throughout the night.

Another food note: much later this evening I felt a bit ill, some bit of gastric distress. Don't know if it was something I ate, or some bug. We'll see...

September 29th, 2005 - Dallas, TX

Spent this day traveling to the land unfortunately made famous by shootings, of presidents and corporate magnates on a classic TV series. (I still never found out who shot J.R. Might have helped if I watched the show) (And by the way, I just realized that the initials"J" and "R" also happen to be the first initials in both Kennedys that were assassinated, John and Robert. Ooohh... coincidence? I think not.)

Okay, enough of that foolishness - what a digression! When we got the hotel we were starving, so we were directed to Sonny Bryant's for some pretty good barbecue. The whole band ended up going, and we kind of thought it would be a birthday celebration for Andy, being that today was his birthday. He was nowhere to be found, we called his room, called his mobile, left messages - nothing. So we toasted him anyway in his absence, only to find out later he was just sleeping soundly in his room.

So we get back to the hotel after that early dinner, and Raul suggests we meet down in this special bar they have where there are pool tables and a shuffleboard table, and we play and drink and have some fun. We all agree, and I go upstairs, lie down for a bit, and promptly fall asleep for about 4 hours. I heard they had a good time...

September 28th, 2005 - Denver, CO

It was really COLD tonight! There was no walking around the venue enjoying the scenery tonight before the show. We just huddled in our little backstage room, watching a couple of episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (I've got all four seasons). For the show it was dry, no rain, but it got down to about 50 degrees, plus the wind was sweeping down, funneled by the natural rock formation down to the stage, and almost turning us into icicles. But it was a fun show, and Karl and Raul played a wonderful percussion duet and solos. it's almost always a magical night at Red Rocks, partly because of the astounding setting, but also I think the audience in that area give a really cool energy to the band. Many people went to both nights, which is why Carlos changed the set so drastically from the first night to the second.

September 27th, 2005 - Denver, CO

Show day #1 at Red Rocks. Wow, what a beautiful venue. I spent a lot of the pre-show time wandering around, taking pictures, enjoying various views, visiting the gift shop, tasting hemp ice cream (non-intoxicating, unfortunately), and talking to people that work there all summer. Also, the backstage food was good, too. We've been having some good luck with that lately. It started off on a less-then-excellent note in that regard, but since Seattle it's been great.

The crowd was great and the set felt awesome. Everyone played really well. It was a little cold and wet, but for me, seeing all those people out there in the audience who didn't have anything over their heads, just staying the whole night partying in spite of the slightly inclement weather, was so inspiring that I didn't care if I got rained on a bit.

September 26th, 2005 - Denver, CO

Actually had a full day off, no travel, nothing. Pretty cool, and rare. Spent the day, resting, catching up on other business back home, and meeting with a cousin and a niece for a late lunch. Also hung out with some other friends I had known back in Hawaii and hadn't seen any of these people in six years. So it was a long and fun social engagement. Then me and Raul went for drinks at the local sports bar.

September 25th, 2005 - Denver, CO

Spent this day traveling to Denver, and headed for a night off. Nothing really happened that was newsworthy, except a nice dinner. It was mostly a chance to catch up on some sleep.

September 24th, 2005 - Calgary, A.B., CANADA

Calgary was quite a more beautiful drive. Wish I could have gone into those hills. This was one of those, get into town, wash up at the hotel, go to the venue, eat, and play. We had a fun show. Even better, we went to a place afterwards called Big Fish, which was a very good seafood and steak place. We had a delicious after show dinner with Raul, Andy, myself, Jeff, Helen Meade (ace photographer and friend from Italy), Randy Gray (a fan that works for the Flames), his wife Cheryl and some other friends of his, Dave Montizambert, another ace photographer and Photoshop guru from Vancouver, his lovely wife Silvianne. their other photographer friend Keith, and singer songwriter Heather Blush. It was a fine and mellow hang, ending with an attempt to take some cool candlelight photos of the entire gathering. It would have been fine, except that all the real photographers were actually in the photo, and so it was up to the poor waiter to figure out how to work the high end professional cameras. I don't think any of the photos actually turned out, but if they did, I'll try to obtain a copy and post it.

September 23rd, 2005 - Edmonton, A.B., CANADA

Ate a late breakfast at The Silk Hat, an old institution in Edmonton. It was pretty cool, a much older place in stark contrast to the newness of the rest of downtown. Cool vibe, very nice old ladies serving, tea leaf readings in the back, fairly ancient signs and pictures on the wall. Too bad the food wasn't all that good. Looks aren't everything, I guess.

But the gig itself was a lot of fun. Of course, I can't remember much of it, since I'm writing this so long after the fact. And I apologize for that. That's no fun. But we ran into some very nice people later on, at the bar in the hotel, so all in all, my first time in Edmonton was a really a very good experience. I don't know what all the people in Vancouver were talking about...

September 22nd, 2005 - Edmonton, A.B., CANADA

Flew here from Vancouver. Never been here before, the airport was very nice. Very flat terrain, and we passed a lot of strip malls on the way from the airport.

But it was a night off, so that was nice. We went to see The Wedding Crashers. I give it a B minus. Some hysterical scenes, but wait til someone rents it for you. Not as funny as Anchorman, for example.

Also, it's cold here! You people in Alberta are a hardy bunch... It's not even October and already it's 31 degrees at night - Holy cow!

September 21st, 2005 - Vancouver, B.C., CANADA

Another good food venue - hooray! I'm writing this days later, so I don't remember that clearly, but it seemed like a good show. Went out with friends afterwards to some nice pub on Granville Street. Of course I don't remember the name. These entries are getting a bit lame, aren't they? I've written the last few entries a couple of days after the fact is a big reason. Sorry about that, they'll get better. Really.

September 20th, 2005 - Seattle, WA

Second of another three-in-a-row. Wake up around 9am, eat, check out, get on the bus, ride to Seattle. It took about three hours on the bus, and we had a couple of episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" playing, so it was a fun ride. I probably should be sleeping, but it's too funny to pass up. Get to the hotel, open the suitcases (not "unpacking", just "opening"), pull out one thing to wear for the show, email, phone calls, eat, then get on the bus and go the venue.

I have to say that the food and the services at the venue in Everett were quite a bit better than normal. Really good food backstage and presented nicely as well. Really cool when people take pride in things, everybody wins.

Show went pretty well, bass still not right. Waiting for a night off (tomorrow!)so my bass tech can put a new neck on my bass. Right hand and arm feels like the beginnings of tendonitis from the overcompensation. Hate when that happens.

September 19th, 2005 - Portland, OR

Went to the Nike store today. Got some funky sneakers that are the colors of the Brazilian flag. Woo-hoo...

Our show was much better for me, anyway. (It's all about me, isn't it?) My bass is still acting up, but we have other problems under control, and as mentioned before, bass matters are slowly getting taken care of. Tonight was at least the most fun I've had this tour, because the problems were negligible. The band also sounded tight, too. We'd been playing all these weird one-off gigs where we would only play one song (Target show, Minneapolis, World Music Awards), or not even play (NFL opening game). So it's taken awhile to get back into the whole "groove" of playing a whole show... All seems like it's going well, though.

Then I got to hang at The Red Star again. What a great crew, from the kitchen to the bar. Definitely worth checking out. After that, another great time at Kelly's. Portland is pretty bad-ass in a lot of ways, to me. I always like it so much here.

September 18th, 2005 - Portland, OR

Hooray, day off in Portland, even though we traveled today. What a nice city. I always love it here, and I wish I could explore it more. I like it even more than Seattle, actually.

Found some new cool places to go here... in addition to The Red Star (which I always go to), there's a great little bar called Kelly's, and a breakfast place that actually serves past 11am (really a big deal in my book) called Bijou Cafe.

Tech note: Here's an interesting drawback to the wireless revolution (which I'm a big fan of). I just got an Airport Express so I can can send music from my laptop wirelessly to whatever TV or stereo system speakers are in the hotel room. It's great to not have to bring my own speakers and not have to have long cables running around, and sets up in about a minute. For Internet I usually just plug in the Ethernet cable into my laptop from the hotel network and I'm set. BUT, in this case, my room has ONLY wireless hi speed. Since you can only join on wi-fi network at a time... well, you get the idea. Music or Internet, but not both at the same time. Luckily they still had rooms that had wired Internet.

September 17th, 2005 - Reno, NV

I had my own private soundcheck today, just to deal with some of these bass issues. It was time well spent, where the crew and the production manager really came through to find solutions. So this show was a bit better for me. Towards the end of the show, the neck of the bass started getting weird again, but some of the electronic stuff got resolved at least. I am getting some new bass necks shipped out, so we'll see what happens. everyone's been pretty cool so far in trying to solve these matters, except me. I've been all weird and depressed and perturbed. Hey, what can I say? I came out here to play and play hard, and I take these things very seriously. So when the flow gets stopped up, it can be supremely frustrating for me. I'll work on it, though. Just gotta find a good therapist!

September 16th, 2005 - Sacramento, CA

Another horrifying show for me, but the band sounded great. I am having serious problems with the necks on my basses, as well as some electronic weirdnesses. Towards the end I was getting weird cramps and numbness in my right hand, due to having to play in an odd fashion to compensate for the bass guitar's defects. They are really cool basses normally, and sound awesome. But sometimes a neck can just go a bit "wrong", being as they're made of wood and are totally organic creations. Which is part of the reason why we like those instruments so much in the first place!

September 15th, 2005 - San Jose, CA

We played our first show (the band that backs Carlos Santana that is) tonight. For me personally it was pretty much a disaster. Things kept going wrong with my bass AND with my amp. It was pretty unbelievable, and a bit frustrating. I really wanted to play and have fun so badly. I managed to play decently enough, and I did have some fun moments, but mostly it was a very distracted night. Nobody's fault, really, just a bunch of circumstances all coming together in just the right way. We'll work it out, though, I'm sure. But wow, it was so disappointing, I was depressed for hours afterwards. So I apologize to whoever went to the show and thought, "what the hell is wrong with the bass player?"

September 12th, 2005 - New York, NY

Back at JFK - flying to the Bay Area again!

September 8th, 2005 - Providence, RI

Day of the Big Game! We had to get there at 2:30pm for a 3:30 run-through. More madness, hysteria and good fun (see pics again). After our run-though (which took all of 20 minutes) we hung out a LONG TIME. We were scheduled to go on at 8:39pm, so that left over four hours to hang around. But it was fun anyway. I went to a tailgate party with Skip and Kristen and Nicole (two production assistants in charge of herding the "talent" back and forth. We all stole a golf cart and went out to the parking lot and my friend Tim Gage. It was great, they were cooking up steak tips, scallops, had a huge bottle of Scotch, and all kinds of beer. I also met some other friends of his from the area (like Jeff Horton and Bobby Farrelly), and we all had a good time.

We were called backstage from the tailgate, and there I talked with Freddie Prinze Jr. (who coincidentally starred in the movie I had just finished scoring). It was great to see him, and I told him what a great job he, Jerry Ferrara and Scott Caan did.

Then it was showtime, which was a blast, with all the fireworks, and the Gillette Stadium packed to the rafters. I thought it was way more exciting than the Super Bowl, actually. And we got to see the game in a sky box, too! Hooray for that - free buffalo wings and Macallan! So all in all, a splendid time was had by all.

September 7th, 2005 - New York, NY

Took the train to Providence from NYC. It was really cool. I had a flight the night before, but I thought to myself, jeez, I'm so close, I might as well take a train the next day. That way I can get some other work done and have another day at home. So the NFL bought me a coach class ticket on Amtrak. I upgraded myself to business class, and to my surprise it was only an extra $22! Nice deal, actually. and it was a really chill 3-hour ride, passing through the Connecticut coastline. It was beautiful! Totally worth the $83 total.

Providence, RI

After getting to the hotel, I had a couple of hours to chill, get email, eat, etc. Then we had a night rehearsal for the NFL Opening Game ceremony. Big production, lots and lots of people involved. It was quite fun and a bit crazy. All these stagehands and "extras" and dancers and Patriots cheerleaders(!) running around. It was nuts, but all done pretty well, considering the enormous logistics. One drawback: We had to play to a track, which we normally don't do. Only Carlos' guitar and the vocals were live. Same thing happened at the Super Bowl, there are so many bands and things that have to happen all in a very short amount of time (because it's live TV) that there's NO WAY they can hook up all the amps, bass, drums, percussion, keys, etc. through the live mixing board AND through the broadcast truck and get even a decent mix. If you check out some of the photos and little QuickTime movies you'll be able to get a small glimpse of the complexity of putting on this kind of event.

September 4th, 2005 - New York, NY

Got a letter from a Northwest Airlines pilot today. So I feel like I want to clarify my position regarding Northwest, and indeed, all airlines. And, in fact, pretty much every service industry. And for the record, no, he wasn't angry and did not in any way threaten or coerce me.

When I said that Northwest was a "crappy" airline, I in no way mean to insinuate that EVERYONE that works there is evil. Quite the contrary... usually business and services are filled with people who really want to do a good job, are conscientious, and basically are good people. But they have to deal with much larger issues and hierarchies than themselves, unfortunately. So in this case, I mean to say that there seems to be something TERRIBLY WRONG with the Upper Management at Northwest Airlines, and that it's making it very difficult for the rest of employees to do their job the way they would want it to be done.

Next time I will be clearer...

September 1st, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA

And now, here I am, back in another airport, LAX this time, at 9am, eating at a place called Monet's. It's another grim little airport"cafe" where all the tables are dirty and the food is the same as you get on most domestic airlines. You know, the usual.

But it's still WAY better than our poor friends in New Orleans, Mississippi, and those areas. I am wishing them the very best, sending good thoughts, as well as money, as I'm sure all of you are.

August 31st, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA

Big show day today for the World Music Awards. We were supposed to have a run-through, but since there was some disaster involving another artist and some set that was to large to actually fit on the stage at the Kodak (involving hours and hours of reconstruction - definitely a Spinal Tap moment), we ended up just going to the theater later, at 6:30. Our schedule was going to be start taping at 8pm, we play around 9:15-ish, and the whole thing is over at 11pm. You know, like an awards show. We did get there at 6:30. We ended up playing at 12:30am. They were still taping when we left soon after that. We played for five minutes.

We had one small room to hang out in that was rather grim, lit by fluorescent lights, and no windows. So we got a bit of cabin fever, but it was okay. We did get to walk around, get our hair done (I badly needed it, I can never get that shit right by myself) and enjoy the scenery. There magically appeared a bottle of Macallan, someone produced a big can of mixed nuts, and we sat around the table telling lots of jokes and stories and catching up with people. So it was kind of like hanging out in a really ugly bar.

It was fun, though, to see Beyonce, Sheila E, Patti Labelle and Penthouse's Miss January (among others, of course) backstage. It was quite a circus there, much confusion (normal), much running around, and some fair amount of panic. If it were actually being broadcast live, however, it would have been way more stressful. One bummer was that many of the artist's "handlers" and some of the venue security people were a bit uptight at people taking pictures, so I didn't get to take a lot of photos (but there are some on the photo page). You know, the weird/annoying ones that I usually take. So, sorry about that. But at any rate, it was also very nice to see some of the crew people that regularly work these shows. They make these experiences much nicer and more familiar. They're there at almost every Grammy™, Oscar™, ESPY™ and other shows, making sure things are plugged in, everyone is heard, making sure they can film everyone, wrangling talent, and generally keeping the proceedings from completely falling apart.

August 30th, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA

Flew into L.A. to do rehearsals for the World Music Awards. What are those, you say? Why, it's another awards show of course, this time giving out little statues for the Best Selling Artist/Singer/Rock/Rap/Whatever In The World. It's based solely on sales figures and nothing else, according to the rather cheesy website, so there are no confusing artistic judgments and musical analyses that have to be made.

But it was great to see Michelle Branch. She looked great, and was aglow with that sleep-deprived contentment of having just had a baby. And it's always fun to play with the band. We're so lucky that we just get to play live almost all the time. We can change parts, change the groove, control the horizontal - whatever we want, whenever we want! See what a little musical talent can bring to the table?

August 27th, 2005 - New York, NY

Just a heads up re: the U.S. AIDS relief money policy... Brazil has the right idea and the most successful program in the world. Check it out.

August 25th, 2005 - Minneapolis, MN

Got up pretty damn early to get to the airport. Free coffee in the lobby, though - hooray! When we got to the airport, we were greeted with a bunch of Northwest Airlines workers on strike, marching and holding their placards. These are the mechanical workers who are on strike, mind you, and one guy's placard read "HAVE A 'SAFE' FLIGHT". Nice thought to carry on board, don't you think? NWA is a pretty crappy airline already, so it was a bit unsettling. And by the way did no one ever tell the good folks of NWA about the rap group of the same name? I thought it was hysterical all those years ago when they trotted out their big new image and website nwa.com - I remember thinking, "Didn't anybody do any research?"

August 24th, 2005 - Minneapolis, MN

Wow, big show. It was pretty fun, and I got to meet some heroes of mine. I met Verdine White, who I listened to a LOT when I was growing up. I mean, come on, those tunes, those bass lines - fantastic! I also got to meet Gloria Estefan, who, believe it or not I also loved when I was a kid. Yes folks, I actually listened to Miami Sound Machine. I thought "Bad Boys" was such a cool tune, with those really close vocal harmonies, and that really foxy babe singing. What's not to like?

It was also a chance to see some friends whom I haven't seen in quite a long time. There was a bunch of people from the Sheila E days working for Earth Wind & Fire. The drummer was John Paris, who used to play with Sheila way back when her first band was being put together. He ultimately decided not to actually be a part of the touring band that I was in, because he had so many other commitments in L.A. But he always sounded good. Also, there was Louis, the clothing designer for Prince, whom I hardly recognized, he was so dressed down. Back in the day he was always dressed impeccably and flashy, as rockstar as all the other rockstars. Last but not least was Popcorn, the stage manager for EWF. He used to be the drum tech for Sheila, and he looked like he hadn't changed a bit. I told him "Wow, you really haven't aged at all" and he said "Yeah, I just gave that up - no more ageing for me!" So that was all great fun for Karl and I.

Then it was back to the hotel, and all the West Coast band members left for the airport, and the rest of us just stayed and hung out in the bar and ate and had a lot of fun. Some of our crew went out to eat and I stayed in, having a business meeting of sorts, and availing myself of the 12-year old MacAllan. Calm down, it's a single malt Scotch whiskey, and it's one of my favorites at the moment.

August 23rd, 2005 - New York, NY

Now on my way to Minneapolis for a Santana show. It's some private event, and I honestly don't know what it's for. I do know we're playing three songs, one of which is a Rob Thomas song from his latest solo album (which he'll be singing with us). I also know that I wanted to learn that song on the plane ride over, but I seem to have forgotten my headphones at home. (I packed about 30 minutes before my ride to the airport. See what happens?) So it looks like I'll be crouching over, putting my ear up to my laptop for awhile in the hotel room before the rehearsal. Boy, do I feel dumb.

Minneapolis, MN

So of course, I had to scramble and find some headphones and learn Rob's song while wolfing down a burger in the hotel before the rehearsal. Raul is back! It sure was great to see him again, and he looks and sounds great. The rehearsal was fun, too - it was great to play again with the band.

Turns out it's some corporate show for Target (yes THAT Target), and Earth, Wind & Fire, Gloria Estefan and Aerosmith are also playing. Pretty cool, I hope I get to see some of those guys tomorrow. I did see Gloria in the lobby of our hotel briefly today. She still looked pretty hot, I have to say.

August 22nd, 2005 - New York, NY

Well, the Friday gig at the Living Room turned out to be pretty good. I had a lot of fun, even though I was quite nervous. The rest of the band really came though and helped make it an eventful night. They deserve an award for doing a lot of extra work, since most of my shit was pretty disorganized - no charts, weird song choices, etc. I wanted, for example, to do "Teen Town", and since I just assumed everyone knew the song, rehearsing it became a bit of a mess, with all of us basically having to learn some of the chords and stuff right then and there. (See what happens when you assume? You just end up making an ass of yourself.) Good thing they were all good musicians. Also, I used the house bass amp, which is normally quite good, but for this kind of music was vastly underpowered, giving me a distorted sound for most of the night. I'm really not complaining though, sometimes it was kind of a cool sound anyway, and I didn't have my own amp available either. I will definitely have a different one next time.

It was really fun (and a little nerve-wracking) to see so many friends there, and I really must thank all of them here for their support. Also, Lisa Cariddi deserves a special mention. She was quite nervous about doing the gig - she hadn't performed live for about two years! She was busy moving from California to New York with her husband, and also had had a baby about a year ago. But she absolutely killed! Her beautiful and haunting renditions of "If Love Were A Red Dress" and "Bang Bang" mesmerized the audience, and many people thought they were the best songs of the night.

I also must thank Michael Rains for helping out during the rehearsals and for loaning me his Voodoo Labs Tremolo pedal. "Bang Bang" just wouldn't have been the same without it!

August 18th, 2005 - New York, NY

Yesterday and the day before I rehearsed the band I got together for the Friday gig. Sounding pretty good so far, even though I was vastly unprepared and disorganized. The players came through and really pulled it together. So I think maybe a splendid time will be had by all. Imagine that.

August 11th, 2005 - New York, NY

Went to a horrible club recently called The Blue Note. It's sad how an institution such as The Blue Note can go from a mecca for modern jazz (back a long, long time ago) to a bastion of tourist culture and accoutrements. They do have some good music there every so often, but I guess the final blow is that once you actually pay the exorbitant entry fee, you have to pay dearly for any kind of decent beverage. A single shot of Oban, for example, was US$18! God, give me the Lower East Side any day... (I know, I know, it's not like it used to be, it's changed so much, etc.)

If you want a really good hang, just go the The Library Bar, fer chrissakes.

August 8th, 2005 - New York, NY

Well, this really talented singer and songwriter, Ashen, bailed on my Aug 19th gig yesterday. She told me it was because she was "not ready" to sing, having not performed for over a year. I can somewhat understand that, but I personally think she could have pulled it off. But fear can be quite a powerful and crippling thing. It also could have been the polite version for "I really don't agree with your musical choices". I would have preferred that, really, but more direct. Oh well, these things happen. I have another singer lined up, who's also really great, named Lisa Cariddi. So it'll be quite cool.

August 6th, 2005 - New York, NY

Brutal jet lag. Never did a Japan trip while living in the East Coast before. Wow, worse than when I was in California. I'm sitting here at a 24 hour bar and grill at 4:30 in the morning, my body still telling me it's 5:30 in the afternoon. A least they're playing Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" album, a perfect accompaniment to my oh-so-trip-hoppy state of mind.. Actually the waiter/night manager here is playing me all this great music that is actually NEW (can you believe it?). Two favorites are this Brit band called Pole Folder and this Swedish rock band called Kent. Good stuff, Benny-Bob says check 'em out.

August 4th, 2005 - New York, NY

So I'm home again. I feel pretty high after playing with Herbie and Wayne, and pretty tired. I feel like I was at some ninja training camp for ten days. Herbie is definitely a Master and I was definitely a grasshopper.

And I miss Japan, like I always do. I still get the sense that over there people are taught at a very early age that if you're going to do anything, be it street sweeping or cooking steak or playing music, you should do the best job you can. And before all the emails saying "Well why don't you just move there?" start pouring in, let me say that it's not perfect over there, either. I just really appreciate that aspect of their culture.

Now to start writing music for another film and prepare for my gig here at the Living Room (see the News for more details). It sure is hot here.

July 31st, 2005 - Osaka, JAPAN

Went to Tower Records and one of the big electronic store chains here, Yodobashi, today with Karl and Jeff. Yodobashi is like Circuit City or P.C. Richards but on steroids AND acid. What a lot of fun! So many cute little USB flash drives, shaped like everything from Hello Kitty to a human thumb. Unfortunately, the larger capacity ones never had the cool decor. Guess they're for more "serious" users.

Going to Tower in Japan is always fun, too. When you buy Japanese music, they'll often give you stuff that is associated with the artist that you bought. I guess it's part of their way of making CDs a "value-added" commodity, as opposed to just downloading the music. The extras are things like books, or a bonus CD, or stickers, buttons... could be just about anything. It's great!

Anyway, the show tonight was pretty good, everyone seemed to play well, and the audience were very appreciative and danced a lot as well. Herbie And Wayne are amazing, I can't believe I'm even allowed to share the same stage with these guys. We went to a dinner that the concert promoters put on which was pretty nice. Lots of Kobe beef and sake.

July 30th, 2005 - Nagasaki, JAPAN

Me and Jeff went to the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter before we left the hotel for the airport. It's basically a small memorial built at "ground zero" in Nagasaki. I have to say that it felt a bit eerie and I experienced a wave of sadness for all the people (many I'm sure who lived very near to where I was standing at the moment or I passed by while walking around Nagasaki) who lost friends, relatives and loved ones back then. It would certainly seem as if we as a species just have to kill and kill again, doesn't it?

Osaka, JAPAN

So now here I sit in in Osaka hotel room, taking advantage of the fact that we have Internet access once again. Ah, "civilization".

July 29th, 2005 - Nagasaki, JAPAN

Nice little breakfast on the 15th floor of the hotel. Talked to Lionel, that really cool African guitarist/singer from Benin. Turns out he lives in Brooklyn, so hopefully we'll get together back home, or at least I'll go to see one of his gigs. He's really got a very cool, unique sound and approach.

The gig went pretty well tonight, we had a lot of fun, and the audience seemed to enjoy it also. My bass rig sounded a bit better this time, until the last couple of songs. don't know what's up, could be a power thing.

July 28th, 2005 - Yokohama, JAPAN

Last night was the first show, and it actually went pretty well. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter did a duet that was worth the price of admission alone. Herbie used his new KORG Oasys keyboard, which was pretty awesome. My rig, which is a rental unit, did not sound very good for some reason, and I ended up sort of playing overly hard to compensate. Didn't help my fingers any. But I'm not complaining - I'm getting to listen to this incredible band, best seat in the house, and for free even! And then I think of the current situation in Niger. So I'm not complaining.

Flew to Nagasaki today. What with getting to the airport early, and the flight and the drive to the hotel, we really didn't get settled in Nagasaki until late in the afternoon, around 4. Not much to do but try and find something to eat, walk around a little. Most of us are still a little jet lagged, the East Coasters being hit the hardest being 13 hours ahead. Jeff, Skip, Karl, Tommy and I ended up at a small ramen joint near the train station. It was pretty good ramen, served by some very nice old mama-sans. I had some pork with mine, with a good dose of very fine garlic powder. But I think I still prefer Yokohama-style at Ichi-ran.

We then went to the mall near the train station, bought some supplies like water, kettle chips, etc., played some great video games, and then, due to the heat, humidity, jet lag, and full stomachs, pretty much crawled back to the hotel.

Watched a bit of TV in the room (no high-speed Internet access, and I've forgotten how to do the whole dial up thing). Love the NHK news, when you can find a dubbed version. They seem to spend so much time on one subject, not like what I'm used to - attention-deficit news. Here each subject got a full 5 minutes or more. I saw a great little feature on the Discovery debacle, and one on the family back home of Jean Charles de Menenez (that poor Brazilian guy who got shot to death by mistake by the London police).

July 26th, 2005 - Yokohama, JAPAN

Yesterday (The 25th) was spent sleeping or thinking I was sleeping. Although I did have a cool tonkatsu experience. The one where they give you a mortar and pestle and you grind up your own sesame seeds, then pour some of the tonkatsu sauce into it. Really yummy!

But today I had to rent a mobile phone, get a small camera, and eat, which Bill, Jeff and I did. It was great fun, trying to figure out how to get where on the subway and the train, even though our destination was only two stops away. We ate at a terrific ramen place that Karl had recommended called Ichi-ran. It's a chain, but the ramen is great!

July 25th, 2005 - New York City, NY

Mellow terminal here at JFK... very quiet, but also not a lot here.
Wi-Fi in the lounge, and the peculiar, heartwarming linguistic and
graphic design adventure that is Japan starts here. (Folks who have been to Japan, please be patient.)

which takes you to this page once you're connected:


Don't forget to sign up for their newsletter:

and of course,

 

The lounge comes complete with a coffee machine that says "drink in process" while it's being brewed and poured into your cup, and "take the drink" when it's ready.

I love it all so much!

One more thing that was exciting, in a geek-ish sort of way: I got to surf the 'net and check email on the plane for most of the flight at almost-high-speed.

July 22nd, 2005 - New York City, NY

Well, no notes yet... not on the road. Unless you want to count cruising around the subways of New York City - with a backpack!

July 22nd, 2005 - New York City, NY

You may be wondering - what the hell is up with this site? Why is it so lame minimalist? Well, it's new, I'm doing it mostly myself, and I'm working on it. It'll get better, I promise. But for now it's all that you need. Really.