Take 4 is up on the Lefty Valdez MySpace.

We've moved from a train wreck to a car wreck, and it even sounds as if we're almost playing the same song!

If you haven't checked it out yet, give it a listen - we've received absolutely no feedback on this tune from non-band members, and I'd like to at least hear about how bad it still is... for those who've listened to the different live takes, it'd be nice to know if we're improving!

This take is still the drum machine, noone234 on alto sax, aequitaslevitas on piano, and meself on guitar and bass.

We're debating having aequitaslevitas do the clarinet part (doubling the one Rachel will be doing) or doing the same part - maybe up a third - on the trumpet. We may also have him add in the trombone, or have noone234 double the sax part. With the wonders of multitracking, we can have a whole horn section.

Okay, there is now a rough track up at the Lefty Valdez Band MySpace page.

This is, off-time percussion* aside, real, live, actual music played by meself (bass - more or less okay; guitar - lots of mistakes there and off-time more than on) and aequitaslevitas on piano. Rachel is still learning her clarinet part, and noone234 couldn't make it over today to put down some sax tracks.

So. That's it. The music you hear is written and performed by us.

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In other news, getting new photographs of the band or its individual members once again hasn't happened. Some day, perhaps it will.

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*: AKA drum loops. 4/4 time. Cut, lengthened, and attempting to fit 3/4 time. Mostly. Not wasting too much time on that at this moment. Need to either get a percussionist (preferable) or figure out how to write a part manually in the software.

A bit late, but here's the summary:

In an effort to support local business - and get some damn good expert opinions - I went to a local shop to get a digital SLR for Top Sekrity purposes (NOTE: this is not one o' them Top Sekrity Posts, so please refrain from discussing Top Sekrity Stuff in the comments; the time is not yet right for the Grand Revelation! =) It turns out that the shop uses a service to verify checks. The service didn't like my low check number (although it was not a "starter check", which is what it was referred to) and the shop didn't like the lack of information printed on it (it contained all the information required on a legal check). The salesman, who had been extremely helpful, and also knew I didn't get everything and could be expected to spend more money at the shop in the future, discussed with the owner, and the method of payment I had at my disposal was refused. I told them quite plainly that I would prefer supporting local businesses, and that if I didn't get it here, today - coming back with a cashiers check from the bank was not an option, as it spent more of my time & money to do so - than I would have to order it from somewhere online. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, so we walked out empty-handed.

Sad thing is, this is the place where I've taken all my film to be developed. I've literally spent hundreds of dollars there on that alone; I also purchased Deb's telescope there. They are currently celebrating 30 years in business; apparently they never had low numbered checks when they started out.

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After that, we went to the Guitar Center, so Justin could get some hands-on time with various keyboards. He gravitated away from the digital pianos, and tried some Yamaha, Korg, and Roland workstations. He wasn't as impressed with the $3200 Yamaha as I was, but he really liked the feel and sounds of another Yamaha, which was about a grand cheaper. The Korgs just didn't do it for him, the feel wasn't right. He did like the new Roland, which went for about $2200, a comparable price with the Yamaha he liked.

Mr. B gave me a workout, going back and forth between the keys and the sound reinforcement room - and wanting to do so on his own. They had a lightshow set up in the sound room, so he liked watching that. Finally, I took the advice of one of the sales guys and took him over to the percussion department. One of the guys there gave him a set of sticks, and I sat him at a drum kit.

He tried the drums in turn: snare, hi-tom, low-tom, floor tom and did the same for the cymbals. I showed him the center of the snare and said to hit there, and he did. Then he tried the other areas of the drum head, hitting it in four quarters and listening to the sound. He played steady rhythms the whole time, steadier than what I've played on a drum set. He had both the snare and floor tom going together. I showed him the bell on the ride cymbal, and he tried it, and then went for the bell on the high hat to see how that sounded. The drum guy asked how long he'd been taking lessons; he had started about that age. A couple of customers expressed surprise at his ability - he was actually playing, and not thrashing around.

After we moved away from that, the drum guy lowered a snare and after a few tentative hits, he played a little roll using both sticks, and that further surprised everyone. We're thinking a practice pad and sticks for Christmas for him, and maybe a snare.

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After that, and a few quick stops at some places to see if they had the camera I was looking for, we stopped off at a Yamaha piano place. Justin had a deer-in-headlights look; when we left he said he wasn't sure if he was allowed to play them. He did play a baby grand for a little bit, and I got to talking with the salesman about the Clavanova, which is their high end digital piano, with models running from $2000 to $15,000.

Justin came over and tried a couple, finally settling on one that listed at $7000 or so. After a while, he began to adjust to the dynamics possible on a quality instrument. Although all the ones he had tried at Guitar Center had touch sensitivity and a full 88-keys, there was a huge difference in the feel and even the sounds. The Clavanovas are built in wooden enclosures; the workstations are all much more portable, but you also have to purchase a PA system to be able to hear them, where the Clavanovas have that built in.

3 out of 4 of the active members of the Lefty Valdez Band got together last night to work further on The Tune.

We started out on the front porch, until it got dark, and Deb unlocked the door and let us back in. After a few rounds of practice, some playing around on other potential themes, we got to work on The Tune. A second riff for the bass introduced itself to me, and so I played it for noone234 and Rachel. Once we came back inside, we set to work devising the sax part for the transition and the new riff, and, by the end of the night, we had it.

We refined the existing parts by following the lead Justin had accidentally set when he first transcribed The Tune, and we don't give the horns a measure off between each of their lines. Now, we come in pretty much at the same time with only a quick slide on the last bit of the 4-e-and-a, so, boom, we all start at 1. Four measures of intro, then we segue to the new bit, which, on its own is 12 measures of bass. The final holding note of the intro hangs over that first measure (so we have 5 measures of the horns) and we've got the sax part for the next two measures, completing the first figure of the new part. We'll tighten that up once Justin gets back from vacation and writes his trumpet part - posibilities are: harmonizing the sax part, sitting out for a short sax solo and coming in after, or doing something completely different. In any case, the tune is shaping up nicely.

We met, briefly, our temporary percussionist - Korg, his name is - although we couldn't hear a beat he played on account of a distinct lack of RCA plugs (or 1/4" to RCA conversion cables). noone234's cousin sounds like he'd be a good fit, although he'd have some difficulty commuting down from Buffalo. So the position is still officially open.

So I ended that last post with a statement that we needed a percussionist, with no further information.

Well, today, we went down to MusikFest (we being: patrixa, Justin, Rachel, and me). After a lunch at Bowmanstown Diner (the only diner in the world that won't serve omelets or home fries at 11:30am on a Sunday, but is otherwise my favorite diner), we parked and began to wander around the fest.

None of the acts really hit me - they were mostly bluegrass, country that sounded kind of like bluegrass, and celtic that sounded almost like bluegrass. Even the trombone quartet - which was mostly playing classical - did a ragtime swing piece that probably would have sounded natural with a banjo playing along.

Rachel picked up an ocarina, flute, and a percussion shaker (for Mr. B) from the Native North/South American folks. patrixa also picked up an album of the flute music being played at the moment. They bought Deb a bead bracelet as well.

Met up with noone234 at the Volksplatz and after a bit we headed over to the drums at Spirit in the Wood. They had some dununbas that sounded great, and a beautiful conga (the picture at the link is nowhere as near as nice looking as the one they had there - the hardware looked like cast iron, and it the wood itself had a beautiful, but simple appearance). We picked up a kalimba, a carved, hollowed out frog with a sawtooth pattern that makes a frog-like sound when the stick is slid over it, and a djembe.

We stopped at another tent with drums - one was in the process of being carved. They were from Ghana, and the kpanlogos they had were exquisite - very intricate carvings, and, to top it off, a beautiful sound (this link goes to a vendor who imports them; I will correct if I can swing by during the week and find out if these guys have a site of their own - I'd much rather show off their art, although the linked one looks pretty good too! =) patrixa bought a unity sculpture from them; the man had carved the three intertwined figures out of a single piece of wood. You can see the approximate shape of the original piece when you slide them together, however the sculpture is best viewed folded open, as if the three figures were twirling in a dance.

We wandered some more, were nearly lulled to sleep by one of the celtic band's tunes, and headed back to the Main Street stage to hear the trombone quartet. On the way back, I noticed a few guys sitting out playing drums behind the stage; one guy had a kpanlogo, the other a conga (think he works next door to me; I recognized but couldn't place him at the time), and the third - well, I didn't see his drum. After the trombone quintet finished up, we headed back down to the drummers, and between one of the drummer's daughters (either the kpanlogo guy or the third guy) and patrixa, I was volunteered to jam with the three, plus an 18 year old playing electric blues guitar.

We played a couple of tunes - having owned the drum for a total of a couple of hours, I wasn't overly confident at first, nor, to be honest, at the end. I did, however, have fun.

Now, it's all well and good that we now have a bunch of percussion instruments to use while we play, or during recording. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that we need some one to play congas and/or a drum kit to play along with us when we're doing trumpet, sax, clarinet, and bass. So, yeah.

We need a percussionist.