A couple of weeks a go, I released my version of Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and offered the recording as a FREE download and asked only for a single Tweet in return.
The response was inspiring! All over the world came these lovely notes of appreciation for the track. They still come through now and again. Everyone seems to dig the reharmonization towards the end. It’s been really cool. There is even another video that Mike Conaty made the very first day of the song’s release here!
During one day of the recording sessions, I filmed some of the guitar and bass takes just to give a glimpse into the process. This was an overdub affair as I played everything on the tune except the drums which were beautifully performed by my first-call drummer Joe Shotwell.
I’ve also decided to make the song available via the Atmos Trio Store. As usual, the song can be streamed, embedded or downloaded at a “Pay What You Want (even nothing) price.
On February 5th, 2010, Steve Uccello & I performed an impromptu concert to an internet audience on my ongoing Ustream Concert Series. This collection of tunes documents that performance. This album is available exclusively here, at AtmosMusic.com and at our Bandcamp store.
Steve and I met on twitter last spring. We organized and performed together at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.” Once he expressed interest in playing on my Ustream show, I didn’t waste any time arranging to make it happen.
The Ustream gigs have been the surprise of the year for me. From my home studio, I performed several solo guitar shows, and played host to special guests Damian Erskine, Todd Johnson and even broadcast some gigs from my group, The Atmos Trio.
Due to the regularity of the show, an audience from all over the world routinely returned, show-after-show. Among them is artist extraordinaire Linda Palmer. I had seen here wonderful artwork and I was thrilled when she agreed to contribute the album cover. She actually contributed many pieces, all of which are great. Please take in some of her fine work while you listen.
Here is a brief song-by-song reflection for those who were not present during the broadcast.
Song for Stasia: Originally recorded by Anna Maria Jopek and Pat Metheny, this Marcin Kydryński composition served as a beautiful vehicle for our musical simpatico. I put this chart in front of Steve and he’s sight-reading here.
Minor Matter: A completely improvised tune based on a minor blues form.
Alright Right Now: One of Steve Uccello’s composition. This is what I sounded like sight-reading Steve’s tune on this day.
Travels: A classic country jazz ballad by Pat Metheny. We tried to make this sound like we’ve been playing together for a long time–even though this session marked only the second time Steve and I had played together.
Autumn Leaves: A “Jazz 101″ type tune. All jazzers know this song. We called a tune and counted it off…
Tenor Madness: Contemplating Sonny Rollins on his blues classic.
On Friday, February 5th, Steve Uccello played bass with me during an impromptu Ustream concert.
As always, the show was super fun. Steve and I met when we organized and performed together last spring at the Atmos Trio “Twitter House Concert.”
We got together in my studio to play some tunes. I employed my Ustream rig which consists of the iSight cam on my MacBook which receives a nice audio mix from studio’s mixing board. I had also just received another HD camera as a gift so I had a 2nd video feed destined for YouTube. I also made a multi track recording of the show.
Upon reviewing what we had captured to disk, the music was deemed worthy to share. Just goes to show that a good sounding record doesn’t need to take a pile of cash and months to make. Just a couple of musos and healthy does of simpatico.
Please be sure to share this music with a friend.
If you would like to hear the rest of the album sooner rather than later, simply fill-out the mailing list form in the sidebar and you’ll be linked to an Exclusive Advanced Access Listener’s page.
Here is another excerpt from my Ustream show from last Friday that featured bassist Steve Uccello.
This is 1980’s-era Pat Metheny tune that touches on the more country/ folk side of things. Hope you like it. You can get the audio download at and “Pay What You Want (even nothing)” here.
Often viewed as a “Jazz 101″ kind of tune, Autumn Leaves has to be one of the most commonly played and recorded standards of the idiom. In terms of playing an entire set, this meeting was the first time Steve Uccello and I had played together and that is the perfect time to cherry-pick from the Standards repertoire.
Based on the Cycle of 5th’s, this tune is a remarkable vehicle for improvisation.
Though I typically play these shows solo, yesterday, I had the good fortune to have Monterey-based bassist, Steve Uccello come to the studio to join me during my first Ustream concert of the year. Steve and I met via Twitter last year and together organized a wonderful house concert.
It was super cool to play again. Look for more of these excerpts in the coming days.
You can get the audio download and “Pay What You Want (even nothing)” here.
It was toward the beginning of the holiday season and I was in a giving mood, so I priced all of Atmos Trio’s albums (which include sheet music along with music files.) at a “Pay what You Want (even nothing)” price. I’m accustomed and happy to giving music away for free. I’ve always offered individual song downloads for free and had a low minimum price set for albums. But I offered everything for free to anyone who was interested.
Over the course of the 3 Day Special, many more people than normal downloaded the 2 albums “Atmos Trio” and “Atmos Plays Waters.” They helped spread the word about the opportunity for “Free Atmos Trio tunes”on Twitter and Facebook. It was nice to get such a favorable response from people who seemed genuinely appreciative of the music.
But something else rather interesting occurred as well: More than 50% of those that downloaded opted to pay for the music. Some paid far more than any price I would consider setting. Was this merely the result of a period of actively promoting the music? Maybe. Should I price my music at the ”Pay what You Want (even nothing)” price all the time? Maybe.
Why in the world would I give my music away for FREE? I would much prefer people hear the music and form some opinion on it rather than have it be locked away behind a price tag somewhere.
A couple of weeks a go, I released my version of Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and offered the recording as a FREE download and asked only for a single Tweet in return.
