I’ve said it before, the BEST part about the internet is the ease with which musicians can so easily collaborate. I am super-fortunate to be involved in this international YouTube collaboration orchestrated by Ein Astronaut from Hamburg Germany.
33 Youtube musicians played on this project accumulating a staggering 160 audio tracks and 70 layers of video! You can get a free mp3 of the audio here.
Happy Holidays!
For those that like lead sheets, feel free to read along:
I guess it’s the seasonal nature of Holiday songs that hold their appeal for me. You play them for a couple of months and forget about them until the following year.
I’ve started making short videos of Christmas tunes that I’ve been re-harmonizing lately. Here’s my latest.
It’s been a couple of weeks now since the SSIJ (Secret Society of Internet Jazzers) played the Beta Lounge in Berkeley, CA.
We enjoyed an enthusiastic audience both in the room and on Ustream. The club was very dark so our Ustream crew was treated to primarily audio feed. Fortunately, we had a couple of other cameras that were able to catch a enough visual data for me to provide you this glimpse of the show.
The main thing that struck me from this show was the musical strength and depth with which these musicians play. Who knew a pick-up band from Twitter would be so burning!
Thanks again to my compadres Jason Parker, Steve Uccello, Darin Wilson, Dave Hoffman and Joe Shotwell.
Here is my newest video offering: A cover of the classic Doobie Brothers‘ “Takin’ it to the Streets.”
What I’ve tried to do here is provide some documentary content: To really show what it is you’re hearing.
The audio and video for this song were tracked at the same time. What you hear and what you see are one-in-the-same. When you see a computer recording something in the background, you can bet that that is the audio you’re hearing in the recording. There is even some out-take footage.
This is one more way I’m inviting you into the making music process. I shot this on an inexpensive (~$100) consumer HD video camera and edited it in Final Cut Express HD. It was surprisingly easy.
As always, this song is available to you for streaming or downloading from my store at a Pay What You Want (even nothing) price. Please SHARE this music with friends via Facebook, Twitter, embed it in your blog, whatever… It’s a subtle way of showing your friends how hip you are and helping me out at the same time.
This was a fun project to assemble. What do think? Is it cool? Is it dumb?
Talk to me…
I’ll admit it: When the ukulele craze started catching-on a few years ago, I kind of made fun of it. I’m not sure why–but I did.
The other day I was seduced by the uke’s sound & vibe I had something of an epiphany which resulted in this tenor uke “following me home.”
Guess I’ll keep it.
UPDATE: By special request, I have made the audio from this impromptu performance available for FREE Stream or Download via my Bandcamp store.
I released my version of Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and offered the recording as a FREE download.
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!
Artwork by the wonderful Linda Palmer.
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.
Here is the Atmos Trio functioning as “The guys” in support of singer Cynthia Tarr. We’ve held down this regular gig in Glen Ellen CA at Olive & Vine for a couple of years and have developed a very enthusiastic audience there.
Here’s a fairly up-tempo tune that the band stretches out on a little. Good times!
This was filmed on a Creative Vado HD cam. Audio was EQ’d/ compressed using Ableton Live and video edited in Final Cut Express.