I’ve been asked to play at Starbuck’s again in June. Hopefully I’ll be able to nail down the exact date in another day or two. This will be my first time back there after my moderately disappointing performance in March. I’m anxious to get back and redeem myself a bit.

Although I’ve always been somewhat susceptible to wide emotional swings, last night was my first dip in quite a while. I’m not quite sure what brought it on, but it seems like it was probably numerous inconsequential things that compounded as the night wore on. During a conversation I had with a friend toward the end of the night (around 3am), I was told that I’m too sensitive. Thinking back on it today, I’m not entirely sure that is a bad thing.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, with the Senda Wasshoi Festival in the afternoon, and then the 2nd Anniversary Party for the open mic events held at Barco Tropical every month. Busy, yes, but I’m really looking forward to having fun with my good friends.

Although at this point I still prefer to perform as and be known as a solo player, I’ve been giving some thought to some interesting musical collaborations. While I’ve got no interest in forming a “band”, I also realize it is easy to stagnate without external input. I will be having my first “face-to-face” with a local musician tonight to discuss and hopefully take the first steps toward eventually making music together. This person performs in a genre of music in which I have no experience, so I’m looking forward to expanding my horizons.

I’ve been told that the “white text on black background” design of this website is hard on the eyes. I’m going to give some thought to making a change, but the truth is that I really prefer to leave it as it is.

I’ve been a cycling fan for many years, and with the start of cycling season I often spend hours with my ass parked in front of the TV, watching these incredible athletes race across the plains and mountains of Europe. The Giro D’ Italia is being broadcast now in Japan, but on a delay of about 2 weeks from the actual start of the race. I always try to stay away from sports news during cycling season, to avoid spoiling the outcomes of these races.

It’s shaping up to be a very busy summer for me. Beginning this weekend, I have performances scheduled every weekend for 4 weeks straight, sometimes with 2 performances a weekend. (See the Schedule section.) It also looks like I may be doing a monthly show at Molly Malone’s; it is even possible that it may become twice a month, but nothing has been settled yet. A few people at the office have jokingly been asking me if music isn’t actually my “real job”.

Speaking of the office, there may be a potentially exciting development in my work situation in the next few weeks. More info on this later.

On Monday I went to a local club to catch a performance by John Russell. I’d never heard of Mr. Russell before, other than that he is a well respected free-jazz guitarist. My decision to go to the show was largely based on the fact that the amazing Kajiyama Shu, a local bassist and friend, would be on hand as a supporting musician.

Kajiyama-san opened the night with his awe-inspiring solo bass/vocal/looping performance. That was followed by Mr. Russell, performing with local musicians in various combinations of duos and quartets. Having never heard free-jazz before, I hadn’t really known what to expect. I had assumed something along the lines of free melodic and harmonic improvisation, built upon a solid rhythmic foundation. To my surprise, the performance was 100% free, in every sense of the word. Although I tried to keep an open mind, the seemingly endless and random waves of squeaks, skwaks, swishes, slaps, pops, taps, twists, scrapes, peeps, bumps, clicks, thumps, crashes, and occasional fwips, from guitar, drums, saxophones, and assorted woodwind implements, left me grasping for something familiar to hold onto and keep me afloat.

I didn’t hate it. But, I didn’t understand it. And then, I found myself wondering if I was missing the point by trying to understand it, which led to a whole mess of thinking too much for someone who had paid good money to be entertained. There were very few moments when I felt the individually improvising musicians gelled and melded into a common spirit. I began to hope that Mr. Russell would do some solo performance as well, but it apparently wasn’t on the schedule.

The night ended with Kajiyama-san coming back to the stage, this time with a different drummer, percussionist, and didgeridoo. This was quite the opposite of the previous set; nearly an hour’s worth of amazingly wicked improv, over funky dance beats and constant bass drone alternating from electric bass and didgeridoo. It was a wonderful way to end a night of musical contrasts.

Well, I had a very busy, but also rewarding and enjoyable weekend. It started on Saturday with my solo performance at Rendez Vous. Actually, it started several hours before the show started. Since last week had been very busy for me at work and I hadn’t had the time to practice as much as I would have liked, I spent several hours Saturday morning and evening practicing and preparing for the show that night. There was a nice crowd, although it thinned out quite a bit for the second set. I’m not sure if that was because of the rain, or for other reasons. Several friends came by to support me, and I received many nice compliments. There are definitely areas to work on in my songs, but overall I’m pleased with the performance. The management at Rendez Vous has asked me to come back again next month, and we are working on a schedule.

Sunday at Molly Malone’s with Jamie and Kit was every bit as fun as I had expected it to be. After the moderately stressful gig the night before, this was a great way to just sit back, relax, and have fun playing. The crowd wasn’t large, but they seemed appreciative of, if not particularly enthralled by, our 2 sets. Jamie (guitar) and Kit (harp, vocals) play mostly blues, and when I sat in with them I generally stuck to the bass side of the Stick, only occasionally throwing in a melody chord or a short solo. In the middle of the fourth or fifth song of our 1st set, during the part where Jamie’s solo was supposed to come in, I wasn’t hearing a solo from that side of the stage. I looked over, and saw this mild look of panic on his face. “I snapped a string!” I tried to cover with a solo that was supposed to resemble something bluesy, and then we did the outro and brought the song to an end. We ended that set a song early so Jamie could go buy strings. Moral of the story: bring spare strings (for Jamie); learn to play the blues (for me); sit back and laugh at the incompetence (for Kit).

I received some nice compliments for the two songs I played solo, and also fielded a few questions about The Stick.

The highlight of the night: the delicious dinner. The food at Molly Malone’s is absolutely amazing, and it was a delight playing for our meal. I think the three of us worked up more of a sweat digging into our food than playing the music.

I have an important performance coming up tomorrow, and I am experiencing a bit of anxiety over it. It is important to me for two reasons: it will be my first completely solo performance over two sets, and it will take place at Rendez-Vous. I think it would be nice to perform at Rendez-Vous on a regular basis, but the possibility of that happening will depend largely on how the manager views the success of tomorrow night’s show.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a very busy week at work, and the result has been much less time devoted to practice this week than I had hoped. So much for trying to keep my anxiety under control.

Yesterday I was reading a particular website’s user-submitted reviews of a CD released by an internationally-known and respected musician. For some, his latest effort doesn’t measure up to par. Many of these critics also seemed disappointed in the spiritual/religous content of the lyric. My stomach churned at comments such as “this truly gifted artist wastes his talents” and “[d]on’t mistake this for art”. These remarks betray an ignorance of the compulsion of a true artist. Art is not a medium for showcasing one’s talent; rather, it is an expression of the artist’s soul at that particular moment in time. Concerns for popular appeal are secondary, at best.

As a general rule, I don’t do much PR work for my gigs. In addition to the information I put up in the Schedule section of this website, I also design fliers and post a few in places like my office and a bar or two that I frequent. But, I don’t make a point of telling friends and co-workers about my shows and inviting them to come. (I realize, by the way, that I am lucky in this aspect as someone who doesn’t have to survive on the money he makes through performances.)

So, I am particularly happy when people who have been to my performances before express an interest in coming to my upcoming shows. In the past week, about 5 of my co-workers who have heard me play before have approached me on different occasions to ask about my gigs this coming weekend. This recurring interest is a significant boost to my self-confidence, which is much more susceptible to body-blows than I usually care to let on.

I am discovering (rediscovering??) that Sol, a CD of Latin-inspired music by Stickist Greg Howard, makes a wonderful soundtrack for my daily bicycle commute to work on sunny spring days, like today.

I spent several hours on both Saturday and Sunday practicing. Actually, mostly I was just jamming and making adjustments to effector sounds and levels. While all of that is important, I really need to spend more time working on songs and structure for my upcoming gigs.

One of my favorite bands during my university days was Yes. Recently, I’ve been giving a serious listen to their Close to the Edge album again. This is the first time I’ve given a close listen to Yes in probably close to 10 years. Although my musical tastes have changed dramatically during that time, I’m discovering that there is some progressive rock that still sits well with me.

Tonight marks the end of nearly a full week of national holidays in Japan, and I return to work tomorrow morning. As I do during most holidays, I went into full hermit mode this past week, doing little beyond catching up on sleep, watching television, and checking email. There was more than one day where I limited my outdoor activity to a short walk to the soft drink machine on the corner.

However, I did get out on Sunday afternoon to finally visit Jamie and Natasha at their home. They invited several of us out for a barbeque, and the weather was just wonderful. In addition to myself, Kit, Mark, Maggie, and Mary showed up, as well as a few others I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. Most people brought their instruments, so we had many guitars, harmonicas, voices, and bongos. We entertained (??) the neighborhood with drunken music well into the night.

I’ve finally figured out how to use my mp3 player to make recordings of my live music. The quality isn’t good (although it could probably be improved dramatically if I decide to invest in a good external mic), but it is sufficient for recording my rehearsals.