Notes_Norton

Are You Serious — Tyrone Davis

Early Autumn — Jazz standard by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. There are quite a few nice versions out there, but Stan Getz is one of my all-time favorite tenor sax players.

Transfusion — Nervous Norvus

Do Right Woman, Do Right Man — Aretha Franklin

Black Velvet — Allanah Myles

Old Blue Chair — Kenny Chesney

I visited my doctor today, he told me that I’m going deaf. That was difficult to hear.

Atomic City — U2

I'm old enough to remember when the junk was made in Japan. Where the cheap labor is, the junk will be produced. Even the USA or European corporate brands that have their goods made in the cheap labor countries are guilty. After all, moving there in the first place is to cut costs. I've purchased some good Made-In-China products, and I've purchased some cheap Made-In-USA crap too. IMO, internet order is like mail-order, where you can't hold the product in your hand before buying. That makes it difficult to see obviously cheap crap. And sadly, many products that we used to buy locally, are no longer available locally. I can't buy a pro-level saxophone anywhere within at least 250 miles from here. A couple of stores will carry a student model, but that's it. On the other hand, we can get things on the Internet that were never available locally. I guess everything has its pro/con duality. So we take our chances when we wish upon stars. And so many of the ratings are false. You get the 5 stars clandestinely written by the company selling the product, and the 1 star bogus reviews written by competitors. Sometimes it's tough to sift through the garbage. I always make sure I get a no questions asked return product. As long as Amazon or whoever is going to pay for the return postage, I have an out if it doesn't meet my expectations. Notes ♫

I set an alarm on my phone, so I don't sleep too long. Usually I wake up before it goes off. Being self-employed, I can set my own schedule. The only time I cannot is gig time, and that's something I would lose sleep to do. I'm sure I put in much more than 40 hours per week total doing things like: learning new songs, making backing tracks for those songs, being the band salesman/booker, making Band-in-a-Box aftermarket styles, running the BiaB business, and so on. But other than schlepping the gear to and from the gigs, it doesn't seem like work. Even on non-gig days, I take time for a little power nap. I get 6.5 at night, less than a half for nap, and that makes 7 total hours sleeping. That seems to be all I need. Notes ♫

I agree. I went on a ketogenic diet, back when it was called Atkins. I guess the 1990s. Total weight loss was 65 pounds and I've kept it off. My diet consists of fewer than 20 net carbs per day, and twice as much fat as protein. Most of my fat comes from animal (becan included), nut, and olive oil. I don't consume soybean, corn, or canola (rapeseed) oil. When I go for my annual checkup and blood test, all my numbers are in the normal range. My doctor says “I'm an easy patient” and schedules me for a visit in another year. I rarely get sick, one cold every 15 years or so, I haven't had the flu since I got on this diet, and I'm on zero medications. In my early 70s, my heart was skipping beats. It turned out to be anxiety as people found out how to get my products on the Internet for free, and it took the technicians over 4 days to figure the cure. And the cure was I had to rewrite the code on over 500 products, and it took about a half hour for each. During the diagnosis process, my doc sent me to a heart specialist. He did all the tests, heart, blood going to the heart, blood going through the extremities, and a heart monitor worn 24/7 for over a week. The result was my entire circulatory system was as good as a healthy late 40 or early 50-year-old person. So IMO the low-fat diet is wrong for me. We are all different, so I don't know if keto would work for anyone else, but it certainly works for me. Insights and incites (but not medical advice), by Notes ♫

As a guy who is used to gigging at night, a nap in the afternoon is an essential part of the preparation.

Givin the Dog a Bone - AC/DC

Bernard Purdie - session drummer.

One day, a housework challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to his wife, “What setting do I use on the washing machine?” “It depends,” she replied. “What does it say on your shirt?” Proudly, he yelled back, “Chicago Bears!”

Exactly!!! When I tried to see what it was to be normal and have a real job, I was a Cable TV Field Engineer (a technician with an engineer title to impress the customers). I flew out Monday and, worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday was a flight day, but I could take the red-eye out Thursday night. That allowed me to play weekend gigs with other part-time musicians. But the caliber of the other musicians wasn't what I was used to. I don't mean this as a negative, they had real jobs and families competing with their music time. I don't think I was playing at the top of my game then, either. It didn't have the same spark. I'd much rather play with musicians who are better than me, than I would to play with ones who are not as good. In my current duo, Mrs. Notes is a far better singer than I am. She is also a solid rhythm guitarist and synth player. Me? I play better sax/wind-synth and lead guitar than her (she doesn't play them), and I make the backing tracks. We inspire each other. Playing music is the most fun we can have with our clothes on. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

I can play very, very soft, but the tone is wrong for a lot of pop songs. That can be a problem with an acoustic sax. As the sax gets louder, the tone changes quite a bit, becoming less mellow, edgier (if that's a real word). Then, for certain songs, it's important to play the sax louder than it was designed to play at. Overblowing causes a nice, nasty sounding effect with a little added distortion. I can get tonal changes with volume if I choose the right synth module. The best one I've tried is the Yamaha VL70m. It uses what it calls 'physical modeling' synthesis. The good folks at Yamaha put computer models of tone generators like reeds, strings, cup mouthpieces, etc., bodies like boxes, tubes, cones, etc., and dampers like bridges, bells, and so on. As I play louder on the VL, the tone gets thinner and edgier but not quite to the point of being overblown. The VL is the only sound module I've found that actually feels like I'm playing an instrument, as opposed to playing synth patches. The VL also gives me a variety of trumpet, trombone, harmonica, fiddle, guitar, and other instrument sounds. Since guitar is my 7th instrument, I can play wind controller guitar better than my 'real' guitar. So for difficult guitar solos, the wind synth comes out. We've done a lot of yacht and country clubs where they want us to play for dinner, and then rock out for dancing when the desert comes out. For dinner, we set the PA up at about 65dba, so the diners can talk across the table. When done, we crank it up to whatever seems appropriate. I like the dinner sets as much as I like the dance sets. During the dinner sets, I can play delicately and then passionately when the meal is over. Playing at the appropriate volume for the gig and the audience you are facing today is very important. It's as critical as the music you are playing. The way I figure it is this. Music is my profession, it puts food on the table, and it paid off the mortgage. Anything I need to buy, to allow me to do my job better than my competitors, is a good investment. Wind synth, better speakers, better microphones, and anything else I need to buy and can justify the price on, is worth it. If it can bring in more money than it costs over the long run, I want it. More than that, it's survival. After leaving the position of side-man in bigger bands and becoming a co-leader of a duo, I've learned a lot about how to stay booked. And I'm still learning. For the majority of my life, I haven't had a Monday through Friday wake up to an alarm clock, and go to work job, making less than I think I deserve while someone who I don't even know gets rich as I live for the weekends. I'm sure I put more than 40 hours a week into it, but the only part that seems like work, is schlepping the PA set. The rest is music. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay — Danny And The Juniors

Where is the best place to sell a used chess set? At a pawn shop.

Palisades Park — Freddy Cannon I played bass for him in a short series of concerts, long after his fame wore off. He was easy to work with, and a real pro. It was a good experience.