Tick tock, tick tock...
Ah yes, the holidays, just around the corner. I've butchered up enough posts on my stance on the holidays to get in to all of that, so instead I think I'll take a new approach.
I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year.
On the 20th, Arielle and I embark on a car ride back up to Connecticut. Javone will be flying up to meet us on the 23rd. (it was the earliest she could take away from work.) I'm not really worried about the car trip, Arielle is almost 2 years old now and she is a much different person in regards to conveying what she needs. I think we'll do just fine.
A trip to Connecticut always seems to leave me with an abundance of new found perspective. What I left behind, what I have created and all that. I think what I'm looking forward to most in my trip up is the time spent with my family. My dad is on the tail end of his treatment and is finally well enough to receive company. My younger brother just landed himself a new job, strangely enough at Philip Morris which is where my dad worked for close to 15 years. It's strange to think that my brother and dad will share the some of the same co-workers after all these years. My brother is also waiting until Christmas eve to propose to his girlfriend, which I couldn't be happier that I will be able to be in attendance for that event. All in all, I think the trip up will be spent with some really near and dear people who will really enjoy the company of each other.
I have to say, the jam sessions are coming along nicely. Obviously there are still a few bugs to work out to create an optimal sound, but I'm happy to see that people are willing to spend the time to create the music. Now if only we could get it a little bit warmer out there. I think the spring will be much kinder to us both musically and temperature wise. I have come to call the jam room the construct. As it seems that for all those involved, it is a building process, seeing who works well together and which groups do better isolated. There is a master plan involved. There always is.
This is the plan.
For those of you who have come out to bear witness, it's an understatement to say that there is a lot of diversity among the musicians who play. Where some might see this diversity as a clusterfuck of sound, I see it as an evolutionary synthesis. Let me explain.
The concept album
I came up with this idea a good couple of years back. A story of an old man who had retired from his daily grind at work, but in doing so found himself in a void of how to utilize his time. So in the wake of retirement to keep himself going, he created a consistent regiment that you could literally set your watch to. Everyday, at the exact same time he would do the exact same thing. He would get up, do his morning routine, make himself a lunch and go to central park to eat his lunch. Then he would come home, do his evening routine and go to sleep to do it all over again the next day.
The music of the album is all the different people he has interacted with from the time he left his home until the time he returned. Picture that he is passed by skateboarders, thus a skate punk song, he passes hippies playing frisbee in the park, a jam song, etc, etc. The story serves as a means to create a vehicle for a multi-style crossover. The name of the album is Timekeeper.
The album finishes with the old man dying in his park bench after he finishes his lunch and all the people he has interacted with on that day surround him to mourn him. It serves to create a reprise medley of all the different styles covered in the album.
There is one extra person in the group that had come to surround him that he had not interacted with on that day, a girl on rollerblades wearing headphones, skating through the park. A coincidental event that happen to put her there at that moment in time.
She is the story behind the second album, instead of a man governed by time, she is a free spirit that charts her own course on a whim, and the music is all the people she interacts with on her journey through the city. The kick to the whole concept, the last song where you realize she is listening to the first album on her headphones. Also, an underlying concept for the two albums is the first one is more structured with attention to musical timing and structured music where the second is improvisational. If you can follow me on that one. And the beauty of all of it is that either album can be released first or second given the nature of the story.
At first I thought the album could come from one group, the show of diversity of talent within one group, but as they say, jack of all trades, master of none. It then became clear to me that the format had to be that of a compilation album. But in the case of the construct, it is a mixture of both. The blend of different musicians and their interactions of music created with each other.
I think with enough time and direction, this album could become a reality among all the musicians who have come to spend time at the construct.
Or maybe I've just flat out lost my mind this time.
I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year.
On the 20th, Arielle and I embark on a car ride back up to Connecticut. Javone will be flying up to meet us on the 23rd. (it was the earliest she could take away from work.) I'm not really worried about the car trip, Arielle is almost 2 years old now and she is a much different person in regards to conveying what she needs. I think we'll do just fine.
A trip to Connecticut always seems to leave me with an abundance of new found perspective. What I left behind, what I have created and all that. I think what I'm looking forward to most in my trip up is the time spent with my family. My dad is on the tail end of his treatment and is finally well enough to receive company. My younger brother just landed himself a new job, strangely enough at Philip Morris which is where my dad worked for close to 15 years. It's strange to think that my brother and dad will share the some of the same co-workers after all these years. My brother is also waiting until Christmas eve to propose to his girlfriend, which I couldn't be happier that I will be able to be in attendance for that event. All in all, I think the trip up will be spent with some really near and dear people who will really enjoy the company of each other.
I have to say, the jam sessions are coming along nicely. Obviously there are still a few bugs to work out to create an optimal sound, but I'm happy to see that people are willing to spend the time to create the music. Now if only we could get it a little bit warmer out there. I think the spring will be much kinder to us both musically and temperature wise. I have come to call the jam room the construct. As it seems that for all those involved, it is a building process, seeing who works well together and which groups do better isolated. There is a master plan involved. There always is.
This is the plan.
For those of you who have come out to bear witness, it's an understatement to say that there is a lot of diversity among the musicians who play. Where some might see this diversity as a clusterfuck of sound, I see it as an evolutionary synthesis. Let me explain.
The concept album
I came up with this idea a good couple of years back. A story of an old man who had retired from his daily grind at work, but in doing so found himself in a void of how to utilize his time. So in the wake of retirement to keep himself going, he created a consistent regiment that you could literally set your watch to. Everyday, at the exact same time he would do the exact same thing. He would get up, do his morning routine, make himself a lunch and go to central park to eat his lunch. Then he would come home, do his evening routine and go to sleep to do it all over again the next day.
The music of the album is all the different people he has interacted with from the time he left his home until the time he returned. Picture that he is passed by skateboarders, thus a skate punk song, he passes hippies playing frisbee in the park, a jam song, etc, etc. The story serves as a means to create a vehicle for a multi-style crossover. The name of the album is Timekeeper.
The album finishes with the old man dying in his park bench after he finishes his lunch and all the people he has interacted with on that day surround him to mourn him. It serves to create a reprise medley of all the different styles covered in the album.
There is one extra person in the group that had come to surround him that he had not interacted with on that day, a girl on rollerblades wearing headphones, skating through the park. A coincidental event that happen to put her there at that moment in time.
She is the story behind the second album, instead of a man governed by time, she is a free spirit that charts her own course on a whim, and the music is all the people she interacts with on her journey through the city. The kick to the whole concept, the last song where you realize she is listening to the first album on her headphones. Also, an underlying concept for the two albums is the first one is more structured with attention to musical timing and structured music where the second is improvisational. If you can follow me on that one. And the beauty of all of it is that either album can be released first or second given the nature of the story.
At first I thought the album could come from one group, the show of diversity of talent within one group, but as they say, jack of all trades, master of none. It then became clear to me that the format had to be that of a compilation album. But in the case of the construct, it is a mixture of both. The blend of different musicians and their interactions of music created with each other.
I think with enough time and direction, this album could become a reality among all the musicians who have come to spend time at the construct.
Or maybe I've just flat out lost my mind this time.