I'm watching a thing on Frank Lloyd Wright.  I'm trying to focus some thoughts.  Frank must go for the time being.  I can't multitask in this manner.  Now I'm outside on the lappy, with some Long Island tea boopin' away.  Cap'n Morgan to be excact.  Plus my wife has the AC set at -349587 degrees Kelvin.  All molecular motion has ceased indoors.

This is my first blog, (that I would consider real)  in some months.  Frankly, I haven't had anything I want to say.  I mean, I started to have problems with the things that were falling out of my mouth.  This does not include crumbs, coffee drool, or loogy hack.   I have frankly been lost in the musical woods for quite some time.  Years frankly.  No drama.  Just got lost and found myself looking at some great scenery that took me away from solo bass guitar.  Frankly, I needed a lot of ROK and I got it.  I'm still craving more.  But, I digress.  And now here's the thing I had at the end of the trail: 

It's what I call a Zen 180.  It is this:

I DON'T CARE AT ALL ABOUT PLAYING THE BASS. 

Here's the one-eight-oh:

BY SAYING THAT IT MEANS I CARE A LOT.

I spent years preparing elaborate explanations about the way I see the bass and what it can do.  Great.  It can do anything.  Great.  Now what?  I can take it all and with 8 dollars go buy some Guiness.

I RESONATE.  I RESONATE.  ALL THE TIME.

I got sick of my own music.  I got tired of dogmas.  Rock dogma.  Bass dogma.  Jazz dogma.  Music dogma.

I RESONATE.  THE VOICE IS THE VOICE.  THE MUSIC IS ME.  I JUST HAPPEN TO OPERATE A BASS.  I love the bass guitar.  It rules.  In my book.  I now feel strongly that in preparing my elaborate explanations for what I was doing, ( and others as well) things  can now be explained in the above statement.  I DON'T CARE.  In my blagging on and on about "the way I see it" and all that falderal, I may have MISSED the point of music entirely.  What's apalling, was the energy wasted (maybe it wasn't) explaining things to myopic, dogmatic Cornnozzles.  I haven't the time anymore. 

I RESONATE AGAIN.  I RESONATE WITH YOU.  We all have pitches, intervals, timbres etc. that really turn us on.  A lot those things that turn me on have nothing to with the bass.  Actually, the bass is one small part of it.  What a putz I be!

THE POINT?  I can only start guessing at this time.  I reach outside of myself to something larger, deeper every time I write or perform or record.  Through music, I can wake up inside of myself.  I can transcend my own skin and crawl towards a bigger light.  I can resonate with something, someone, someplace bigger than me.  Bigger than cliche'.  There I said it.  Also, in my music I don't think the bass should be the voice all time.  Until, it should be the voice all the time.  I'm mostly listening to  composers at the moment.   Toru Takemitsu is on the player right now. 

Now.  What's going on?  Well.  Since everyone and his brother has a looper now, I've pretty much put mine away. Plus so many are doing it better than me and the others are well... sub-optimal.  So. The solo tunes I'm writing at the moment are absolute.  The looper is being replaced by a computer and some software.  A keyboard (to play some mels here and there) will be joining me and some MIDI Taurus pedals will be with me also.  I will have the looper to play one or two old faves here and there. 

I HAVE NOW BEEN JOINED BY MY NIMROD CAT.  KIT-KAT THE SQUIRREL SLAYER.  He just darted off.

Also, my solo rig has been condensed to two small racks.  I'm eliminating amps (for the venues that have big PA) and mixing and processing everything from the lappy.  I will always use amps for the rock shows though.  The amps need to go to make room for some props.  I want to do a multimedia show.  There will have to be room in the car for all that accoutrement.   That's part of a two year plan.

Plus as I was griping about how  hard it was to find a quiet venue for solo bass, (or solo ANYTHING for that matter) why not make a bigger show?  A bigger spectacle than, some needle-nosed, twitchy little man holding a bass?  Then in the midst of that, when I do play absolute solo stuff, it will mean more.  To me for sure, and hopefully to folks that come to see it.  I can now have the volume and morph and loop more than my bass.  I'm having great fun with it.   So, come see me and the machine and me and me open up for In Liquid at AJ's on June the 20th.  Do it and live.  Love to all and later!