1 month away from Recording

Blog #107:  1 month away from recording

Its May 2nd and I'm about one month away from starting to record my third album.  For this record I've decided to do EVERYTHING differently.  First of all, almost all jazz records are recorded in two back to back days.  What usually happens is you record for about 8 hours, then you go home listen to the recordings you did that day for another few hours, crash(because its exhausting to be that focused for so long), then wake up and try to do second takes and punch-in corrections the next day.  The whole thing is a total hurricane(or at least it feels that way if you're the leader.) 

For my upcoming album I'm going to do this differently.  The music we've been playing is really energetic and its very hard (if not impossible) to maintain that intensity for 8 hours straight.  The band sprints, its not taking a marathon pace.  When we play live, we can only do 1 set: we go hard.  So we're going to do 3 shorter days(recording for 4 hours at a time.)  This is kind of a gamble, because we'll be essentially trying to nail less songs per day, and if we don't get a good take upon playback, we've wasted those 4 hours.  The 2nd and 3rd day of recording will hopefully be in August and September respectively.  The other reason I'm spreading out the dates is I want more time to listen to the tracks and talk with Brad(keys) and Noah(guitar) about layering extra tracks on top of what we record live.  So it will be a two part process: recording like you would a normal jazz record, live and improvised with the band and pt 2 laying subtle things after the fact, and after thinking about it a lot; much in the way a rock record is recorded.  This also fits the style of the music, which is more rock based.  Essentially I want to slow the whole recording process down.

Another big difference is the size of the band.  Its going to be my first record with a sextet:
Jon Crowley -Trumpet
John Beaty- Alto Sax
Noah Berman- Guitar and Effects
Brad Whiteley- Piano, Rhodes, Effects
Ben Thomas- Bass
Max Maples- Drums

Using guitar and piano is interesting, since I'm writing parts so they can both be playing and comping together behind the soloists instead of taking turns(which is what most people do when they have both in a jazz setting)  Its been cool and a fun challenge to write a writing comping part for one instrument while giving the other the freedom to 'just comp naturally', or for the piano parts, sometimes i write something for the left hand but let Brad comp what he hears with his right hand.  There are lots of other ways the music we'll be recording is different than 99% of jazz records.  For one, all the songs are through-composed; meaning we don't play the melody, take solos on the same form and play the melody again.  Solos are on different structures, lots of cued sections and the pieces evolve and end in different places than they began.  Not that many people are doing this right now, but I believe it to be the future of "jazz".

Lastly, since we'll be doing three days, and soo much material, the stuff we record will end up being a full album AND a shorter EP.: basically two CDs.  We'll release the EP first, then probably 4 months or so later i'll put out the full album.  This will give me time to work on one and then the other as far as editing and laying with the guys.  Besides that a friend of mine is going to be release the EP on his newly founded label, which is exciting and takes some of the monetary stress off me(which is great), hopefully we can get this record out there and really get the music we're doing on the map.

Here's a clip of the stuff we've been working on:  http://soundcloud.com/joncrowleymusic/and-we-talked-all-night-april

It's been a while

Photos from Agnes Fohn at the Apt Show

It's been a while

Blog # 106

Okay, let me just start by saying sorry.  If you've a frequent reader of my blog, you know I'm usually pretty good at writing a couple posts a month.  I've done at least one a month for the past 4 years.  But I haven't written one since November.. yikes.  Any reason?  No, not really.  I've been practicing just as much, doing a LOT of rehearsals, and meeting and playing with so many new musicians around NYC that I look through my phone at the names and think 'Who are these people?'

I guess I'll share a few things that have happened.  For one, I played a really great show a few weeks ago at a club called Muchmore's in Williamburg Brooklyn.  The show was awesome, and I had a great time.  It was a bill with 3 bands: my band 'Heart of Darkness' played first, then one of my favorite brooklyn bands and friends 'Relatives' played second, and 'Noble Laureate' played last.  Relatives are a avant-garde, folk, rock.. I don't know its hard to describe their music but its awesome.  Katie from 'Relatives' was in a band with me a few years back called 'Red Light Growler' and she set up the show.  Closing the show was 'Noble Laureate', a grunge rock duo lead by my friend Ross, who was also in 'Red Light Growler' back then.  I'm always impressed by the Lyrics he writes, def stuff that makes you think.  Over all it was great to play on a bill with bands that are doing different thing stylistically, I'd like to do more of that in the future and steer away from doing more jazz events at jazz clubs.  I like a lot of different music and the idea of just mixing it all up and presenting it together.  As I've said before most jazz clubs tell me my music isn't 'jazz enough', while anyone who isn't a jazz person sees a trumpet and sax and just labels us 'jazz'.  I can't win.  But this night at Muchmore's was perfect and definitely the direction I'd like to keep going in.  Turn out was great and everyone had a good time.

Here's Relatives: http://relatives.bandcamp.com/
Here's Noble Laureate: http://soundcloud.com/red-light-growler/sets/ross-edwards/
Here's a few songs we played that night:  http://soundcloud.com/joncrowleymusic/a-little-poison-live-muchmores and http://soundcloud.com/joncrowleymusic/lonely-lonely-feist

Back in December, we did a house show too....at my apartment, which was a lot of fun.  We had over friends (about 15 people) and played hard! ...until about 9:30 when the downstairs neighbors came up and we're like 'seriously?', hahaha! .... well, we got to play for about 30 min anyway and then Katie and Ian played a duo set after us, which was quieter so that worked out well.  The whole thing was a fun idea, I might try to do something like that again but maybe make it a little earlier in the afternoon...maybe have a few bands play.  It was cool to play for friends though and turn my one room apt into a performance space for a few hours.

Other than that we're gearing up for the next show at Sycamore, my absolute favorite place to play and its only about 15 min from my apt in Brooklyn.  Relatives are going to open for us too, so it should be a great night of music, Thurs March 28th!

Lastly, I've been thinking about recording again.  I do not love the process of recording, being in the studio, having to listen to tracks over and over again, cleaning things up, thinking about cover art, design.  The whole thing isn't enjoyable, but I do love having a finished record, and the other great part about recording is when its finished you can stop playing those songs and move to the next thing.  Everything I play now has been written in the past 2 years and hasn't been recorded yet, so I'd like to document all that music, which is drastically different than both of my previous albums.  I actually have so much material I could probably do 2 albums, so I've been entertaining the idea of doing an album and an E.P.  Staggering their release.  I've also thought about recording more spread out, IE one day one month, one the next, one the next, instead of most jazz recordings, which are finished in 2 consecutive days.  Just as a way to make it different and put more thought into it instead of making it some sort of crazy sprint.  But obviously another issue is money.  Its VERY expensive to record so I'm going to have to come up with some cash.  I would do a kickstarter, but I don't think I'm well known enough for that to raise any money or for that to work.  So I'm going to have to think of another way....

Songs with (unsung) Lyrics

#105
Songs with (unsung) lyrics

Just got back to Brooklyn from spending a week in PA for Thanksgiving.  It was nice to relax a bit and just be out of the city for a while.  If you've been a frequent visitor of this blog you may have noticed that I haven't been writing entries as much these days.  If you've been reading for a while you've also probably noticed how often in years pasts my blogs were just ranting complaints about the Jazz world, musicians, the scene etc.  So my more sparce entries these days have a bit to do with not trying to write those sort of posts too often, not that my feelings towards those things have changed at all.  I could just as easily write another post about how I feel Jazz musicians THINK they are the most creative musicians on the planet, while in fact most are happy imitating styles past and regurgitating cliches....but i'm not going to write about that :)

What I will share, is that I've been practicing as hard as ever and writing more and more music.  Something interesting that's happening in my song-writing, is a more alternative rock vocabulary is really coming through and is now affecting my improvisational vocabulary too.  It is easy to brush off different rock or pop styles as just 'simple' but they have their own classic phrases, resolutions etc just as bebop (or even avant garde music).  One thing that I've tried to do recently with newer compositions is to write "songs" using almost 'chorus-verse' forms(though I do also like to experiment with those forms and structures too, and never play them just straight down).  I've thought about writing lyrics for several years now, but I've never really been great about expressing feelings or stories in song-form.  Instead, I've always preferred to title music after a feeling or specific event or moment in my life and then try to express those feelings just with music.  With many of my newer tunes I've started to write melodies that would be singable and develop as if there WERE lyrics, IE I will have a melody develop and make add an extra note to account for another syllable in a vocal line....a syllable to a lyric that is never written.  So in a way I'm writing music with Lyrics, but just not every writing any lyrics.  This may sound weird.  I've thought about maybe going back to some of these songs and writing lyrics, which wouldn't be too hard, considering I know what all these songs are about and their titles illustrate a story or topic already.  That said, writing lyrics is still a pretty daunting and self-exposing task.  Maybe I'll write lyrics to these songs and then just never share them.

If you want an example check out this song:

http://joncrowleymusic.bandcamp.com/track/ill-be-fine-without-you

More on the way!

New shows Added:
Fri Dec 7th @ The Crow's Nest (House Show), Brooklyn
Thurs Dec 20th @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, Brooklyn

The Next Level

Want to get good at anything?  Get ready to get your ass kicked over and over.

I've been thinking a lot about this over the last few days and I just keep coming back to this thought.  If you want to get good at anything, you need to take a whooping first.  Let me explain:

This weekend I ran my first half-marathon(13 miles) in Central Park, NYC.  It was intense, painful and probably the hardest thing physically I've ever had to do.  To give you some perspective, I started running a little more than 2 years ago from doing no physical exercise at all.  As I got more and more into running I would do more runs per week and increase my distances.  By January I was doing a 3 mile run Monday, Wednesday and Fri.  Occasionally I'd do a 5 and I remember the Thanksgiving before I did an 8 mile run (my longest to date at the time). 

I decided to enter my first race, the broad street run in Philadelphia, May of of this year.  It was a 10 mile race down broad street; straight and flat.  I worked myself up to pretty much 3 5 mile runs per week before the race, occasionally testing the waters up to 7/8.  Broad Street was pretty hard, by the end I remember my knees hurting and being pretty tired, but getting across the finish line at pretty good pace.  In fact I spent most of the race passing people.  This was my first time running 10 miles and i remember thinking: now I know what running 10 miles feels like, I probably could have actually run a little faster and been alright, and I know where my training and performance meet.

This weekend's Half-Marathon was a totally different story.  As I said before, physically it was the hardest thing I've ever done.  First of all, the course wasn't flat, it was VERY hilly and as someone with long skinny legs, I've always struggled with hills.  As I finished mile 9 and moved towards 10 I thought: This is somewhere I've been before and its somewhere I know.  Even though the course was way harder, I'd run a 10 mile race and after running it, I discovered that there was a level of being in-shape beyond what I knew at the time.  As I passed mile 10 I moved into uncharted territory.  My legs felt like I was in quicksand, they just wouldn't move like I wanted them too, and the course seemed to be ALL uphill.  By mile 11 I really wanted to stop, I felt like I was just shuffling along, my thighs becoming stiffer, getting passed by person after person, which added to my frustration and desire to quit.  But I promised myself I wouldn't stop, walk or slow, so I kept moving.  I knew I wouldn't be able to run more than the 13, so i made a deal with myself.  I just kept saying: just 2 more miles and then you can stop, you can do 2 miles, Finish it.  Which I did with a time of 1 hour and 54 minutes.(which is actually pretty good)

But I learned a lot, mostly what I learned is that when you get your ass kicked, you realize what other levels exist beyond what you knew and then you work harder to achieve those.  I thought I was in shape, and I guess I am in pretty good shape, but i finished that race by sheer will.  At my level now, Broad Street would have been a piece of cake and now I know what a hard half-marathon feels like.  I know I'm going to need to push myself more, train harder, work myself up to longer runs if I plan to do that kind of distance(or more).  Frankly, I plan to work harder and I'm sure at some point I'll look back and laugh at how hard those 13 miles felt, but as of last weekend: that was my limit.

I've heard the old adage a lot that you learn more from your losses than your victories, and I know they say fighters get better from losses.  I think this is because they realize that there is a level beyond what they knew, and the fighter that beats them is better and is on the next level.

The same can be said for music.  You might think you're a great trumpet player, musician or composer until your face to face with someone who is on another level, at which point you realize what else exists.  You take your licks, you go home, practice and you come back stronger.  So I cherish those ass-kickings, they make you stronger and better if you can take them the right way; as motivation and knowledge.

You gotta lose a lot, before you can win.

Recent Shows

A photo of the show at World Cafe Live(philly) courtesy of Alex Feldman


Blog # 103: Recent Shows


Okay okay...I'm sorry I haven't been updating this blog so much recently, I've been a little busy with a bunch of gigs, booking shows, teaching, writing music, practicing like crazy and training for a half-marathon I'm running in a few weeks.

I guess I'll give a little recap of the past few weeks.  First I played a show with my band 'Heart of Darkness' at Sycamore Bar and Flowershop in Brooklyn on August 23rd.  This is my favorite place to play in the world, and I love playing with this project 'Heart of Darkness', which is really all about energy.  The pieces feel so colorful and emotional and the band just really gives their all, I know by the last song I have nothing left and that feels good.  This was kind of a funny gig though.  First, I showed up and Brad had forgotten his keyboard stand.  So he had borrowed 2 kegs to use as a stand, which was pretty funny looking.  The band argued a bit about who was going to stand where on the stage(of which I stayed out of...I feel most comfortable playing in the dark anyway).  John showed up last because the subway was messed up, but he threw together his sax in about 2 seconds and was ready to go.  We had about 15-20 people there, which felt perfect for the small basement space and we started playing our set. 

The first song begins with a rhythm section building on this repeated figure, though about 2 minutes in, Brad's keyboard starts making incredibly distorted feedback.  I just kept my eyes closed and let them build and correct themselves.  When Brad failed to get it back and reboot his computer(he uses it for effects), I whispered to him "Just play the fuckin' keyboard" and we were off and running.  After that first short intro piece we go into a trumpet/piano duo section, I was curious as to if Brad was going to get the keyboard working again in time....and was preparing myself to play SOLO trumpet, but Brad got it working and it was all good.  He ended up using just a piano sound for the rest of the night, which gave the gig a different flavor.  You can listen to the entire show HERE: http://joncrowleymusic.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-sycamore-8-23-12

Halfway into that duo piece, I opened my eyes and there were 4 police with flashlights looking around the small room we were playing in...acting like they were looking for an escaped Con.  I tried not to let it throw me off, shut my eyes and just tried to stay in the moment.  The rest of the show went smoothly, and I was happy listening to the recording I made, it was really a challenge to stay focused despite those issues and everyone seemed to like the show.

Then, last week I did a show in Philly at World Cafe Live.  I did everything I could think of to bring out as many people as possible.  Email, Facebook event, had the show listed in different newspapers in Philly, sent fliers to the venue, mailed fliers to friends in philly to put up and hand out to friends, and even texted a few friends.  Despite my efforts it was a pretty light turnout gig: about 15 people(which felt like a lot less because the room was so quiet between songs).  What are you gonna do? You can't win 'em all.  But I was happy and appreciative of all the people that came.  The venue was awesome and I hope to play there again, maybe get a few different bands to play on the same bill(their suggestion), since it was just us that night.  There's a clip of the show HERE: http://soundcloud.com/joncrowleymusic/in-dreams

Other than that I've been trying to write a lot of new music, and just thinking a lot about where to play and how to approach doing shows in the future to make them as exciting as they can be.  In a few weeks I'm playing at Smalls Jazz Club in the village with the FONT festival, hopefully we can turn some heads and win some new fans with our music.  Jordan Perlson is going to be subbing on drums on this one.  Smalls probably wouldn't normally book this group because we're not "straight-ahead" enough, but I don't give a fuck and am going in there to just throw down and do my thing.  If they hate me and ban me, than that's how it goes.  I just don't give a shit any more.

Don't call it a comeback!...nevermind, you can call it a comeback

Blog # 102: Don't call it a comeback...nevermind, you can call it a comeback.

I got back to my apartment in Brooklyn about a week ago.  I had been in PA for the entire month of July working at a camp and staying at my parents house for those 5 weeks.  I've worked at the camp(@ Benchmark School) for the past 13 years, with the exception of 2 years I took off while I was in grad school at NYU.  Its pretty much a normal recreation camp, with games like kickball, bombardment etc, as well as a high-ropes course, climbing and a zipline.  I actually really enjoy working there and it offers a nice break from my New York City life.  I have a lot of fun playing with the kids and getting to be outside all day.  It also pays very well, which helps me continue my lifestyle here in NYC without getting any sort of day-job, so I'm free to practice all day and do rehearsals, sessions and gigs.  While I'm in PA for that month, I'm pretty much in survival mode when it comes to the trumpet, since I leave my house every morning at 7 and get home at 4:30.  When I come home, i pretty much shower, clean up, eat something and get started practicing....which I do pretty much until I fall asleep each night.  This means I usually get in 2-3 hours a day, which is pretty light for me. 

Anyway, just got back a week ago, jumped back into my heavier practice schedule, arranged some sessions and rehearsals and am preparing for some gigs coming up.  If you've been keeping track of my blog or activities for a while you might remember I decided to take some time off from performing because I just felt exhausted from the constant battle of scheduling rehearsals, dealing with club owners/booking agents, and just the general feeling of working so hard just to feel like no one really cares.(I have been practicing and playing with friends more so than ever though).  You can read back to hear more about that.  But in a few weeks I'll be playing my first show since March.  The last show was at Sycamore Bar and Flowershop in Brooklyn and this comeback show is there too, which seems fitting.(Aug 23rd).  Sycamore is my favorite place to play and hear music, great small basement space and the people that run the place couldn't be nicer, they just let you do your thing.  I've got a bunch of new music I'm excited to share with everyone and am now just doing everything I can think of to advertise and let everyone know this gig is coming up.  Also, I booked a show at World Cafe Live in philly, which will be my first show back in town since last August.  I played at another venue down there for a long time, and just felt my music would be better suited for a different spot, so I'm excited to be comin' home to Philly soon!(Sept 9th).  Lastly, at the end of next month, i'll be performing as part of FONT(Festival of New Trumpet Music), which happens all around NYC and is a festival started and run by Dave Douglas.  My band 'Heart of Darkness' will play at Smalls at Midnight on Weds Sept 26th(or very early thurs morning depending on how you look at it).  I got a little screwed on the time-slot at the last minute, which I wasn't too psyched about....but what are you going to do?  That's what happens, its all part of that shit which had me burnout and not performing for the past 4 months...but I'm trying to make lemonade out of lemons.  Hopefully they'll be someone in the room that night that late...

Its good to have some gigs on the calendar again, and playing and writing music will always be enjoyable, its usually just all that extra stuff that bothers me.  My new goal is to play out of the city more, I'm working on finding the right venues that would fit my group in Boston, and DC next.

New York Scene: Living the Dream

Blog # 10: New York Scene: Living the Dream

I had a moment the other day where I was talking after a session to a new drummer friend that just moved to town where I really felt a sense of things coming full-circle.  The way he was talking about moving to NYC really just brought me back to a time when I was 22 years old, in college in Allentown and dreaming of moving to New York City one day and hoping to make it in the Jazz scene.  Back then Branford Marsalis had a forum on his website and it seemed EVERYONE was there talking about music, jazz and the scene.  People were sharing their opinions and mingling without divides.(there was also a lot of shit-talking and ridiculousness that was fairly entertaining).  I remember thinking 'God, some of these guys that have made it seem SO jaded and dark about the scene'.  I thought that: they are playing gigs at these well-known venues I've heard about with other famous musicians; they must be making money and living the dream.  What is there to complain about?!!  If I'd heard of them(as a 22 yr old kid in Allentown) surely they were a big name and could get a gig ANYWHERE, pack the house and have people just loving their music.  I remember hearing about 'The Up and Over Cafe' and it sounded like all the young people to watch were playing there, their futures as 'jazz stars' were secured.  I even had bootleg recordings of Jaleel Shaw and Marcus Strickland performing at the Cafe.

I was so wrong.  Just cause you've heard of someone doesn't mean they were landing gigs easily, and reaping the rewards of their talent.  Anyway you slice it, its a hard life being a musician in New York City.  I know in the neighborhood I live in now there a tons of musicians who are far more established and well known them me, and if they're living here, they're not doing that great.  Its so weird when you realize you can be incredibly respected and famous in the jazz world and STILL be fighting for gigs at even mid and low level places in the city.(a lot of these places you might think are cool, you'll be playing for FREE and treated like SHIT). 

I now play with a many musicians that I was hearing about before I moved to the city, and realize they are pretty much in the same boat as me.  Playing some gigs here and there and either working a day job or doing a lot of teaching to make sure they can make enough money to pay rent.  Another thing I've realized is how many musicians there are; great ones you've never even heard of.  Those levels that you thought existed between the guys that are heavily hyped and everyone else don't really exist.  I like to tell the joke: "Q: What's the difference between a good jazz musician and a great jazz musician?  A: a publicist."  I know personally I'd rather see someone doing something very different or original than just shredding some crazy technique, because EVERYONE in this city is a virtuoso.

I dunno, its weird.  In a way, I feel like I'm now in the position of the guys I used to hear about, which isn't to say people know who I am or are talking about me or whatever.  But I feel like I've come full circle and those guys that I used to think were just super dark and jaded, were really just frustrated because you can be playing gigs and appear to be 'going place' and are really just spinning your wheels in the mud, making no money and playing half-empty rooms.  Labels that you thought were legit, where you pay for your own recording.  There's a big difference between what you think is happening and what REALLY is happening.  This shit ain't easy, and I don't think it ever was or ever will be.