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Waterbury CT - June 15 (Read 6180 times)

jameswalker

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Waterbury CT - June 15
June 12, 2002, 07:14:41 AM
Greetings, all -

I'll be performing on MalletKat this Saturday (6/15) at:

Cafe Bistro
92 Bank St.
Waterbury, CT
203-597-9292

James Walker:  MalletKat and steel pans
Lance James:  keyboards
Nick Longo:  drum set

Thanks, hope to see you there,

Jim
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »

Jay_Aitcheson

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#1 Re: Waterbury CT - June 15
June 20, 2002, 08:39:59 PM
Hi James, the instrumentation of your trio sounds very cool. I’m curious and I have a couple of questions. I’m making the assumption that it’s an instrumental thing, no vocals? It seems like everybody needs to label and categorize musical styles, that being said is your trio working in a jazz concept? Lastly, what kind of kit does your drummer use in this particular trio? Thanks for taking the time to reply, sounds like a trio that I would enjoy seeing and hearing.

                                    Jay
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »

jameswalker

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#2 Re: Waterbury CT - June 15
June 22, 2002, 04:10:07 PM
Hi, Jay - thanks for the reply.

In no particular order:

- The group is rooted in "Caribbean Jazz," for lack of a better term, focusing on calypsos, bossa/samba, and a some of the keyboardists's own "latin jazz" compositions.  It started out as a keyboard/drums/steelpan trio (for parties, cocktail hours, etc.), but when I started bringing my mallet synth along, it took on more of a jazz leaning, along with some (hopefully hipper) pop/R&B repertoire (Aretha, Stevie, Roberta Flack, Grover Washington Jr., et al) and some jazz standards (usually given a Latin/Brazilian arrangement, but not always).

- The only vocals (save for the occasional vocalist "sitting in" with the group) are on "Stir It Up," with the keyboardist (Lance) singing the refrain.  Other than that, it's all instrumental.

- The drummer, Nick, uses just a basic four-piece kit (actually, while he usually brings his Yamahas, for some gigs he just brings this beat-up-looking old nondescript Japanese brand I've never heard of, but he gets them to sound great!) - basically an open jazz tuning as well.  He usually brings a nice snare drum, FWIW, along with good cymbals, which makes all the difference (and which allows such a "beater" kit to work well).

The gig I listed originally in this thread was received quite well by the patrons and management at the Circa Bistro (my mistake calling it the "Cafe Bistro" - that's what I get for not checking my notes when I posted originally), so hopefully we'll be back in there again before too long.  If not there, then I'm sure we'll be gigging elsewhere open to the public, and I'll be sure to post that info' here.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »

Jay_Aitcheson

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#3 Re: Waterbury CT - June 15Do you
June 23, 2002, 02:12:11 PM
Hey James, Thanks for the additional info on your trio, I'll bet it's a great playing situation. Can I also inquire about your sound reinforcement? What are you using in the way of P. A. or amps to cover your restaurant gigs? Do you change it up for different venues? Thanks for the insight.

                                                        Jay
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »

jameswalker

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#4 Re: Waterbury CT - June 15
June 23, 2002, 02:58:21 PM
Hi, Jay,

For amplification of my synth rack, I'm currently running a Crown power amp into a nondescript old keyboard/pa cabinet.  (I run all three of my synths into a little Midiman mixer, and run the line out of that into my amp.)

I'm looking to purchase one of the Roland keyboard amps (KC100?), to make things a little more portable/streamlined for me, and also because I like the way these Roland amps sound.  The Crown amp is a great piece of gear, but way too much for what I need, and it weighs a ton, so I'd like to either switch over to a keyboard amp, or at least get a smaller amp (like the little half-rack Stewart amp I use for my vibraphone pickups) that doesn't weigh so much and take up so much space.

I really only aim to produce enough volume to amplify myself in a smaller club, or to use my amp as an onstage monitor; if it needs to be louder than that, then I'll leave it to the band to provide a PA, and either mic' my cabinet or take a direct feed into the main mixing board.

Hope this helps,

Jim
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »

Jay_Aitcheson

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#5 Re: Waterbury CT - June 15
June 25, 2002, 04:31:32 PM
Thanks Jim, I appreciate the reply. A friend of mine monitors his rig through a KC 300 and it sounds very good(although you loose the cool stereo panning of a PA type set up). I'm always interested in what combos are running in small venues.

                                                Thanks again. Jay
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1047513600 »