Item A: College kicks ass ( Read more... )

...So I moved into my dorm room on Sunday evening, and was immediately apprehended by Anna H, and this really creepy cat named Richard. Went out to publix, and came back to the dorm, cooked dinner. Next day was promptly awoken by one of my roommates at 5 AM, who turned on the lights and started playing rap music before going out for marching band ( Read more... )

So to contrast all the be-bop I've been working on, tonight I spent about 5 hours working on upper structure voicings, and transfering upper structure ideas into my solo lines, so I guess you could say that I'm bop-ifying them. Upper structure voicings basically means that you play a triad over a tritone to imply upper extentions of the chord (i.e ( Read more... )

Charlie Parker has eaten my soul.

That is all.

Guess I'll go to bed now.
-Bill

...finally fixedmy rhodes last night. Was up til 7 practicing. Woke up at 2.30 today. Went down and practiced til 6. Out at Rae's birthday dinner, etc, from 6 to 4. Practiced til 5.15. Finally learned Donna Lee. And Blues for Alice. And Yardbird Suite. And Boplicity. And tightened up Billie's Bounce. Been on a real Bird/Bop-in-general ( Read more... )

So...I was paid to write some music for this cat named David. The only guidlines he gave me were that the lead instrument be marimba, and that I spend 4 hours writing the stuff (he knows that with him I charge $15 an hour.) Well, i spent a half an hour on the music this morning, and went to deliver it to him. Got 3 finished songs in 30 minutes, ( Read more... )

For the past few days, we've had an old friend of my parents', Fitsugh, and his 19 year old son, James, staying with us. James is an absolutely amazing saxophonist, and Fitsugh is a great bass player, so in 2 days, we got 5 tunes done (James in on 5, and Fitz is on 3). Did all the horn section stuff as 4 tenors, gives it that Steely Dan vibe. ( Read more... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z0PoIjBDCgRead more... )

OK, so I had heart surgery on friday morning. I had Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, which basically meant that my heart had an extra pathway, and would create a circuit inside of itself, forcing it to beat very very fast, pretty much all the time. Once they had put me under, they still clocked it at going 300 beats per minute. They told me that ( Read more... )

Friday night: the FINAL UNBOUNDED SKY SHOW EVER ( Read more... )