Jim Alfredson

Saint Vitus, I am happy with the sound of my organ on our disc. Compared to Unity, it has more of a room sound to it. I don't mind that. The organ on Unity is very dry and upfront, which is a cool sound. But I think the sound of my organ fits very nice in the mix. One thing to consider, I don't have a stock upper driver in my Leslie. It has some Peavey driver in it instead of the original Atlas. Whoever had it before me probably blew the Atlas out and you can't get them anymore so he just stuck in this Peavey. The Peavey sounds fine in a live situation because it is very bright and cuts through. But in the studio, it can be too much. More of a room signal helps deaden this out a little without relying on EQ. One of these days I'm going to replace that damn thing!

Garrison, It's really all about memorizing patterns. Obviously, when you're not soloing and just comping, you can devote more attention to the left hand because the right is just hitting chords. But with soloing, you develop bass line patterns and just switch and mix and match. At least, that's how I do it. So it's not totally improvised.

Yeah, those are the guys I first heard! Get some Yuri Yakinov. His group is just as bad!

Man, that shit is hip! Joe and I saw Yuri Yakinov at the Folk Festival in East Lansing a few years ago. Those guys were burnin'! It took Joe and I about 5 minutes into each tune to figure out that damn time signature! The stuff is nutty! And people dance to this shit! Incredible. Having been in choir in high school and all through college, I love any choral music. A cappella is the best. I was obsessed with Genesis (mainly the Gabriel era) when I was in middle/high school. I listened to Peter Gabriel in elementary school and that kind of led into the Genesis thing. I tried out other "progressive rock" groups like Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, etc... but I didn't like any of them as much as Genesis. When I was in elementary school I also used to stay up late on Friday nights and listen to "Hearts of Space". I liked Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Stephen Meecus, Tangerine Dream (the 70s stuff) and all those weird, early synth pioneers. I listen to mainly jazz and classic soul now, but I'm starting to re-discover my roots and explore some other areas again.

Mark, We're really trying to do something different with the organ trio. I don't want to be another Jimmy Smith imitator. That's cool and all, but there are cats that can do it much better than me. Your comments are very helpful... it looks like we're succeeding in our goals. Joe is a bad mofo. But he's bad in a subtle way. That's what I love about his playing! Thank you for your purchase and your comments! Spread the word, brotha!

That family portrait is so horrible. I can only imagine what the grandparents of that child thought when mom and dad gave them that atrocity.

Chuck, I'm sure we'll do another WGVU Jazz Nite sometime soon. I'll let you know when that is.

Gotcha... Let's try it out...

You can't edit topic titles (I can! but I can't figure out how to let you guys do it... yet) but you can delete your own topic and start again. It's down towards the bottom on the right where it says "moderator options"... you only have one... "delete topic".

My understanding is that the board is primarily a music discussion board. Jazz is a big part of that, but my original intent was to provide a space for all kinds of music. If enough people want it, I'm all for it, but I thought it might be redundant.

Chuck, I don't think we'll be doing the BOB anytime soon. I personally dislike playing there. The last gig we had, so many things went wrong. First off Joe and I were late getting there from Lansing. Then as I'm rolling my Leslie in, the damn cracked sidewalk in front catches one of the casters and rips it right out. So now I have an un-rollable, leaning Leslie. Then we play our assess off for three sets and there's no one there who cares. And as we load out I pull my back out lifting the pedals of the organ. My back is still messed up. It was a bad night, suffice to say. Plus the staff at that place are very rude, IMO. I used to play there with my blues band but we stopped because the staff are such assholes. One of their waitresses mistreated my wife (came to the table maybe twice the whole night, tried to overcharge her for her drinks by taking out her own tip, etc...) and so we told the manager and then we hear from the booking agent that the waitstaff was complaining about us. I could go on and on about that place. If I never played there again, that would be fine with me. We play a lot of places in Grand Rapids, so not playing the BOB is no skin off my back.

The top level is 10,000 posts. You'll have to wait a see what the level is called. It's a surprise!!!!

Yeah yeah... I'm a bit behind in my CD buying. All that money going towards recording and promoting my own band! Doesn't leave much room for anything else.

You can delete a post, not a topic. If enough people want me to change that, I think I can do that. Those pics are crazy! I hope that storm doesn't come here! We've been finally enjoying some springlike temperatures around here!

I got my new one!

Let us know when you get it!

The images have to be under 100k. If they are, then you can attach them using the "File Attachments" window underneath the post window.

Ad-Aware is highly reccommended. You'll be surprise what's on your computer if you've never used that program before.

I fixed it!

I LOVE that record, even though it's sloppy in some places. I love the first tune, "Jesse Jackson"! They muck the head up something awful, but it's got such a cool vibe! And then there's the cover of the theme from The Odd Couple! What a great tune to solo over! I played along to that just the other night and had a blast! I'm getting that Boss Tenors in Orbit disc from BMG. I can't wait to hear Don, Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons together! WHOO HOO!

You all see why I love this guy! A nice picture up on our website, speaking of Art Blakey. Who's that crazy white-boy at his side?

Man, I jump in my car to get some lunch this afternoon, turn on WEMU here in Ann Arbor and guess what's playin'?? Only the baddest organ trio to come out of Mid-Michigan! Sweet!

Classical?!?! Do people actually listen to that shit? That's a good idea... although the wife idea is better. That way she won't kill me for spending money we really don't have! :rsly:

Ok, so I just joined BMG for the second time. I was a member for a few years until they sent me some crappy Boney James record and I sent it back and they didn't get and they tried to charge me for it... blah blah blah. Anyway, I saw that they had "Boss Tenors in Orbit" which I've been wanting to get for awhile, but it's always at least $17 on any website so... This is what I got for my first seven: 1 Gene Ammons with Sonny Stitt Boss Tenors In Orbit! 2 Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans Know What I Mean? (Remastered) 3 John Coltrane Coltrane Plays The Blues (Remastered) 4 Grant Green Trio Green Street (Remastered) 5 Norah Jones Come Away With Me (IT'S FOR THE WIFE!!!!) 6 Jack McDuff Moon Rappin' (Remastered) 7 Joe Williams Joe Williams At Newport '63 (Remastered) Problem is, I only saw one other disc that I wanted on there. Does the catalog open up a little more once you become a member? I don't know if there are five more discs I want. Maybe I'll just give them to the wife. She'll find something.

Hey, this is a family board!!