Visited by 2 list members

[Chuck Nessa]

Last week, thanks to Joe G, I met 2 list members within 20 miles of my place. Uncle Skid and Upright Bill came to our house tonight, and are dandy companions for an evening of music.

I had a great time guys.

edited for spelling

Edited December 18, 2003 by Chuck Nessa

[Jim Alfredson]

Chuck, you coming out tomorrow for our Holiday Party at Billy's? We're gonna have some fun fer sure!

Ho ho ho!

[Chuck Nessa]

We are planning on coming IF we can get some seats on the left side (so we can see the band - we could not see Randy last week). Any hints?

[Jim Alfredson]

Come early!

Music starts at 9pm. I'll put a reserved sign on one of the booths for you if you'd like.

[Uncle Skid]

Thanks for having us, Chuck! I had a great time.

For the record, my December CD budget is now officially in the red. Chuck played some *great* music for us, and I just couldn't walk away empty handed:

Air - Air Time (I'll need to revisit the comments in the AOW)

Roscoe Mitchell - Snurdy McGurdy (*wonderful* stuff!)

Charlie Rouse, Red Rodney - Social Call

Kenny Barron - New York Attitude

Mingus - West Coast 1945-49

Jim -- I was hoping to make your show tomorrow, but holiday stuff has gotten in the way. Bill and I are planning on coming out when you guys play UICA in January. B)

-- Mark

[Rooster_Ties]

Wish I lived closer, I'd love to meet you guys sometime, and hear the band too!! Would love to meet you too, Chuck -- and well, lots of other people on this board.

Don't know if I'd really pass muster as far as my non-"on-line" personality goes, but it'd be fun to give it a try.

'Free For All' and I have hung out together on several occasions, and for the most part I've managed to fake the "jazz guy who knows a thing or two" role, with at least moderate aplumb (or at least so I'd like to think ).

And I'm happy to report that socially awkwark though I may be, most of my other jazz musican friends don't seem to run for the door when they see me coming!!

If anybody's ever passing through Kansas City, let me know ahead of time - and I'll be glad to show you around town, or just hang out for a beer or somthin'.

[Jim Alfredson]

  Uncle Skid said:

Jim -- I was hoping to make your show tomorrow, but holiday stuff has gotten in the way. Bill and I are planning on coming out when you guys play UICA in January. B)

-- Mark

AW HELL NO! You need to get your butt down there. You AND Upright Bill.

B)

[Upright Bill]

  b3-er said:

  Uncle Skid said:

Jim -- I was hoping to make your show tomorrow, but holiday stuff has gotten in the way.  Bill and I are planning on coming out when you guys play UICA in January.  B)

-- Mark

AW HELL NO! You need to get your butt down there. You AND Upright Bill.

B)

I'm teaching tonight! If I cancel that then Uncle Skid's daughter and some other great folks will go guitar or bass lessonless! Plus, my students need to pay for the eight new CDs I got from Chuck last night

[Upright Bill]

  Chuck Nessa said:

Last week, thanks to Joe G, I met 2 list members within 20 miles of my place. Uncle Skid and Upright Bill came to our house tonight, and are dandy companions for an evening of music.

I had a great time guys.

edited for spelling

Chuck, great time last night!

I got to work this morning and a Leinie's Red bottle cap fell out of my jacket pocket. Thank You!

The music was amazing, the conversation incredible and the history lesson fasinating (there won't be a test will there? ).

[Uncle Skid]

  Upright Bill said:

Plus, my students need to pay for the eight new CDs I got from Chuck last night

Ah!! Now when the next price increase comes along, I'll know it was because Bill needs more jazz CDs!!!!

[Jim Alfredson]

Chuck, would you like me to reserve a booth for you?

[Chuck Nessa]

Thanks for the offer Boss, but that won't be necessary.

[blue lake]

So, how did it go at Billy's? How did the saxophonist work out?

[Jim Alfredson]

Well, we made more money! We got 80% of the door and we had the place packed, so that's good.

I think Johnny was a bit nervous here and there but overall he did great. He's still learning our tunes, our way of communcating on the bandstand, etc but that will come with time.

It's hard to come into a group that's been playing for three years together and fit in.

[Upright Bill]

I caught part of it on WGVU. I wish I could have been there.

Joe, I heard why Uncle Skip wants lessons from you. I really like your phrasing (I don't say that very often about guitarists).

[Joe G]

Thanks!

[Chuck Nessa]

We had a great time, tainted by having to leave before the 2nd set was finished. Johnny gathered steam as the evening progressed and sounded dandy.

Great crowd too.

[Jim Alfredson]

Yeah, it took him awhile to feel comfortable, which is totally understandable. But by the end of the night he was as relaxed and blowin' as good as he did in practice this past weekend.

[Chuck Nessa]

Jim, I want to thank you for the mini disc and tell you the recording is terrific! I love the organ sound.

I played it at high volume as soon as we got home. Ann took her copy to work and played it on her computer.

Thanks again.

[Dan Gould]

What??!! Did Chuck get a copy of the Clearwater set??

(Where's the "no fair" smilier?

[Chuck Nessa]

No Dan, the band was handing out discs of Christmas tunes (available online) to members of the audience.

[Jim Alfredson]

Yes, that Leslie is the best fuckin' Leslie I've ever heard!!! I bought that one in Chicago a couple months ago from a real strange and very cool cat. He had every kind of ancient audio gear you can think of... anything from pre-WWII he had. Lathes, huge tube amps, mixing desks, preamps... everything. Amazing stuff. And he had this Leslie 21H that he bought because he was going to take the Jensen field coil woofer out of it.

Luckily he decided that the thing was so pretty it would be a shame to just part it out. So he put it up on Ebay for the unbelievable price of $650. You cannot find a full size Leslie for that price. So I snatched that baby, even though I had to borrow the money from a friend of mine.

The Leslie 21H was made before the 122 which is the defacto standard for B3s. But RVG has a 21H with his C3. I had never heard one in person before hearing this one and now I see why Rudy never updated to a 122. The 122 has the "chorale" speed (the slow speed) as well as the "tremelo" speed (the fast one). The 21H only has fast, but the tone is infinitely better.

There are multiple reasons. First, that aforementioned field coil Jensen woofer is incredible!! It's 15", just like the woofers in the Leslie 122. But it's a field coil woofer, which means that it doesn't have a permanent magnet on the speaker. They couldn't make synthetic magnets at the time and natural magnets were too expensive. So in order to have a magnet for the speaker they used an electro-magnet. So the Leslie amp also powers the coil with about 400v to create the magnetic field that actually runs the speaker... the bass is incredible on them! Those Jensen's go for upwards of $300 a piece on Ebay... just for the speaker! Nutty audiophiles love them because they work so well with tube amps.

And the 21H I got has the original Jensen horn in it as well for the high frequencies. They are hard to find because they are easily blown by playing the organ too loud. But they have this silky, beautiful, smooth high end that is unmatched in any other driver I've ever heard in a Leslie.

Sorry for going on and on... I could talk about this all day! Every organ and Leslie sounds different and there are ways to change the sound to your liking. I've worked hard finding combinations and fiddling with electronics that have really pleasing tonalities.