Zubatto Syndicate and More!

The Zubatto Syndicate gig on November 5th was a success!

As a musician playing Andrew Boscardin's music (the composer, and leader of the Zubatto Syndicate) I wanted to write a little something from an insider perspective for all you bloggers and musicians out there.

We have all played gigs before where musicians and composers are trying to bring many different types of music together, and in my experience many of these instances are exaggerated incredibly. Normally when you get a classical group that says they are combining the two(jazz and classical), you have a chamber ensemble of some sort playing some major nine chords, or playing some modal sounding piece. When you get the jazz guys mixing classical into their playing, they are not really mixing in solid classical influences, but are improvising in a way that resembles how they interpret classical music. The music that Andrew wrote for the Zubatto Syndicate is definitely from more of a jazz background, but I felt that it had an honest mixing of classical influences.

Part of this could be attributed to a third of the band being typical 'classical' instruments. This made for some very unique arrangements, with oboe, bassoon and clarinets often playing the top of the voicings, and trumpet, alto and some of the jazz side of the band that normally play the top of the "balance pyramid" playing some inner voicings. I have not heard the recordings yet, but it sounded good from the band stand. My only concern is that the woodwind instruments can not be as loud as the brass, so I hope the balance was good the night of the performance and the melodies when they were in the oboe and clarinet were not over powered by the brass section.

One of the goal's of the Zubatto Syndicate, was to mix this quasi big-band style with contemporary styles. A lot of Andrew's songs (All entitled as Z, followed by a number. He said this was because when he was brainstorming musical ideas and motif's he just numbered them and instead of creating a name for the tunes, he just kept them as Z7, Z2, Z35 and etc.) were built around grooves. Rock grooves, hip-hop grooves, bluesy grooves and all sorts of interesting rhythms (One of Andrew's pieces was built around a 7/8 drum groove, really cool!). Byron Vannoy was playing drums, and John Hammer was playing bass, and together they really held down a good foundation for the band.

Once the band had rehearsed a few times, it was time to get down to Town Hall and perform the show. Even after rehearsing and practicing the music, I know that I was still on the uncomfortable edge when it was performance time... and I do not think I was alone! Part of it was because of the difficult passages, and rhythms that the music contained. Another part of it was that since Town Hall is such a huge room, with thirty foot ceilings, the sound of the bass on stage was basically disappearing. Because of this, throughout the show I was trying hard just to lay down the basic harmony of the pieces so that soloists could tell where we were in the forms (It sure was pretty tricky in spots!!!). I do not know how well I did, we can all see when the concert is broadcast on the Seattle Channel in January!

Overall, I think the nervousness of the band helped the performance. We were all super attentive as a unit, and there were several times where people stepped up and helped to lead everyone else. If everyone was super clean on all of the material and at ease, I do not think it would have had the same energy that it did.

I love working with Andrew, because all of his music has such interesting melodies, and he writes truly original music. Not to mention he is a good friend of mine, and we always have fun playing together! I would recommend not just jazz lovers, but any music lover to at least give the Zubatto Syndicate a listen to see what they think, it is an ambitious music, experimental, energetic, and then it is rounded out by some great soloists! Clark Gibson, Chad McCullough, Chris Stover and Jim DeJoie were all killing it.

Zubatto Syndicate is:

Zubatto Syndicate is:
Byron Vannoy - drums
Chris Stover - trombone
Greg Sinibaldi - bass clarinet and tenor saxophone
Francine Peterson - bassoon
Chad McCullough - trumpet
Taina Karr - oboe and English horn
Jon Hamar - bass
Mack Grout - keys
Clark Gibson - alto saxophone
Jim DeJoie - baritone saxophone
Jesse Canterbury - clarinet

Andrew Boscardin - guitar

Check out Andrew Boscardin's blog on the band here.

Excited about an upcoming gig this weekend!

I am super excited to be playing a gig this Saturday at the Lynnwood Free Methodist Church.

My band is playing a jazz concert to raise money for the Lynnwood Food Bank. It should be really fun, everyone in the band is a great musician. I am super stoked, although I play gigs and work all the time, I am trying to push more of 'my' thing lately. This concert is a good representation of who I am as a musician, and what I do, and what I want to do all the time. Obviously, I love all the bands that I play with, but it feels sometimes that I am so busy working all the time that I am not focusing on doing what I want to do, and pushing my career as a musician (sideman aside).

Anyways, get more information at the official website (Google Lynnwood Food Bank) or at the Facebook event page here.

Also, on Facebook you can see a lot of the pictures from the Dudley Manlove Spooktacular, 2009, which kicked @$$!

Other notable gigs:

Zubbatto Syndicate : Adventurous Rock Jazz Hop written by Andrew Bosardin. I love playing in Andrews bands, it is an adventure, and he is a good friend of mine! Come out, were at Town Hall this Thursday! Brought to you by the Seattle City of the Music fund... or something like that!

Water Babies : Love it, rocked the Waterstreet in Port Townsend

Spirit of Peace Church : Gettin the hang of being a music minister

Crystal Ballroom : Felt like a rockstar! Wait a minute, I was a rockstar! It was interesting to play it for tons of peeps at a public show, and then the next night to have to play it for a lot of people at a gigantic private wedding!

Nordstrom : ..... What is this? I feel that all pianists probably try this gig out at least once --- you can look for me soon at the Bellevue Nordstroms, weekends during the day!

PDX is 70 degrees!

Good afternoon!

Just checked into the Mark Spencer hotel for the next two nights in Portland. Soundcheck is in a few, and I feel beached! That is what my buddy Max always says, like in the sense of "I am a beached whale!". I ate a giant pastrami sandwich on rye... mmm, soo good! Not to mention it was so rainy and crummy in Seattle and it is 70 degrees F down here in Portland!

We are playing two nights at the Crystal Ballroom, this is Portlands premier club and music venue. I love the place, it is awesome. The floor does this really weird thing where it wobbles and shifts, and it makes you really uncomfortable that the whole building is going to collapse, especially when a whole room of crazy party go-ers is jumping up and down dancing. They say it is constructed to be like that, but I do not know if I believe them or not!

Our load in is in fifteen minutes, then our sound check is at 8:00. We are playing with good friends of the Dudley Manlove Quartet, "Super Diamond" -- the worlds premier Neil Diamond tribute band. They are legit, sound exactly like the real deal (if not better!) and when we team up together, our two bands can sell out some huge venues! It is a blast! Who knew you could be such a rock star playing all these old number one hits!

Anyways gotta jet. Definitely need to hit up voodoo donuts in the morning! Mmmm, Bacon Maple Bars!

Cheers,

Mack

JSQ @ Lucid

Played with Jacob Stickney last night at Lucid, pretty fun gig. Jacob's music is all original, and has a lot of really interesting harmonic movements, which makes it really fun to play for me.

Jeremy Jones was playing drums last night, I have not heard him play outside of "The Hang" so I was really blown away by his playing. What a killin drummer!

Checked out the Greek festival today, traditional greek bands were playing. Super interesting, beautiful music. A majority of the stuff we heard was fairly slow though, I was waiting for them to bust into some sort of up-tempo, happier sounding songs, but it did not happen... something I think would be worth exploring though, listening to Greek folk music.

Cheers,

Mack

"R"Oktoberfest!

Played Oktoberfest this weekend, had a blast! Really fun, people were really drunk and there were a few girls that were so wasted and out of hand we had security come over and tell them to shut their traps or leave! Hahaha, being harrased by a bunch of super drunk 26yr olds. (Play something good! Play something we can dance too!) What, Rod Stewart DO YOU THINK IM SEXY did not cover those two requirements? Hah! I just regret that with 70 breweries having attended, when we got done playing they started shutting everything down.

I have been feeling really great about my playing lately, I have been able to practice and play a bunch of gigs so I feel that I am getting back into a good groove. Also, checked out some tracks me, Brad Gibson and Devin Lowe did in the studio and they sound great.

I have been working out of and really studying the Charlie Parker Omnibook (book full of Charlie Parker tunes and solo's) I have made it through the first few songs in the book, really learning them. They were mostly tunes that I already knew, so I was mostly spending time ripping licks and learning the solo's. Now I am on to Dewey Square - I love this tune, I am working on figuring out the whole tune in drop 2 voicings [for the piano nerds out there!]


Now, to continue down the ever long list of things that need to get done!

I am listening to some tracks of the secret DMQ band for Halloween --- this is gonna be great, really really epic.

Cheers,

Mack

a typical week of gigs - busy lately.

Last weeks gigs - yes I make a living playing music, but it is a lot of hard work.

Sunday/Monday - Orcas Island, Private party, over night.

Tuesday - Teach in Port Orchard

Wednesday - Tulalip Casino with DMQ

Thursday - Nothing! Went to my best friend Derek's police academy graduation. I can not believe he is a real cop now. Since we were little kids I knew along with everyone else he was gonna be a cop so it was like a important life moment to watch him graduate from the police academy.

Friday - Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival w/ May Palmer, Queen of Ivory Soul! Awesome gig, fun band, nasty RnB!

Saturday - DMQ played a private gig in Winthrop Washington. Woke up to hot air balloons, wanted to go on one sooo bad!

Sunday - Had to get up early to get back to the west side of the state to play a solo piano private party.

Monday - Teach at FMS.

Each gig averages four hours long, with another two to eight hours in prep/travel time! I am tired, and super excited to go to Hawaii in a little over a month!

Cheers,

Mack

Tonight at the Tractor Tavern

Just wanted to make a special note that tonight at the Tractor Tavern, my cover band I play in, "The Dudley Manlove Quartet" is going to be rockin the house with all sorts of 60's, 70's and 80's covers!

We really want to have a great show, and a great crowd, so come out and party and dance with us! Buy your tickets ahead of time and they are only $8.00, or $10.00 at the door! Show starts at 9:30

Hopefully we will see you there, here is a fan video from one of our shows last year - look how much fun they are having! That can be you!

Here is the Tractor's website