Space

This week's spine tingling musical moment occured the other night when Ken Watters called his arrangment of Joni Mitchell's beautiful Both Sides Now. I love the changes he uses. the group was of one mind, the 2/4 measure going with the melody was effortless. It was all about that space that we strive to get to and we were there. Another moment of the night that I will never forget was Robert Dig Dickson's Bass solo on a song we have all played so many times, but this time was as if it was the first time. My hat's off to Dig for bringing My Funny Valentine back to the present tense with his melodic musing's on a great Rodger's and Hart composition that though overplayed, overdone, and oversung by many deserves to be played forever with the truth and conviction of fine musician's like Dig.

Monterey Pop (The outakes)

I’ve been enjoying Netflix. My most recent rental was disc 3 of the deluxe edition of Monterey Pop. I was blown away by the 2 song Laura Nyro set. She sings part of Wedding Bell Blues and an amazing version of Poverty Train. Her vocal’s are right on. So dynamic and mesmorizing. She is up front. I couldn’t tell who the musician’s or back up singers were but they played tight and knew the arrangement’s very well. Her set is legendary because she apparently felt that she wasn’t going over and that she heard boo’s. The film show’s a mellow Monterey crowd getting into and obviously digging her originality and professionalism.

Other highlights, The Who’s set leading up to the explosive finale that was shown in Monterey Pop. Keith Moon confounds me, He played so busy and unorthodox, yet supplied exactly what was need to complement the solid power chords of Townsend and the time keeping of John Entwhistle’s driving Bass.

The Association’ s opening intro leading into Along Came Mary.
Simon and Garfunkel’s beautiful Homeward Bound.
The Electric Flag- Real fast tempo with strong Buddy Miles drumming and Mike Bloomfield playing some of the finest blues guitar I’ve heard. The whole band was burning.
The Byrd’s set includes David Crosby’s political statements that he assured would be cut out of the film. I was surprised by how hard they rocked on Hey Joe which Crosby dedicated to Jimi Hendrix
Buffalo Springfield( featuring David Crosby in place of Neil Young)
Introduced by Peter Tork as his favorite group, This is a gripping version of For What It’s Worth.

Round About Midnight

I had the pleasure of playing with The Ken Watters Quartet the other night at The Fieldhouse in Dacula. Great group and I’m pleased that I was asked back for this Tuesday.
Tonight was the dynamic duo of me and Del at the sushi bar. The spirit of Sinatra was strong tonight as Del was in peak form singing and playing bass on some of Frank’s greatest, I was feeling good so I played and sang Stardust and some Ray Charles tunes before getting into a rockin piano thing as I sang Shake Rattle and Roll, a good time was had by all. .

David Marks new disc

I Think About You Often is a wonderful disc. Like 1969 is one of the great album opener’s. The vocal’s have a spiritual and ethereal quality that will immediately bring a smile to all Beach boy’s fan’s. The range of moods and styles flow with ease and grace. I love the groove of the rhythm section that gives a Little Feat/Band type groove to songs like Have You Ever Been Duped. My favorite is Pretty Eyes with it’s great 4 bar intro in 7 before effortlessly weaving into 4 and back and forth between 4 and 7. The guitar playing brings us on a journey through mellow moods, rock and roll, and even some surf sounds that bring us back to the guitar sounds of the early Beach Boy’s albums. This is a very enlightening and enjoyable disc.
It's available at-

www.davidleemarks.com