The Shreveport Arranger Jam is now history. I was a little disappointed that more guys
from out of town couldn't make it, but all I can say is that it was their loss!
We had an absolutely wonderful time.
We had nearly a dozen arranger artists there, although a few didn't actually play their
arrangers much. I'll try to describe the evening the best I can.
Tom Cavanaugh brought his Ketron SD1, I had my Midjay, Boo had the Korg I30, Dickie Turner played the Yamaha PSR2000. Bill Pittman (SemiliveMusic), who also plays a 2000, sang and played his flat-top guitar. He did Johnny Cash's "Big River" and "Folsum Prison Blues", plus a couple of hilarious original songs.
Henry Levy, who along with his cousin, Paul Morgan, has a wonderful trio using Ketron XD3. Henry and Paul both played guitar at the jam and it would be hard to find better players. Paul did a tremendous guitar instrumental of "Spanish Eyes".
My friend Dean Mathis brought his fiddle and also brought the house down with "Last Date"
on Tom's SD1. Dean sang a couple of songs as well. He is truly a multi-talented "young"
man, and a member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He's probably best remembered for
his work with the Newbeats ("Bread and Butter"), but also produced and recorded music in Nashville for many years. He currently has a recording studio near Monroe, LA.
Of course Boo was an audience favorite on his sax. He and Tom did some wonderful arrangements of jazz-swing-standards and we did a medley that started with Dickie and me
singing Good-hearted Woman and ending with Boo soloing on Yakity Sax.
Tom has quickly conquered the SD1 that I sold him, and safely weaned it from most of its
Country history! Tom and Boo were doing chord progressions that would have made Scott Yee
charter a jet to come and join in if he had heard them.
Hank Bowman, who controls a Ketron Midjay with a Yamaha PSR3000, thrilled the ladies with his vocals on such songs as "Suzie Q", "Fanny May", "That's All That Matters To Me", and "Sunday Morning Coming Down". Hank has just returned from an out-of-town job and with his wife in the hospital again, didn't feel like setting up his rig.
As Boo mentioned in his post, there is an entertainer by the name of Raymond Logue who
does Willie Nelson better than Willie does! He sang "Always On My Mind", "Angel Flying
Too Close" and several others. One of the best was when he sang "All of Me" with Tom and Boo playing the music, a great example of Country Meets Standards.
My friend Dickie Turner, who does a one-man show with the PSR2000, did quite a few songs
and had the 2000 really kicking. Dickie sings wonderful harmony and added so much to the vocals that Joe and I did, in addition to the songs on which he sang the lead. I had
really forgotten how great the 2000 can sound. Dickie visits the Synthzone occasionally
but has promised to join up now that he has met some of the members.
One of the most important people there was a man that I can not thank enough for all he
did. Joe Lee Richards is an immensely talented vocalist who appeared with many of the top country stars in the 60's and 70's. Although he can sing anything, his specialty is country swing. I "met" Joe over at the Yahoo Ketron group. Since he lives in Benton, Arkansas and I live in Benton, LA, we started talking and I found that he comes to
Shreveport quite often. He always comes to where I'm working and it's a pleasure to have
him sing a few with me. Joe sang Ray Price's "Heart Over Mind" and "Crazy Arms" plus a couple of others, and also played guitar on a couple of songs. He normally uses a Ketron module to accompany himself as he plays guitar and sings. We didn't get to see and hear Joe nearly enough because he brought a video camera and recorded some five hours of our Jam. Joe produces a television show in Benton, Arkansas and will air segments of the Jam there after he edits it. He will also make DVDs of the evening available at a nominal cost. You can imagine that there is quite a lot of work ahead for him in going through all that tape!
Another really talented ex-professional vocalist was there and we coaxed Susie Loar into singing "Summertime". The entire "band" played behind her and she got a standing ovation.
I know I'm going to forget somebody, but as I think of more, I'll add it.
My job was mostly to keep everything going. Remember that almost every single performer
could have carried the entire show alone. It was so difficult to give everyone enough
time to show their stuff, and several of the guys, like Hank, Dean and Bill (Semilive)
really took back seats. And I could sit and listen to Tom C. for hours.
It was so interesting to observe the various ways that arrangers can be used. Tom and
Boo's styles are a little similar, generally using full background accompaniments and
playing intricate chord progressions and more structered melody and lead lines. Both sing
really well. DickieT's strong point is hard-hitting rock n' roll, using styles he has tweaked on the 2000 to provide all the background parts, then vamping on organ or piano with the right hand. Although Hank didn't play his arrangers, he does it differently than most of us, playing right-hand chords, sometimes left-hand bass and singing. He often uses guitar players to compliment his performances. Hank also plays bass guitar and organ with a couple of really great local bands. His cohort and my friend, guitarist Dale Weaver, injured his knee Saturday and couldn't make the jam, but we really missed him.
These two were a big part of the early music scene around here, playing on the original
Louisiana Hayride and backing and touring with such icons as Dale Hawkins, Farin Young,
Nat Stucky and others.
I must also say how grateful we are to the Shreveport American Legion Post #14, that
opened their doors to us, fed us freshly-grilled hamburgers, sausages and chicken at no cost and provided a large, enthusiastic audience. At first they sat and watched the show, but as the evening rolled on they couldn't stand it, they had to get up and dance. They applauded and cheered for every song, even though there were a fair amount of mistakes. (Not nearly as many as you might think though, considering most of us hadn't even met one another). They even helped unload and load equipment. You can't imagine a more beautiful setting, overlooking the lake and completely private. They had food ready at 3:00 p.m., and continued cooking for several hours. The grilled it outside and you smelled the aroma as you drove up.
I probably need to sing a few praises for the Bose PAS while I'm at it. I sat up a long
power cable with outlets every four feet. We plugged the various keyboards into that. I
ran stereo cables from each keyboard into my Behringer 1224FX Pro mixer. I also ran three
mics into it, plus Bill's guitar and Dean's fiddle. Tom and I ran our mics through the
Ketron processors so they didn't take extra channels. I used a wireless adapter on my
Sennheiser 855. Tom uses an EV, Dickie a Sennheiser 845. We also used Hank's Sennheiser 835. Anyway all this went into the mixer. I then routed the monitor send to Joe's camera. In order to get the guitars and sax, Joe also set up a mic. He ran my monitor send in mono into one input on his camera and the mic setup into the other.
I then took balanced outputs from the mixer into channels one and two on the Bose PAS. I
basically ran EVERYTHING flat, adding a little reverb and e.q. to the mics. No much
though, as we were playing into a room that had a glass window across the entire back
wall, which we were facing.
Bottom line was that you could hear every instrument and every vocal evenly throughout the entire room. I had a little trouble getting Tom's mic loud enough, as he ran it through the SD1 and had it wide open yet it didn't seem to cut through as well as I wanted. I could only turn up the entire keyboard and couldn't control the mic individually.
The PAS was behind us so nobody needed monitors. The sound level was virtually the same whether you were on the dance floor or seated in the far end of the room. I even went to the rest room and you could hear it in there! Not one person ever said it was too loud or not loud enough.
I can think of several ways to make the Jam better. We should have set aside a few hours
without an audience, so we could exchange ideas and try each others gear more. Tom and
Boo and I did that Saturday evening before going out to eat and I know I enjoyed that a
lot and I'm sure that they did also. But overall, I feel it was a huge success.
For our closing number, we did an extended version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", with everyone singing. I hope the video of that one comes out good!
We were asked by the Legion to announce that this was the first of the ANNUAL Arranger
Keyboard Jams!
I took a few photos, but Joe took a lot. I'll be posting them asap.
All I can add (until I think of something else) is a private message to AJ, Eddie, Vince Ramos, Scott Yee, Rice, Gary D., DonnyNJ, Uncle What's-his-name, Fran, Tony, and some others that I forget right now, all of whom expressed a desire to come, but just couldn't work it out: YOU SHOULDA BEEN HERE!
DonM



[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 05-01-2006).]