Basslines and Verdine

The other day I sat looking at this muzic equipment with kind of a blank look on my face -- this is typical when I a waiting for that inspiration to take over and then everything moves in sort of a fit. Well finally, the fit came and I jumped over and started working on the bass line for "Beautiful Eyes." I worked it out and worked it out some more until I finally had something that sounded like it was it, the perfect match, the icing on the cake. It was difficult to find though, because if you can remember from the last entry or one of them, that the chords I was used were pretty unorthodox. This is great but it also means that for me, putting the rest of the tune together can be tricky. This was tricky but the real shit once it was done. Yesss!! As I finished and worked out the final notes and movement, I realized how much my writing -- of bass lines at least -- is influenced by the great playing of Verdine White. I think some people sleep on this brotha' but he was sooo soo bad. Now let me make this very clear, I am in no way saying that what I do sounds like or even imitates the incredible, clean, up and down the fret board moving style of this brotha but I can just hear the influence. After listening to hours, hours and more hours of EWF for years, how could I not be influenced by such virtuosity. As stated by EWF "sounds never dissipate, they only recreate." So in this case influence is a form of recreation I would assume and Verdine always locked the bottom down so well, what better way is there to be influenced by the writing of those who set the musical inspiration for so many.

Ya know about a year ago I was in this Old School band, I'll leave out the name, and me and the band leader got into a debate over the baddest bass players. Of course no one in their right mind could ever deny Stanley Clarke his spot at the top but as far as the baddest, rawest, cleanest, smoothest bass players that were part of a band Verdine had to be IT. If you listen to what he did, it was all so clean and melodic. He moved around finding the perfect note every time and stayed in the pocket. I don't think I have ever listened to anything EWF did where Verdine didn't sound perfect every time. So now, considering this debate, my opponent said that he was okay but could only play Earth Wind and Fire tunes. Well considering he was EWF's bass player, what the fuck else did he need to play. Before it was an Earth Wind and Fire tune it was just a thought right? Everyone has a favorite, I know this but have a better argument than that please. Look I know there were a lot of bad cat's out there like Louis Johnson (Brothers Johnson), Mark Adams (Slave), Cedric Martin (Confunkshun) etc. So I know it is hard to choose in a sea of gifted bass playin Brotha's but Verdine just happens to be my favorite. Now his favorite: Marcus Miller. Marcus is a bad, bad brotha no doubt but I just don't put him in that group. My man's argument was that Marcus was an incredible producer also. What the fuck? He was an incredible producer and bass player but we're just talkin about bass players right? Of course the stuff Marcus did for all of his artists he worked with like Vandross, and Sanborn was all out of this world but as far as puttin it down very simply has to go to Verdine. Not a lot of thumping, not a lot of popping just hard core in that groove and on it 125%. We can even step outside EWF and listen to what he did for the Emotions -- flawless. So to tie all this together, for me to even hear the slightest influence of Verdine the way I am writing my bass lines is a wonderful thing y'all. I may indeed be the only one who hears the influence but that's enough.

Thanks for reading and I welcome comments good or bad, bring'um. See ya.

The Sweetest Chords

Good morning folks, on this cold, cold day -- at least for this area. Yesterday was an interesting day for me musically because I worked on a slow song which is something I never do. I've always had trouble writing slow tunes although none of my tunes are considered FAST by any means, they are not slow. This one started out at about 70BPM and I eventually moved it up to 75BPM. Now 70 may not be slow in the realm of slow tunes but for me it's pretty slow. The thing is, I had to start writing this tune. I was playing with different chords yesterday and stumbled across something I hadn't done before and damn it sounded so fuckin sweet. All I got was the first chord and although it took me a while to find the exact notes of the subsequent notes, inside my head at least, I heard it loud and clear. Once I found them, it was too too good. I remember talking to Jerry one time over the phone about some chord, I can't remember what it was -- something from Steely Dan -- that was so sweet about this chord it damn near made me cum. I might have even chosen this chord over some women I've been with in my life. No disrespect but the chord had the same effect on me playing it over and over again, while in the past with some women, I was ready to walk away after that first and last time. Yeah and to all you women reading this don't be pissed cause you've all been there once or twice yourselves. But when you find that ONE, SO SO SWEET, DAMN!!!! Okay enough of that, back to the Muzic. So now I found the other chords I needed but it took a while for me to actually find them cause these were chords I wasn't even familiar with. I know chords pretty well but considering I was never formally trained musically there some things I just don't know off the top of my head. For this one I had to open up the Chord Dictionary -- spent about 30 minutes in that and still couldn't find it. Okay now what, it bugs the hell out of me not to know what this chord was so I did what I always do when I'm stuck. I dial those numbers ad wait for Jerry to answer. 9 out of 10 times I can throw it his way and he can tell me right off the bat what I'm working with. So I dialed but nothing. I think the Brotha is still on the "secret squirrel" shit. He does this from time to time. Like when I was trying to get him to give up that Fender Rhodes and he disappeared, then one day out of the clear blue he calls and tells me to come and pick it up -- no charge, no sweat, you don't owe me anything "Lil cuz" just come and get it. I got myself down there so fast, hung out with him, got that sucka back to the studio and wow. What a thing of beauty. Okay so I digressed again, sorry. So now back to these chords, I still don't know what the hell they are which means I have to write them down. If I can put keys with a name I can remember but if I can't, I can only remember for so long. I think they must be an inversion of some 13 chord and I think that I reversed the right and left hand in the inversion as well. All I know is that they're all minors. Now, all this work and I still don't have a bridge nor a good chorus. I had a chorus so I thought but after a few listens the chords in the chorus just lost me so I have to go back to the drawing board for the chorus. It's amazing how some songs come to you and write themselves and others come easily but it takes a lot of work to get them out. So when I finish this, it's back to the keyboard to figure this thing out, or maybe I can figure the chorus out with the bass firs then move back to the keyboard. Anyway, I gots work to do y'all. Right on for coming by. See ya.

Why do I spell Muzic with a "Z" you ask?

I have been asked numerous times why I spell muzic with a Z. "Is it that you can't spell?" No it's not that I can't spell -- music -- see I told you. It's that I have a dislike for convention and sometimes I seem to express that dislike in even the slightest almost unconscious ways, for example the spelling of a word. Don't get me wrong convention is great, convention made sure I was fed and had a roof over my head as a child. Convention cleans my teeth, keeps my feet covered. It does a lot of wonderful things but all in all it is boring, almost the same as mediocrity in my eyes. I guess the only folks who have really made things change or happen in this life have been those who were not afraid to be the outliers, those who saw the problems and sheepishness or injustice at times in convention and decided to do something about it. Admittedly changing the spelling of a word does not change the world but it does remind me of my intention at even the smallest level while also somehow pissing some people off. I have been like this since childhood -- I was a weird child and have become in the words of those close to me, a strange adult as well.

Oakland Inspires?? 2

This is no way an attempt to put a black eye on a city that has matured me and been my home for the past 20 some odd years, but this is just a reality in the O at times. Makes me wonder when I come back from LA why I'm coming back. Regardless at the end of the day we have moved and where I am now is quiet, quiet, quiet. Somehow I think the experiences along with the solitude is better for the music these days, cause as I stated before it's all inspiration and whether directed at musical notes, lyric, or theatre/film, it's all there for use it's just sometimes sad that's all. This picture was taken from my front porch. Thanks Oakland


November 8, 2011
Before I begin to write I need to apologize, not to the readers (if there were any) but to myself for waiting so long since the last time I wrote. I know I have taken longer breaks than this in the past but this is after I said I would not take any more breaks. Okay, on October 28th I hit a milestone, reached a new point in my life – I saw a dead body. Don’t get me wrong I’ve seen dead bodies before, but not one just victimized by 6 shots of a handgun. That’s right I heard the shots and about one and a half minutes later looked a few feet down the block to see the victim on the ground.
It was Thursday night about 11:00 and Jaliza and I were laying in bed trying to find a way to waste our time with Netflix. We were looking at our instant cue when 6 shots rang out – sounded like it came from our front yard. We followed the normal drill – we’ve heard shots many times here before – rolled off the bed, got down low and Jaliza went into the babies room to check on them. At the same time I called 911 and looked out the window. By the time I hung up the phone cops were flying up and down my street. Jaliza came back into the room about a minute later and told me she had looked out the babies room window after seeing the red and blue flashes. She said the street was crawling with cops. This by the way means that they must have been flooded with calls cause they never come that damn fast. We both went down stairs, and I mean within probably one minute we were on the front porch and the cops were taping off the street and everything was blocked off. As we looked up at the corner house across the street, there lay a man face down on the sidewalk. The police made no attempt to revive him, the fire truck and ambulance came and left – the brotha was dead. What the Fuck!! On my block, in my neighborhood, 3 houses away, on this cold ass night this brotha lay dead, face down on even colder concrete. Within 5 minutes an officer came over and asked me if I heard or saw anything. I gave him the answer he probably expected. I didn’t hear anything but the shots – no cars speeding off, no screams, no yells, no cries for help. Just 6 shots and a dead man – who I found out later was only 30 years old – lying face down in a small pool of blood. Amazing the brotha lay dead right beside 2 trash cans. It seems to mean something but I don’t know what. Does it mean that we throw away our lives or that we have become in our own eyes a throw away people. I don’t know, but it is and was fucked up. I didn’t turn away from the sight but felt a sort of numbness, like the numbness of Novocain keeping you from feeling pain while the dentist drills your teeth. You know it’s not good but can’t quite grasp the gravity of it. It was painful, don’t get me wrong, but it was a deep pain that was so deep I couldn’t feel it one the surface. Jaliza on the other hand lost it!!! She came in the house, went down stairs and lost her fucking mind. She kicked things around, punched at the air, and cried a deep, deep cry. All she kept saying was that “there was someone’s baby out there lying on the ground. How could someone do that? Someone just lost a child and they don’t even know it and the cops just keep walking around the person looking at him like it’s just the thing to do, like it’s not even a person out there.” She was hurt!! And then, she went on to say that “people are dying on our street and we’re still here with our kids. What does that say about us?” I wondered. What did that say about us?

Oakland Inspires?? 1

This is something from my journal I had to put up. I always figure that life is the inspiration for music or sometimes vice versa, but in any case I wondered what inspiration I received from this. Oh yeah this is very, very true and written after an experience I had a couple of years ago. This image is not that actual picture as I had no window after the incident. This picture however fits my story quite well.


Good morning, yes I know it's 5:48 on a Sunday morning. So why in the hell am I up? I don't really know, however I am up so I figured I would take this time out to relay a few thoughts to the 3 or 4 individuals who receive this email. I you would be so kind as to humor me for a brief time, I am going to tell a very brief story, story of mis-adventure, a story of gratitude and a story of a slightly humorous nature when all has been said and done. Now also, please let me preface this by saying that this email needs no response from anyone nor does really even warrant comment, it just is what it is is.
>
> LABOR DAY WEEKEND EXPENSE
> As much as I dig biker events, well actually not the events but the bikes themselves, it was an impossibility that I miss the East Bay Dragons block party this year. As a matter of fact I, and my wife had the day planned out. I would go to the Dragons block party with Aniefre, and then come back home, pick up Jaliza, and the three of us would go and drop Aniefre off at his aunties house. At this point Jaliza and I would head to the wedding reception of an acquaintance of mine named Rocky (seriously that's his name), a bass player I met who worked out of my studio one afternoon. A full day, but a very do-able day none the less.
>
> Now in my infinite wisdom, I coerced my wife to go with me to the block party to hang out with me and some mutual friends or ours. Sounds simple enough and I was thankful that she was going as my pledge I made a few months ago -- that I would not go to anymore biker functions without my own hog or my wife -- was still in full effect. So as we piled into the car I couldn't help but feel good, a nice warm family day had begun and everything was great. The sun was out, I was getting ready to hang with Jaliza and Aniefre, I was going to see a lot of stylishly customized Harley -- that would have me drooling -- and later that day I was going to a wedding reception and, I hate to say it like this but, get to eat a bunch of free catered food. For those of you who know me real well, you'll know why I mentioned the food.
>
> When we arrived at the block party location, around 88Th and E14Th, the folks were out. So of course with me, the window had to to come down -- I gotta hear the noise from the hogs rolling by, it does something to me that's unexplainable. Now keep in mind it's hot, so the mantra form the passenger seat was "if you're gonna keep the windows down, I'll turn off the air conditioning. "No problem baby I replied, ya know I just like to hear those hogs rolling by" and the window went up. It went up and down and up and down and again and again and I was constantly about the air conditioning. Well, it was so crowded that day that the parking was ridiculous. We drove around and around, window going up and down, in an attempt to find a park, then it all came to an end. "Ya know what?" , "Let's get outta here." That's right folks, the luster in anything wears off after the inability to find a parking space takes longer than 15 minutes. But of course, before we left we had
> to give it one last try.
>
> We proceeded at that moment to look in the opposite direction from previous attempts, this is when the day saw the most drastic changes. I won't bore you all with the details, as the ones who are receiving this email probably know the story by now anyway. As we continued our search we approached what we later found out was an infamous corner. Within maybe 20 seconds of reaching the corner, the gun toting idiots are running toward our car shooting in our direction. Who were they shooting at, who the hell knows but "oh shit I can't believe they're shooting in the middle of the day. As soon as those words come from Jaliza, I hit that corner and **Pow**" right into the driver side window, a bullet hits and the window explodes into the car.
>
> I will say this, one of the most terrifying times I ever felt was this fraction of a second it took to look and see if my wife and son were okay. I was afraid to look because I didn't know what I was going to see -- thankfully everyone in the car was fine. No one was bleeding except me, I found that out later, and for the most part my son was very much unaware of what had happened. As long as I keep my cool and get us outta there everything would be cool.
>
> Well in the end, I can't say that I kept my cool but we got out of there. On the way home as I was speaking to, or excuse me, yelling at the dispatcher on the way home I started feeling pain in my left shoulder and noticed that my shirt was slightly ripped. Was I hit? I didn't think so but it didn't matter to me in the whole scheme of things -- my son and my wife were fine. Ya know, one thing I found out that day, is that if you want the police to show up at your house quickly, make sure you do what I did (not the brightest thing, but I was pissed) and tell them by so many descriptive terms that in the next few minutes you'll cause more problems than the shooters did. This seems to add a certain urgency to their willingness to respond, but of course it won't be just one car. It will be three. And after they realize that you're not a madman, and are just angry and see that you are a man wanting to protect a woman and child they seem, at
> that point, to want to help. Once they see any injury sustained they will have the fire department and EMT there in a flash.
>
> Well you understand by now the "misadventure" and you must definitely understand the "gratitude and being very thankful," however, where is the humor in all this?
>
> Well, instead of nice catered wedding reception food that day, I was provided by my lovely wife, the next best thing. A half way decent sandwich from one of the crappy ass sandwich franchises, but it beat the hospital food at Highland Hospital. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I did sustain a slight injury that day and waited 8 hours in the waiting room (I don't have health care, another long story) for them to take my blood pressure, a couple of x-rays, do an examination, and tell me that the circular patterened whelps/cuts and blood spots all over my shoulder were from glass not buck shot -- which is what I told the police in the beginning. Also, the glass it turned out was not embedded in my skin it just looked and felt that way. Ya know when I was in the waiting room, a lady told me that I should go outside and shoot myself in the hand to create a sense of urgency and they would take me in faster -- ironic.
>
> Well in the end, everything worked out. Aniefre got to spend an unexpected night at his grandparents house, Jaliza and I still spent the day together, I found out that Oakland has a "victim of a violent crime" fund of which I did not get to use (another long story), and that one moment can make you appreciate the folks around you more than ever before.
>
> Ya know I also learned that a day in Oakland can be costly. The humorous thing about this day is that a month and a half later I still am reminded. Every now and then I'll turn in the mirror and see the small scars on my shoulder. Or I look at my wife and realize how strong she was, or my son and how he has only made reference to that day uhhh, maybe once or twice. The other thing is that I received a hospital bill from Highland for $601.00. In addition, the window in the car cost $170.00 and a couple hours at the shop. All in all, it was a $771.00 that day just to hang with some friends in the flat-lands of Oakland. The money is nothing, it's just a shame that being around your own folks can be costly. When I received the bill I was actually surprised and even laughed -- I think I laughed cuz I actually have the money to pay, it wouldn't have been funny a year ago.
>
> I know this was long as hell and maybe even boring, and was actually supposed to be humorous, but somehow I couldn't find the humor I was looking for this early Sunday morning.
>
> Well I owe each one of you for actually reading this long ass story that may have bored you to death but you read it cause I'm your man and you want to extend me that courtesy. If you didn't read the whole thing I understand cause the shit was long. Read the attached hospital bill. I'm not sure why, but I think you'll get the same laugh I got out of it. Well I'm going back to bed, see y'all later.
>
> Oh yeah, lastly, this was in no way prepared to get a response from anyone, it's not that big of a deal, it just is what it is. I was just trying to find a little humor in the midst of craziness.
>
> Ant
Did I laugh this time or did I say "fuck it, when is it going to stop." I'll let you guess. Upon looking into the mail today I found an envelope with a see through address opening for me. Hmm. Wonder what it is? Wasn't long before I grit my teeth, opened the letter and found yet one more bill to remind me of my Labor day celebration this year. It turns out that the $601.00 bill from the hospital was just that. That's right, how could I be so absent minded as to forget that the doctors often bill seprately and that those two X-rays would come back to bite me in the ass once again. That's right, an additional $245.00 for 2 X-rays. So, considering the new information, our labor day celebration of bullets, glass, hospital waiting rooms, angry people, a frightend wife, confused child, missed wedding reception, missed catered wedding reception food, police reports, automobile window replacement, and very light colored scars on my rear left shoulder, cost a grand total of .........DRUM ROLE please..........$1016.00 (including the auto window replacement). I wonder how much the perpetrators spent that afternoon -- a box of nine millimeter ammo cost about $16 to $25 (yeah poor guys inflation is a bitch).
See ya

KeepitHot is COMING!!

Hey folks I have to say that I am getting pretty excited about the KeepitHot site. It is on it's way and we will have something up by our self imposed deadline of Jan 1, 2011. For all you cats out there wonder how you KeepitHot wait just a couple more weeks and tune in baby. We're here Keeepin it Hot till you get here. Been working on this with Brotha Jeet, and Chaz for a couple now, so it is time. Oh yeah, I did the music for this one too, nothing complicated to say the least and not normally my type of writing but it works well.

Learning in cyber

Okay actually I don't know if this should be called learning in Cyber or about Cyber. A friend of mine told me the other day about the value of Tweeting -- keep in mind, this is something I have avoided for so long. I think, as a matter of fact I know that I am from the school of thought that you keep your mouth shut about what you are doing until you have something to put in their hand. Now the funny thing is, I never took this approach when working on Mondisa's album when it was about process and letting people in to the process. I think I just take the approach for myself. Sometimes the concepts of Blogging, Tweeting, Facebook, etc. seem foreign to me -- letting people know what I'm thinking all the time? Shit it is an interesting pill to swallow but I'm getting to the point that I feel, no I know, it is a necessity these days. Considering this, I recruited some help from a friend who is a guru nerd, which is what he calls his business. The Brotha knows all the shit about social media and networking. He's schooling me on the ways of Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Websites, etc., and how to link them all together. For example someone like myself one would have to consider out of the know when I have a Blog that I haven't written in for two years -- not good huh? Anyway, I thought about this because of the musical turns that have taken place over the past couple of years. It's amazing how my own music projects get pushed back as I find it impossible to turn down new projects and offers from other folks. I say this because if I had been blogging about the twists and turn more often, just being able to read my own entries may have very well focused me to the point of turning down those things that pulled me out of focus. Maybe someone out their reading would have said to me, "what the fuck are you doing, I thought you were about to finish such and such." You know a way to keep myself on track we could say. Well regardless I went over some of the tunes the other day to use for this long awaited project of mine and damn, I have some serious material. Sometimes I think I'm a bad Mo'Fo, well this is one of those times.

Once I get all this together -- the social media, the music, the acting, and KeepitHot. Unstoppable baby, unstoppable. If I sound boastful, how else can I justify this creative urge at 3:00 am when I have to be up and headed to the gym in one hour. Shit if I thought I wasn't good, I'd good the fuck back to sleep.

Oh yeah and since the last entry I am finally the owner of a beautiful, 73 Fender Rhodes. I have been working on my cousin Jerry -- the one from the Mondisa video's -- for a couple of years to give up this board. I don't think he has used it since he played with the Whispers, and he may not have used it then. Regardless after a couple of years of trying to get him to sell it to me, he called the other day and just said "Ant come on and pick up the Rhodes, you can have it." I had been pricing them on Ebay and Craiglist and he calls me when I'm about to drop about $1200. Nice. I can't thank that Brotha enough. The $1200 hundred I was going to spend meant that some bills might not get paid that month. He saved me. It is a beautiful instrument and definitely in the right hands. Okay, now I am done. Wait a minute, I'm not done. Speaking of digital, cyber, and I just realized today that I need to purchase an Akai MPK49, oh yeah this is one bad piece. Helps me out with Reason quite a bit on my Reason creative bursts. Speaking on that, more to come of my work with BrothaNat and Nick Baham. See ya, finally.