Cynthia sent an email yesterday announcing that the UCSB Free Noon Concerts Start this Wednesday. That turned out to be today and the band for the first concert plays one of my favorite styles so I rode out to the U on the Express bus and had lunch with Cynthia accompanied by some wonderful music. Click on the image to see and hear a little of what we enjoyed. Very nice that the band is all family. Next week it’s the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, another favorite of mine and others so get your bus tickets early!
Latigazos del Norte is a norteño or conjunto band that plays regional Mexican music, including rancheras, corridos, huapango, polka, redova and shotis (northern whips). Consisting of four family members, the band plays the four most characteristic instruments in norteño music: Ernesto Beltrán plays the accordion, Agustín Lara the bajo sexto, Víctor Beltranthe electric and acoustic bass, and Víctor Beltran Jr. the drums.
Alistair Greene was playing from four to seven at Whiskey Richards on State Street so since it was my last day at 66 Carol came along to enjoy (and withstand) the LOUD Blues and R&R for two hours! It was midway through all the fun and her doing lots of dancing that we ventured into the Whiskey Richards photo booth for these shots. (Do you think any places other than bars still have these?)
After the second break for the band we walked up State and had a nice dinner at the very British fish and chips place. A very fun pre-birthday outing.
This recording by Gene Shaw I purchased in the sixties and it has always been one of my favorite jazz recordings. Many of my old favorites have been released on CD but thus far not this one.
I had been thinking about digitizing it for a long time and finally today was the day. I still have my high quality turntable and preamp from the sixties so it was just a matter of plugging them into my computer and playing the record while recording the output of the preamp with my excellent Sound Forge software. Afterward Sound Forge has an easy tool to reduce the clicks and pops and then I saved the file in WAV format to retain all the fidelity of the record. Using iTunes allowed the naming of the artist, album, track, etc. as well as transcribing it to Apple Lossless format for easy transfer to my iDevices.
It took me a few hours for this initial LP –> digital transcription. One of those was wasted trying to get the sound into the computer. It turns out Windows 7 has this function disabled by default so I ran around that bush for quite awhile until I searched the web and found an answer posted by another frustrated user.
Now that I have the technique mastered I’m all set to make more of my old favorites portable and more easily playable.
Friend Barbara Meyer called and asked if I’d like to go to the Laura Love concert tonight at Soho. I had not seen Laura Love in several years but used to like her a lot so “yes”.
Barbara, Connie, and I had a very nice evening at dinner, chatting, and listening to Laura and Orville Johnson. I had never heard of or seen Orville but I like his guitar playing very much so he’s on my list of not to be missed now.
What a FUN evening. Friend Carol P. and I went down to the Soho Music Club here in S.B for the Monday night “Jazz Jam with Jeff Elliott”. A nice mix of nostalgia and the present, sitting around sipping a drink and listening to JAZZ. It was one of my favorite things to do “back in the day” with buddy Al and/or girl friend Heather; down to The Lighthouse or over to The Mann Hole. Wonderful memories!
Herbie Mann’s version of Summertime — a big favorite of mine
Friend Carol P. and I were out at UCSB for a spectacular,
HIGH energy Baaba Maal concert. WHAT a treat!
Click on his image to learn more about him.