sean wayland song demos plus blog

google / SOPA / PIPA

2012-02-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

Google's motto is " Do no evil "

Consider this hypothetical situation

Let's say your old school opens a market in the school playground on the weekends .

For the sake of argument assume that a large number of people in the marketplace are selling stolen goods .

At the same time the school is allowing advertisers to put up posters on the stalls . The school makes a huge profit from from the advertising and gives a cut to the stall owners .

Would that be wrong ?

Let's say the school knew that people where selling or giving away stolen goods at many stalls and did nothing about it and it's defense was " we don't have time to check every stall whether every stall owner is selling stolen goods " . I don't think that should be legal , acceptable or moral in a just society .

This is what goes on in google's world of blogspot.com , youtube.com ....

The argument I hear from many people is " you can't stop crime so why bother " ... " you will never stop piracy on the internet " . People arguing this point includes many musicians who are in theory being hurt by the value of recorded music going down to zero .

My point is that you will never stop people stealing but that doesn't mean it should be a crime .

Imagine if someone said " let's make rape legal as you will never stamp out people getting raped altogether " .

Here is one example of an unlimited number of google's users profiting out of free music .

http://dlrapidshare.blogspot.com/

Note the advertisements on the site which I assume google is profiting from . How hard would it be for google to stick " rapidshare mp3 " into it's own search engine and attempt to get rid of the thieves and pirates by deleting their blogs or youtube channels ...

The reason why it doesn't is because it has turned theft into an extremely profitable business .

How can that be possible and for google to continue to use the motto " Do no Evil "

Black Music

2011-12-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

This typeface is white .

Black Musicians created Black Music .

I would consider concepts created by Charlie Parker , John Coltrane , Herbie Hancock , Miles Davis , James Brown , Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Wonder CENTRAL to the way I create music . That's black music . Black people should be allowed to be VERY PROUD of that . A piece of music or an improvisation by a Black American musician is Black American music . That is a fact as far as I am concerned .

I used to teach a piano class at a school in Bedford Styvesant . 10 - 15 little black faces and keyboards . They couldn't afford private piano lessons . Their parents obviously didn't have much . After each lesson I would get in my car and 5 minutes later I was in park slope brooklyn surrounded by white wealth and privilege . You couldn't be faced with a situation like that and to want to tell those kids that a black man inspired you to become a musician . Otherwise what have they got apart from their humanity and poverty .

I am very proud to be an Australian musician who was inspired to play music by the Black American Herbie Hancock .

Jazz , Fusion , Blues , Funk , Classical are just words which are often used as an excuse to discriminate against musicians .

It's hard to get rid of words unfortunately . Black American's even seem to want to keep the word "nigger" alive so what chance has "jazz" got of being killed off ?

I doubt inventing another word is going to make things get better . Let's just call it music . There is always going to be music created by Black Americans and Australians hopefully . That would be enough labeling as far as I am concerned but those words are going to creep into the conversation . I would love to see "classical" and "jazz" musicians perform together more often and for Australian musicians to perform more " Australian works " . I hope America can get to a point where the wealth is distributed more evenly and race becomes an issue of the past .. more of a historical fact than an important issue in music .

Music Funding in Australia .

2011-09-26T22:05:00.001-07:00

Imagine an Australia where scientists teaching selected "important" scientific historical texts received the lions share of the funding .

Lets say the works of "freud" , " einstein " , "euclid " , " plato " and a few others where deemed worthy of publication and discussion . New research was given little emphasis . Universities mostly taught the classics and the computer science department made do with a couple of Atari computers in the basement .

Similarly very little television or film could be given support , but the works of "shakespeare" and a few other playwrights had large companies with large numbers of administrative personell funding them .

In this imaginary world the CSIRO would be operating on a shoestring budget at the back of a pub . Collecting tips , competing with poker machines for revenue . The Garvan institute would receive little financial support and would be housed in a disused factory in Tempe . The staff at the Garvan would have to clean the building themselves and take out the trash after completing their research .

For a bar or club to be given a license to serve alcohol or have poker machines they would have to serve " Classic English food " . Any other restaurant could only sell coca cola . Sitting on Bennelong point where the Opera house now stands there would be a giant RSL club with Shakespeare playing 24/7 , selling only meat pies and beer . It would be the only place in town with poker machines . Imagine Government funded Television stations played only "classic" European TV shows like Dr Who or Minder ( perhaps the Paul Hogan show for Australian content ) . New shows where had one hour on the weekends and where only played after 2am … American crap like Tyra Banks was on all the other stations . Imagine if Austrade only supported car companies building and exporting "classic model " cars like Ford Falcon or Holden Sandman Ute .

This is my analogy to how music performance and education is funded Australia .

These 2 documents give a fair example of funding levels , and what Australian's pay for outside of the Opera Houses …

http://www.marcuswestbury.net/wp-content/uploads/Australia-Council-09-10-Financial-Year-Grants1.png

http://www.liveperformance.com.au/site/_content/document/00000184-source.pdf

I believe if it was science , food , plays , TV or any other endeavor it would be seen to be an absurd situation .

Those of you reading this would think that I might want our musical cultural institutions to be torn down . Nothing could be further from the truth . I am a strong supporter of the music of Bach , Brahms etc etc and I think it is important that this history be preserved in universities , taught , studied , and funded to perform . I believe that the performance of these works should be funded within Universities . As well as funding the performance of "classic" musical texts in Universities , money should be provided in the same institutions for the performance of "classic" Australian musical works by say Peter Sculthorpe , Mike Nock , Graeme Bell , Miriam Hyde etc … Australian musical history is still young relatively speaking but this will change .

Within Universities and outside a great deal more support should be given by the government for newly written music , and for the preservation of our own cultural history . Places like the National Film and Sound archive should be making our history available to Australians and the world for a reasonable price not locking it up in a basement somewhere .

Venues should be being built , with accommodation in them for touring artists , which have the best audio and visual recording/broadcast facilities .

These could be used to allow Australian musicians and composers to present both new and old music to Australia and the world . Access to these venues would be on the basis of firstly that someone's tax return proves them to be a musician . If the government doesn't have the resources to build enough venues to provide for it's musicians (across all genres) then time should be allotted based on a method of peer review and popularity . I would be happy for musicians to perform a few "covers" in this venue from time to time . It would be good for business , and Australia's elite musicians should be able to showcase their abilities playing the standard repertoire . My opinion is that this activity should be viewed similarly to the "Australian Institute of Sport" which is really seen as a learning institution .

At the moment the majority of musicians in Australia presenting new music of any genre do so at considerable financial risk often loosing money for the privilege of presenting their works . There are exceptions of course like Silverchair and Missy Higgins but these are the very few .

I believe if the music industry could be supported in a more sensible manner it could generate much more money for local musicians and create jobs around it .

It would also be of great pride to Australian's if our best and brightest musicians from all genre's could be marketed to the world .

It would help our exports and Australian image .

I imagine a great deal of terrific new Australian music written and performed by Australia's greatest musicians from every genre .

I imagine works written by Joseph Tawadros , Jim Moginie , Paul Grabowsky , Mike Nock , Ross Edwards and host of other talented composers being performed by our best symphony orchestra , augmented by a jazz big band of brilliant improvisors and Australia's best rock and funk session musicians … The night might start with a "repertoire" piece followed by some music celebrating to Australia's rich musical history culminating in the latest new Australian music . It would be happening every night and telecast on the internet to the world . Imagine what that would do for Australian music and its place in the world ..

Surely that is a better world than " lets play the great oldies one more time " …..

selling music in the digital age / spotify

2011-07-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a while , and this is a long post ...

I grew up in an age of recorded music . My parents realized how much I loved music and for my third birthday I got a very basic turntable and a Beatles LP . I can remember dancing around the room listening to that thing . It's probably my earliest memory . I also remember convincing one of my sisters friends to dance with me to it ( my sister was jealous but it was hard for her to compete with the fab four ) . I also remember hearing Michael Jackson's " Don't stop till you get enough " at a friend's 8 year birthday party . We all danced to "off the wall" at that party with great relish until one kid danced through a glass window and had to go get himself stitched up by a doctor . He's fine now but probably still has the scars on his butt proving how funky MJ is . He literally danced his butt off . Much later after hearing a fender rhodes being played by Ray Charles , Herbie Hancock , Steely Dan and Pink Floyd I knew that I had to become a musician . Since then I have devoured most of the albums by many great artists like Miles Davis , Allan Holdsworth , XTC , Stevie Wonder , John Coltrane etc etc . Most of those albums I either paid for a second hand LP or purchased a CD . A made a few cassettes of friends LPs when I lived in share houses , I have burned a few CDs and even downloaded a few hard to find albums off the internet . Itunes was pretty cool and I have spent a great deal of money there too .

I love to go see live music in NY like Dr Lonnie Smith or Wayne Krantz or Roy Haynes or whoever is playing at smalls or the 55 bar .. That's an important part of life . Today I went to Lincoln Centre to see a free jazz music concert. Unfortunately Barry Harris didn't show as advertised but Eric Reed and Christian Sands played some great jazz piano ....

Even though I love to perform live , I am still a big believer in "studio " music . To me this is a seperate artform to live playing which really came into it's own with the advent of overdubbing ...

In my opinion Allan Holdsworth is the supreme master of this method of communication which probably started with the Beatles Sgt Pepper . Steely Dan , XTC , Weather Report , Miles Davis have made pretty significant contributions to the ART of recorded music , designed to be listened to through a good pair of speakers or headphones .

Roy Haynes is probably best heard with a drink a few feet away from the drums , but some of those other artists mentioned are just as good driving in your car ... I can't afford to spend my money on concerts every day but for $30 a month on itunes I can listen to plenty of great music all the time ...

Part of me thinks flying around the world to make a living is a bit crazy and I always liked the idea of recording music and selling it . My experiences of touring have been pretty poor from a musical perspective . Usually the piano , keyboards , PA system are less than adequate . Often the bass player is playing a borrowed bass , or you are dealing with musicians that are playing your music for the first time because you can't afford to bring a band around the world .

At least in the studio a lot of those problems can be solved . You can choose your piano , have it tuned , find a great sounding room to play in , pay the musicians you want who have been playing with you often . You can bring a whole house of keyboards with you if you want and even spend hours editing and overdubbing and mixing afterwards getting the music just right .

I still think live performance has it's place in fact I think it is equally as valid as performing " in the studio " . It's just a different medium . I play regularly in New York and occasionally overseas and it's always a pleasure . I think the pressure and communal nature of live music essential .

I also believe the renaissance that improvisation has had since the jazz age is in part a result of the fact that it can be recorded . For me it's a game changer that music doesn't need to be notated for it to live forever .

For that reason since I started playing and composing I have gone to great efforts to document my music . The process has been my greatest teacher . Making a CD that anyone would bother to listen too is a pretty huge challenge considering the amount of recorded music already out there . More recently with the help of some of the world's best musicians like Keith Carlock , James Muller etc I have managed to turn my recordings into something that generates a small but regular income . The income doesn't offset the dollars I have spent on musicians and studio fees , but if I stopped making any more CDs at the current income eventually I would start to get a small return on my investment . I haven't lost a great deal of money at this stage but it has been worth it to have my music documented as I would like it to be heard . I have always considered myself a better composer than performer and I would much rather people could LISTEN to my compositions than just look at dots on a page and try and figure out how it is supposed to go . I have been lucky that the tunes I have written have resonated and some of them have been recorded and other's are performed by other musicians fairly regularly , mostly in Australia by jazz musicians . I think Australia needs a body of original jazz compositions which can be reinterpreted so I am proud to be able to make a small contribution to the growing body of music written by folks like Mike Nock , Dale Barlow , Bernie Mcgann and Paul Grabowsky . The Australian general public is not greatly aware of this resource but I believe in the future it will be cherished as part of the Australian identity and soul ( perhaps when those who think Alcohol alone is entertainment enough are in the minority ) .

Why have I written so many words on this blog . Because I believe recorded music HAS VALUE .

The digital age and the internet have changed the way that music can be delivered . It is now no longer necessary to have a collection of your own music . It's possible for a central database to have all the music and we can listen to whatever we wish to whenever we wish . I think this is a great thing and I am all for it . Unfortunately at the time that the internet was created most of the music recorded at a time was owned by non-musicians . Sadly at this point the interests of musicians and the "value" of recorded music has been ERODED to the point where in the USA on Spotify you can listen to 10 hours of music FREE of CHARGE and for $5 you can listen to any music you like at any time ...

It is my opinion that $5 a month for as much recorded music as you can listen too (including most of the great music recorded in the last 100 years) is a DISGRACE and quite frankly and offence to music and musicians . It is so far below the minimum wage it is a joke .

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/

At this point I ask my fellow musicians to take control of their own destiny . We need to set up our own distribution systems for music owned by musicians , with fair pricing and PROPER ACCOUNTABILITY . I believe that this will happen in the future and that the sooner the better ...

I am convinced there are a lot of people in the world who want to continue to support new music to be created and recorded and that they would be prepared to pay a lot more than $5 a month in order to support the latest product being produced . It is my sincere hope that musicians worldwide wake up at this moment and realise that we must take the "business" into our own hands . Let's hope that "Spotify" is actually the beginning of a new age of recorded music where the next Allan Holdsworth can record his/her compositions and be paid properly by the world's music lovers to listen to it . It could be a beautiful future where the creativity and talent of musicians can shine without being told what to play by "businessmen" and anyone with a decent idea can hope to get fair renumeration for it by music lovers .

Let's hope !

Letter to Peter Garrett . MP

2011-03-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MPThank you for your time.
Your comments have been successfully submitted via http://www.aph.gov.au

You have sent the following details:

Name: Sean Wayland
Address: 571 6th ave apartment 1
City: Brooklyn
State or Territory: N.S.W
Postcode: 11215
Country: United States
Telephone Number: +1 347 5231455
Email Address: seanwayland@gmail.com
Comments: Hi Peter, I am an Australian musician living in New York. I studied jazz piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of music in 1992. I am well known amongst the jazz community in Sydney. I was a founding member of the Jazzgroove Association in Sydney. I left for New York and a bigger pool of musicians and opportunities about 5 years ago. I live in Brooklyn with my wife. I am a big midnight oil fan. Jim Moginie is an online acquaintance. One time I had a lengthy conversation with Rob Hirst when we got stuck in a performers van together en-route to the Wangaratta jazz festival. I am writing to ask for your political not musical help. Australia's recorded jazz history is disappearing fast. Most recordings that still exist on LP are fading. Older musicians and independent record company owner's are dying before their copyright can be passed on. If something isn't done this valuable history will be lost for good. A solution would be to create an online database of titles with reference to their locations in various libraries. I have contacted the National Film and Sound archive about this. They are willing to give some help but jazz is a small part of their large program and the law limits what they can do. A legal solution needs to be sought that would allow out of print music to be rereleased. Perhaps if an album was out of print for 20 years the copyright in the masters would automatically refer back to the musicians or their families. If it was legal and encouraged for musicians to digitize their collections and leave them at the music school libraries (like the one at the Sydney Con) this music could be saved. With the internet an online wikipedia style database of recordings could be set up cheaply. The Australian people could edit it and take care of their own history so to speak. I also believe that a valuable business could be created if the law would allow it. My piano teacher at the Conservatorium Roger Frampton died in 2000 aged 52. He created music in the 1970's which I have never been able to hear despite quite a lot of searching. I am told it is very good. I believe that his music should be heard by Australian's and the world. It should be taught in schools. The producer of some of those old Frampton LP's is approaching 90 years of age. It is time for action. I have set up a facebook group in an attempt to gain some momentum on this issue. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_188182267891758&ap=1 Please email me thank you. I hope all is well and that you still get a chance to get into the ocean in the 2035 postcode. Yours Sincerely Sean Wayland

synths/samplers

2010-12-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

What makes Synthesizers and sample based instruments sound " thin " up in the high registers ? For really low notes I think sometimes they are better than real instruments if you have a decent sized speaker . Not so for for synths and especially samplers . I wonder if the sampling rates wen't up really high would that help ? I also wonder that when a person tunes a real instrument that something happens when they go higher . My synths sound more out of tune up high too to my ears . It would be an interesting project to build a synth or sampler with a really high sampling rate and then to tune every note and see if it would then compare to a "real" instrument . With "real" instruments the "string tension" or "embouchure" pressure gets much higher is you get really high which changes the sound and makes it "scream" . How would you imitate that with a synthesizer ?

questions from richard savery , Australian saxophonist

2010-10-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Recently in my own composing I’ve started to feel that allowing the soloist/improviser freedom reduces the freedom of the composer and imposes it's own limitations.
Do you have any advice or thoughts on this?

That's an interesting question which I think about often . Sometimes I write separate solo sections to the "head" of the tune so that complexity in the written music does not get in the way of the soloist .

These days when I write the soloing section I like it to be easily memorizable .

I prefer soloing over 4/4 and 4 bar phrases so usually my solo sections adhere to that .

When improvising I prefer the musicians to be able to add complexity if they wish rather than it being forced on them .

I like to look at the music from the point of reference for a non-musician . I wonder if non-musicians can tell the difference between " 4/4 and 4 bar phrases being adeptly disguised " and a tune with sections written in different time signatures .. I also wonder how aware the casual listener is of the harmonic complexity of the solo section . Most of my beginning students are surprised to find that "so what" only has 2 chords ... they may have listened to it countless times already without noticing that aspect .

Complexity in the written music is fine with me as long as it is not too hard to learn . Often I perform music with no rehearsal due to time/financial constraints ..

There are exceptions of course like "giant steps" or my tune " fried chicken modulation " where complexity is inherent in the concept of the tune and can't be simplified . In those instances the soloist needs to be well prepared . Even "Giant Steps" is structurally simple in that it only has 3 key centers , and four lots of 4 bar phrases which can be memorized fairly easily .

Tunes written within the confines of traditional structures like "blues" or "rhythm changes" can make the task of "keeping the form during the solo " easier for the band . It can be nice to reference the "cliches of american jazz harmony" like a " 2-5-1" in the solo changes which allows the soloist to use techniques he/she may have already devised for dealing with those structures .

In the recording studio sometimes it is fun to have something more challenging and " composed " to work on as the ability to have a few goes at it can take the pressure off .

I sometimes think that it can be too easy to force a soloist in one direction. To this point do you think this is a good/bad thing?

In some ways a good tune is "fun to play" . Perhaps in some ways it has the "imprint of the composer" on it but still allows room for the improviser to do their own thing .

It seems from the a big band composers perspective that improvisation is merely a structural tool within the music. I also know (perhaps as a result?) that many horn players hate having solos - particulary over swing charts - in a big band context because they find it very hard to come across well in such a ‘artificial environment’. Thoughts?

One of the problems of the big band is everyone is separated by larger distances than usual in a small group and maybe be shuffling through lots of paper ... Having very clearly written charts with easy to an easy to navigate " road-map" can make a huge difference . Sometimes that's more important the the music itself . Also having too many cued sections can make life more difficult . Some of the most successful pieces of big band writing have very little soloing at all . Duke Ellington's "Koko" comes to mind as a personal favorite . Personally I like to "solo" over horns playing soft backgrounds that I have written myself. As a pianist in a big band I enjoy playing through someone else's written backgrounds if the chords are pretty . In that situation I want to reiterate the point that its fun as long as I have the liberty of " getting a bit lost" and know that the chart is going to continue even if I can't hear the bass player underneath the horns and lose the downbeat ... What is a nightmare is powering through overly rhythmic backgrounds played too loud and when the band gets lost in doing so ...

Further to that question Darcy James Argue creates highly organised sections for the band members to solo over. In Zeno (not sure if you’ve heard it) it almost comes across as if the whole shape of the solo is already defined - not that I’m against that, I’m really into Darcy’s music.. What do you think of that as an improviser/composer

Thanks for hipping me to that track it's pretty cool . I have checked out Darcy's music before . I met him through Aussie bassist Matt Clohesy who is playing on that Cd . I thought the section before the trombone solo ( 2.10-2.30 ) was particularly interesting and pretty writing . As far as being difficult for the soloist I expect the trombone solo section wasn't too difficult from the point of view of "negotiating the music " . It was pretty easy to follow the beginning being in 6/4 and repeating between 2 chords and then another 2 ( all centered around Ab minor ) . I felt like the soloist had plenty of room to stretch at that point . After some time things got more complicated as the solo finished up , but he had already had plenty of room to move around and " blow " . Sometimes if EVERYTHING is written out then complexity is easier to negotiate . What can be hard is if the drummer or bass player is improvising within a complicated structure and the soloist needs to figure out what they are doing as well as play and get over the backgrounds .

In the end you have to ask yourself whether you liked the results . I am certainly no connoisseur of big band music but I enjoyed hearing that piece . There is something great about humans attempting to play challenging music at this point in history . Thumbs up to them for having the energy to put all of that together ... It's hard to get a trio together in New York these days let alone a big-band with innovative music so hats off to all of them . I wish you had told me in advance that the song was freely downloadable from all about jazz before I gave .99 to the itunes barons .

“Composing, I could reach conceptions that I could never reach in a limited, defined, performing time. I couldn’t reach an equal conceptual excellence in improvisation as in composing. The inadequacy may have been in myself.
Gavin Bryars
Do you have any thoughts about that quote?

Tell him to keep trying not to give up improvising so quickly . I have been at it for 25 years now .. still trying to get it together . Improvising is a useful musical tool perhaps similar to studying Palestrina or Bach . John Lennon learnt to sing and play a bucket load of old rock n roll tunes before he wrote " I am the Walrus " . In the end it's the quality of the music that matters , not the disciplines used to getting there . Once you get into areas of rhythm that are specific to jazz , blues and funk music (eg accents , "groove" , placement , rhythms that "go-against" the pulse etc ) it gets pretty hard to notate and sometimes improvisation allows you to achieve things easily that are very difficult to notate . It's also hard to get very specific about sound/timbre with notated music . Some of Miles Davis' most famous solos are made great by the specific placement of one-note rhythmically with a very specific "sound" .

The advent of recorded music makes recording an improvised event live as long as a piece of written music . That changes the impact of improvised music .... It doesn't however make composed music "less valid " just as inventing a car doesn't make walking useless . If Gavin Bryars doesn't know how to drive a car I would tell him to keep trying and give it a shot as it can really get you to interesting places which could be hard to reach otherwise .

Best regards

Sean

letter to NY times

2010-08-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

I read this article today with interest

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/arts/music/17jazz.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=homepage&src=me

I felt compelled to write a letter about it after reading many of the readers comments hoping that " the copyright issue could be put aside so that people could hear the music " . I also hoped reading that someday Australian people will develop a similar attitude to our own jazz history . There must be hours of unheard recordings of deceased Australian musicians like Roger Frampton , Frank Smith , Joe Lane etc that are an invaluable part of our culture .

Here's the letter :

I am a 41 year old jazz musician , record label owner and composer .
I sensed a general tone among the comments left by your readers best
surmised by this comment :
"I am so pleased to read my fellow music lovers comments. In
particular regarding the legal issues which should not hamper the
process of these rare recordings reaching the ears of the public."
In the age of youtube , google etc , streaming mp3 sites like
rhapsody I have sadly watched copyright owners rights to compensation
from royalties "watered down" .
Perhaps the proceeds from the distribution of these historic
recordings can be used to set up an amendment to laws to better
protect the rights of musicians ( and filmakers etc ) still fortunate
to be alive today .
I believe it is what Goodman, Basie , Hawkins et al would have wanted .
Yours Sincerely
Sean Wayland "

robert mwamba

2010-08-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

I get to perform a variety of music here in New York city with a whole range of folks from all over the world . Robert Mwamba is a guitarist from Zambia , Africa who lives in NYC . This video is of us performing one of his original compositions at the sugar bar on 72nd st owned by Ashford and Simpson .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashford_%26_Simpson

The guitar solo starts 3 minutes in . Robert is so generous I even got to do 2 solos on this one !!!!

At the last gig with Robert his regular bass player Lonnie Plaxico remarked that " we would let an Australian play piano with us but we wouldn't let an Australian play a "groove" instrument like bass or drums in the rhythm section " . To my surprise he was unavailable for this gig and I got my shot at it .

When the sound person took a line out of my amplifier it stopped working . Fortunately radio shack next door was open and had a 2 channel - 1 Channel plug . I managed to get close to my usual "sound" using the house bass amplifier .

My wife lost her job this week so we really need the money that this gig pays ... I will have to do about 5 to 10 of these gigs to pay for my broken amplifier . Luckily the music is reward enough in this situation .

fried chicken chaser august 2010

2010-08-02T08:12:00.001-07:00

Completefriedchicken2010 by seanwayland

if you click on the "complete.." link you can listen . soundcloud seems to be having a moment at the moment

In defense of imperfection

2010-07-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

IN DEFENSE OF IMPERFECTION :

I have had my share of ups and downs in the music business . In terms of finding employment as a pianist/keyboard player , this year has been a bad one . It's hard to pinpoint the reason why . The economy maybe ? An oversupply of great players in town ? Those 2 things certainly are a factor . It's not really the " New York thing to do " to let people know that you are having a rough patch . People I meet here always seem to me to be overenthusiastic about their own lives and careers . There is a tendency to try and hide your own flaws here . Imperfection is frowned upon .

Things had changed drastically enough that I got to asking some of my colleagues for a reason why . Perhaps there was something I could change about my personality , playing or way of thinking that might help things . I got a variety of responses . No-one said I was an arse-hole which surprised me . A few people mentioned my "stylistic differences" with their preferred method of expression . Fair enough . Some people even went as far as telling me I should leave town . That didn't surprise me either . A few others mentioned a perception amongst them and others that I have hired that my gigs and CDs weren't " perfect enough " . They didn't think the idea of a "workshop" happening on the bandstand or in the recording studio was good for my career . I have certainly been guilty of that on more than one occasion .

I think back to my time as a youngster learning classical music which was my first experience playing music . I was the guy who invented my own harmonies during the choir rehearsals and sang them . I used to improvise vocal harmonies to all my favorite pop albums too . Playing the violin , I was always the guy in the orchestra who embellished my own parts . Once someone showed me the blues scale , the last bar of a Bach piano invention always involved a crass bluesy cadenza . At that point in my life I didn't really know anything about jazz but eventually found out a bit about it and learned it was improvised which was pretty impressive .

Australia was a little isolated then before the internet etc and it I was about 21 before I discovered my favorite improvisers who changed my life . Same as most people my age ... Herbie Hancock , Miles Davis , John Coltrane , Allan Holdsworth and Keith Jarrett ( especially " facing you " ) . During my time at jazz school ( 1992,1993) and shortly after I dissected and studied the music that those folks had recorded in depth . I read their writings too trying to figure out how they did it .

What I loved about Miles' bands in particular was the sense that it was very fresh and that anything could happen at any moment . I studied recordings of Miles classic quintet and realised to my surprise that musicans got lost . On some of my favorite CDs of that band it sounds as if they are playing the music for the first time in the recording studio . I remember being impressed by Miles talking about the importance of the band NOT knowing the music too well before it is recorded .

I got deeply into Allan Holdsworth at one point and was trying to figure out how he managed to conceive some of his rhythms in his solos. I asked Chad Wackerman if he thought Allan had used a computer or worked on unusual sub-divisions of the beat at great length . Chad's response was " I don't think so ... Allan is not that sort of guy he just FEELS it I think .

I also loved the "swing" element of jazz . I loved it enough to come to New York to try and figure out how it was done . The thing about swing that is so powerful to me is that it is INEXACT . My favorite groovy piano trios like Herbie , Kenny Kirkland or Wynton Kelly had "that special something " rhythmically that is certainly beyond notation , and a lot to do with interacting with your fellow musicians on the spot I think .

All of those lessons seem to go against the idea of "perfection" in improvising . To me the 2 things shouldn't possibly be able to co-exist . I try and improvise from the basic standpoint of "inspiration" . "Groove" , " the zone " , " inspiration " , "god" ... all those things to me talk about an intangible thing that happens "in the moment" I believe . For me to try and improvise without inspiration would make the whole thing pointless . I wouldn't know what to play . I am someone who at times writes a tune everyday . The act of composing is not different to improvising for me . It takes longer but .. I get " in the zone" and write down what I am inspired to write . It often seems pointless to try and improve a composition further the next day ... Should I come back next week and rewrite this blog ? ? Sometimes at a gig or in the recording studio the most inspiring thing for me to play I wrote the day before . That can be frustrating to my bandmates . The results can be mixed but sometimes the "vibe" is there more than for any other pieces . I think that is what Miles was talking about .

I know it's not the 60's any more . LSD is a thing of the past for most people . I think that that is probably a good thing . Doing a gig is different to "improvising" with your brain using a cocktail of chemicals . I don't know anyone personally who wen't insane after losing the form at Smalls . I don't like to go back to the past and listen to old CDs over and over . I like to know what is happening now . As best I can I try and listen to the new jazz music and get out and hear it which is the best thing about living in New York . Being able to hear great players often is the best reason NOT to leave town . On a great night I still hear music here that is as good as any ever recorded no doubt . On a bad day however , sometimes the music here sounds too "perfect" to me . I miss the looseness .. the "swing" if you will of my favorite old CDs . Sure the "level" of playing is as good as it ever was .. but sometimes it can be a bit like watching paint dry . I like to hear people try and play things that are beyond them or that they don't even know what it is . I remember Miles saying " I pay you to practice on the bandstand" .

If someone calls me to play their music I am usually more conservative than on my own gigs . Often in New York these days the band has never played before and we are all trying to perform difficult music with one rehearsal . Under those conditions it can be stressful for everyone if someone is getting lost or messing up the music . I try and keep things together then , but when I get to be the bandleader I like to give "inspiration" the front seat . I would hate to think that " I pay to to practice on the bandstand" will end up being " I will give you $50 to NAIL this piece of music ...

letter of employment

2010-06-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

bondi song

2010-06-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

sunny days in New York make me homesick ...
I can't win ! If it's snowing I miss the beach ... if it's hot in summer I miss the beach too !

http://www.seanwayland.com/scumvalleysallroundyou.mp3

"tricky tiki
steals the first set from you
i'll race you to ramp 3
bob hawke pays our stipend
totally perfect day
time to surf your life away
and I hope this day will never end
scum valley's all around you

tricky tiki
he's got the deal for you
satanic mansions house him and a bunch of bludgers
totally perfect day
time to surf your life away
and I hope this day will never end
scum valley's all around you"

list of sydney based musicians hired by sean wayland now AWOL from music in Sydney

2010-04-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Jason Cooney ( quit music ? )

Peter Zografakis ( location unknown )

Felix Bloxsom ( location unclear ... probably playing pop music in LA )

Andrew Gander ( Teaching English in Bangladesh )

Nick Mcbride ( playing drums in Asia )

Tim Hopkins ( now in Sydney ... presently absent from the music scene after many years in New Zealand )

Robynne Dunn ( blue mountains )

The stayers ( musicians still working regularly in Sydney )

Phil Slater ( in wollongong )

Simon Barker ( works more in asia than Sydney I think )

Brett hirst ( in Blue mountains )

Carl Dewhurst

Funksters and singers still in Sydney :

Hamish Stuart , Alex Hewetson , Arne Hanna , Lily Dior , Virna Sanzone , Elana Stone

no-jazz becomes drums solo jazz

2010-03-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

jazz history continued : after the "no-jazz" era ( where jazz musicians stopped soloing and use repetition or sound effects for interest ) came the "drum solo jazz era " . In "drum solo" jazz the drummer is allowed to display prowess and virtuosity but it is frowned upon by other instrumentalists. Whats next " The cats sitting on the floor meditating ?

houston we have a problem

2010-03-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Sean,

According to our terms of services - http://www.justhost.com/terms:
Offering video and/or audio streaming or downloads, MP3 Files, Games and
shareware is also not permitted on any Just Host server.
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best mechanic in brooklyn

2010-03-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

I can heartily recommend Hong Kong Auto repair in park slope . And I thought that Park Slope's only residents were musicians exploiting each other for tips gigs , "organic" dry cleaners and others of questionable ethics .

My car hasn't been going very well lately . Its a circa 2000 mazda . It's still in pretty good condition but recently it hasn't liked morning's or rain very much when it's "performance" resembles that of a fella with brewer's droop .

After struggling to my day gig and back in the bronx today with cars passing me on the west side highway I figured I would pay my chinese mechanic a visit on the way home . My wife and many musician friends were convinced that my previous mechanic was overcharging so she found these guys .

In the grey drizzle I limped my car into the auto shop. I turned off the engine and left the key in the ignition expecting to leave the car and went and looked for a tradesperson .

The mechanic approached and said " what seem to be problem "
I said " the car isn't running so well these days , especially in the rain , I think it may need a tune or new spark plugs "
He said " open the hood and start it up "
I turned the key and it spattered to life .
He took a look under the hood and put his hand on the motor as it was running .
" After a few seconds he look at me and said " engine is running , I dont see a problem "
I said " are you sure ... it used to run better before "
He said " Engine is running now isn't it ? I dont want to rip you off ... if car stop gimme a call " .

re: email from tom ohalloran about "eenan"

2010-03-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tom O'Halloran ( esteemed youngish Australian jazz pianist worth checking out!!! ) March 14 at 6:06am
Hey Sean - I'm doing a workshop on jazz composition at the Con in WA and wondered if there was any chance I could utilise Eenan? Would you be into sending me a lead sheet at all? Totally cool if not... and I'll tell them to go buy the album instead! haha. Actually I'll tell em to get it anyway!!!

Just a thought.. no biggie.

Hope you're well man - I'm such a fan too bro!
take care,
cheers
Tom
Reply:

hi tom ,
Nice to hear from you . Thanks for the kind words . I am enjoying your music on myspace as a I type .

http://www.myspace.com/tommyomusic

I posted some files for you up here :

www.seanwayland.com/eenan.zip

A few things influenced the composition of that tune . I have included the computer demo ( and a bunch i wrote at the time which didnt get released/recorded ) . I was in japan playing with James Muller and his sister on a boat at the time for a couple of months . "eenan" is japanese for good . It is part of my self-congratulatory period of song titles ( many others can be found on my CDs ) . You need confidence in this business.

Shortly before I left for japan Wayne Krantz called me for a gig at the knitting factory which sadly I couldn't make as I was in Sydney . Muller had some of his LTBL scores which I decided to check out in case he rang again . I realised then how much he had written out what was in his head ( I had thought a lot more of it was just improvised ) . I was also influenced by Holdsworth's non-brewed condiment head and the idea of writing out solos for heads which might later infuse your own playing . I realised that Charlie Parker was so good at playing a rhythm changes and a blues because he had already memorised 100's of his own heads on those forms . The repetitive bass figure was somewhat influenced by scofield's tune " we are not alone " from bump which is an early example of that type of bass playing in jazz. Maybe it was Jesse Murphy's idea not Scofield's ... I was also knocked out by the intro melody to "west of hollywood" by Steely Dan . The diatonic melodic pattern in "hollywood" influenced the melody of "eenan" and also "sal" ( another tune of mine written in that period ) . The chord changes and rhythm arrangement of "eenan" where written first and the melody was added later by improvising over the changes at a very slow tempo into the qy70 sequencer that I used at the time . These days I have cubase . As you can see by my influences I am really a jazz fusion musician trying to utilize acoustic instruments also . Say no to the "no-jazz" movement ( jazz with no solos or repetition instead ) . I prefer "acoustic fusion" .

Take care and have fun in perf . Any questions please email me seanwayland@gmail.com

best Sean Wayland

organ sale

2010-03-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings earthlings ,

A few changes happening here at chez seed . I have decided to part with my hammond C3 organ and 122R leslie . For those of you not " in the know " , the C3 is the same as a B3 with more timber . So much wood that it is impossible to look at the legs of the organ player during church . The neighbours have been complaining about the noise around here . I tried to convince them that our regular church services where for the good of humankind but they disagree . Consulting various lawyers we attempted to be granted church status and the various tax-breaks it would allow us . If it worked for Chick Corea and Ron Hubbard I figured it would be worth a shot . That turned out to be a dead-end and the landlord is threatening to evict so I have no choice but to sell the beautiful instrument . This organ has low frequencies to die for ( all the way down to negative numbers I believe ) which gives it more than ample penetration . I have attached a video with a recording and photos of the actual instrument .
I am asking a price of $4000 for the old girl which has been well maintained and is in good cosmetic and playing condition .

I am hoping to use the proceeds to purchase a pinball machine and new industrial espresso machine .

There will be no more rehearsals but y"all are cordially invited for an eternal pinball match fired up with the best coffee in brooklyn . If the stress gets too much you can relax with a pie and a lager and a few episode's of "minder" from my complete DVD collection . As Arthur Daley put it best " The world is your lobster "

over and OUT

ehtan iverson's wayne shorter transcription

2010-02-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2010/02/just-in-time.html

amazing solo

happy new chinese year

2010-02-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

In mandarin it is " gong xi fa cai " or " xin nian kuai le "
It's new years eve in the Chinese new year today . My chinese wife Qing made dumplings for me . There were 18 for good luck ( only one is left in the photo as they tasted good and I couldn't wait ) . I stole one of my wife's so now I have had 19 . Not sure what that means for my fortunes ...

predator drone RPV

2010-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

fictional story of child whose father works in the airforce fighting the war in Iraq at home on his computer flying drone airplanes ..
dad works from home . the kid really likes video games and thinks his dad's game RPV is the best one he has seen

"my daddy is in the airforce and he showed me a great new game
2 can play ... 3 can play

predator drone unmanned RPV .. it's my favorite game online

after lunch dad gets to work in the study
mommy makes a little extra cash on her cam

insurgent is 50 points
civilian is minus 5 "

online music

2010-01-16T10:15:00.001-08:00

I would humbly posit that 2010 is the year when online recorded music reached the " tipping point " .
There is so much freely available good quality on the internet that "ownership" seems pointless .
My listening habits have greatly changed ... I remember finding a great album like "thrust" by herbie hancock which took years of searching ( back in 1987 or so ) for me . I would listen to that thing constantly until I discovered something else . Back then my jazz teacher John Bostok told me the "kind of blue" was good and it took me a couple of years to find a copy .

Now ....

For example :

www.lala.com

I spend hours at this site just LISTENING to music ... I rarely purchase any of the stuff .... I just move on to the next great thing I havent heard before

OR

http://neverenoughrhodes.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-enough-live-herbie-hancock.html

There is a sea of live "bootlegs" of great jazz concerts recorded in the last 30-40 years on the internet .... You couldnt listen to all of them in a lifetime if you tried .... Many of these sites now stream this stuff which is perfectly legal for the listener .... Its an interesting philosophical/legal argument about the "difference" between streaming a digital file and downloading it listening to it once and then deleting it .

As a result I have posted all of my studio albums here :
www.seanwayland.bandcamp.com

If someone can suggest a better " business model" in the current climate I would love to hear it !
The cost of a digital album is going to come WAY DOWN in the next ten years . My bet is that in 2020 a whole CD will cost about $1.50 to buy online as a result ....

Cheers
Sean

time playing

2009-12-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

finally after 20 years i figured out what was wrong with my time feel ...
i was thinking about what would be the best way to organise accents within a phrase ..
i realised it made sense to dig into the groove at the top of the phrase ( 4 bars say ) and play each 1/8 ( or 1/4) with the same intensity on the downbeat at the start of the phrase so that the rhythms sounded resolved ..
no i can play any rhythms or accents I like within the phrase and its easier to hear the form in what I am doing

digitize me

2009-12-24T20:11:00.000-08:00

digital world took my fantasy
you took my mind
you took my imagination

linear ADC will never quantize me or my least significant bit

i'm not a zero or a one
digitize me ,
but you cant sample my soul

on the 7th day Lawrence Roberts created TCP/IP , packet switching

http://www.seanwayland.com/archive/computerdemosaftersept09/digitize%20me.mp3

gerry lopez

2009-12-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

just stumbled on this apt description of Gerry Lopez surfing from the 1972 surf film " five summer stories"

http://www.seanwayland.com/lopez.mp3

harry's cafe de wheels

2009-12-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

Most Sydneysider's have enjoyed a pie and peas from Harry's cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo

http://www.harryscafedewheels.com.au/Home.aspx

I recently concoted a ridiculous serial music process involving assigning a different chord to each note of the chromatic scale .
I liked the idea so much I decided it needed a name , and for no real reason it became " Harry " .
There is an unlimited number of possible " Harry's " .

I wrote a funky tune which uses 3 note triads on each chromatic note :
D , Asus , G2 ( no 3 ) , C sus , B sus , F#2 ( no 3) , Db , Ab5( #11) , F2 ( no 3 ) , Eb5 ( #11) , Bb5 ( #11) , ( the last chord has a C in the root and contains the notes C , D and C# and is hard to name ) .

The first section of the tune utilises this harry , the rest is written by ear loosely in the key of D .

I decided that it would be good to honor Harry's cafe de wheels ...

Here is the lyrics :

funky harry
pie and peas
a chilli dog
cafe de wheels
try a tiger
pie floater
chilli dog
ooh ... groovy gravy
ooh ... harry baby

colonel sanders ate 3 pies
de law say each day he must move 12 inches

"what's more musical ? A truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school " ( John Cage )

2009-12-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

"what's more musical ? A truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school " ( John Cage )

On my first trip to New York as a tourist I visited the guggenheim museum and got to see a Robert Rauschenberg exhibition .
I remember standing in front of his work "monogram" ( see photo above) and listening to a conversation by 2 art lovers discussing it's importance .

I have been having an ongoing dispute with my neighbours about the music in our apartment . I got to thinking of this quote from John Cage . I think it is somewhere in this documentary .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3hO7B80dWQ

" If you dont like something after a couple of minutes ... try it for four .. if you still dont like it then try it for 8 minutes and so on . Eventually you will find that it is quite pleasing . " John Cage

I have been working recently as an accompanist to dance classes at the Fieldston School in Riverdale . The forward thinking dance teacher recently taught the students a work by Merce Cunningham which began with throwing rocks randomly around the room to select their starting positions. Sometimes strange things get connected in one's life .

IPN ( i'm posting naked )

2009-11-29T14:49:00.000-08:00

This ( stupid ) song consists mostly of internet acronyms which have entered the language recently .
translations are available here ...

http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php

Here is the song lyrics :

"LMAO
LFMFAO
IIIO
GNOC
IPN
LSHITIPAL
ASL PLZ
ILICISCOMK
ICU
IGAB
LSHITIPAL"

CU

slide to the snake pit

2009-11-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

" like thunder
hereford shipwreck , 2035
thru the battle of the coral sea
slide to the snake - pit
happy valleys here and then gone

koori .. mark ella .. the flat attack
malabar mansion .. pewulwuy wanted dead or alive

allan turnbull's old holden on olympia speedway

dig that sewerage plant "

song about area of sydney from Maroubra to La Perouse

Maroubra is aboriginal for " like thunder "
2035 is the postcode found tattoed above the buttocks of members of the "bra boys"
many streets ( including my old address portland crescent ) are named after the battle of the coral sea .
Residents of Portland crescent included Phil Slater , Nick Mcbride , Jason Raiss , DAve Goodman , Anthony Kable and almost Sandy Klose . Peter Zografakis was close by .
The snake-man can still be visited on weekends in La Perouse
A Koori is a local aboriginal
Mark Ella is a great Australian rugby player , koori , and ex resident of matraville

Happy Valleys is the name for the shanty towns that existed in the 'bra during the 1st depression

Drummer Allan Turnbull is one of Sydney's greatest jazz musicians and continued to drive his holden ( car) long after the rego ( government registration papers ) expired thru the streets of Southern Maroubra . " Where else in the world will the government give you such a cheap apartment with a view of the beach " .

Malabar Mansion is Long Bay Jail

Pewulway was one of the Aborigines who resisted the white occupation of Sydney and died in battle at Paramatta .

The story of Olympia Speedway and the Hereford Shipwreck were told to me by Sydney jazz writer John Clare who grew up in the area .

They used to have a sewerage outfall right in the middle of the surf at Malabar . The sh#t-pipe has the words "locals only" on it ( as if anyone else would have been crazy enough to surf in that water ) .

I never managed to surf at Cat Bay near the ship of the SS Minmi , but I did catch ONE wave at Bare Island bombora on a big day . It scared the BEANS out of me and I paddled in and left it to the "speed bumps" ( boogie board riders ) .

The incredibly beautiful area always had a strange fascination for me . I could never understand why such a fantastic natural environment so close to such a big city existed . The area gets is fair share of southerly storm weather in the winter months . The often cloudy conditions that existed when I went looking for surf combined with the jail and the area's dark history leave it with a forboding "vibe" . As Doctor spock says " Frightening yet fascinating " .

australian website

2009-11-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

stumbled on this today ... and i promised not to spend so much time sitting in front of the puter

http://www.aso.gov.au/

Australian tour

2009-11-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hello readers,

I just got back from a successful tour of Australia. It the first time I have traveled around most of the major cities and performed and given master-classes. I took Mark Guiliana with me from New York and picked up James Muller and Brett Hirst. The band sounded really fantastic and had great responses and press reviews. We packed out venues in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Canberra. Adelaide wasn't as good as the rest but it was still a great gig. We broke even financially which was surprising for me touring jazz in Australia, which is tough because of the large size and small population. It is also difficult often dealing with the one "jazz club" in town in each city. They struggle to survive I guess. Some of them cancelled shows at very sort notice and most expected us to let in everyone for as little money as possible so that they could sell more beer.

As expected Australians all over the country were relaxed, friendly and warm. Australia has a small population with little mainstream exposure for contemporary music and jazz, yet in every city there is an enthusiastic well educated audience for jazz music. The food and weather and hospitality was just superb for us. We loved soaking it all up. The highlight for me was the coopers ale on tap in Adelaide "close to the source". Despite the world recession there seemed to be a great deal of prosperity I suspect thanks to our natural resources boom in Western Australia.

On a sour note, it was sad to see how little Australian Arts culture is in the media. What little space on television and in newspapers is dedicated to music / theatre and film other arts seemed to be at least 50% (at a guess) dedicated to American culture. Commercial television has oprah / judge judy / jerry springer ... guests on TV shows included Harry Connick / Liza Minneli ... The newspapers had previews of a tour by Madeleine Peyroux, Diana Krall etc ... The Australian newspaper had reviews of American CDs and a one page article about a Keith Jarrett concert in the UK with the headline "D flat and the lonelyness". (apparently his wife left him and it made D flat major come in to his head). Sitting on a Qantas airplane ("The Australian Airline") music choices are mostly American and most shameful of all "Jazz with James Morrison" features only one or 2 local jazz musicians, one of whom is a pianist born in the USA. The next post in this blog shows an article in the drum media (a sydney music paper) which edited a photo of me and Guiliana so that I wasnt visible and went on to mention that he had recently released "pistachio".

All the cities have more than their fair share of enormous bars with the emphasis on drinking alcohol. A 2 minute horse race was surrounded by about 8 hours of continuous drinking with little food. The largest proportion of space in the media is given to sport, cricket players, and footballers are household names. Alcohol advertising is banned on TV, but they get around it by having "Fosters" in 20 metre high letters on the football/cricket ground. The news shows the winner having a beer or champagne after the match. Often the news a few days later revolves around the sports stars getting drunk and involving in loose sexual activity or rape.

Coming back to the USA, the television is chock o block here with American culture 98% created by Americnns. Tv shows / music / comedians etc ... The cheaper TV shows (as opposed to the "news") have exposes on musicians and actors getting drunk/stoned and sleeping around instead of footballers.

One wonders that in Australia if more emphasis could be put on the arts that there would be less alcoholism. With not enough music etc the only thing left to do is to drink. It's pretty hard to play football after the sun goes down.

I was lucky enough to be given a fantastic video of the late great Jackie Orsascky produced in Hungary. It's wonderful to have a document of him, but it was ironic to think that it had to be produced in hungary and not in Australia after it was too late...

If I ruled the world , the ABC (australian broadcasting corporation) would set up a venue in each capial city. It would have various sized venues (70, 150, 300 etc.) There would be cheap accomodation on top. It would be equipped with concert instruments (steinway, drums, amps, sound system etc). Cameras and recording equipment would be in place to record digitally without any personel involved . Musicians could take the recordings/video home and edit them themselves (which pretty much anyone can do with a computer). The ABC would provide a seperate music channel which would broadcast the stuff 24/7 and also be made available online. Musicians would interview each other during the day. All types of music would be represented. There would be travel subsidies given to musicians. Musicians could hire the venue for a low cost. I think that this would be a much better solution than to hand grants to musicians and/or pay orchestras to play repertory music at prices only the elite can afford. I also have a problem with arts "festivals" where an artistic director can assign money (often funded by governments) to musicians based on their "cultural value" which seems arbritary to me and easily corruptible. It should be a "trade issue" and countries whose artists perform at Australian festivals should be expected to reciprocate. Ditto overseas content in our media should be at the requirement of a reciprocal arrangement I think. The government stands up for Beef etc why not our music?

We have conservatoriums, radio stations / television stations set up all over Australia, but a serious lack of affordable venues and media exposure for Australia music and musicians ... Bus drivers, Lawyers, Doctors, Truckies etc all have the necessary infrastructure in place in Australia but for serious musicians unless you are interested in performing dead European composers it is a hard road.

Despite all this the depth of Australian musical talent never ceases to surprise me, especially amzing to me is the compositions. I heard some outstanding new music by Carl Vine, Cameron Undy, James Muller on this trip .. As time progresses I expect that more and more Australians and others will take pride in our cultural heritage. Aussie musos should fight for our music to be recorded, made available and preserved ... The internet provides a great opportunity for this.

drum media australia

2009-10-10T02:14:00.000-07:00

OK OK .. I confess .. Guiliana actually wrote all the music on "pistachio" ... and he actually plays drums on it . I just put keith carlock's name on the cover to sell more CDs ;)

click on the image below to read the article

play today ... pay tommorow

2009-09-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

I am doing a little gig tonight in New York at a venue called spike hill with a great saxophonist Ian Rapien
http://www.ianrapien.com/
He's a bit younger than me and so is his band . Most of them graduated from the New School or Berklee college with master's or bachelor degrees in music performance within the last couple of years .
None of them have health insurance . I lived here for 7 years without it so I know cheap doctors which I have referred them to when they get sick .
After a brief chat during a break in the rehearsal I figured out that they collectively owe about $500,000 in student loans .
Some of the loans have an interest rate of up to 8%
They have been deferring payment due to " economic hardship" for a while but the "dollar will fall soon "
http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-dollar-done-fell-lyrics-buddy-guy.html

Doing the maths ( math for you Americans ) , just to pay the interest on $500,000 at 5% costs about $ 136.99 per day . The law in America also makes it impossible to declare themselves bankrupt in relation to these loans ( although the big car companies can do it ?? )

Tonight's gig is a tips gig . I reckon the whole band will get about $75 in the tip jar ( there are 5 other jazz bands playing on the bill tonight ) .

The guys cant even pay for the interest on their student loans let alone rent , food , insurance etc ...

Welcome to the jazz business 2009

post script : the band recieved $25 in tips in total :( . I estimated 50 people in the room during the gig . The guys in the band all live in the same house with other musicians who are also in piles of debt . Instead of going to university they could have collectively purchased their own house in park slope and built a jazz club in it .

wayne krantz = ouch

2009-08-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

I am no music critic ... don't touch the stuff really , but occasionally something comes along which deserves "honorable mention "

It's been a long time between drink's for improvised music I reckon . Maybe its a result of the shifting world scene . America and the world is a very different joint since the internet , terrorist attacks , no Queva Lutz and now the "great recession" . Combine that with destruction of copyright and the ability of any tom, dick or harry to post any musical crap they like for the whole world to sift through and things get difficult for "serious" music . Anything decent is buried in a sea of "noise" . There is probably a lot of great stuff happening elsewhere , but it's still hard to beat NYC for a collection of great improvisers . Even here though one wonders about the state of the "scene "

The rise of jazz education in New York and elsewhere with young musicians spending $100,000 on an education probably hasn't done the music much good either . Everyone is more versed in the 144 modes than they ever were . From my perspective the "jazz education" lacks having enough formal training in composition ( improvisation is composition isnt it ? ) and the old "Street school" of learning on the job . Still with so few little gigs around to play I guess school is the only place a youngster can play in front of other people ... Combine that with rents in NYC going sky high and clubs going bust left right and centre and you have 1000's of musicians fighting over a few crumbs . That has the tendency to produce nepotistic little cliques of cold musicians trying to negotiate their little scene to power ( OK I am generalising here ... the truth isnt that bleak ) . It's getting to harder to find an original voice in jazz or pop music . It's rare to see a musician in search of real expression as opposed to playing whatever the last guy played to become famous .

I really got into Allan Holdsworth , but his last CD was released in 2001 or something so it's been a long wait for me .

Complaints aside In the meantime there has been a lot of great jazz around ... James Muller , Miles Okasaki , Brad Mehldau , Wayne Krantz , Dr Lonnie Smith , Hank Jones and countless others have done plenty of outstanding things in the last 10 years . But none if it has REALLY grabbed me by the b#lls . Lots of great playing and writing but nothing that works as a complete musical statement to my ( jaded?) ears .

Of music written since the terrorist attacks most of the stuff I have fallen in love with has been songwriting based : The Shins , Nate Wood , Steely Dan , Mindy Smith , Tift Merrit , James Taylor , Kris Bauman , Robynne Dunn ... etc

Wayne Krantz has been really great to go and see play over the years . His regular gig at the 55 was THE live act in NYC for me in the last 10 years or so of spending most of my time here .

If you could be bothered buying every live record or download he has put out since " 2 drink minimum " and you could compile a CD yourself from it you would have the "best" mostly improvised music of the last ten years recorded . I am too lazy for that . I want a great album I can listen too with more than one decent cut on it .

The new CD " Krantz Carlock Lefebvre " lives up to that expectation for me . Its genuinely one of the few things I have listened to in the last 10 years that has really made me rethink things . Music is going to sound different to me now .
There is loads of great writing and playing . Wayne is a fantastic composer and I think he underrates himself .
The guitar playing is really out of sight on this one .. fantastic sounds , groove and ideas .
Wayne has his own take on minimalism which is also groundbreaking I think . Other improvisers repeat stuff ( notes , phrases , even one bar for the whole song ) , but wayne has really turned minimalism into an improvisational artform . Triplets and uneven subdivisions is COMPLETELY removed from his rhythmic language . Almost all of the tracks are 16th based . Wayne's playing is very precise almost computerish on top of Carlock's "southern" lilt . Krantz' playing is so strong and the downbeat's are covered by him so elegantly that it feels like he is pulling the rest of the band along with him . It's pretty incredible to hear the GUITAR acting as a metronome instead of the drums . The singing is cool and the phrasing in the solos is just extraordinary . Maybe it's not revolutionary , but its still creative how Wayne sustains notes on his guitar to create tension . I have never heard anyone do it quite that way .
It's also pretty groundbreaking to hear an improvised record mixed and mastered this way . It's LOUD . That is actually probably my one quibble . ( Well a couple of fast licks on the album would stop me feeling like I overplay all the time ) I would prefer to "turn up" something a bit warmer than to artificially have the music made louder using compressors and limiters . Maybe it's just the sound of the .mp3 that I dont like . Welcome to the future .

" footnoote : Joe Zawinul " Brown Street" I think deserves a mention here as being one of THE "jazz" CDs of the 2000's . It doesnt quite qualify as NEW since most of the compositions where written in the 1970's and 80's . "

band constitution 3A

2009-07-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

synthesizers and singing will not be permitted .
multiple keyboards are not permitted .
in fact sean wayland will only be permitted to use ONE NOTE . The note will be an acoustic piano string and hammer assembly . The NOTE will be UNAMPLIFIED . The piano that the note is taken from will be selected by an imperial council consisting of pianists who refuse any electronic keyboard or stylistic device concieved after 1948 . A second commitee will be chosen via secret ballot and religous preferences to decide which variety and strength of marijuana may smoke before choosing the piano NOTE . One standardised US "cone" is permitted before choice . Committee members are encouraged to play Chess during choice ( no pawns, knights, rooks , or queens allowed ) . The piano that the note is selected from must be a maple wood Steiwnway "B" . The trees used to build the piano must be from New York state . The piano chosen must have been used on a selected list of 1948 archive recordings of Elmo Hope or Dodo Marmarosa ( chosen by independant scientific double blind control experiment ) . Rueckert will use only ONCE cymbal . No other drums , but one stick is permitted ( no plastic tip ) . The cymbal must be "OLD JOHNSON" a legendary old "K" that baby dods discovered under a sleeping turkish woman in Bakırköy . Charette is permitted 3 notes . 2 for walking bass (pedals only ) , and 1 for comping/soloing . The 3 notes will be chosen by the widows of legendary american organ players . The deceased organ players must have used foot pedals . "Walking" bass using left hand by BC is frowned upon . An all vacuum tube amplifier must be used for the organ if edison phonograph horn is insufficient . The organ amplifier tubes will be chosen by committee . The aforementioned committee will be selected by similarity of DNA to median jewish new york ancestry , paying particular reference to hair "curlyness" . Preference will be given to tightly coiled or 'kinky' natural afro type hair which may have evolved to prevent the entry of UV light into the body during the gradual transition period towards the evolution of dark skin .

Sheet music is frowned upon .

In case of "utterances" and vocalisations unwittingly expelled during improvisation which may be deemed in breach of "singing" ban , each band member will recieve one stick of board designated chewing gum . The chewing gum will contain no sugar . The gum board will consist of a panel of experts including board members from wrigleys , adam nussbaum and joe locke . Any references to gum in advertisements will use the older brand name "orbit" for the sugarless product , unless Australian Lizz Smilie can be found to reenact the pronunciation of "extra" with charateristic lisp . American "voice-over" artist with imitation Australian accent and lisp is not permitted except on tuesdays .

Advertising , flyers , posters , spam is not permitted . Exception is that gig may be mentioned in "cadence" magazine gig calendar .

The band will not mention "the war"

One audience member is permitted ( not wearing any rock band "merch" ) .

THE ALBUM

No mixing "in the box" .

An engineer may be present , but said engineer must have a degree and wear a white coat . Engineer is permitted to drink English breakfast tea and eat Arnott's brand biscuits . The engineer's hearing must not be disturbed by any mood altering substances . Les Paul is permitted as assistant engineer for authenticity purposes if still breathing at time of recording .

There will be no "overdubs" or edits .

The "album" must be recorded in less than 3 hours .

First "take" which band manages to perform written " head" with no mistakes must be used . No further "takes" permitted .

Voicings , intros , outros , shout choruses , vamps , repeat signs etc is not permitted from single page of music allowed for composition . Tunes based on 1930's popular music preferred. 32 bars preferred ( with 3 times tag for ending ) .

Page of music used must be "lead sheet" . Chord symbols are permitted above melody ( no maj7 chords with alterations ) . 6th chords should be given preference to major 7th if possible . Music must be memorised before performance . No sheet music is permitted in the studio building . No photocopiers or music notation software . Sheet must be notated by union member "copyist" by hand with 3B pencil . "Eraser" or "rubbers" not permitted .

No "modal" or "free" playing is not permitted .

Drummers chart may use the term " elvinish" , but never "straight - 8 " , " ECM " , "funk" or " jungle " .

If engineer runs out of biscuit's and tea and has ability and ingredients to make a "Sazerac" , then a "bossa-nova" may be recorded . Sazerac must use an "old-fashioned", Western-style glass prepared with absinthe or pastis .

Album must be released on "vinyl" .

Use of any A-D converter is strictly prohibited and punishable . Punishment will be 35 year sentence for entire band and engineer . For duration of sentence Band and engineer will be confined to the offending recording studio . Band must survive on cocktails and Arnott's " Monte Carlo" biscuits and will be forced to listen to an exerpt of Terry Riley's "At C " continuously . Excerpt will be put into runout groove of 78 looping back into itself .

Turntable motor must run at 3600 rpm with a 46:1 gear ratio to produce 78.26 rpm. In parts of the world that used 50 Hz current, the 77.92 rpm is acceptable (3000 rpm with a 38.5:1 ratio), this is the speed at which a strobe disc with 77 lines would "stand still" in 50 Hz light (92 lines for 60Hz)

Long Playing vinyl is prohibited .

Runout groove looping back into itself ala "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" , unless written member is granted from members of "The Beatles" still breathing at time of issue .

"Stereo" is not permitted . Any distributed recording must be mono only .

One "ribbon" mic is permitted set to "omni" with no pop-filters or "blimps" .

Vacuum tube preamp is permitted , but no other circuitry or equalization .

Compression and RIAA curve may be used during one-step "mastering process" ( computer not permitted ) to limit damage to vinyl from needle .

The microphone may not me "moved" , but musicians and instruments may be moved in relation to microphone .

No "click-tracks" . Mechanical design of metronome is permitted to check tempo before red light is on .

Microphone must be calibrated at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) based in Braunschweig ( not Berlin ) . Both German atomic clock CS2 and the longwave time signal DCF77 must be in agreement .

One pistonphone is acceptable for calibration . This is an acoustical calibrator (sound source) using a closed coupler to generate a precise sound pressure for the calibration of instrumentation microphones. Pistonphone must not be used for any other purpose .

Piston must be mechanically driven to move at a specified cyclic rate, on a fixed volume of air to which the microphone under test is exposed. The air is assumed to be compressed adiabatically and the sound pressure level in the chamber can be calculated from internal physical dimensions of the device and the adiabatic gas law, which requires that the product of the pressure P with V raised to the power gamma be constant; here gamma is the ratio of the specific heat of air at constant pressure to its specific heat at constant volume. Test frequency will be 254 Hz.

aussie nut

2009-07-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

So I bought the new keyboard . I tried it out ... The organ sounds pretty authentic . I had to have a lie down and a couple of tylenols after . The volume pedal aggravates my sciatica as I expected . Rigged up a solution with a mackie mixer and my big toe . Its not ideal and takes away from my focus at the moment but its an improvement pain wise .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDLO6tiC478

organ clones , genetically modified corn and gladitorial combat

2009-07-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

should I spend $1900 and buy a nord electro 3 with improved copy of hammond guys ? why dont the smart people from sweden who made the nord organ make it touch sensitive ? I much prefer my synthesizer but you have to live in the real world i guess .
do you want to live in the modern world or would you prefer the eight century ? gladitorial combat anyone ? Don't give me that genetically modified corn either it's bad for your health .

From Wikipedia :

The organ (from Greek όργανον organon, "organ, instrument, tool") is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is one of the oldest musical instruments in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with the invention of the hydraulis. By around the eighth century it had overcome early associations with gladiatorial combat and gradually assumed a prominent place in the liturgy of the western church; subsequently it has reemerged as a secular and recital instrument.

various letters to professional digital audio manufacturers , synthesizer makers ...

2009-07-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

Hi there all ,

I want to build a strange "resonator" . an incoming audio signal is split into a number of "frequency" bands .. up to 88 . Different sized ( but small ) speakers amplify each band inside a lightweight wooden? resonator . Perhaps 3 or 4 small resonators that can be miced up ( as well as having pickups ) so that it is portable . Each resonator has a number of small speakers corresponding to different frequency bands . The resonator can be adjusted .. materials can be added or removed .. perhaps its shape is "bendable " . The resonators are used to give "life" and character to digital synthesizer signals . Perhaps frequencies below 300 hz could be sent to a conventional bass amplifer via a crossover so that the resonator could be portable . Each frequency band could be adjusted ( delays , filters etc ) with software via a computer hookup . Please help me . I need help
best regards
Sean Wayland

my FM8 synth sounds thin at higher frequencies . useless for performance .. trying to figure out why . i know my hearing diminishes up around 30hz ... I remember clearly from the test being able to recognise the attack and timbre of the synthesized sound they played me . Is there any scientific data about timbre recognition at high frequencies ? It would be interesting to vary the timbre with a synthesizer and use a filter to cut off all frequencies above a certain threshold . I wonder when changing the threshold would affect the " timbre" . I wonder if even around 96K would affect our ability to detect timbre changes ? Switching my synth from 44 to 96 seems to make a big difference ...

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your interest in the Pacarana! In answer to your question:

> discontinued. The latency of the soft-synths makes them hard to use in jazz performance . Could I use your parcana and get better latency results than with soft synths ? Please email .

Yes, having the Pacarana dedicated to computing sound means that we can compute audio and update parameters at the sample rate (we do not have to compute blocks of samples as is sometimes necessary in soft synths. In other words, time is not quantized to blocks of samples, audio is evaluated and output on every sample).

If you have other questions, please let us know.

Thanks!

-Carla

> Hi there ,
> I am interested in your product . I have a nord modular G2X which has been discontinued. The latency of the soft-synths makes them hard to use in jazz performance . Could I use your parcana and get better latency results than with soft synths ? Please email .
> Best regards
> Sean
>
>
> --

Its been a while . Hope you are well . How about a "micro" version of the rhodes piano . Some sort of scaled down "tine" system . A much smaller and lighter version of a rhodes piano . The mechanical part is just used to generate real time digital information which is processed by the computer as a musical instrument . I imagine optical sensors picking up the "tine" or string movement and generating data . The Tines/strings wouldn't need to be the real size , but they could be MANIPUATED BETTER by the artist in real time which is what the synth lacks . When you hit it hard the thing responds like a real instrument . Shrinking things down might also get around the problem of a real piano and a rhodes in that it is sluggish and can't be played as accurately as a guitar ...
sean

That's what I want to build. Just one key with a tweeter and cpu. I can connect as many as I want and send the low frequencies to a woofer for the whole lot. Let's build just one key first. If it works we can raise the venture capital one key at a time.

Just got back from a gig by brad meldhau . One of the most famous jazz pianists. I am a "vip" at the jazz club so I got to sit 2 feet from the piano. It was a bit repetitive but the guy was playing great stuff using all ten fingers in an innovative way. I get tired of the sound of a piano but you just couldn't perform what he was doing on any keyboard. Someone needs to build a synth with a speaker and software for every note. That way I think it wouldn't sound thin in the high registers like they usually do and chords would work properly. It makes no sense for all the notes to come out of 2 speakers . You need to adjust the eq/filters etc for each note . I don't know why it was never built. Hope you are well. Sean
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Hello ,
I am a professional musician. I would like you to make for me a 2 octave midi controller keyboard with a "C" as bottom note and a "B" on the top with no edges so that I can travel with more than one of them and "put them together" at the gig . Airlines are making it harder and harder to travel with equipment . I believe this would be a great help to me and my other musician friends . I also have a few other design ideas I would love to implement if possible ! I studied Electrical Engineering before becoming a musician . It is frustrating that so much of the modern technology seems to be designed for " bedroom enthusiasts" as opposed to "serious" musicians , I would love to see things improve .
Best regards
Sean Wayland

Hi len ,
i doubt I would ever get these things built but would love to try ...I have been reading "musical aplications of microprocessors" (hal chamberlin 1986) . Its old but interesting . I recently purchased the native instruments " komplete 5" . It's an enormous tool with lots of potential . Some of it is pretty poorly designed I think . It came with 10 DVDs of samples and there are l0000 patches or something, and the manuals are good for toilet paper . It comes with a hardware interface ( with no audio ? ) and no master volume knob which seems pretty silly to me ... One cool thing is they have designed a system for the knobs which has greater resolution than midi . It "feels" really good to turn the knobs ( sounds pornographic dont it ! ) . Well see if i can get it to work . The latency is OK if you just use the FM8 , but complex patches and effects and it craps out . Its more stable as a stand alone than with cubase , when I really think I can hear the jitter . To me that is the critical thinkg . You can cope with 5-10 miliseconds of latency if it is constant .
I would love to build a one key synth with a CPU , with a string or a tine ... and an advanced interface , perhaps tracking the key movement constantly and generating continous messages . Each key could be connected to your personal computer , tuned , voiced , etc . They would lock together and you could change " patches" from your personal computer . It would be programable so that other people who cant play can design patches for me ;) You could bring as many of them as you wanted wherever you went . Each one would be super light and indestructible ... well its nice to dream over here ... each key would also have minijack out and could be connected to some sort of "resonator " ... an array of tiny speakers in a lightweight box which was adjustable in shape ... you could stretch you resonator , or line with materials to change its acoustic properties ... i saw that harmoniser online searching for my string idea ... it looks and sounds fantastic . thanks for your emails and putting up with my ridiculous rants and raves
sean

Hi len ,
hope you are well. I have had my best idea yet I think . I think constantly about how to capture the way the timbre of a note changes when you play a piano harder . I found a new physical modelling patch for my nord synthesizer which someone built recently which sounds really rich . I would still love to get more control over it . There already exist a "moog guitar" and roland has a VG99 guitar synth or something . I think it would be cool if there was a single stringed instrument with no frets ( just a short string ) which created midi signals . You could play the string anyway you wish to create different amplitude/timbre variations , but the pitch could be controlled with a keyboard . I probably should talk to the guys at moog or Roland . I imagine it would be cheap to produce , and the technology is in place . There is already a "breath-controller" , which is cool , but nothing like this . You could hit the string with piano hammers and would sound like a piano ....
sean

Is there a synth that allows you to map a different attack envelope to every possible midi volume level?
I think I need a combination of that , fm synthesis for timbre and a few attack samples thrown in also mappable to midi volumes. I want each key to be seperate and the whole thing can be dissasembled. Each key would have an audio out and a usb in/out. Large numbers of keys could be connected via usb to a computer to group the outputs if it was too noisy to have a whole lot of audio outputs...hope all is well . I must come and visit. Sean
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Hi len ,
can you help me build a little box with a CPU , midi in/out , usb , and a couple of sliders .
The thing could be programmed to reassign notes via midi . the sliders/wheels would let you scroll through scales/patches on the fly .
With me playing the thing on gigs and making it famous , I think there would be a market for it if it was small and cost less than $500
If can't do it , tell me how to go about making it happen ....

best regards
sean

I just had a conversation with a guitarist friend in Sydney. He is
planning to come over and record some music with me in NY in April .
James like many guitarists doesn't like the sound of headphones when
recording. He was asking me if he could sit " in the control room "
with the speakers and engineer during the recording session. This is a
problem because he smells kinda funny and will upset the engineer and
various band-members girlfriends who will be hanging out in there .
Being a guitarist he also hates volume and will want to listen to the
music so quietly that it will spoil the good-times the engineer and
hangers-on would usually have. Is there someway you can build us a
little DSP box to make the headphones sound like you are sitting a few
feet from a pair of Yamaha NS10 speakers in an acoustically treated
room ( treated so there are no standing waves from parallel wall
reflections or bass frequencies building up in the corners of the room
) . If not a standalone DSP box , an audio plug in for protools might
do the trick . Funnily enough many of the worlds best guitarists like
to have speakers to record too. There are a lot of guitarists in the
world and with an endorsement from james or eddie van halen you might
be able to move quite a lot of units assuming the thing could be built
for around $200 .... I see itunes has already stolen your wifi speaker
idea . Might be time to get back to music/synthesizer where you belong
. I have a few other synth ideas , but that is another 15 emails which
I dont have time for now .
hope your good .
best regards

blogging

2009-07-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

I was going to write my opinion here today about various subjects including .
1) The lack of good reporting about new scientific research in the contemporary newspapers .
2) Organic food
3) Home Births
4) Synthesizers
5) Wynton Marsalis
6) Which music is more important : Gerald Finzi or James P Johnson

Unfortunately I didn't have the time

sean wayland mark guiliana (drums - NY )Australian tour

2009-05-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sean Wayland performing "arc is enough" with Mark Guiliana ( drums )/ Jeff Hanley / Pete McCann / Luca Benedetti .

Sean will tour Australia in October 2007 with Mark Guiliana / James Muller and Brett Hirst

Tour Dates : 12th oct ( the basement , Sydney )

14th oct ( Bennett's lane , Melbourne )
15th oct ( Bennett's lane , Melbourne )

17th oct ( The Ellington , Perth )

19th oct ( Adelaide , the governor hindmarsh )

20th oct ( ANU , canberra )

More dates will be announced soon

love is all that matters

2009-05-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

If you repeat the same bar , change it occasionally that is "minimalism" , serious contemporary music . If someone sings it is "pop" .

http://www.seanwayland.com/roncoote/whenwilliseeyouagain.mp3

soft oz rock video

2009-04-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

dont get me wrong

2009-04-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

i sang this song from my new Cd " pistachio " playing along on my synthesizer using a "sequencer"

recession music , jazz food and chewy

2009-04-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Monday's tips jazz gig is canceled due to venue being closed by health department .
Usually they get the jazz in when there are no patrons due to poor food/coffee/service .
The jazz sometimes comes at the beginning of the establishment's life but more often signals the end .

On a brighter note you discover that the local Rite-Aid is a heavenly smorgasbord of chewing gum choice . You can recommend the new Extra " fruit sensations" which come in a variety of flavours ( aussie spelling - f@ck you google spellcheck ) and take the edge off the food at your local jazz venue .

too much funk is bad for your health

2009-04-12T10:19:00.001-07:00

"Grocery chain recalls pistachios over salmonella fears"

From CNN

who needs good new music

2009-04-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

The internet is an unsustainable addiction .
If you don't allow people to pay for quality information it will be hard to find decent stuff in amongst the junk , spam and porn .
I think all artists , musicians , writers , journalists philosophers etc should fight for this right .

www.seanwayland.com/roncoote/whoneedsgoodnewmusic.mp3

It may be too lot to stop piracy online , but its not too late to stand up for our rights and ask people to pay .

chorale video

2009-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hi there good folks ,

I made a little video today of an improvised solo .

I have decided to "up the amount of posting " on youtube .

It uploaded fine , unfortunately it wont offer me the option to play in HD unless I add " &fmt=18" to the end of the URL

to the end of the video . Does anyone know how to force youtube to play your videos back in HD ?

im just a jazztafarian

2009-03-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking recently about the idea that living a life as a jazz musician is something akin to a form of addiction . I imagine it becoming illegal in the future . From the outside it looks like a life of suffering and the music seems unusual to many ears , but for the performer there is immense pleasure . I bit like a heroin addiction . I have also been listening a little recently to "Thin Lizzy" . Phil Lynott's story is a classic musician's tale of addiction , ruin and eventually death at the hands of his narcotic. Fortunately , not many people have died yet from improvising . Still jazz musicians can be seen as some sort of religious cult without polygamy . We improvise to put ourselves in touch with a higher " jah" . I have coined the term " jazztafarian" as such .
Here's the lyrics to the song :

" just a jazztafarian
get in touch with jah
ive got to give it up
jazz monkey on my back
people say I've changed
They say I look sick
But inside I feel good
Im just Jazztafarian
Where getting in touch with Jah "

New York Dermatology

2009-03-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

I went to a New York dermatologist worried about a strange looking mole on my back .

First thing they did when I arrived was hand me this form :

http://www.seanwayland.com/NYdermatologist.jpg

All the staff were female , young , beautiful and had great skin .

The walls were adorned with articles from so called "newspapers" and other gutter magazines featuring the doctor's treatments .

There was a TV screen showing ghoulish videos of treatment's shown on so called "News" television shows .

Does Rupert Murdoch get a taste ? How does it work ?

A lady doctor saw me and she had great skin .

She complained that she didn't have enough room in the office due to all the different Laser machines .

After looking at my mole she scheduled me for a biopsy .

I decided to visit a different dermatologist for the biopsy.

update april 16th :
Its not cancer , but you have the mole removed surgically as the cells " look weird " under the microscope . Your newly acquired health insurance company ( the freelancers union ) rejects all claims stating " previous condition " . Yes ... I have had moles on my back for my whole life . If I broke my arm would they say " sorry we cant pay for that as you had that arm BEFORE you applied for insurance " .

vale hardware synthesizers

2009-03-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=232442#232442

looks like I am going to switch over to the computer for synthesizers ... I think with a new macbook pro quadcore , my dream of a low latency , seriously programmable music machine are in reach . It's an exciting time despite the world and the music business' woes

email to creator of continuum fingerboard

2009-03-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/Continuum/html/examples/ex246.html

Hi lippold ,
I may have contacted you before . I cant remember . I am a musician . I studied electrical engineering briefly in Sydney , Australia before the pull of jazz music became to great . The music pulled me all the way from Sydney to New York . I like synthesizers , and I think your instrument looks great . I was thinking about a certain problem today and your thing came up again as a solution .
Is it possible to fix the X-axis to discrete pitches ? I want to use the Y axis to select "octaves" and play chords/melodies that are not possible on a conventional keyboard . Can the "Y" axis be converted into 12 discrete areas ( one for each octave higher than the key that is being pressed ? ) . I have a nord modular G2X synth and use the "samchillean" system on it occasionally . I would eventually want the geography of the instrument to be the same as a standard keyboard ... I like the fact that a keyboard is discrete pitches ( and the good lord has given us pitch bend ) . I dont want to relearn 30 years of practice .

I am also interested in how well the thing "tracks" . The computer synths sound great , but I am yet to find a way to controll them properly in real time . That's why I use the nord G2X which sadly has been discontinued. I consider myself the world's only virtuoso synthesizer player ( well Allan Holdsworth is better but he doesnt use a keyboard ) . I figure if I could change octaves on the one key I might be able to figure out a way to beat him and I might even have a musical career as a performer .

Sorry for the long email.
Hope you are well. Congrats on your work .

best regards
Sean

youtube / metube

2009-03-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

You enter show-business with the most honorable of intentions. Hoping to make a contribution to culture available to all of mankind for eternity . The counter on youtube becomes a yardstick of your success in the world . Your own attempts to push the vanguard of technology and humour ( Australian spelling ) are a dismal failure managing to achieve only 130 hits after almost a year of "airtime" .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnDmKzZGF4U

You take solace in the fact that what you consider to be mankind's greatest artistic achievement , the Brahms Violin Concerto 3rd movement , performed by the great David Oistrach , has only managed 36,897 hits .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFW5-TKt9SI

You take further solace when you realise the Brahms violin concerto is easily out-trumped by a drum solo competition between Buddy Rich and a Puppet . ( 753,146 hits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erE8WTngaAY

Letter to Wall St Journal

2009-03-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

If a website such as youtube, myspace can put a counter on its site which counts the number of hits , it should be fairly easy to set up an automated payment system to owners of copyrighted material . My website sells downloads automatically and payments are administered via paypal without me lifting a finger .

I recently cowrote a song with Madeleine Peyroux and Larry Klein which she recorded on her new Cd " Bare Bones " .

Watching her perform it online on the Wall St Journal , I thought she had done an awesome job of playing it and singing it , but wondered if I would ever see a penny from this particular performance .

Musicians here will argue in the local Cafe about the plight of Israel or the Iraq war , but when their own rights to remuneration are being eroded they seem strangely mute to me . Why isn't there a greater effort by musicians, journalists , actors etc to get together and force people who sell "streaming" entertainment to pay to use it ? I would posit the thought at this point that in the near distant future ( perhaps 2 years away) , it will be useless to "own" any piece of digital art . All will be available free as a stream online and most people in the developed world will have 24/7 access to anything on their iphone or equivalent . I believe we are in a "now or never" situation . I think it's time to act .

Sincerely Yours

Sean Wayland

berklee college of music website

2009-03-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

"Q: Can I play electric keyboards as my principal instrument?
No. Although there are many playing opportunities for keyboards/synthesizers in ensembles, instrumental labs, and recitals, acoustic piano is the official principal instrument of all keyboard players. Proficiencies, private lessons, and auditions are all performed on acoustic piano."

Annual cost of study towards jazz Degree $ 38,100

copyright

2009-03-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

From " The Business of Music" 9th edition ( Krasilovsky/Shemel/Gross)

Excerpts from chapter " Copyright Legislation "

" Under the Copyright Act of 1976 , an individual cannot be convicted of criminal copyright infringement unless he or she willfully infringes a copyright " for the purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain "

" Further , this act also criminalizes the electronic reproduction or distribution of copyrighted works by electronic means , if more than $1000 in total retail value during any 180-day period is involved "

" At the same time the act created certain " safe harbors" for ISP's . eg " Where the service provider acts as a "mere conduit" for an infringing transmission " or " Where the service provider has unknowingly stored infringing material and has recieved no financial benefit and responds " expeditiously " to remove the infringing material " or " Where the provider has unknowingly linked users to sited containing infringing material and responds " expeditiously " to remove the infringing material "

horizontal is vertical

2009-02-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

horizontal is vertical

and vertical is not too cool

when you do it all day

too much candy

too much zorn

a pleasant diversion

becomes and unpleasant problem

time is running out

as time becomes relative

another day wasted

another day gone

it seems to me

that zorn is the new smack

sideways

all day today

www.seanwayland.com/roncoote/horizontalisvertical.mp3

email to clavia ( nord keyboards)

2009-02-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

Very sorry to see the modular synth discontinued. I have a G2X and a G2 . Looking for an engine to tour with but they seem to have disappeared from the US . It's frustrating trying to make a "career" out these instruments when they are constantly discontinued. I have an oberhaim xpander which sits in my studio . I am too frightened to take it to gigs. I should have learnt guitar . Could you design an instrument that looks like I am playing a guitar , but sustains , stays in tune like a synth and you can play cluster type voicings on ? Preferably an instrument that doesn't cost half its value to repair if you " break a string " . best regards Sean

jerry beads and busta rhymes

2009-02-20T19:52:00.000-08:00

This week I sang and played at a benefit for the bushfires . In New York at "The Australian Bar" together with Lisa Parrott, Ben Van Der Vaal and Fiona McBain we performed pieces by : Bernie McGann , Mike Nock , INXS , The Divynils , Midnight Oil and Daddy Cool . We also performed Lisa's lovely bebop arrangement of "the road to gundagai " .We would have played more jazz , but tell that to the 400 beer-soaked Aussies singing Jimmy Barnes " Working Class Man " to the jukebox when we arrived .

I am a big fan of American music . 1900-2000 was the "American Century" as far as culture is concerned . In my lifetime ( born 1969) I have seen a great deal of amazing Aussie music too , most of which has yet to receive much international recognition . I received an email today from the Melbourne Jazz Festival and saw that they have booked : Jim Black , Ornette Coleman , Cecil Taylor , Ethan Iverson , Bill Frisell , Nels Kline , Tim Berne and Joshua Redman and a few Australians for their festival . All outstanding American musician's to be sure , but personally I wonder if the Australian tax-payers money could be better spent . Especially considering many of those artists have already toured Australia in the last 5 years or so . I doubt that we will see many Australian's performing at U.S festivals soon ... Why not invite musicians from Japan , Germany , Africa etc and try and form some sort of reciprocal partnership instead ? This is a changing trend I see down under , especially if you consider that the Sydney Sympony Orchestra now regularly performs with American guest artists which is also funded by the taxpayer to some degree . It's difficult for these orchestras to survive and they have to get " bums on seats" I guess . The combination of our popular culture , radio , TV , press giving a great deal of time to American music means that Wynton Marsalis and hundreds of other American jazz and other musicians are household names in Australia yet James Muller is not . I think the taxpayer's dollars should be spent on a better infrastructure for Australian musicians . There should be small venues built in each city which could be hired for a small fee , which come with government subsidised accomodation for touring artists . There should be a good network of international festivals featuring Australian composers and performers with similar accomodation ( in New York , London , Paris , Berlin etc ...) . Australian musicians should get their travel costs subsidised . I am trying to set up such a festival in New York and hope to get it off the ground in September . I don't think handing money to individual artists in the form of grants is a great idea . The infrastructure should be provided first I think . If the government is to fund orchestra's , they should expected perform a good percentage of Australian music and feature Australian performers . In my opinion , the concept of an "orchestra" with an instrumentation devised by 19th century European's is best suited to performing music written before any music was written in Australia . There should be more emphasis on funding ensembles that feature music written by Australians, for Australian performers and for Australian audiences . I am not for "tearing down" the institutions that exist , and sincerely hope that future generations continue to play European classical music , and great music and concepts created by American's such as Duke Ellington , Charlie Parker , Ornette Coleman etc . That being said I think it is high time that we stood up and took a greater value in our own rich cultural history . It should be taught at the conservatorium . When I was there we where forced to learn about 50 Amercian tunes written mostly in the ( first !) great depression .

I remember living in Sydney watching "Jerry Springer" etc on the television and wondering who made the decision to broadcast it down under . I also couldn't forget seeing Busta Rhymes on a Sunday Morning TV music show in Sydney around 2003 . I imagined a future generation of Aussie kids force-fed the very worst of America without getting to see the best that Australia has to offer . I have reprinted the lyrics of Busta's timeless rap " Nigga's gonna break your motherfucking neck " below :

"Break Ya Neck"

[Busta Rhymes]
Yea.. Check it out, see
The only thing you need to do right here is,
Is nod your fuckin head
Yeah, yeah
Break ya fuckin neck bitches
Yeah, yeah
Here we go now..

Where we goin now?
Where we goin now?
Give it away, give it away, give it away now
Give it away, give it away, give it away now
Just give it away nigga
Yeah, here we go now

[Verse 1]
Tell me wat'chu really wanna do (Come here ma)
Talk to a nigga, talk with me
You look like you could really give it to a nigga,
from the way you talk and the way ya try to walk for me
The way you really try to put it on a dawg
Threw ya hips like ya never did before for me
The way you break yo' back, and I break yo' neck,
and the way you try to put it on the floor for me
(Come on!) Come on (Come on!) Oh yeah
Tell me where my niggas is at (Ok!!)
Lemme address y'all niggas one time,
while I lock that down, and I hit'cha wit that (YOU GONE!)
That bomb shit, y'all niggas gone all day
Be the nigga in the drop,
Y'all niggas know every time I come through,
this motherfucker, where we always takin the ride
(So let me do this bitch)
Y'all niggas know when we come, we be makin it flop,
the way we makin it hot'll make a nigga wanna stop... [pause]
Get money, then cash that check for me
All my niggas just bust yo' tech for me
Everybody from every hood bang yo' head,
'til you break your motherfuckin head for me!

[Chorus]
Just let me give you real street shit,
to rap in yo' shit with
Recline yo' seat rewind this heat
Keep bouncin up and down these streets
So nod yo' head and
Break yo' neck nigga!
Break yo' neck nigga!
Break yo' neck nigga!
Bang yo' head until you start to
Break yo' neck nigga!
Break yo' neck nigga!
Break yo' neck nigga!
Break yo' neck!

[Verse 2]
Come along now (Let's put it down nigga!)
When I bounce back and you know I done caught my breath,
y'all niggas all know how we do,
when the way we bang niggas in the head, and we do it to death
(We fold 'em back whodi!) The fire boy, you know we bakin a ounce
I know you love the way we be givin you the music, makin you bounce
Now fuck it up just a little for my niggas,
everytime we come through niggas know that we did it for y'all (Uh-huh)
And the way we do it for the people,
niggas know we always give it to y'all
I said bounce (Come on!)
In the day time or the night, when ya creepin along,
Well just bang this shit up in the truck,
while you break yo' neck, now motherfucker try to figure my flow
See the way we come right through (When we come right through!)
We be always blowin the spot, again and again,
and make a nigga really wanna STOP... [pause]
Better tell yo' crew, yo' peeps,
all my niggas better put they troops on
And gather up your soldiers nigga,
you know you better keep yo' boots on
All my niggas in the place (Aiyyo!)
Wave your hands high now, and the way we put it down,
make a nigga wonder what he really gonna try now
What'cha really wanna do?
Just place your bet, and put'cha money where ya mouth is (Ah-hoo)
All my niggas in the street just break yo' neck and keep on boun-cin!

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
Here we go, and you know everytime Busta-Bus be holdin the fort,
my nigga watch how we shuttin it down,
The way we put it on, comin through like a steamroller,
me and Dre nigga ain't no fuckin around
My nigga (WHAT!) Yeah whattup,
Me and my team got a link cuz you know we stay choppin it up
And when get up in the club,
or how my niggas at the bar how we lockin it up
And we get a little (High!) And we get a little (Drunk!)
And we get a little (Crunk! Come on!)
Lemme give y'all niggas some shit,
that'll make you wanna bang this out yo' trunk (Come on!)
Get money, then cash that check for me
All my niggas just bust yo' tech for me
Everybody from every hood, bang yo' head,
'til you break yo' motherfuckin neck for me!

[Chorus]

armen's tone deaf

2009-02-17T19:41:00.001-08:00

I know it's unamerican to complain but I am an Australian person . Playing "keyboards" as an "artform" is a frustrating business . I have trouble sitting due to dodgy discs in my lower back , which I am convinced are a result of lugging a fender rhodes around in my early twenties . I have a 54 key rhodes now , with a lot of the wood removed which occasionally my wife helps me take to gigs .It's lighter but I fear her frame will be the next to go . I have a hammond C3 here , which sounds great , but is not portable at all . It also aggravates my back due to the extremely poor ergonomic design of the volume pedal , bench and manuals . I love my oberheim " xpander " , but it can realistically only produce one or 2 decent sounds which resemble a saxophone or accordion . You cant play " piano " type stuff on it . It is ancient , built in 1984 ( although the organ is from the 50's ) . Turning it on is like turning on an old Tandy computer . You hope for the best . It's not feasible to bring something like that to gigs . It also has a "tune" function which needs to be repeated after every song as the oscillators constantly drift out of tune . These days the computer has synths on it , but they are very difficult to use live. My mac computer has no "volume knob" or EQ knob . The computer is also prone to crashes etc which makes it terrifying on a gig . I have a nord modular G2X which I also love . It's a great machine BUT it's already been discontinued after having been on the market for less than 5 years . The good thing about a guitar or drum kit is that they don't get "discontinued" .

My Nord has been acting strangely lately . It occasionally drifts out of tune . I looked it up online and saw that it might be a faulty " pitch-stick " . I decided to take it to a repair shop in Manhattan . It takes about 45 mins one way to get there by car . I found the place . It's a dingy inudstrial type of shop with a buzzer on the door. You can't just walk in . Eventually I was buzzed in to the place . It's like a museum of Synthesizer's . There must be 300 different " discontinued" products on the walls . Most of them are for sale . The owner let's me in . He's the only guy there . He's repairing a keyboard and talking to a few customers . At regular intervals different African-American and Carribean gentleman ( UPS / Fedex delivery drivers , cabbies etc ... ) come in looking at the stuff with a view to purchase . Considering the cost of repair is usually around half the cost of one of these 2nd hand , I suspect a lot of people just sell their broken gear to the owner . The fact that I actually want something repaired seems to piss the guy off . I explain to the guy that it has pitch problem's and plug it in . He says he can't hear anything wrong with it even though I am convinced that it is moving from 1/4 tone flat and back to pitch . The guy leave's me standing around for about 1/2 an hour . My car outside has the hazard lights on . I am in Manhattan and I am sure I will get a $150 parking ticket so I take my keyboard and walk out .

I tried to write a song with words , but this one got a bit too complicated so it has become an instrumental . It's been a while since I have written one . It has an "easy" melody and a "hard" one in case the musicians complain when I ask them to play it . It's called Armen's tone deaf .

www.seanwayland.com/armen'stonedeaf.mp3

china future

2009-02-16T18:26:00.000-08:00

The year is 2157

Wang Armstrong is born in New York , USA . He is descendant of the American Jazz fusion musician Randy Diego . Wang shows an early interest in computer science but ends up entranced by the chinese yang qin instrument . Wang is named after Wang Wu , the famous Chinese musician who was one of the first creators of a new improvised form of music which fused traditional Chinese music with Western influences and improvisation . Wang's father , developed a passion for this Chinese music names "Jing Zi Zi" ( supposedly a slang derived from the chinese word for "semen" ) .

In 2130 in Shanghai there was a new movement in "Jing Zi Zi " , which involved amplified and computerised versions of traditional chinese instruments . This style was very popular but proved controversial , and in 2140 a new generation of chinese musicians had returned to their unamplified traditional instruments , and where helped gain fame and fortune by press / club owners who where older and disliked the new Electric version . In Shanghai the conservative young musicians had created a new scene at the now famous " xiao" club . Just across the street at the " wu shi wu " dive bar , the aging old guard of electronic musicians still performed in depressing surroundings. Amongst them was a younger musician Jang San who was a master electric " erhu" player . He had combined the older electric Jing Zi Zi styles with a new sensibility , greater rhythmic accuracy and concepts based on atonality .

Atonality had long been banned in America by the "Musicians Council" . The council was formed when the American government abolished copyright laws in 2078 . Until then musicians had been able to make a living from streaming their performances and charging micropayments to viewers . The new laws had made these payments effectively illegal . Atonality was considered by musicians as something akin to Heroin use . Extremely enjoyable for the musician participant , but eventually leading to personal destruction and inability to charge for ones streaming service and often starvation . Many American musicians , some "atonal addicts" had fled the dire situation in America and could be found busking in the Chinese Subway's in it's numerous big cities . These buskers often played guitar through battery operated "polytone" amplifiers , complete with battery powered " line 6" delay pedals . Often they would perform American songs written during the "First great depression" of 1930 , much shorter than the depression that started in 2008 . The buskers often played these songs in unusual time-signatures , which like atonality was regarded as a form of "self abuse " and addiction .

Anyway , by 2187 our man Wang Armstrong had become a great "Yang Gin" player . Entranced by the Electronic "Jing Zi Zi" and with his background he traveled to China to pursue knowledge and with a dream of building a better Electrified "Yang Gin " . The Chinese had built an electronic version of the instrument , but it had never been perfected and the company that built it had gone bankrupt during the conservative period of the 2170's . Wang hoped to use his computer skills to build a combined mechanical/computerised version of the instrument . He struggled with the Chinese system of naming rhythmic values based on the old "crotchet" and "quaver" , a relic of the British occupation of Hong Kong in the 20th century .

He made his way to the "wu shi wu" bar , and met the great amplified "erhu" player Jang San . Jang San was welcoming to Armstrong at the bar and gave him his email address . The Chinese still used the ancient " internet" system . America had long disgarded this system in favour of a new system which allowed communication via chip implanted in the armpit . The communist party had finally collapsed in 2140 . It had banned the use of the "armpit" system and internet pornography . With a new democratic government in place , and the loose environment of the 2170's , pornography was suddenly available everywhere on the internet , causing it to nearly collapse .

Wang Armstrong sent numerous emails to Jang San asking for lessons and the opportunity to play together but never received a reply . With the Chinese aging internet system almost collapsing under the weight of illegal downloading of the new chinese porno many emails never made it through . Wang wondered if his email had reached Jang , or if Wang had recieved it and his reply had made it back . Perhaps Jang just didnt really care .. he was more interested in perfecting his exacting rhythmic requirements for his erhu playing .

midi into face

2009-02-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

In New South Wales , Australia a small glass of beer is called a "midi" . Hence the musicians expression "midi into face" , especially favored by synthesists such as myself . Being a self-confessed lightweight , and without the stamina of my formative years, I am quite fond of a midi shandy actually . I was working on a piece of music which had a particularly electronic element . I was thinking of how cool it would be if you could plug a USB cable into your face and then "save as" your memories for full technicolor retrieval at a later date. It all fused together to form a song . Kiddies dont try a midi interface or plugging a firewire cable into your ear-socket as you may well blow a fuse .

Here's the lyrics

" midi into face

drink it nice and cold

catch my memory and "save as "

I'm storing you

you're just numbers now

bit by little bit by bit "

Summercloud Bay

2009-02-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

the long highway south

the winter mist is low in the Royal National Park

you pass Gerringing

an ancient rock platform wearing a midden

still your minds with guys that go out at Summercloud

a can of VB in the campfire light

aboriginal the originals

they're attached to this land

now you are too

as far you as go

your heart's in Jervis Bay

Australian music

2009-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

Australian music I recommend ( partial list ! )

Jazz :

Bernie Mcgann

Mike Nock

Paul Grabowsky

Chris Abrahams

Dale Barlow

Phil Slater

Steve Mckenna

Carl Orr

Carl Dewhurst

Mark Fitzgibbon

Matt Mcmahon

Australian Pop

Midnight oil / Jim Moginie

Clouds / Jodi Philis

Divynils

Robynne Dunn

Kara Grainger

Papa Lips

Jackie Orsascky

Matt Finish

The Church

Olivia Newtown-John ( songs by John Farrar)

if you see something say something

2009-02-02T20:30:00.001-08:00

I was on my daily walk today and I saw a bus with the words " Si ves algo di algo"

on the side . It translates to " if you see something say something " .

Since 9/11 there have been various advertising campaigns in New York and elsewhere alerting the citizens to get involved in keeping the city safe . Here in the big apple we are expected to keep an eye out for "suspicious packages" on the subway etc . In Sydney, Australia they ran the ad " be alert not alarmed " .

The New York subway is a glorious melting pot of cultures and races . When I see the " if you see something " signs on the subway I always imagine what is going through the minds other riders in their own native tounges . Seeing the sign translated into Spanish today , reminded me that this would be a good idea for a song . Most of the lyrics revolve around a pretty lady that happens to be on the train spotted by the strap-hangers . I also learnt the other day that my computer can read text to me . I put the lyrics into my mac OSX and got it to read it into the track . It had a bit of trouble with the spanish and chinese ... Wasn't to great at the english either . I guess we will have to wait for version 3.0

Here's the lyrics :

If you say something see something

Si ves algo di algo

que bien te ves

atractivo

coco

Liene una sonrisa muy bonita ( spanish )

ni kan, da pangzi ( chinese)

that guy looks suspicious he's got a beard

no man that's santa klaus ( english) "

humphrey b bear

2009-01-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.humphreybear.com/
Humphrey B bear is an Australian children's television character .
I had a friend who was a stage manager . They used to refer actor's wearing costumes as "suits"
Apparently there are quite a few different "humphrey" actors. My friend told me a story that one day "humphrey" showed up with a really terrible hangover and actually threw up in his suit , and still managed to complete the whole show which was being filmed live . Not sure if it's true but it's a great story . I guess you could call this song a children's song with a bit of an edge to it . Not sure if Justine Clark would sing it but here's hoping .

Heres's the lyrics

"Im just a little bumble bee
and I can fly everywhere
and where I want to bee
is just next to you
You've got such pretty flowers
I could spend hours right next to you
I'm smelling your honey
and don't seem funny to this bumble bee
dip dip dip
and i will down into your sweet honey
I'm thinking 'bout stinging you all the bloody time
you're the sweetest waratah
Humphrey Bee Bear stole my honey !!!!!!
"

williamsbeard song

2009-01-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

Why do people in Williamsburg all have beards and tattoos ? It might not be a good idea to admit that I listen to Olivia NJ but I can hear the John Farrar influence in the music surrounding the word "prosciutto" . Here's the Lyrics

"Williamsbeard's hip . I live in Williamsbeard. I try to look poor. I dress like a homeless person who's lost his razor . A few blocks away , amigo is almost homeless. I live in Williamsbeard. I like prosciutto . Half a piggy died for my lunch . Just a few blocks away same sanga costs 2 bucks. Williamsbeard's hip .

fried chicken

2009-01-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

I wrote this song when I was working as a musical in a mental institution in Queens 2000-2001 . The teenage patients where mostly the result of the crack epidemic . They where heavily sedated and also heavily into Fried Chicken and music that involved a drum machine. They where fed a cocktail of various drugs , which made them controllable and fat . I suspect that most of them have heart disease and diabetes already . I tried to teach them musical instruments but ended up getting them to sing and rap along with my drum machine . We made a little CD . Despite their problem's they where actually lovable , many of them charming .

I see the song as a metaphor for what happens when a population has no health insurance and no musical education . The end result if taken to the extreme would be something like this tune .

Over the years I have rewritten several different versions and eventually translated it into chinese :
" You Zha Ji .... Dian Nao Gu "

The "deep fried" version is the final one . The whole population becomes insane and has a brain meltdown .

At the request of Tassie "drummer du jour" Jordan Perlson, " fried Chicken" is now the bands chaser .

Listen to them here ( the live one is the "headmasters" playing in sydney at the basement in 2007
)

94

2009-01-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

I like to move forward as a composer ... I try to write quickly ( usually a piece is finished in a couple of hours ) . I like to think of it as improvising really slowly ( like 15 mins per bar ) . Occasionally a piece will get worked on for a couple of days or revisited a month later . This piece was written in way back 1994 . Back then I got my first sampler ( an EPS 16 plus ) . I wrote a bunch of music on it . It was the beginning of my songwriting ( as opposed to instrumentals ) . The pieces I wrote back then have a special place in my heart . A great deal of it was lost . I didn't document things properly then . I had about 30 tunes on a 90 minute cassette which used to live in my car and was finally lost . The sampler was also stolen after a year or 2 with plenty of tunes on it . We lived in a "sketchy" neighbourhood in South Maroubra , Sydney .

A lot of the tunes didn't have many lyrics . Often it was up to the discretion of the singer Lily Dior that was singing for "Banana" which tunes ever got performed . Many of them never saw the light of day , often my favorites .

As years past I kept revisiting the surviving recordings from the sampler , just to listen . Recently I was so inspired by them that I rerecorded a few and added new sections etc .

Today I was reading the newspaper and I read an article about a new pharmaceutical product called "lumigan" . Made by the people who made Botox , it supposedly gives you longer eyelashes , and various unfortunate side effects. It is pretty amusing what people will do to try and return to their youth . Physically I am happy to grow old gracefully . If I want to remember the past I have my old recordings . Some bitter-sweet memories from back them I might prefer to forget , but couldn't if I tried .

OK enough already here's the lyrics

" I don't need no Botox

I don't need no Rograine ( well i do actually ;)

I just need to dull the pain

I don't need no Lumigan

I'm passing over

You're memory

I can't over your good self

I can't forget 94 "

stan stapleton song

2009-01-10T21:39:00.001-08:00

I found this guy Stan Stapleton giving away James Muller's music for free on the internet . He plays guitar in a Santana tribute band in St Louis ( true !! )

I find it profoundly depressing that the guy is a musician and not a teenager who doesn't know the difference between right or wrong . I thought if I wrote a song about him it might publicly shame the guy ( since the governments and court's have failed to protect our rights as composers/musicians ) . Unfortunately it has backfired . I emailed him this song and he loves it ...he can't wait to become "famous" .

"Stan Stapleton plays guitar in a Santana tribute band

I love James Muller's playing I am giving away for free on my blog

without his permission

Stan Stapleton from St Louis "

Here's the song

www.seanwayland.com/roncoote/stanstapleton.mp3

Here's our email exchange . As far as I am concerned , if James wanted to give his music away for free he would . This guy has NO RIGHT to hand it out .

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:57 AM, stan stapleton wrote:

Hello Sean.

First i must comment you on what a great player you are, your music really awesome.

It seems no one has heard of the fantastic James Muller, that guy's one of best i've heard, truly amazing. I wanted to share this with the masses, i hope it helps get the word out about you guys.

I play lead guitar in a Santana Tribute Band, which is not even close to the music magic you guys are throwing down. I also own approximately 98% of the cd's i post, i buy these cd's to support the artist, i post cd's in lame mp3 and hope it helps spread the word about your work.

If you or James Muller ever comes to St. Louis MO. i will buy a ticket and attend the show.

Thats another way for me to support the artist.

--- On Tue, 12/2/08, Sean Wayland wrote:

From: Sean Wayland

Subject:

To: crimhead420@yahoo.com

Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 4:08 PM

re: james muller blog .

I dont think it's the right thing to do mate

under d tree restaurant song

2009-01-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

I imagined a carribean guy moving to NY to follow the American dream and ending up working in a restaurant in Crown Heights called " Under D Tree restaurant " .

A restaurant by that name exists in the east village I believe .

He works hard but eventually decides to go home to an easy life . Unfortunately the french test a nuclear weapon and blow him and his mates to pieces .

My wife thinks the song should have a happy ending .

Any suggestions gladly accepted

No more Crown Heights

No more funk

and there'll be no more Under D tree restaurant

I wont be cooking

No Jerking Chicken

I wont be serving no African American

WHEN THEY CARRY US AWAY

TO OUR ISLAND IN D SEA

FAR FROM HERE

FAR FROM TROUBLE

AND WE WILL NEVER HAVE A CARE

W'ELL GO SURFING IN D SEA

FAR FROM HERE

FAR FROM TROUBLE

No more goat stew

No Gizzades

No pickapeppa

No more Matouk's Flambeau red sauce

No more Codfish Ball's

No Boiled Yam

No curried callaldo

no more oven-baked breadfruit

AND THEN ALONG CAME NUCLEAR TESTING

AND WE WHERE BLOWN INTO D SEA

FAR FROM HERE

FAR FROM TROUBLE

AND WE WILL NEVER HAVE A CARE

WE JUST ASHES IN D SEA

FAR FROM HERE

FAR FROM TROUBLE

trust fund song

2009-01-10T21:25:00.000-08:00

These days you need a trust fund to have a musical career it seems .

"musician wanted

you we need somebody

we need somebody

not just anyone

no junkie , no time wasters , no bad attitude

if you can play

if you can fly

you know we need your body

we need your one

bass player wanted and he/she must have

own gear , car, trust fund too

influences : nursery rhymes

oh you got me ... oh you found me .. can I play with you "

no credit no problem song

2009-01-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

I remember walking into guitar center last year . They had a sign up advertising their lay-by plan " Play today .. Pay Tommorow "

In this tune our hapless heroes have started a band , have their own rehearsal pad , the best guitars and dope around , all paid for with bank loans and credit cards .

Untrained as musicians, the band is a musical failure and they proceed to smoke the American ( and world ) economy down the gurgler so to speak .

Apologies to my father for using drug references in a song .

unfortunately my computer wont allow a ? to be in a filename of an .mp3 file

Heres the lyrics :

"no credit no problem

bank manager say its ok

its not his money anyway

guitar center got a new deal

play today pay tommorow

got no job got no cash

but we got cable TV

got a new house , its a cool flat

got the best dope around

toke it us , smoke it like that

where all going down going down

suck it up , take it like that

where all going down going down "

faith bank song

2009-01-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

FAITH BANK

"
The pastor wants you to accumulate wealth
Vote for our elected representative of the faith bank
This sermon is brought to you by our proud sponsors
My portfolio will not include Roger Casement or Oscar Wilde"

dr google song

2009-01-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

If you're a freak and a hypochondriac like me you probably spend hours research your various assumed illnesses on the internet

"ask Dr Google ,

Your wand has gotten slighty broken

your shaving your ears

not having health insurance is no longer a problem for you

whatever you've got ask Dr G , he has all the answers for you"

www.seanwayland.com/roncoote/drgoogle.mp3

double happiness

2009-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

Double Happiness is a cigarette brand in China . My wife is Chinese , and I have spent a bit of time over there . I imagine that in the future all the Chinese will be rich and drinking coffee and living lives as jazz musos and artists while the Americans work in factories to build electronic gadgets and phones for them . Here is the song Lyrics . Zhang-san and Wang-Wu are chinese names with numbers in them . There are so many Chinese people that a son will often become Zhang number 5 etc ... San means 3 and Wu is 5 .

in an LA factory

we gotta build some brand new phones

ones for the shanghai master of tone : Zhang-san

Wang-wu's heading down to the double happiness cafe

he'll take his americano grande

and he'll head home to work on his saxophone

dongagra song

2009-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about the guys who invented viagra sitting around thinking of a name for it . Viagra was a a cop out of a name I reckon . Here is my version of the TV advertisement song for my special name for it "dongagra"

"brand new thang-drug

new dongagra wont you let me love you long time

results may vary

side-effects may include sniggering chemist

my prescriptions running low again

if your pride lasts for days contact guiness book right away

rest your richard gere on your james genus

pass me that walnut

double my dose please "

beds thai ( bed -stuy) thai restaurant lyrics

2009-01-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

is that a thai-ping error

does that say thai-lenol thai restaurant

put on your suit and thai

lets hit the bed stuy thai restaurant

catalog man brings the tom yum goong

cook that piggy . cook it kow moo dang

why not get your Nam Maprow On

cancel reservations

I am all THAID up

dont bring me , bring me S Thai D

ive tried that dish before

dont panic its not the thai-tanic

designer babies

2009-01-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

I was watching "the doctors" show on TV. it is now possible to select the sex of your offspring and hand pick characteristics . people are paying top dollar for the service already .

I imagined a father deciding to have a girl , with characteristics of his own choice . It's suitably complex , which the new breed will certainly appreciate , even if its hard for us old schoolers to perform .

" DESIGNER BABIES

Hey Daddy why do I like beer ?

I designed it like that

I love jazz fusion music I'm the only girl who does

I designed it like that

Ive got my mum's but

I dig Frank Zappa

I hate shopping

and I never forget the bridge "

Perhaps I should ask Bobby " the wrist " Wayland to perform it

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=35176

You should listen to his song " Baywatch and beer"

not sure if he could cope with the 7/4 bit ... but he has the right attitude

Prog Jazz movement

2009-01-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

Partial list of "instrumentalist/virtuoso" (Jazz?) musicians to include " vocal numbers" into their recordings/gigs recently :

These bandleaders who previously had been showcasing their instrumentalist abilities have been more recently including vocals into their music . Is it a sign of the hard times facing the jazz industry or a need for genuine expression in an increasingly complex musical environment or both ? ?

I would vote for both I think .

I have dubbed the movement " Prog-Jazz" . Remember you heard the term here first . Hopefully it wont become a much derided term like "Prog-Rock" or "Fusion" .

Herbie Hancock ( hired singers)
Miles Okasaki ( no lyrics ) (hired singer)
Seamus Blake ( no solos) ( sings)
Kris Bauman / the dang-it-bobbys (no jazz solos only "chicken-picken") (sang)
Chris Tarry (hired singer)
Adam Klipple (hired singer)
Chris Ward (hired singer)
Ray Thistlewaite ( Australia - thirsty merc) ( no solos ) (sings)
Jess Green (sings)
Wayne Krantz (sings)
Tim Hopkins ( New Zealand) - ( "rap" singing also)
Kurt Rosenwinkel ( no lyrics ) (sings? )
Diana Krall (sings)
Dina Derose (sings)
Nicky Parrott (sings)
Debbie Kennedy (sings)
Keith Jarrett ( no lyrics ! )
Jenny Scheinman (sings)
Robert Glasper ( Rap )
Paul Grabowsky ( Australia - hired singers)
Steve Hunter ( Hired singers - sang one tune )
Rod White ( Australia - sang)
Gerard Masters ( Australia - sang )
Donny McCaslin ( hired singer )
Sean Wayland ( sang )

Old School
George Benson (sings)
Allan Holdsworth (hired singer)
Grady Tate (sings)
Tony Williams ( sings- raps )
Herbie Hancock (sings-raps)
Dig ( Australia - hired singers/rappers)

Can you think of any more ? Please let me know

canine xanax

2008-12-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Hi there ,

I decided to start a blog . I will post things that interest me here and include new song/lyrics , demos etc .

I have been working on these lyrics today . No music as yet . I was at my friend Adam Armstrong's Boxing Day party ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day ) in Red Hook on sunday ( bassist on my Cds "fangin" and "Stolen Van" ) . One of his friends was telling me that his dog takes xanax .

Guitarist in the "tassies" (http://www.seanwayland.com/seanwaylandandthetassies.html)

Luca Benedetti has a dog on prozac too . My wife is Chinese and she has eaten dog before . The chinese think it's good to eat in winter as it warms you up apparently . I like dogs , but couldn't keep one as a pet . I wrote these lyrics "canine xanax". I am still working on the music...

"fido is my one and only love

we listen to rufus harley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Harley)

and fido sings along

we play dungeons and dragons

we go outside and golden shower

he puts it in a bag for me

we play " Natascha Kampusch " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natascha_Kampusch )

Natasha and Wolfgang

we sometimes do "pulp fiction"

so he can wear his gimp suit

we do the "hannibal lecter"

i put him in his doggie collar

i lock him in the house

and then go out all day

and if he gets too sad

we take a bit more prozac

and if it gets too scary

we've got the canine xanax

he likes organic doggie food

with all his drugs mixed in it

and then we go to china

fidos on the menu now

just like Bernd-Jurgen Brandes

and Armin Meiwes" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes )