I know you all are totally freaking out about me missing last week’s blog. This weekly Manner Effect blog thing has sort of been your rock, your Sunday chakra-aligner, and you turn to us for guidance, entertainment, wisdom, current events and cool videos of hot sauce torture, consumer electronic woes and FX pedal tips.

Well, the wait is over! Here it is, fresh off the [word]press: Josh’s new, highly anticipated blog post. I’ve had about six weeks to figure out what to write about, and so what have I come up with? Well, I had a hard time deciding, but I narrowed it down to either:

1.) Write a review of Joshua Redman’s new album, Walking Shadows
2.) Post something sweet about my mom (It is Mother’s Day after all)
3.) Talk about cymbals and my upcoming trip to the cymbal Mecca of the world: Istanbul
4.) Share a video of me rocking out with two of my students

What’s that you say? You can barely stand the idea of me only telling you about one of these important topics? I mean, do we even have time to get into all of this? Right, right…of course not. We have better things to do than spend so much time on Manner Effect’s website, checking out all of their cool videos, pictures, and latest CD/DVD release of Abundance, and “liking” their facebook page, and buying tickets to see them perform this June 7th at NYC’s Greenespace. So I’ll do you a favor and make this quick:

1.) Joshua Redman’s new album: 6
2.) My mom: She’s awesome. She helped me dig my retainer out of the dumpster in 6th grade, and let my friends and I watch “Striptease” on my 12th birthday. Love you mom!
3.) Cymbals are the most important part of the drum set. I’m going to Turkey with my friend Ray on Wednesday and will be touring some cymbal factories. Updates to follow.
4.) This is a video of me jamming with two of my students the other day. That’s Tommy on drums, Gideon on upright, and yours truly on the keys. Who can count how many times Gideon spins the bass?

Help Manner Effect WIN this year’s “Battle Of The Boroughs” by voting for us!

Battle of the Boroughs is on June 7th.

Buy your tickets here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9734814and find out more here:http://www.thegreenespace.org/events/thegreenespace/2013/jun/07/battle-boroughs-manhattan/

When we started the blog we emphasized to each other that we can write or post whatever we would like in this space. In my attempt to test this rule, I made a huge mistake. Watch my self respect go out the window.

We all have the music that we grew up listening to and can repeat back without much thought at all. That Pres solo, that Michael Jackson song, that Whitney Houston riff we couldn’t replicate no matter how hard we tried…This music is ingrained in our hearts, minds and souls in such a way that it’s a part of who we are. It’s one part of our experience as human beings that can be unbelievably universal.

While in Puerto Rico recently, I went to hear a guitarist/vocalist perform one night. He was playing a variety of covers and people were singing along, clapping and smiling. Now I didn’t know any of the covers he played (except “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley which he played toward the end of his first set), but it was so interesting to look around and see all these people who knew every word and every note to each song. At one point, there was even a woman and a man in the audience singing backgrounds so beautifully, you’d think it had been orchestrated beforehand.

This type of audience/artist interaction is amazing to me and witnessing it in Puerto Rico started to get me thinking about what type of musical experience I want to create for my own audience. As a musician, one of my hopes is that I will be able to create music that people will recognize and identify with. This is not because of a certain amount of notoriety that I wish to obtain, but more so because of the fact that I thrive off of the experience of LIVE performance as an artist and as a spectator. I want the audience to come to a show and leave feeling differently than when they arrived and going to a show, I want to leave feeling differently than when I got there. I want to be able to reach people and be reached in some sort of way.

This guitarist was playing covers of other people’s music, but there was an ease and openness with which he performed that I have not seen in a long time. He seemed to have the audience at the forefront of his mind while at the same time being able to produce such a confident, present and genuine sound/vibe. There was a comfort in his performance that lacked any stiff, nervous or egotistical energy. It was definitely music for the sake of feeling rather than music for the sake of the performer.

This is very difficult to accomplish as an artist…to think of the audience before thinking of one’s self…to do this for the entire duration of a performance and therefore have it be less of a performance and more of an exchange. I hope to be able to do this one-day.

Today I was thinking a lot about silence. A lot of people may find it surprising that a musician is thinking so much about silence, we make noise for a living after all, right? I’ll admit that we do make a fair amount of noise and we are always looking for new, creative ways to make more noise. But what is noise without silence? Sounds are a musicians paint and our canvas is silence.

Knowing when to be quiet, or not to play, is one of our most valuable assets. It’s very easy to get carried away and try to fill up all the spaces but I always remember how important it is to let the music breathe. Moments of silence in music are like breaths of fresh air. I never overlook the importance if silence when I’m writing music or when I’m performing onstage. Sometimes it’s ok to not play!

Another aspect of silence is knowing when to shut up and just listen to the other musicians. This can be onstage during a performance but also during rehearsals when we aren’t playing. I’m an admitted noodler and find it nearly impossible not to play when I have a instrument in my hands. I have to remind myself to stop and listen to what everyone else has to say when we aren’t playing. If I don’t do this i might miss something important and end up wasting everyone’s time. This is often harder to for me than it should be.

Taking time to simply listen and not contribute has helped me beyond the music world. It has improved both my personal and business relationships as well as my effectiveness as an educator, and is a skill I’m still working on. As funny as it sounds, especially for a musician, often times the best thing one can do is just be quiet and listen.

Coney Island, June 2006.

Time: 2:30am, April 1, 2013
Listening to: “The Wilhelm Scream” – James Blake

I was looking through my desk drawer this Easter Sunday evening and came across an old journal of mine. It dates back to 2005-2006, and has a lot of randomness in it: Day-to-day journal entries from my first visit to NYC, ideas for songs, notes to myself about which tracks I like from certain albums and why, and most of all, some poems I wrote. I love poetry, and write from time to time, but looking back, I wrote quite a bit back then. A lot was happening in my life and I was in a particularly introspective phase I suppose. I must admit, I sat reading this stuff, some sappy – most of it corny – and couldn’t help but smile and laugh. You know, half of it is just re-living the moments that I was writing about and laughing about my stance on things at that particular moment and how it’s either completely changed, or strangely the same today. For instance, on one page of my journal dating February 2005, I write:

“I’M THROUGH WITH WHITE GIRLS!!! It’s not my fault I hate them so much!”

That’s a ‘lawl’ moment right there. Young Josh must’ve been interacting with some pretty rude Chiquita-blancas back then, huh? Who knows!? I have no recollection of what even triggered that sloppily-written sharpie entry, but it was so gratifying leafing through this time capsule of mine, tucked deep in my drawer. It helped me remember that writing is important to me, and really helps put my thoughts and emotions in order. It gets it all out there, even if it’s just for me.

Here are two poems I’d like to share, dating back to February & April 2006:

The Magic Hour

I thought deeply
As time set in
My thoughts, my goals
My love within

Was through with the busy day
Worked to the bone
Just relief and my poems
Chillin’ in my home

Walls bound me in
I slipped into my thoughts
Relaxed. Fully exposed
The magic hour arose

Jaazmine

Trying to play it cool
Very hard to do
Especially when you might like her
More than she likes you

Voluptuous personality
With a smart body too
Hard to pursue
But Josh, she’s diggin’ you!
And that maybe true
But try and play it cool

Jaazmine, prepossessing queen
Interesting, strong self-esteem
I hope this thing
Lasts past dreams
We’ll see

Jaazmine and me

“Go With Your Gut”. We have all heard this very popular saying, and I’m pretty confident that most people would agree with this philosophy in some sense…however, saying it and actually doing it are two different things! Usually when we create a landmark or goal in our head of something in which we want to achieve, we often assume that it will be extremely difficult to get there and will require a lot of searching, logical thinking, strategizing, consulting with various “experts”, time and money spent, etc. We assume that the element we need must be so far away that it will take forever to find, when in fact, it might be a lot closer than we think! So close, in fact, that it might not require any searching at all…just believing and doing. Of course it is silly to suggest to not use our brains to think or plan anything…but I wonder what would happen if we made an effort, let’s say for a week, to silence all preconceived tasks and rationalization, and to strictly move and react off of pure instinct. Would we end up going in circles leading to nowhere, or would our surrendering of personal control actually lead us in the direction in which we wanted to end up? It is interesting how we sometimes “think” ourselves out of doing something due to external factors like being swayed by other people’s opinions, or statistics.
If you were to hold a baby on your lap in front of a piano for the first time, he/she would most likely press a cluster of keys with the palm of their hand first, because it doesn’t yet have the knowledge of what middle C is, or what ends of the piano produce high tones vs. low tones, or what the best nomenclature to play a half-whole scale over would be! Because of their lack of knowledge, observing their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th moves would determine their preference of sound according to their natural reactions, which are mostly free from learned behaviors and external factors like people’s opinions on Facebook.
A few years ago, I was fortunate to be selected by Fred Hersch as 1 out of 12 musicians nationwide chosen to participate in his week long workshop featuring some of the greatest modern musical minds of our time. All of the mind expanding input and creative support coming from the artists amidst the whole week completely altered my limited way of thinking about approaching music. One thing in particular that really hit home with me at the time was something that came from Jason Moran.. He said, “I pretty much make a living from relying on my instincts”. Wow!! I thought…now that’s heavy. It’s interesting because he is generally regarded as a top “thinker” in the jazz idiom, in the sense that he incorporates heavy artistic concepts and symbolism in his projects. However, he is also known for using the stage as a “testing ground” in order to preserve the natural reactions and rawness that comes from human interaction while interpreting a piece in front of the audience. So, it is not only the thinking behind the concept of the project that is impressive, but more so, the actual observation of natural reactions from “gut instincts” in real time, which creates an experience for the artists and the audience.
One thing I really love about Manner Effect is that we embrace the reaction based process of composing music on the spot together. We rely on the fact that somebody at some point is going to do or say something that will spark another idea which will lead to a somewhat agreed upon new direction to the song. In fact, we have a saying… “Let’s Just Try It”. In other words, any gut instinct is worthy of an attempt at discovering that “It”. Worst comes to worst, we’ll laugh at how silly it sounds… but that’s fun anyway! It is quite a challenge to keep in check all of the knowledge and information that the 5 of us have learned in our musical studies, in order to make sure that it doesn’t limit the possibilities of incorporating our natural instincts to create the best possible music. Still, at the end of the day, it couldn’t be more rewarding to collectively arrive at the finish line. You can expect to hear a new single from Manner Effect very soon, (intentional plug) which is a completely “gut instinct” reaction based group composition.

Don’t think yourself out of it.. Go with your gut instincts!

As full time musicians we spend a lot of our energy self-promoting. I’d like to take a moment this time to show you SOME of my saxophone playing peers that constantly amaze and inspire me. This is by no means a complete list (I may add to it tomorrow when I discover I’ve left off a bunch of very important players!).

Writing lyrics is an art form that not many people have mastered. The Joni Mitchells of the world are numbered.

Lyrics like,

“We love our lovin’…but not like we love our freedom”

OR

“Don’t it always seems to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”

…I mean, how did she come up with this stuff? Sure, there’s an amount of skill that goes into the process, but raw, pure talent and the ability to communicate emotion in such a poetic way is surely at the root of it all. There’s a clarity to great lyrics that makes them relatable and powerful, able to conjure up meaningful reaction out of thin air.

Then you have people like Biggie writing lyrical phrases like,

“Stay far from timid. Only makes moves when ya heart’s in it and live the phrase sky’s the limit”

OR

“Take a better stand. Put money in my mom’s hand. Get my daughter this college plan, so she don’t need no man”.

These words are real to real people. This is difficult to do; to reach out and grab attention in the way that these lyricists were able to. And of course Biggie and Joni weren’t alone. You have John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield, 2Pac, Jon Hendricks, George Gershwin…And of course, the list goes on. But it really isn’t as long as you may think.

Recently, I’ve been writing lyrics in a variety of circumstances. I’ve been composing a lot of my own new music in addition to writing music/lyrics collectively with Manner Effect and lyrics for a few projects that I’m not the leader of. There’s a difficulty that comes along not only with identifying ways to communicate your own thoughts and emotions, but also with identifying the right direction to go in when composing lyrical repertoire that has to communicate the emotions and experiences of others. I’m realizing that writing lyrics to other people’s music is opening up a broader range of ability within myself. The lyrics that I’m writing have begun to take on a new life with a more diversified spectrum of color. I know I may be speaking very vaguely, but I believe that anyone who has attempted to write lyrics can understand what I mean. It is a form of artistic expression that is so unique to individual voice yet has the potential to encompass the voices of many. In order to do that though, empathy is crucial. Empathy is such a huge part of what Joni, Biggie, John, George and Stevie do and did. You have to be willing to live and feel not only your own experiences, but the experiences of others. It’s intense…and wonderful…and unpredictable because you’re not sure exactly what part of yourself you may stumble upon. Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun going along for the ride.

One microphone, one person, an empty stage and a club full of people. This is the scenario faced by comedians every time they go on stage. They don’t have the luxury of a supporting band or an instrument to hide behind…they are alone, naked.  People will judge them based solely on the words coming out of their mouths and the way they move their body. This is a pretty terrifying prospect and I imagine even seasoned performers still get nervous before hitting the stage. This is also the reason I have a tremendous respect for what they do.

Comedians have an amazing opportunity that musicians don’t have, and that is constant feedback from the audience. They are given feedback after every single joke, both positive and negative in the form of laughter or silence, and the great ones are able to respond and adapt to this feedback. This constant judgment from the audience is scary, but also very helpful to put on a good show and to make improvements for the next performance. They can learn instantaneously what is working and what is not and make little changes to make sure everyone is having a good time. Musicians get feedback after every song in the form of applause but it is not the same. Imagine if every ten seconds we were able to gauge our audience’s reactions?

Often times we have our set planned out and our arrangements are rigid so we kind of ignore the audience’s reactions. We also ignore what our fellow musicians are doing on stage. Every performance is different and we need to be able to adapt in the moment. Awareness of what the audience is responding to is key to a good performance, we are after all putting on a show for them, not for us. Is the audience in the mood to dance? Rock out? Or ready for a ballad? Are we taking too many solos? Is the set too long? Does the audience seem restless? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves while onstage. This dialog with our fans is an important part to our success.

Also, how are the other musicians playing tonight? Does Josh want to take the tempos a little faster? Does Logan want to take a left turn during his solo? Does Sarah want to break things down? Does Caleb need to shorten his solo to wipe off his beard and change his glasses? These are all things I need to be conscious of onstage and be willing to respond to. This will ensure that the band has a good time, and if the band is having a good time the audience probably will as well.

The other thing we can learn is to be fearless on stage and not worry if we are making mistakes. Sometimes a joke will bomb on stage and the lack of laughter lets the comedian know he has to move in another direction. A bad joke is not the end of the world and can actually be helpful. Mistakes are the best friends of performers and we cannot be afraid of them because they help us to perfect our art. When playing as a band, if a song gets little applause or the audience seems bored we can try to tailor the rest of our set to give them something they like. When we pay close attention to our fans we ensure that everybody has a good time.