Michael's Place

I went over to Michael Gold's yesterday to rehearse for a few hours for our gig in Benicia. I really like the sound he brings with vibes. And his studio setup is state of the art. Understandably so, since he's a sound man as well as a musician and teacher. I walked in and everything was perfectly arranged, my mic just waiting for me. We started playing Ave Rara, my new favorite song, and the sound was breathtakingly clear. When we finished, I said, "This is the best rehearsal space I've ever been in. My voice is almost disconcertingly clear--I can hear the good and the bad, perfectly!" Then a train careened by and everything vibrated and I jumped out the front door to look and sure enough, there were the tracks, not 15 feet behind us. "That," Michael said when I came back in, "is the sound of low rent!"

Ave Rara was tricky for Michael and Dean, the bass player, as I've taken it up a half step and so they had to discard 15 years of playing it in the other key. They have an excellent Brazilian sound, not surprising since they've spent years studying with Marcos Silva and Jovino Santos Neto.

We didn't have trouble with the key on my gig the other day, because none of those cats had ever heard it before. But it is such a gorgeous song. Several people came up at the gig to ask what the name of the song was. And the words! Roughly translated from Portuguese: "My life's a pilgrimage in search of you... rare bird of Islam... ah, such thirst is my destiny, this love is Bedouin, your sheets are an oasis. But always at the end of the voyage, you turn back into a mirage, sand and sun."