Toledo? Toledo!

If it haven't said it before, one of the rewards of getting older is seeing the world improve. It is cliche for older folk to opine about the sad state of the modern world and point back to some Ozzie and Harriet time when everything was as sweet as orange sherbert and 7-Up. But so much seems so much better to me than when I was a kid.

One of my greatest joys is to see the notion of two or three dominant music centers surrounded by an ocean of mediocrity slowly disappear. You can no longer say that the only good music comes from New York, or Berlin, or London, or Osaka.

Living in a medium-sized city myself (16th largest in the US!), this issue is near and dear to my heart. When I moved to Ohio from the east coast in 1990, I got a lot of attitude from some of my east coast friends and family about moving to the heartland. Some of them still don't understand it and assume that I must live in the middle of a corn field (which wouldn't be such a bad thing, now that I reflect upon it). Since I came here, I have always been impressed by the amount of talented people, and we have an excellent new music scene.

There are certain benefits to doing new music in a city like Columbus. First of all, there is not a tremendous amount of competition for a limited audience. Usually there is just one key show going on at one time. Another thing, it is a lot easier to set up gigs because there is no cut-throat comepetition for a limited number of gigs. And there aren't a few experimental superstars who rule our scene that everyone else has to suck up to. There are not arch hipsters too whom everyone looks for guidance. Our free music scene is actually pretty free.

So in one week, you can see analog noise at Skylab, fringe rock at Cafe Bourbon Street, punk at the Legion of Doom, free improv at the OSU Urban Arts Space, and -- the latest member of our community -- the New Music Collective at Ohio State who very ably presented works by Stockhausen, Feldman, Reich, and others at a concert last weekend.

So now Toledo has been getting to the act. Our colleague Gabe from the KBD group has been presenting house concerts with great success. At this stage in my career, house concerts are probably my favorite performance venue. The acoustics are good and you feel really connected with the audience. It suits quiet free improv really well.

So this Friday, Gabe has...

Jack Wright (sax) and Bob Marsh (violin) duo

Ryan Jewell (drums), Larry Marotta (guitar), Ben Bennett (drums) trio

fluxmonkey (electronics) and J. Guy Laughlin (drums) duo

Music starts at 9.

The Robinwood Concert House is at 2564 Robinwood Ave., Toledo

There is more information about the concert at http://toledobellows.wordpress.com.

Pimalia/Smatterings/Amazon

Loyal listener and supporter, I need your help!

Pimalia, the label which has been releasing my silent film soundtracks, has secured a promotional deal with Amazon (yep, that Amazon) in which Amazon is offering Smatterings, our CD label sampler, for free download. (FYI, my track is Anemic Cinema.) Obviously, we're trying to create as much of a buzz as we can while we have this rare opportunity.

So how can you help? It's easy!

1. Download the CD. It's free and there's good stuff on it.

2. Write a short review and post it to Amazon.

And that's all you have to do!

Could this be success?

Well, once again the Marotta Hour series at the OSU Urban Arts Space went very well last Thursday, May 21. We had about 30 people out -- a big success in my world -- and everyone seemed happy, including the performers, who made a decent amount of money. At this point, I almost have to think that I am finally being successful at this new music promotion business. By eight months, any initial honeymoon period should be long over, and I am continuing to see new audience members at each show. At this performance, there were even people who left. This means that folks are taking a chance on these shows; it's not always the same people, the initiated.

I'm still puzzled that with the series at an odd time -- 7 p.m. on a Thursday -- and in a bad place -- downtown Columbus, which dies after 5 p.m. -- that everything seems to be working. Maybe by doing everything different, everything is in the correct alignment this time.

I'm not sure if I know how to deal with this.

Film Scoring Project

I heard from Kino International and they would like me to contribute some soundtracks to volume three of their Avant Garde silent movie series. I've had scores on Volume 1 and Volume 2, so I am thrilled to be asked to be part of volume three. I'm not sure what films I'll be scoring yet, but it should be about 45 minutes total with a due date of July 1. Kino usually has pretty quick turnaround times on their projects, but I tend to work better under that sort of pressure.

It's interesting to me how much the technology to score films has changed since my last project with Kino three years ago. Now, even with the basic GarageBand program that comes with the MacBook you can play the video file of the film and play right along very, very simply. When I did my Buster Keaton project in 2001, we used an elaborate system of VCR and computer all rigged together. It wasn't that simple and it didn't always work. Now I can plug my keyboard into the Mac via USB and have a sketch of a score very simply. It's one of those times when you realize that technology is an amazing thing. It really makes some of the traditionally complicated and expensive media like film and CDs pretty readily attainable for anyone.

I can't really prepare until I see the movies I'm given, but I am starting to get into the mindset.

What's most exciting is that I can release the scores on Pimalia and have the release coincide with the release of the DVD. That should be pretty cool.

Beat Box Wildcard

I was amazed as anyone to hear what sorts of sounds a 17-year-old girl from Canada can make with her mouth. Julia Dales rocks!




What struck me more than anything else is the amount of time someone would have to put in to do this sort of thing. It's also not the sort of thing that could be practiced quietly, which means your family would have to be listening to these sounds all the time. As someone who devoted much of his music time making funny sounds on guitar, I can relate to the strain this can cause to others.

Marotta Hour Series #8, May 21

It's hard to believe that we are up to show eight of the Hour Series at the Urban Arts Space. The gallery has treated me really well and continues to make me feel welcome. Which, of course, allows us to bring shows to Columbus that we might not see otherwise.

This month we have, from Boston, Vic Rawlings (above) on cello/electronics with Steve Norton on saxophone plus local boy Ryan Jewell on drums. Should be a pretty killer trio. Opening the show will be a duo with Kurt Johnson from the band Lozenge on bass and me on guitar. I'm really excited about this one.

The the details are the usual:

7-8 p.m. Thursday, May 21

OSU Urban Arts Space

50 W. Town Street (in the old Lazarus building)

downtown Columbus

Admission by donation ($5-$10 if you have it to give)

Smatterings

I just learned that the label that releases by film scores, Pimalia, has struck a deal with Amazon.com to feature the entire album of Smatterings as an exclusive free download beginning May 19 and ending July 19. Smatterings is a CD that features tracks from all of the Pimalia artists. The CD will be promoted at Amazon's online store and in their email newsletter that gets sent to every one who has ever purchased a download from Amazon in the past.

This is a big huge deal, especially for someone who is lucky to sell a few CDRs a year. Now, potentially thousands of people may hear us.

As soon as I get the link, I'll post it here. Maybe you'll be motivated to write a review? Who knows.

Jazz gig #25239

Honk, Wail, and Moan played a reception to honor volunteer ushers at the Wexner Center last evening. Since the head of the usher team is our friend, Zach (who, BTW, was also single-handedly responsible for booking free jazz in Columbus for several years), I had feeling that we would get treated well. The entire event took place on the stage at Mershon Auditorium. I quickly learned how good the acoustics were when I kept trying to turn the reverb down on my amp and I discovered that the concert-hall sound was provided by, of all things, a concert hall. Even at a very low volume, I got a nice slap-back echo from the back of the hall.

It was a small version of the group: Steve Perakis on bass, Mark Donovan on sax, Geoff Sullivan on drums, and me on guitar. The contract had it that we were supposed to start playing about 6, play about 45 minutes, have a long break while everyone ate and announcements were made, and then an hour-long set of dance music after dinner. As it turned out, we played about 45 minutes. Then, the dinner and announcements that followed went on a lot longer than expected, so we had something like a two-hour break. By the time we could play again, it was 9 0'clock, which was our specified quitting time. So we ended up playing only a couple of tunes at the end of the night. So, three-hour gig, and we probably played only one total hour of music. The pay is the same, though.

It was one of those feed-the-musicians gigs, which are always appreciated by us musicians, especially when you're playing a dinner-time gig. If I haven't stated this clearly enough in the past, you will always get the best out of the contracted band by feeding them and giving them drinks -- basically treating them like human beings. If not, we will ally ourselves with the kitchen and service staff and share our contempt of you, the employer.

A nice surprise was seeing my friend, Ann, who used to work with me at my day job, who was the guest of one of the ushers. She's a funky girl, a Janeane Garofalo-type who plays guitar in a garage rock band called The True Moves. It was nice to talk Meat Puppets and Jane's Addiction in the middle of a jazz gig. It sound like her new day job with a major corporation is going well.

I spent some time hanging out in the green room. In true geek fashion, I tried to imagine who has hung out in that very space. Did Kronos Quartet play cards in the conversation pit? Was that the chair Wayne Shorter sat in? Did Laurie Anderson use that bathroom? I can be easily amused sometimes.

Music-wise, it was a straight standards sort of gig: All the Things You Are, Paper Moon, and You Stepped Out of a Dream. We did throw in one of the more straight-ahead Sun Ra tunes, and the audience, many of whom were dressed in costume for for a Hollywood costume contest, seemed to dig it. They actually nodded. There are three types of audience nodding. There's the nodding off, and no one wants that. Then there's nodding one's head in time to the music. I think that would be desirable if you were the Average White Band. The sort of nodding we got were hipster nods of approval, slow and deliberate and focused, the sort of nod that says "yeah, man, cool."

I'm sorry we didn't get to play more because it was a nice, appreciative audience. However, I doubted if anyone would dance. They most definitely didn't look like a dancing crowd.

The return of paying gigs

Well, true to my word, I've actually started to work at getting some paying music gigs now that my daughter is going to private middle school next year. I've got a paying gig Monday at the Wexner Center playing a film reception. This gig has been on the books for some time, so it just happens to be landing at the time when I'm looking for more work. It's going to be a small ensemble. Steve Perakis is the leader, so it will probably have some other Honk, Wail, and Moan folks.

But I actually also booked a jazz gig of my own. It's Saturday, June 6, at the Espresso Yourself Music Cafe up in Powell, on the northwest end of the city. It's a really quaint place in an old church, very warm and homey, with a really mellow staff. I've already asked Ted Royalty to play vibes on this one. He and I did a gig at the Unitarian Universalist Church a few years back and the electric guitar and vibes really blend well together, and I was hoping to do something with him again sometime. I'm glad the chance has arisen. I'd also like to get a bassist on the gig, too, but no drums. I'm definitely thinking old school, Pablo Records jazz for this one.

Since it is my first time up there as a leader, I'll be working on getting people out to the gig. If the group works out, I'd like to try to get it into more situations, maybe at some nicer restaurants in town.

I swore years ago that if I couldn't play the music I wanted, I didn't want to be a professional musician. My dad was a professional drummer, and he spent a lot of his life playing crappy music he didn't want to play. I just didn't want to do that. However, it is always nice to have another skill that can serve as an additional resource when you need it.

The Return of Math

Here is one of my first sound experiments using PureData for all of the world to see. Yes, I am kind of proud of myself, although it looks suspiciously like one of the logic proofs I studied in college.

After all of these years, I am finally directly seeing what all of that math I didn't get in school meant. Logarithms, exponents, trig functions: they all actually mean something? I find myself angry with all of my math teachers for not showing me how any of this meant anything, when sound synthesis illustrates all of these mathematical principles extremely clearly. My theory is that most of them didn't know themselves that math meant anything. It was little more than a sort of high-level sudoku.

Math teachers, in my experience, weren't a whole lot different than PE teachers (and there is a special circle in hell reserved for PE teachers, but that's another post). They very quickly favored the kids who got it, and weren't particularly good at teaching the rest of us. Well, I'm getting math now without your help.

Don't worry, though. I channel all of these unresolved resentments into music. Society is safe, as long as it wears earplugs.

Happy birthday, Bill Ward

Photo courtesy of www.billward.com.

Today is the 61st birthday of Bill Ward, drummer of Black Sabbath on their classic 70s albums. As any decent musician knows, your band is only as good as -- or as terrible as -- your drummer. It is hard to manage the Stones without Charlie ("Beast of Burden" would not be the same song). Pagey, Percy, and Jonesy knew that it didn't make sense to continue without Bonzo. And the Who was a very different band after Who Are You.

In theses cases, Watts, Bonham, and Moon are three musicians with very distictive styles. When thinking of either of them, it is easy to conjure up an accompanying audio image. But what about Bill Ward? If Black Sabbath is still one the heaviest (I would argue the heaviest) of metal bands, and we know how important a drummer is to a band, what is it about Bill Ward that help make Sabbath so great?

One thing Bill Ward provided Sabbath, I think, was their massive groove. What critics called plodding, I call monstrous, earth-shaking funk.

Punk Daddy

The older I get, my life takes on more and more bourgeois trappings. I have a decent white-color job, a happy marriage, a smart child, a house with a two car garage, two cars, a nice green lawn, etc. Curiously, at the same time, I find a need to keep pushing my music in new directions.

The latest trapping is that we are sending our daughter to an all-girls private school next year. The main motivation is that middle schools in Columbus Public suck for the most part. There are all sorts of enriching programs in elementary school and high school, and not a heck of a lot in middle school. On top of that, the girls' school has a very strong and committed feminist agenda, which we definitely support. As one of the school's administrators said in a presentation, in middle school, all most girls care about is gaining the approval of boys, and there are greater things in the world than the opinion of a thirteen-year-old boy. Amen.

As you have no doubt guessed, private school is expensive, even with the financial aid the school is providing us. Luckily, we already live a fairly humble lifestyle, but we will no doubt have to take a look at the family finances and budget accordingly. But it is so worth it. Before you are a parent, you wonder if you will be able to make sacrifices for your children. Once you are a parent, you don't even think of these things as sacrifices. Why else do I have a day job if not to give my daughter more opportunity?

What is unexpected is that this situation is helping me push my music career a little farther. I'm definitely on the lookout for more film scoring projects, maybe some silent film accompaniment. Of course, I can also try to get a few more jazz gigs. Private school is strengthening my artistic resolve.

Another issue with the private girls' school thing is the reactions we get from people. For a lot of people -- especially "open-minded" liberals -- the whole situation smacks of elitism. Some people will out-and-out tell you so to your face. There is also a lot of misconceptions about the school: that there are etiquette classes, that the girls are sheltered and coddled, etc. It doesn't help that we live in the west side of Columbus in a section that is fiercely and proudly working class.

When people start telling me what I should or should not do, the teenager in me rises to the surface, and the opposition galvanizes my resolve. It reminds me of some of the punk/noise things I did when I lived in Miami where the goal a lot of time was to piss people off. Although I don't typically make music anymore that is solely directed at confrontation (although I still love to see a room of 20-somethings holding their ears while I play), I get a little thrill when something I've decided to do makes people angry, especially when this decision really has no direct bearing on their lives.

So sending my daughter to a private girls school becomes an act of punk defiance. One of the hallmarks of punk, as I read it, was to challenge people's preconceptions about the way things are supposed to be. Thus homely guys become rock stars, tough girls rock harder that lame-add dudes, the talentless become artists, and so on. In my case, I like showing that a middle aged guy with a white-color career can play in crappy basements and sleep on dirty couches and still send his daughter to a fine school. As HR said, "We will not do what they want or do what they say."

"Oh No."

Soul of Rock and Roll

Saw Georges, one of the folks who own Pimalia, the label that has started to release my silent film scores. So far the sales have been modest, but he seems to have faith that we will eventually be able to reach the people interested in this sort of music. We also discussed my next release, which is currently being prepared by my friend Steve Perakis at his studio. Larry Marotta Silent Film Scores Volume 2 will tentatively feature guitar scores for The Cage, The Seashell and the Clergyman, and The Hearts of Age. Look for it in the next few months on your favorite online music source. Until then, you can find Volume One on iTunes and Amazon. Just search for my name.

It other exciting news, the posting Sharing from my humble little blog is featured on the May blog carnival at The Soul of Rock and Roll along with several other fine postings, all worthy of your consideration.

PD

In an odd turn of events, I have downloaded the music patching software PureData and have decided to learn how to use it. It's an open source application, so the price was right. I have a lot of math to learn, and a lot of terminology, but my mind has been needing some challenges lately. I'm not sure what will come of this, or how this will come out in my music, so we'll have to see.

Munny fun

Photos of our creations from the April 19 Mini Munny Mobile Decorating Party at Rivet here in Columbus.

Becky's:



Kate's:



And mine: