"Intermission"

OK, the band has usually begun the first show with the instrumental tune "Just Kiddin'" (the musical equivalent of gym rat stretching exercises, I guess, but, done with a 12-pack of Red Bull). Then, a few weeks ago they sprung a surprise on us mid-show in the form of a horn section "a capella" ensemble piece entitled "Intermission." Gil told me he'd bought the chart, which had been arranged by Michael B. Nelson, formerly of Prince (and many others; more on him and his crew momentarily). Well, the past two Mondays, the band has opened the night with it, then immediately segue'ing into "South American Sojourn." Definitely gets your attention, and sets the bar.

Today I asked Jerry if I could get an mp3 cut of it ASAP (had I been thinking back on Monday, I'da brought my laptop to the gig and asked Sonny to patch me into the board, and I coulda pulled it right onto disk). Well, Jerry promptly sent me back -

THIS MP4 FILE

(I am able to play it both in QuickTime and the iTunes player. You might have to save it to disk and then launch it in the right player if your browser chokes and spews garbage characters.)

I suspect this little cut is not The Fat City Horns (I don't hear the trombone), but just a mockup Jerry did for me to show the piece and transition. Trust me, they play it live right on the money and then some.

Michael B. Nelson? Jeesh. "Hornheads." Click the name, visit their website (particularly the Flash version if you have Flash capability). Recall the mind-blowing "Mosaic" sitting in recently? Hornheads are the horn ensemble equivalent. Wow. You can get their CDs via CD Baby. I am placing my order tonight.

Click this for some totally badass horn work of theirs.

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jpeg note: I think I faded my graphic a bit too much (click the horn collage pic above at the top of the post to view in full). I simply Google'd "trumpet," "flugelhorn," "trombone," "alto sax," "tenor sax," and "baritone sax" respectively and saved a useful image sample of each. I then "cut" them out of their backgrounds one by one, threw about a 20% "soft edge" and 30-50% "transparency" effect on each cutout, dropped 'em all into a blank white background 1024 x 768 pixel "canvas," moved 'em around, drug in the "Intermission" jpeg I'd extracted from the PDF file Gil had sent me a couple of weeks ago, messed with it a bit -- fading it way down and tilting it, then dropped in a bit of "Broadway" font text which I hit with a touch of 3-D and a drop-shadow. Took all of about maybe 30 minutes. Just a quickie. I can do better. I'm using the ancient (and discontinued) Microsoft PhotoDraw on an old HP P3 Windoze 98 box. I think I'm gonna buy a brand new Mac (and Photoshop) and get real here. May go to Fry's this weekend and shop a while. Already priced the stuff at Apple.com.