Sounds
It takes a long time to remember my name
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Click to listen to the mp3 |
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It's been like 12 years since I listened to this album. It brings back a lot of memories. Mostly sentimental. The whole story is worth a couple of beers...
I was on the standard pre-law school year off trip through Asia, passing by Taiwan to meet an old college buddy who worked with me at Naoki's Japanese Restaurant in Colorado. On my second day, he conned me into staying 8 weeks to take on a gig as an English teacher substitute at some business language school. Here I was on my way to Tokyo to play bebop and catch up with the dream I had of working into the jazz scene there, and suddenly here I was in Taiwan teaching English.
The job lasted 8 weeks, and during the course of getting to know my students, mostly business people, they found out I loved music and had played the saxophone for most of my life. So as an end of semester present to their teacher, they took me out on my last Saturday to a club that featured mostly Dixieland music played by an interesting mix of English guys who had jumped a cruise ship, and some Filipinos. We talked a bit, and my students edged me on to tell them that I also played, and this got us all an invited the next day to join a jam session. I was pretty happy to play again after a few months off the horn, and played a few standards for my students, who applauded wildly, and generally embarrassed the hell out of me.
The next day I got a call from the guitar player, Rick, a serious Joe Pass style player, who said, "Hey man, you got a nice sound. I'm playing solo at this new club tonight. Why don't you bring your axe down and play a little? I'll buy you dinner. Oh, and wear a suit."
So I hopped a cab, went and bought a bright green plaid suit for $75 at some corner shop in the market, and made it over to the club. If you're playing jazz, man, you gotta have a bold suit.
I walked in the club, and spotted Rick in the corner talking with the owner, who was obviously very gay. The owner looked up, took one look at my suit and said, "You're hired! You guys start tonight. Four months." It was like something out of 52nd Street. I felt like Bud Powell. We huddled up and put together 3 sets of music and that began my introduction to Taipei nightlife. Little did I know that this club, Apocalypse Now, was the epicenter of hip, where the models, the lookers, and all the wannabes congregated to drink, swoon, and be seen. Not a bad gig.
A few weeks later, some local musicians started coming out, hearing that there was jazz in town. Guys from the orchestra, some expats, some local players. It turned into quite a scene. One of the orchestra players, Tom, took me aside and said, "Hey man, see those three guys over there? They're in the music business. One of them owns a record company. His wife is in the orchestra with me. He wants me to introduce you." So I sit and have a beer with them. Then one of them says, "You play pretty good. You also look kind of Chinese. Do you want to make an album?" I think about it for about a half second and say, "Sure. Why not?" We shake hands, and he tells me to meet him at his office the next day.
The next day I show up, we chat a bit, and he tosses a contract down in front of me. "Here. Sign it and we'll start recording next week." I take a quick look at the agreement, realize I'll never get paid, and put down my signature. Might as well see where this takes me.
Well it took me to nearly 200K copies and into one wild career. Never went back to law school. Japan took a rain check. I was riding a pretty cool wave.
Notes: This was mostly sight reading stuff at the session, and I had to play these cheap-o saxes the record company provided, "Because yours looks too old and these are nice and shiny." I was bumming through the whole session fighting pitch the whole way. And for me, going from Horace Silver to what I coined "Italian Soap Opera Music" was a big change. I was too proud and stuck on what I liked to play, to really make a great effort, but I played with my heart, and when I hear it again now, I get a nice warm sad feeling. I was really into Art Pepper at the time, and deliberately went for an "Eyes of Laura Mars" feel bridging the gap between soap and soul. My favorite cuts are 3, 4, and 7.
Credits
Keyboards |
Neil Boisen / Lin Shao Ying |
Drums |
Huang Rei Fung |
Guitar |
Yo Chen Yen |
Bass |
Kuo Chung Shao |
Classical Guitar |
Roberto Zayas |
Recorded by |
Huang Chin Her at Ya-Hsuan Studio / Chen Kuan Yu at Mi-Di Studio, Taipei |
Mixed by |
Chen Chien Ping at Ya-Hsuan Studio |
Coordinator |
Wu Ser Tze |
Direct Coordinator |
Lin Hsiao Han |
Script /Proposal |
Liu Rei Wen |
Photographer |
Chen Fu Tang |
Make Up Artist |
Cheng Jen Kuo |
Album Designer |
Chen Chi Ying / EGO Designer Studio |
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Comments (3 posted)
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wow. You know, I'll be honest: when my friend gave me your url, it was for an entry about a girl inviting a guy over [private joke], a random entry in a million other blogs. call it coincidence, call it yuan fen, but I've just been REALLY clicking around, and 0.o wow, it seems as if I could learn a heck lot from you. So you took the road less traveled by, leaving law school, getting into the music industry...
"I take a quick look at the agreement, realize I'll never get paid"
lol,sounds VERY familiar.
I had to choose between signing a record contract+staying 5 years in Taiwan and going to college in the States. The worse part about the entire thing was the fact that I didn't want to look back and wonder what would have happened if I made the other decision...
Actually, now I'm rather glad I didn't sign the contract, since if I had signed it last year, the SARs thing this year would have killed off any chance of me being successful~
You've must have had many second thoughts throughout your career... what advice would you give to a girl who's on the brink of it all, not sure what each road will lead up to?~
thanks~
the whole thing for me was a lot like surfing in a typhoon. didn't know what i was getting into, a lot of fun, crazy highs, scary lows, really tiring, and dangerous (for my mental health).
choices...well, definitely don't do the music thing if making a living from it is important to you. i was just fooling around the first couple of years, incredibly lucky, and the only one doing what i was doing. and i worked damned hard for more than 5 years. a lot of recognition, but royalties? hohohohohoooheeheheheeeharhar...(read my article about "Record Company Math")
i loved the performing, the meeting lots of different people, and seeing a lot of different things, so my goals in pursuing this was more a curiousity to see what the hell would happen with this, since i alwaays felt i had a degree and some intelligence to fall back on if it all blew up in my face, rather than the "thing i must do or else" career path. if i had "Kenny G'd" it a little more, and took the business of entertainment more seriously earlier, i wouldn't have wasted so much time in the dreaded music industry "spin"...which is always wondering what is really happening around you, and why, and will you ever go anywhere...
re your contract: contracts are just pieces of paper to fulfill a "possible" commitment. it doesn't mean any more than the value and need the people offering it to you place on your ability to make them money. you'll see lots of them in your life. worry about whether the people giving you a shot can really do it or not. and what kind of shot are you getting? a 4 record deal with Sony, where David Tao will be your producer, or some lame "we'll see what happens" deal with someone who calls someone who then calls someone like me to arrange a listen with someone like Sony or David or whoever.
re advice: hmmmm...do the college thing for sure, keep playing/singing for the love of it, learn more about writing songs and how others do it for the art of it, and record it all on an MD or something so you have it handy in case you join a band or something. if you are really serious about the performing thing, do it on weekends at a nearby cafe or bookstore around school. cool way to meet people with similiar interests...and artsy guys with scruffy beards and little berets...if after school you are still completely serious about music, you'll have either have written like 200 songs, be in your own band, have developed a small audience of your own, and already be doing what you like without stressing it, and getting A's for dad too.
re not sure what road: I asked a similiar question when i was 17 to my idol, and one of the most famous sax players ever, sonny rollins. i asked him, "how do i know if i should take the music road like you did?
here's what he told me. maybe it'll help you: "man, if you're good enough, the shit will just happen. the music will choose you."
thanks~ That actually helped me more than you probably think~ =)
"man, if you're good enough, the shit will just happen. the music will choose you."
I'll def keep that in mind~ Let things flow and figure out by themselves, and just stick to what you enjoy....
[grin]
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I've never figured out whether it's pronounced "Moe's (like owned by one of three stooges) or Moss (like that guy out of Bonanza), but the one down the hill from me is open until 2am most days, which means that if I get out of the club early enough, I can catch the best burger in town, the muo si la bao or the Spicy Mos Burger. They have lots of jalapenos and 
