This band gives me the opportunity to play my Electrified Tenor Sax, a la’ Eddie Harris. It is a mint-condition Gibson Maestro unit, circa the mid-’60s. I was very honored to receive it from saxophonist/clarinetist Jim Groh, whom I had the pleasure of playing with during my stint in the Laney College Big Band. The unit is a piezo microphone attached to a custom tenor mouthpiece. The mic then goes to a large analog module (about the size of a NYC telephone book!) complete with a 4-button footswitch. The main way it is operated is through organ-style “stops” which change the quality of the overall sound/tone. The normal effect is a bass-doubling, tambre-changing doozy which can be heard on Eddie Harris classics such as “Listen Here,” “Sham Time,” and the gorgeous “Compared To What.” (played live with the Les McCann group at Montreaux in the early ’70s.)

I do play some of the shows with soprano sax. And some do indeed feature the Electric Sax. Other shows are simply the tenor. But all the shows are grooving, yet maintaining a mellowness that fosters improvisation, yet roots it firmly in a sense of over-all melody that keeps the listener engaged.

Check it out! Plenty of opportunities in 2010 await

We do some regular gigs at the Panama Hotel (featuring our drummer, “The Panama’s Own” Josh Biller!) in San Rafael. Plus, a new regular at The Sleeping Lady in Fairfax (arranged by fellow Marin County resident/CTW rhythm section member Peter Muny on electric bass). Also: be sure to check us out on Facebook! (Search: Compared To What)

The Powers That Be are a funk/blues/jam band playing originals and coming straight outta El Cerrito! We just hit the studio, so an EP is in the works for ’09!

The band features Judy Padilla (Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir) on lead vocals, Dean Claeys on alto/tenor saxes and background vocals, myself on tenor/soprano saxes, Alex Scammon on bari/tenor saxes, Patrick Petzel on keys, Dave Gantenbein on bass (and “rehearsal studio” keys and winebottle!), and David Strong on drums.

The composing process is jam-tried and true. Dave G may bring in a bassgroove, or David brings in a beat, Judy might have a vocal hook, and then we just let it grow from there. It’s a good time, and we feel that you may catch that feeling too! Check out the myspace…  http://www.myspace.com/powersthatbe

We’ve also added an original of mine into the repertoire… “Davo’s Revenge,” written in 1993 for a buddy of mine (Dave) who seriously wanted to quit his lame day job and make custom windsurfing boards fulltime. I lost track of Dave way back when, after a few personal tsunamis, and I hope he’s been living his. I’ve managed to keep playing his tune (a 12/8 shuffle B flat blues) through the years, and it is always fresh…  We had the honor of having Vince Wallace join us on the tune at Speisekammer, plus we did a fine version on our own at SoCha… very pleased!

Four-of-a-Kind

I’m excited to say that I recently joined the Dogs Playing Poker.

I’m filling in for the wonderful bassoonist Wendell Hanna. I won’t be able to match her bassoon’s exquisite tone, but I will try to do it’s spirit justice. The band features quirky, experimental, original music. Fellow composers and compatriots include Carl Herder on the bass, Zachary Smith on the guitar, and Joe LoBue on the drums. We have a monthly show, every fourth Monday, at Albany’s Ivy Room, on the corner of San Pablo and Solano Avenues. Shows from 930pm until 1230am. Never a cover! Upcoming shows include January 26th and February 23rd!

Look for us around the bay, including San Francisco’s Caffe Trieste on Market Street (January 31st) and SoCha Cafe on Mission at Valencia (February 21st). Also check out http://www.myspace.com/dogsplayingpoker4 for more info and to hear some samples of what you May hear.

I’ve since done some tweaking of the standard quartet orchestration (Sax-Chords-Bass-Drums). At first I added a second Chordal instrument. Playing once, at the end of September ’08 at the Ivy Room in Albany, with vibes and guitar. A week later, I used guitar and keys at Linden Street. Then I got an opportunity (And a budget!!) to do an experiment I had on the drawing board for several months… use a rhythm section with 2 drummers, and 2 bassists. Linden kicked me down a gig, and I brought out the whole crew. In addition to Weems on drums, I brought in Andrew Griffin on drumset, Rafael Ramirez on percussion, Canton and Smith on bass, Rob Lyons on guitar. Plus a guest appearance by John Gordon on guitar, and his nephew on trombone. It was wild. Everyone had a great time, and I’m pleased to say that we are going to take it to the studio in early ’09. In the meantime, I have some composing (well, arranging) to handle.

I had the honor of splitting the bill with the Laney College Big Band on December 8. I sat in on “Caravan” on tenor sax, and on “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” on digital sax. After a brief intermission, I brought in my quintet for the night: Patrick Petzel on grand piano, John Gordon on guitar, Peter Canton on bass, and Steve Weems on drums. We played a few songs from one of the first CDs I ever owned, Ben Webster’s “Soulville.” We played the title cut, a dead-slow 60BPM blues; plus we played “Late Date,” a more-traditional blues at 120BPM. Also on the bill were versions of Dexter Gordon’s “Fried Bananas;” Benny Golson’s “Stablemates,” dedicated to the memory of good friend (and fellow Laney Big Band tenor sax alum) Bruce Blackman; an original vamp-medley; and an original of mine, “Remembrance.”

Patrick Petzel (piano), Steve Weems (drums), Peter Canton (bass), Colin Gleason (sax), John Gordon (guitar). Photo: Brian Compton

It was on this gig that we all got to experience the Amazing Steve Weems and His Magic Drums!
(ASW+HMD! ??) Steve and I met at Van Kleef a ways back, after many anonymous transactions at Best Music (where he works, and I shop!). He was running the sound board back in the day. I knew he played drums and had a thorough knowledge of every gadget under the sun. What I didn’t know was how well he can use the technology to create on-the-fly loops and delays and glitches and digital Tsunamis, all while keeping the beat fresh and funky. It was a perfect match for my loops, plus it fit hand-in-glove with the digital sax!

I also brought in cohorts from Powers That Be, keyboardist Patrick Petzel and drummer David Strong. Plus, bassist Ian Smith. This line-up was filmed by my friend Tatek Aragaw, and you can check clips of the band on the sidebar, or just search youTube with any 2 of our names… and voila!

Here’s us getting down by the front door…

Patrick Petzel (keys), Colin Gleason (sax), David Strong (drums), Carl Herder (bass). Photo: Brian Compton

And here we are on the back loading dock!….

My basic question was whether this straight-ahead trio (“The Colin Gleason Trio”) was indeed the same band. I still don’t know, there are arguments for and against. But in the end, it certainly continues to play it’s part in my music equation. The run at Zza’s ended in early October, essentially due to the economic collapse, and the lack of customers willing to come out and drop ducats on wine, candlelight and actual atmosphere. In the month or so since, I’ve realized that I really do value, and in fact need, playing straight-ahead. Even with the ego-gratifying headrush that composition brings, it isn’t as immediate an impression as when I’m leading a group through a standard like “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” or a blues, or even a fairly obscure tune transcribed from a personal fave such as “Thembi” by Pharoah or “Le Coiffeur” by Dex.

So I set up some shows with my new band. I had a bigger, more dependable budget, and could finally afford to bring in a drummer. We played a show in November, another in December, one in January, and then a final show in March. In between CVK shows, I hooked up some shows for the Quartet at Park Avenue Grill across from the Piedmont Theater. It was during this phase that I got into the whole notion of seeing the gigs as science experiments. It was experimental music at it’s most basic level. I got to appreciate the process of trying to predict what would happen if I nudged certain variables a little this way or that. I was wrong about stuff on nearly every gig, but, more importantly, I was also right about some things too, and I came to love the feeling of figuring out ahead of time that something could work. Not that it did work, but that it Could.
I also got a chance to re-connect with bud Peter Canton on electric bass. Peter came in to sub for Carl, and I just had to keep him in the mix. The drum chair had gotten me accostumed to handling the usual juggling that comes from getting a full band to actually all show up on the same day. So, with Carl and Peter trading off on bass as well, the notion of a single (regular) 4-person Quartet was seeming to be an old-fashioned ideal. But this trading off has actually been a positive on the music. At least so far. I’ve realized that I had to get my act together (from a composer’s point of view), so that I could make the actual musicians modular, much as the music itself is modular in nature. Life imitating and art and such.

The band has gone through many phases, roughly coinciding with various residencies at local venues.
Phase 1 was last summer (’07) at Coffee With A Beat. I live one block from the cafe and have hung out there for years. Long time back, CWAB was known as Nicole’s and featured the great local saxplayer M.B. Hanif. I would occasionally wake up early on Sunday (noon) and stroll down to the spot with my old Marigeaux tenor (before it was stolen from mi casa).

The gig was primarily a houseband situation, my buddy Nate Jr. wanted to get a poetry night going, and he thought a band could help get the idea off the ground. The weekly event was called “It Is What It Is” and it

was what it was. It was good. Hell, it was great, considering it was the place that I finally got back to the basic need of playing one’s own music, and really focusing on it. Sadly, the business side of the event was

not as smooth as I envisioned it might be. But I’ve been playing music for 20 years in clubs, cafes, and bars. The money is almost never what you envision. It’s about the music. And it was what it was.

It was on this gig that I debuted my vamps. It was also on this gig, a month or so into it all, that I got the chance to do some playing with my longtime guitarist John Gordon‘s bass cohort, Carl Herder. Carl and I clicked, and, with John on guitar, we had the first real version of the band… the Colin Gleason Trio if you will. I did plenty of experimenting with my digital sax, putting together the basic components of my rig, and getting used to the process of bringing it into the real world as opposed to my non-judgemental bedroom.