House Concerts

While Atmos Trio still play our fair share of gigs in clubs and other venues, our favorite place to play music these days is in peoples homes. In their living rooms for an audience consisting of friends and neighbors. It's a great way to hear great music in a very intimate comfortable setting, and we LOVE hanging out and talking and learning about our audience. 

That invisible barrier between the listener and the performer on stage--GONE. Waiting in line--GONE. Dealing with attitude from an underpaid cocktail waitress...you get the idea.

House Concerts present you and your friends and neighbors an way to enjoy music in a way many find more enjoyable than the experience of the normal venue. 

Russ & Julie host concerts in their home in the Los Angeles California area and have been kind enough to provide a FAQ for those considering hosting a concert. These are the guidelines that they use for their events, not a set of rules.

Maybe hosting a House Concert is for you? If you would like the Atmos Trio to perform in your home, give us a shout and we'll be glad to discuss the details

House Concert FAQ

WHAT is a House Concert? A house concert is a chance to experience music in a warm and intimate environment. It's when someone opens up their home and invites you into their living room to share in a performance by one of their favorite musicians. It's a chance to meet the performers and get them to sign their CD. A house concert is also a great social evening of friends and neighbors.

WHY would anyone do this? We open up our home to our friends and neighbors because we want to share great music with them. In the area where we live -- like most of the world today -- there are too few venues where people can go to experience great music in a close and friendly environment. Great music makes us happy and we want to share that with others around us. These events allow us to give exposure to some incredible musicians whose talents we truly believe in and wish to help promote.

What do you get out of this? We find it strange that some people can't believe we get no economic benefit for doing this. We do it simply for the love of the music. Really. We enjoy sharing great music with those around us. 100% of the suggested donation goes directly to the performers. For us, this is a hobby and we don't mind spending a little to keep our hobby going. It's a hobby that has brought us great joy over the years. Since we started hosting house concerts in early 1997, we've met some wonderful music fans and some extremely talented musicians... many of whom will be lifelong friends.

Doesn't it cost you time and money? Yes, it costs us money to host these concerts. We spend money for coffee, soft drinks, desserts, paper plates, paper cups, napkins, flyers, postage and more. We also spend a great deal of time for the planning and set up of each show. (NOTE: Many hosts borrow chairs from their neighbors, who are invited attendees anyway, and also have a 'potluck' dinner before the show. House Concerts can take the Economy out of the Social equation.)

What do your neighbors think? We encourage our neighbors to attend and many (if not most) of our neighbors have attended our house concerts over the years. Some of our neighbors are among our most regular guests at these evenings.

As a courtesy to our neighbors, our shows are nearly always on Saturday nights and end at a reasonable hour. We also limit ourselves to no more than one show per month. Our house concerts generally begin at 8:00 P.M. and end by 10:30 P.M... although sometimes they do go a bit later.

What kind of environment is the evening? Casual. We go for the warm and cozy feel. Dress is "California Casual". Our home is a smoke free environment. We ask everyone to honor this and please keep all cigars, pipes and cigarettes outside. We also insist NO DRUGS OF ANY KIND... chocolate not withstanding!! We have a nice coffee and dessert buffet that includes all types of cookies, cakes, and pies along with coffee and soda. We do NOT provide any alcohol. However, if people wish to bring wine or beer, we are fine with that so long as people use their own discretion; anyone who appears intoxicated in our home will be asked to leave and not to return. We are happy to say that in our first decade of hosting house concerts, this has never been a problem.

Post Christmas gig

On the 4th Friday of each month, Joe and I play this super-great gig
with bass virtuoso Cliff Hugo and his wife, singer Cynthia Tarr.

Not only are they both great musicians but really great folks on the
human-level too.

This all happens at The Olive & Vine in Glen Ellen, CA.

Welcome to the Rob Michael Landing page

On Twitter I'm @AtmosTrio-- in real life I'm guitarist Rob Michael. 

For the past couple of decades I have been "Living the Dream" of an active professional musician and I have enjoyed a very successful private teaching practice in the San Francisco Bay area.

I lead the Atmos Trio, an instrumental guitar trio which features myself, Joe Shotwell and Drew Waters. We gig frequently in the region and hire ourselves out as sidemen for recording and performance purposes.  You can find our music on iTunes or on CDBaby.

I do music and music technology related clinics. Also a fair amount of consulting with audio pros who find themselves cussing and fussing with their gear too much.

Apparently, I can string a sentence or two together as I occasionally do work as a freelance writer for music magazines. 

If I can be of service, give me a call.

Contact: Rob Michael

AtmosMusic.com

Atmos.Trio@gmail.com

Twitter @AtmosTrio

707-645-8583

Gigs in odd places

We've all been there. The gig in the most unlikely of places. Airport terminals, bus stops, driveways, wheel-chair ramps... Screwy places.

I was going through some photos and found one that I had forgotten about. Not because it was bad, it was actually quite posh. Located in the beautiful Napa Valley Wine country, the Pine Ridge Winery holds a secret that belies the greenery of it's exterior. 

300 feet into the hillside is a subterranean dinning room you almost can't believe.

It's a cave. When informed that I would play in a cave,  I immediately pictured bats, water running down walls, stalactites & stalagmites.

Yes--it' a cave, but an upscale one. Stucco walls, tiles floors, electrical fixtures. The tunnels were filled with barrels of wine that opened-up to the chamber we see here. 

Now the acoustic qualities are another story: they we quite strange... but man-- funky cave.

"Living the Dream"

Atmos played a lovely holiday-toned wine tasting in beautiful downtown Yountvile (Near Napa) in northern California's wine country.

Since I can never seem to remember to take pictures of much of anything, here is a photo that I gathered from Google's "Street View." Much of the SF Bay area is available with photos of every street. It's a neat yet creepy feature. My wife entered her father's address into Google maps and found that she could actually see him sitting on his front porch...

Anyway... even though we played outdoors (in December), the temperature was not too cold, and the music was happening.

Nice folks out here in the Napa Valley.

Posted via email from atmosmusic's posterous

The Gift of Jazz Music.

Here is a free music player that includes songs from our two most
recent CDs: "Atmos Trio" and "Atmos Plays Water."
 
Please enjoy it and pass the along to anyone else you think would might it.
 
Click to play Songs from Atmos Trio:
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/947562
 
 Steve - Atmos Trio
 Mr. Tippy Toe - Atmos Trio
 Another Slip - Atmos Trio
 Armando's Rumba - Atmos Trio
 Havona - Atmos Trio

Posted via email from atmosmusic's posterous

Residence at 33 Revolutions

Rob will be hosting a series of performances at 33 Revolutions in El
Cerrito on the 4th Wednesday of each month beginning in 2009.

There will likely be different people playing in the band each night. 

All ages always welcome at 33 Revolutions.

Deploy the Atmos Trio Widget

Maybe you don't want to have to visit AtmosMusic.com to know what we're up to. Maybe you would like to share our music & videos with someone else. This handy widget should help you--it will certainly help us out. 

Thanks for everything.

  

Live Video: "50 x 4"

Here's another Live Atmos Trio video featuring "50 x 4" from "Atmos Plays Waters."

Atmos Trio Newsletter

Just a couple of quick announcements from the Atmos Trio this time
around:

NEW CD
We have a new CD: "Atmos Plays Waters" which is being well received already. Listen/ purchase at http://www.drewwatersmusic.com/

NEW VIDEOS

See the opening track, "Steve," performed LIVE within a couple of the
days of the CD's recording session. 

NEW WEB SITE
We have newly overhauled our website: check it out:

www.atmosmusic.com/

That's about it for now. See you on "the other side..."

Yoshi's SF w/ Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band

Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band

Though the Atmos Trio is one of Rob's most visible musical outlets, there are plenty of other settings in which the keen listener can find him: One is the "Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band." This group is lead by long-time Joe Henderson sideman, trumpet player Warren Gale Jr. "Warren has a deep understanding of Joe's music and it's a real privilege to be playing alongside him, as well as many of the other world-class musicians in the band: it's a super-strong collections of musicians. It's also a real challenge to, not only play this advanced modern music authentically, but to have to follow one of Warren's masterpiece-grade solos with an improvisation of your own---it's a 'kick in the backside' that I welcome--but sometimes I think: 'What am I supposed to play after THAT?'

The “Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band” performed at Yoshi’s San Francisco.

Here is the band playing Joe's "Short Story."

Trumpets
Warren Gale
John Christensen
Dave Fava

Trombones
Jules Rowles
Chuck Bennett

Saxes
Mel Martin
Pete Yellin
Jean Fineberg
Dave Tidball
Jim Rothermel

Rhythm Section
Rob Michael: Guitar
Dave Udolf: Piano
Paul Smith: Bass
Bob Belanski: Drums

Rob Michael Sightings...

"I'm always playing...because that's what I love to do--that's where it's at...besides, I think I may be a work-a-holic."

Indeed, Rob Michael, guitarist and co-leader of the Atmos Trio, can be found all over the San Francisco Bay area music scene. 

Teaching

Along with the activities involved with keeping-up with the Atmos Trio, Rob is one of the most sought-after music educators around. "I teach, in part, as a matter of responsibility. It's give and take: pursuing any artistic endeavor is a search, and if I can help my students with that search, and hopefully provide some inspiration to continue finding new, relevant material or an approach to some facet of music, then I'm happy to do that." 

Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band 

Though the Atmos Trio is one of Rob's most visible musical outlets, there are plenty of other settings in which the keen listener can find him: One is the "Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band." This group is lead by long-time Joe Henderson sideman, trumpet player Warren Gale Jr. "Warren has a deep understanding of Joe's music and it's a real privilege to be playing alongside him, as well as many of the other world-class musicians in the band: it's a super-strong collections of musicians. It's also a real challenge to, not only play this advanced modern music authentically, but to have to follow one of Warren's masterpiece-grade solos with an improvisation of your own---it's a 'kick in the backside' that I welcome--but sometimes I think: 'What am I supposed to play after THAT?' 

The “Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band” will be performing at Yoshi’s San Francisco on Monday, May 12th. 

Diamante

Both Rob Michael & Atmos’ drummer Joe Shotwell can be heard in another setting in the latin fusion group “Diamante.” This group is lead by guitarist Tom Duarte. The group plays different configurations: sometimes as a guitar duo with Rob & Tom, trio with guitar and percussion, still other times a quartet which included bassist Jack Hines. 

Rob Michael: Solo Guitar

This is Rob in “Stealth-mode.”  “It’s funny. When I play solo gigs, it’s usually for some private event, typically somewhere in Northern California’s Napa/ Sonoma Valley, where they want background solo guitar, not so much as a feature, but to provide a more upscale ambience: a background function.” Time-and-time again however, attention makes it’s way to the guitarist who seems almost “too good” to functions strictly as accompaniment to dinner and chatter becomes: ‘Do you hear this guy? Check him out!’ “That always cracks me up.”

“Solo guitar is, logistically, a musical challenge: you play the bass function, chords changes, melodies, solos and provide the groove, all at the same time. It’s also really fun though. It’s almost an exercise in free association. I play a tune, segue to a different song or simply allude to a different song, and then return--or not. This can sometimes go on for hours at a stretch. Good times.”

So, keep your eyes and ears open. When someone asks: “Hey Rob, are you playing anywhere sometime soon?” The answer is almost always “yes.”

Atmos Trio Interview

The folks at Innerview World interviewed Atmos Trio.

The group's background is covered as well as some inside information on the forthcoming CD release: "Atmos Plays Waters."

Free Guitar Lesson: Diminished Harmony

Antonio Carlos Jobim, the Beatles, J.S. Bach, and Albert Collins all possessed not only uncommon musicality (and will forever be card-carrying members of the Super Badass Club), this elite group of composers also shared something else: a love for the wonderful harmonic device known as the diminished passing chord.

For centuries, diminished chords have been used to invoke a feeling of terror. From the earliest Italian operas to horror movies of today, the ascending diminished chords in Ex. 1 have had us scared out of our minds. It’s a cliché, but it’s a good cliché.

Out of context, diminished chords can sound a bit ambiguous—you probably wouldn’t vamp on a diminished chord for any extended period of time like you might on a dominant-7th or minor chord. But if you’re looking for that perfect “connector chord” to spice up two potentially boring chords, then this diminished business might be just the ticket.

A little background: A diminished chord is constructed of stacked minor thirds. As we see in Ex. 2, the melodic distance from the root to the b3 is a minor third interval (or three half-steps), from the 3 to the b5 a minor third, and from the b5 to the bb7 (double-flatted, or diminished, 7) a minor third. If you were to stack yet another minor third on top of the bb7 you’d land back on the root, one octave higher.

Because of this perfect symmetry, moving the entire chord up or down a minor third results in a different inversion of the chord—and with no new fingerings required! Just move the shape exactly three frets up or down and you have the same four notes every time, as proven by Ex. 1. Therefore, Cdim7, Ebdim7, Gbdim7, and Adim7 are really just inversions of the same chord. This means that in the entire 12-tone system of Western music there are only three different diminished-7th chords.

OK, there’s the theory, now let’s make some cool sounds.

The most common way composers use the diminished-7th chord is as a means to liven up otherwise boring V-I cadences. Here’s how it’s done: Instead of playing the functioning dominant chord (that is the dominant-7th chord that, acting as the V chord, resolves to the I chord), simply play a diminished-7th chord a half-step higher. Followed by the I chord, this new chord creates a richer, more complex sounding harmonic resolution. And, while you could look up fingerings for diminished chords in a book, the sly way to perform this entire process is simply to raise the root of your original dominant-7th chord a half-step (without changing any of the other notes).

In Ex. 3 we see a II-V-I progression in Cm.

This sound is heard in countless jazz and Latin tunes. To zest this up with some diminished action, check out Ex. 4.

Here, we have the same progression but, with Abdim7 substituting for the G7. This chord sub not only creates smoother, more intriguing voice leading, but it’s also easier to play than Ex.3 and will make you sound like a master on your next solo acoustic performance. For extra pizzazz, you can move the diminished chord up or down three frets at a time before resolving to the I chord—in this case Cm7—as shown in Ex. 5.

To apply diminished passing chords to the I-VI-II-V (Cmaj7-A7-Dm7-G7) progression in Ex. 6—a staple of hundreds of standards and show tunes

—give Ex. 7 a listen.

Here, we add lively new colors by using diminished subs for the two dominant chords, A7 and G7. By the way, these substitutions can be used without even telling your bass player what you’re doing, because they’ll work perfectly well with the original bass notes. Why? Because if you play Abdim7 and add a G in the bass, your listeners hear the composite chord: G7b9—which is a tasty and timeless resolution to Cmaj7.

While diminished chords often resolve up a half-step, Ex. 8 shows how they can work resolving down a half-step as well.

This is a bossa nova phrase, so it is best played fingerstyle with the picking-hand thumb in charge of the bass notes. Thanks to its liberal usage of open strings, this example is especially beautiful—and very acoustic friendly. And, like every other example in this lesson, the diminished chords remind us that it’s not always where you go that counts, but how you get there.

Live Video Shoot

Taped live at Expressions College for Digital Art.

We played this concert only a few days after the "Atmos Plays Waters"
recording session. Look for details about the CD as well as video
footage on our YouTube channel in the coming days.