progressive rock

on

My partner (Bill Veldran) and I worked with many bands over the years when we owned and ran Centour Sound. One year we produced over 350 shows by either having systems out, in which we had 3 complete PA systems or was managing a club or on tour with a band. That year Bill was touring Europe with Motorhead, I was doing weekends producing the shows and bands at the Mudd Club and all 3 PA systems where out with bands like Jelly, Insex, Tom Robinson among others that I can’t even or don’t want to remember. All of that in between playing with the Lampshades band – Talk about living, breathing and eating Rock N Roll, WE DID IT.

Literally it went something like this – getting up at 12 or 1 pm – working on the equipment, repairs etc. – on the phone booking systems with bands – loading up the vans with equipment –  leaving by 6 or 7 pm – setting up and doing a sound check –  eating a quick slice of pizza – mixing the bands to 2 or 3 am – breaking down the equipment – loading the vans – driving home and unloading the vans as the sun rises – catching  a few hours sleep and starting all over again.

Our crew, that we sent out daily and especially on the weekends on shows were Chris Connolly, Gerry Palumbo and whom ever else we could grab to set up and mix a band. A complete PA system consisted of a full 3 way speaker system (Bass, Mid and High end), monitors, an amplifier stack with crossovers, microphones mainly the work horses of Mic’s SM57’s and 58’s, a mic snake, mixing console, mic stands and cable’s, a Roland space echo and EQ’s and a lot of humping of equipment around all over the dam place. We particular got into a genre of reggae bands from Brooklyn that we were getting a lot of work from–one band that stands out was Burning Spear among other local reggae bands in the area. This part of the business was so interesting as we did do some many different types of bands and  music. In future blogs I will break down some of the shows Centour sound produced in detail – some fun facts and great stories.

on

How do you write a song?                                                                                                            This has always been a question I get asked by many people. Some musicians will tell you it’s a long arduous process, some say it just comes to me or it’s in my head, some don’t have a clue. For me it’s the one in the middle, for the most part I either have an idea or hear a sound or sit down and bang out a riff on the Bass Guitar and start from there. It’s always been a free flowing process for me, sometimes it sounds great and I continue and sometimes it goes to the save file for a future development date. As I develop the foundation of the song, now my mind starts to go into overdrive for the different layers, melody, sounds and ornaments  I can add to the developing song. A guitar riff, a synthesizer sound, a percussion instrument, this is what I hear in my head as I listen to the new project over and over again. Sometimes I have lyric’s on the ready and develop the phrasing to those lyrics to go with the music, sometimes the lyric’s just come out as a natural progression to the song. In all of the above, I am consistently burning CD’s and on my drive to my day job (in which it takes me on average about an hour and a half to get to work) I listen to the developing song over and over and over again.

Think about it? A 3 minute song played in an hour and a half car ride is played approx 30 times –ONE WAY! The only problem I have with that is, I want to tweak the song right now, in which obviously isn’t going to happen. So I must store those tweaks, changes and additions in my puny little brain until I can get back in front of the mixing console. Thank God I have a good memory and Alzheimer’s hasn’t kicked in as of yet. Song projects has always come pretty easy for me and I can usually, not disturbed, write a song within a few hours. What takes the time after the song is written is the refinement of the song and mixing down of the project to make it all clear, balanced and worthy to release and to be proud of. Be it released to just me for my own listening pleasure or to you my friends and fans, I take pride in making a good song. I have so many songs in my repertoire that are experimental that I do not release, as snippets of those songs can be the beginnings, middle’s or ends to new projects and songs. I never throw anything out as it may fit in and or be used later on. Many times I’ll come back to a riff that I laid down months or years ago and say-“Shit”–this is great and start to develop it into a song. The creation of music is such a fulfilling joy and I can only hope that it will continue until I’m pushing dirt!

Hope you will agree!

 

on

My CD, “Aldo Buzzi -Test Drive RAW” has gotten some good Radio airplay and is getting some notice oversea’s. Countries like Japan, Israel, Australia, Philippines and Taiwan are leading the way with many plays and downloads. Here in North America, the United States is leading the way and I would personally like to thank everyone in the states for listening and downloading my music with Canada and Mexico right behind the US and getting some great play with Test Drive.

Go to the below links to listen and download

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/aldobuzzi

http://www.jango.com/music/Aldo+Buzzi

Available for download on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Jango Radio 

 

 

 

on

Finding some of my old band mates, as I have lost contact with them over the years, has been a new pursuit of mine in the past few years. With the use of social media, I have been able to track down a few of them. I have re-connected with Gary Sabshon the last drummer from the Lampshades-in which I was able to go over to his house and jam it up a bit. Although compared to him, (he’s been playing all the time) I was a bit on the rusty side, but fun never the less.

Gary Sabshon
Gary Sabshon Far Right Then! Also Gary Citro (middle) and Ken Kern (between the 2 Gary’s)

 

11846591_10207383783492938_4146855288339702360_n
Gary Sabshon Now!

I have recently this year have been able to re-connect with a band mate from the Vinyl Flesh Band, Joe “Z” World (Joe Menghini). He currently lives in Florida, he is a very accomplished artist and still plays and writes music at a prolific clip.                                  Go to Pinterest.com link to see some of his art work:                            https://in.pinterest.com/guitarizt/  “Z” and I have been trading music clips and stay tuned for an upcoming CD I’m working on that will have a collaboration of music from “Z” and myself. Don’t currently have a photo of “Z” now–but here is a picture of him then!

image5 (7)
Joe “Z world”

I have also been able to get in contact with Gary Citro (Keyboards), Pete Fagiola (Drums & Percussion) 2 of the original members of The Lampshades and Chris Connolly one of the drummers from Vinyl Flesh. Gary is a music school teacher, I think Pete owns a restaurant and still play’s and composes, Chris is an avid bike rider!

Here are some current pictures of Gary, Pete and Chris Connolly:

18519969_10154767076395326_2156617446015885260_n
Gary Citro
15941040_211902539274776_1965886021711000068_n
Pete Fagiola
13164272_1288445141180780_7085994578738689105_n
Chris Connolly

Have not been able to re-connect with Ken Kern whom I really miss, as he is a hell of a guitar player and just a sweetheart!

Also another band mate, that sorry to say has passed away Any Blinx.

1901990_10202595023551071_810090025_n
Andy Blinx

 

on

This video was a first mix of the song so there are some parts that will sound a little bit different then the final mix on the CD – Test Drive  “RAW”. These video’s I have produce have been a home grown art form in stop motion format. Pictures and moments that are meant to ingrain and make a mark on the brain, like having a flash of light and when you close your eyes you still see that flash.

Japanese Tiles – (Japanese Lady with Dark Eyes)                                                     Composed, Performed and Video imagined by Al B.

on

After playing the Bar scene for a few years we finally had enough cash to start on the 45′. Andy Blinx a good friend, fellow musician and artist had an in at Radio City Music hall with the engineer Don Hunnerburg. So we took some of the bar cash equity to record 4 songs at the Radio City studio’s shooting to do a 45 record on our own. We invited John Kessler along to help with the production on the mix. We had the mindset to record 4 songs and pick the best 2 to put on the 45 and release. Out of our repertoire of about 12 originals at the time, we picked the best 4. They were, Kangaroo, Space Trot, Banana Rock and Situation. The recording sessions began albeit from 12 midnight until 4 am. That’s the time we could get for about next to nothing in cost as the studio was vacant at that time slot.

image2 (8)
Pete playing Vibes -Gary & Andy Blinx (in the back) watches

on

We started playing the Long Island Bar circuit in the late 70’s. We did cover’s of just about everything and a few originals here and there. Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Car’s, Elvis Costello, Devo, Doors, The Knack and anything that was new and hot on the radio at the time. You know, what people were into at that moment in time to make us relevant playing to the Friday and Saturday bar folks having a night out and to a lot of drunks. As previously blogged, it paid the bar tab and we started to squirrel some cash aside as our goal was to produce our own 45 record to release and see where it would go. Some of the places on Long Island we played at were Wooden Ships, Good Times, Camelot Inn, The Belmont Inn, Uncle Bobs, The Little Club are just a few of the many bar/clubs I can remember playing – there was so many back in the late 70’s early 80’s.

Post cards sent out by Long Island Bar Uncle Bobs

image6 (2)