Family Matters

by Aiden Vaughan

  Jason looked at Daniel and nodded his head with an expression that said “Hey Daniel, grab this opportunity!”

  “Well if you are really interested, I don’t see any harm in having you come to one of our rehearsals. Our next scheduled rehearsal is next Monday afternoon. You are welcome to come and observe us and even sit in with us if you would like.”

  “Really?” said Nick with excitement in his voice. “You would let me sit in and play with you?”

  “Yeah,” Daniel continued, “We just got a new piano for the studio where we rehearse. I’m sure you could do it some justice!”

  “I will be there, Daniel, if I have to walk to get there!” Nick replied with a big smile on his face.

  “And let’s make it a day,” Jason added. “I would like to invite you over for dinner at my house after the rehearsal. I know my parents would like to meet you and I would like some time to get to know you better, if you are interested.”

  “Interested?” Nick almost shouted. “You mean I could kick back and hear some stories of your exploits. I have heard that you have a foundation that helps teens by giving them music lessons and equipment. I’m dying to find out more about what you have been doing. You guys have really cool lives from what I am hearing. Count me in for sure!”

  The boys continued talking for a while, and then went back down stairs. It was time for Jason and Daniel to leave, as they had told their parents they would be back home by ten o’clock. Nick went over to Caterina. “Mom, Jason and Daniel have invited me to a rehearsal and then to dinner on Monday. Can you drop me off and pick me up? I really want to go and get to know these guys better.”

  Caterina looked them over and thought about it for a minute. Then she smiled and said, “Sure, why not. You have worked hard for this recital, and deserve a fun day. I can easily arrange that between my appointments with clients.”

  “Thanks, Mom, that’s terrific of you! All right, Jason and Daniel. I’ll look forward to seeing you on Monday.” Daniel gave Nick the directions to Tim’s house where his band rehearsed.

  “See you on Monday!” Nick said in farewell. “Thanks again for coming to my recital.”

  Outside, Jason and Daniel got into Daniel’s mini-SUV for the ride back home.

  Before Jason could even say a word, Daniel said, “All right. Don’t say a thing! You got me again, Jason. I totally feel like a fool now, after meeting Nick, and hearing him perform.”

  “Daniel, don’t blame yourself for being suspicious and skeptical. I rely on you to be truthful about your feelings and to provide me with your version of reality. I depend on you to tell me what is right and wrong in this world. It could have been very possible that Nick was only marginally talented, and certainly the way you were treated by his grandfather entitled you to be very negative about everything. But my point all along was that this whole thing was about Nick, not anyone else. Now I am very glad that I had the opportunity to meet him.”

  “As am I. I can’t believe that he is actually interested in playing with my band.”

  “Sure Nick is super talented, but don’t underestimate your own talent, Daniel, and your leadership skills. I’m no expert, but I think you are one awesome musician too! I think you have the ability to appeal to our generation!”

  “Only time will tell on that. All I know is despite the harsh treatment that I received from his grandfather, I sure am looking forward to seeing Nick again on Monday.”

  “That’s another thing I really like about you, Daniel. You may be stubborn at times but you aren’t afraid to admit it when you are wrong or misjudged something.”

  “Jason, you always take this extra step to make me feel good even when I have totally screwed up or just been wrong about things!”

  “Hey, bro, I’m your best friend, and isn’t that what friends are for? Trust me that I am very grateful for your company and your help, warts and all. Making mistakes or misjudging things is just part of life! The main thing is that we remain a team! Now give me some knuckles for Hunter & Holmes!”

  Jason and Daniel drove back home talking and joking like the great friends that they were.

  Chapter 13

  A Noteworthy Band Rehearsal

  (Monday Afternoon)

  Daniel’s band was scheduled to rehearse at 1:00 PM on Monday. On Saturday Daniel and Eric had their usual workout together at the Y, and after their swim, Daniel asked Eric to come over to his house for a while so that they could talk about Nick coming to their rehearsal. Daniel took some time to explain about how he had met Nick, what a great piano player he was, and how Nick was very enthusiastic about coming to a rehearsal, jamming with the band, and maybe even setting up an audition. Eric was excited about it too, after hearing about what a great musician Nick was, but expressed the same concerns that Daniel had when Nick brought up the idea.

  “Our style of music is quite a bit different from the classical pieces that Nick has been playing all of his life. Do you think he can make the transition? Will he be able to solo and improvise with us?”

  “Those are all great questions, Eric, and the best way to find out is for you to meet him and hear what he can do. That’s what auditions are for, although I would say this isn’t really an audition like what we did with Tim. Let’s just get to know him and decide about having a formal audition later, if it looks like things could work out.”

  “The most interesting thing that you said to me was that Nick had a real interest in writing and arranging original music. If he is as talented as you say, that could be a big asset for us if he ends up joining the band!”

  “We need to get our act together, Eric, so that we are ready for Nick. We need to put together a list of tunes that we could try, and make sure that we have leadsheets for every tune so that Nick has something to look at. I’m sure he probably prefers to learn things through reading music.”

  “Why don’t we start with some of the tunes that we used when Tim auditioned on drums. That way we have a similar range of material that we can compare between how Tim did and how Nick does.”

  “That’s a good idea, Eric. I also think we should think through our material and find some songs that would sound better with keyboard, and work them up.” Soon the two friends were engrossed in their music and they spent a couple of hours trying different tunes out and talking over possible arrangements for them. It was almost noon when they finished. Eric left to have lunch with Rebecca. They were going to go shopping together that afternoon. Daniel also had afternoon plans with Diana. They were going to go for a bike ride before Diana had to work an evening wedding reception with her mother.

  On Monday, both Daniel and Eric were over at Tim’s house a little after noon. They wanted to make sure everything was ready and the place was all cleaned up. No problem there. After Daniel had talked to Tim on the telephone about Nick coming over, he had taken some extra time to make sure that the house and studio were neat and clean.

  At 12:45 the doorbell rang. Tim hurried to answer it, but it was Jason, not Nick. “I had to come over and watch your rehearsal,” Jason said. “I’ll be sure to stay out of the way.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Jason. You are one of the family!” Daniel said with a laugh.

  Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again and this time it was Nick and his mother Caterina. “Hello, everyone!” Nick said with his big smile. “I’m Nick and this is my mom!”

  After introductions all around, Caterina said, “You have a lovely place, Tim. I wish I could stay and see it but I have to get back to work. Where and when should I pick Nick up?’

  “He will be at my house,” Jason replied. “Let me write down the address and telephone for you. Come by any time after eight.” Jason handed Caterina a paper with his address and phone on it, and then she took her leave.

  Tim then said to Nick, “Let me give you a tour of the place before we go down to the studio.” Tim’s father was a building contractor, and had completely remodeled the house. The upstairs was the main living quart
ers with an all open look that contained a living room, kitchen, and family room combination with high vaulted ceilings. In the back was a guest bedroom, bathroom and master suite for Tim’s dad, Jeff. Tim then led Nick down the spiral staircase into the lower level which contained the large rehearsal area, isolation booth, and engineering room. In the back was a guest bathroom, Tim’s bedroom suite, and a small kitchenette. In one corner of the rehearsal room was a brand new baby grand piano that all three band members had pitched in to purchase.

  “This is amazing!” Nick said. “I’m sure that there are many professional bands that don’t have such a nice work and rehearsal area as you guys do! This is all very impressive!”

  “You have to try out the piano, Nick,” Tim continued. “I’m dying to hear you play after what Jason and Daniel have told me about you.”

  “Well, I really came to hear you guys,” Nick replied but nevertheless he went over to the piano and sat down. Nick opened the lid and tried out the sparkling white keys. He played a few scales to test the action. “This is great!” he said with a big smile on his face. “Lately I have been studying the work of some of the first jazz piano masters. People like Scott Joplin, the father of ragtime, ‘Fats’ Waller, the first black matinee star back in the 1920s, and Art Tatum, the master of stride piano.” Nick then played Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag”, followed by Waller’s classic song “Ain’t Misbehaving”. Quickly he had the others mesmerized as the catchy syncopations of the Scott Joplin and the smooth sophisticated chord changes of the Waller standard rippled across the keyboard.

  When he finished playing, everyone burst into spontaneous applause. “That was terrific, Nick” Jason said enthusiastically. “You certainly have the touch!” The others chimed in with similar comments.

  “This is a superb piano you purchased!” Nick exclaimed. “It sounds good and it feels really great to play. But enough of me! I came here to hear you guys play!”

  Daniel and Eric then got out their guitars, while Tim went to sit down at the drum set. After Daniel and Eric checked their tuning, Daniel said, “We have just been getting started building up a repertoire of covers that we can use for performances while we start to develop our own sound and put together original songs. We have been working on some classic rock ‘n’ roll songs and a few pop standards. Let’s start with ‘Runaway’, followed by ‘Tuxedo Junction’, and then ‘Yesterday’.”

  Daniel checked his microphone settings, looked around at his band mates, and then counted off the Del Shannon rock standard. Daniel had designed an arrangement that combined eighth note power chords with full offbeat chords. The band vamped on those, and then Daniel started singing the vocal. Daniel had the perfect voice for those teen-angst lyrics especially when the song got to the chorus part with its ‘walking in the rain’ and ‘why, why’ imagery. After the first verse and chorus, Daniel broke off into a nice guitar solo before ending the song with its last verses and chorus. At the end of the song, Daniel barely paused for a second before he broke into the bluesy and leisurely paced introduction to “Tuxedo Junction”. Eric and Tim picked up right away on the tempo and style transition. After he played the song’s signature three note riff a few times, Daniel started into the lyrics.

  As they were playing, Jason looked over at Nick, who was grooving to the music with a big smile on his face. For the first time, Jason began to realize how good of a musician Daniel really was. After finishing ‘Tuxedo Junction’, Daniel then eased the band into the Lennon-McCartney standard ‘Yesterday’. Starting with a simple broken chord accompaniment, Daniel then sang the familiar tune and lyrics. Daniel was in his element due to the folk-song like qualities of the song. As Jason listened, he couldn’t help but think that all his troubles were far away. After singing the song through, Daniel broke into a soaring and lyrical guitar solo, something that he had been practicing on for over a month now. It was the perfect contrast to the melody of the song. To finish, Daniel sang the bridge of the song and then returned to the main theme, repeating the last line to bring it to a close.

  Both Jason and Nick applauded and whistled their approval. Then Nick said, “You really are a troubadour, Daniel. I can really tell that you have had some experience singing folk music and ballads. And your voice has that light and simple quality to it that is perfect for those kind of songs. Your guitar work was impeccable. How long have you been playing guitar?”

  “Thanks, for the compliment, Nick. I’ve been playing for about a year. I am very fortunate to have a good teacher who knows how to prepare songs for performance and taught me some good tricks for soloing.”

  “The music is there for you, my friend. Very impressive work. And the rest of the band fit you like a glove. Eric, those bass lines you laid down were the perfect counterpoint to Daniel’s guitar work, not too busy when things needed to be simple, but some nice fills when extra bass was needed. Tim, you are a solid drummer and you know how to accompany! So many drummers tend to overpower the other members of the band! Your time was impeccable! Everything clicked into place.”

  Eric and Tim beamed with pleasure at the compliments. The kind words had even more meaning because they had just heard Nick play and it was clear that he knew music very well. Daniel then said, “All right, enough talk! We’d like you to jam with us now, Nick. I have picked out a couple of pieces that we know that will sound great with piano. I don’t know how exactly you would learn popular music, but Eric and I made leadsheets for you for the tunes which are ‘Kansas City’ and ‘Summertime’.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Nick replied. “I do prefer to learn from sheet music or at least a chord guide. I am familiar with both of those tunes, especially the Gershwin. I have a lot of his songs in sheet music because he was such a good pianist and I like to study his music.”

  Nick walked over to the piano and sat down. Daniel handed him leadsheets for both songs. “Can you improvise, Nick? You know, take some solo choruses?”

  “Yes, I can try. I am still learning how to do it well, but I know it is important to the style to be able to solo and fill during the arrangements,” Nick said.

  “Let’s play Kansas City first. It is a simple shuffle blues. I will do a couple choruses of vocals. I would like you to play piano fills after each phrase of the song, you know call and response with you being the response. Then let’s open it up for solos around the band. Also watch me for the ensemble breaks during the vocals. Let’s use the last four bars of the song for an introduction and also for the ending.”

  “Sounds like a good plan, Daniel!” Nick said enthusiastically. “Let’s do it!”

  Daniel looked around at Eric and Tim to make sure that they were ready then counted off the song. Kansas City was a good choice for getting warmed to a new player because it was a simple twelve bar blues with only three chords. Nick had good chord technique and knew some nice voicing for the chords. At first he played conservatively, not trying to do too much, but rather just fit in. But as they got to the second verse of vocals, Nick started adding in more blues-like fills to respond to the lyrics. The piano reinforced what the guitar and bass were doing, and made the band sound fuller and bigger. After some breaks, the vocals finished and Daniel broke into some choruses of blues on his guitar. He then looked at Nick and indicated he should play some solo choruses. At first Nick was a little stiff but his music had content to it, and he followed the chord changes faithfully. Daniel next pointed at Eric, who played a couple of chorus of bass solo.

  At the end of the solo, Daniel shouted, “Let’s trade fours with the drums!” The band then played four bars of the blues followed by four bars of drum solo. After a couple of choruses of that, Daniel then sang the vocal again. The music was clicking now, and Nick’s fills sounded even better this time. Daniel ran a set of breaks again, and then brought the tune to its close.

  Everybody had smiles on their faces. The band was making good music, and the players were having fun. “Summertime” worked out even better. Daniel had set up a fast-slow-fast
arrangement that started as a ballad, then went to a medium walking bass swing, then ultimately ended very slow and soulful. The mix with Nick added to the ensemble was incredible. Nick knew a lot of the original piano voicings and keyboard ideas from the Gershwin score, so he was able to add bell tones and background voicing that added to the richness of the performance. Daniel sang a soulful first verse, and then Eric and Tim brought the ensemble into an up swing tempo. Both Daniel and Nick soloed on it, and then Daniel sang the last verse. Just before the ending, the tempo came to a complete halt and Daniel sang a cadenza-like ending and everyone filled on the final few chords.

  When the band finished playing, Jason applauded and cheered. “That was totally awesome! I’m really glad I came to this rehearsal! You guys are great!”

  There now was a bubbling energy in the room, and quickly the four musicians decided to jam on some more tunes. They played for nearly an hour and then decided to take a break. Tim brought out some soft drinks, waters, and juices from the kitchenette in the back. Daniel, Eric, and Jason relaxed in some comfortable chairs while Nick asked Tim to show him around the studio. Tim gave him a tour of the engineering room and isolation booth, and showed him the equipment that was installed or in the process. “We still have a lot of work to do in the recording end of things, but our goal is to start recording our rehearsals or at least part of them so that we can listen to and evaluate ourselves.”

  “There certainly has been a lot of good planning. You guys already have an incredible amount of equipment for a band just starting out. May I ask where you got all the money for your equipment and facilities?”

  “It’s not a great secret, although we don’t like to brag about it. The facilities come from my dad, who is a building contractor. He built this studio for me as part of our getting back together again as father and son after he had abandoned my sister and I when my parents got divorced. Much of the equipment comes from Eric and Daniel, who received cash settlements as a result of one of Jason and Daniel’s cases. Trust me when I tell you that they did pay the price!”