Performance at Zanzibar next week

Downtempo/Electronica music

I've been doing some gigs with djs, and by myself, and now I'm going to try out performing my downtempo/electronica compositions with a live drummer. Listen to what it sounds like:


http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/painfuldemo.mp3
http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/aganjudemo.mp3
http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/sneakydemo.mp3
http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/simplesmentedemo.mp3
http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/lamentodemo.mp3
http://robbennion.com/mp3s/downtempo/sadnessdemo.mp3

I really enjoy playing different musical styles. Over the years I have performed in reggae, hip-hop, blues, ska, rock, pop, latin, brazilian, concert, and of course jazz bands. The downtempo/electronic music is a very fun and different musical style, yet very accessible for audiences.

Robot Dream

After meeting and rehearsals and various brainstorming sessions, I'm happy to announce my new band "Robot Dream" featuring Indianapolis rapper 2uce Betta. Bart Olson, drummer extraordinaire, will be filling out the trio as I play electronic and acoustic wind instruments. Bart and I go back to my junior year in high school when we played in a band called "The Shriners." Since then he's performed all over geographically and musically, performing in a variety of bands, most recently drumming for Ryan Shupe. Here's a link to 2uce Betta's website: http://www.2ucebetta.com

The concept of the group is life through the eyes of a Robot (or "Flo-bot" in this case). Universal themes of unrequited love, anxiety, fitting in, paranoia, and having a great time will be illustrated by 2uce's unique rapping style over Portishead/Massive-Attack style electronica created by acoustic and synth instruments played by Bart and myself. Listen/download a demos of the band here: http://robbennion.com/mp3s/originals/robotdemo.mp3

2uce will also be performing with my regular event band. Over the past year I have performed and DJ'd many events and wedding receptions, and have had many clients request current hip-hop and R&B songs during the dance portion of the event. There is a real demand for a band that can play the current chart-toppers, a band that could do hip-hop and R&B songs which MTV is currently playing.

Together with LA native Hayley Singley and rapper 2uce, my band does what no other Salt Lake city band can do: we play popular R&B and hip-hop music, from classics like Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean", "Rapper's Delight" and the Beastie Boys to current chart-toppers like Beyonce and Jay-Z, Estelle and Kanye West, and the Black Eyed Peas.

Generation Xers are now CEOs, CFOs, and getting married by the droves. This party band, the only one of its kind, can really push the boundaries of live music. Keeping in mind that we are still well-versed in the classics from the Jazz/Blues/Pop American songbook such as the Beatles, Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and many others. The object is to the dance floor packed.

The Salt Lake Tribune's pop music/pop culture writer recently wrote about the new band: http://blogs.sltrib.com/burger/index.php?p=3208&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Jazz music workshop in local elementary school

Today I visited ms Edwards and Zaugg's classes to give a short presentation about jazz music. I played a little bit and each class recorded a song. The kids came up with the words and I was amazed at how talented they were.

I promised the kids I'd put mp3s of their songs here so they can play them for their folks at home later, so here they are:

Ms Edward's class:

http://www.robbennion.com/mp3s/msedwards.mp3


Ms Zaugg's class:

http://www.robbennion.com/mp3s/mszaugg.mp3

Christmas album . . .

I've been working on my Christmas album, here are some samples:
http://www.robbennion.com/christmas.html

Contact me if you'd like to get a copy!

The McCune Mansion

My latest electronic addition has been the EV wireless mic system. I absolutely love it. For this gig the client asked for us to serenade the tables at a large party. This would require walking away from the band (Hayley the singer and I) to "serenade" each table as we performed.
I'd done this before with backing tracks and a DJ at the Hotel Westin Dallas, but never with a live band, nor in multiple rooms rather than one big ballroom.
I was apprehensive at first, because I wasn't sure how well our sound would carry and if the band would hear us.
I set up my Mackie powered speakers and monitors, and hooked up the EV for a test run before anyone arrived. It was crystal clear all over the mansion, in different rooms.

The serenading was a big hit, and I think I'll talk to future clients about the option. I'll get a wireless system for my saxophone, though, as Hayley had to hold the mic up to my sax so the band back with the PA could hear.

We were able to lend the mic for speeches by the client, and overall I am extremely happy with my PA and wireless setup.
Here's the McCune mansion, we played our first set on the first floor for cocktail hour, then went upstairs for the dinner set with our serenading, then back downstairs as the guests had dessert. In order to make this work, we set up two seperate pa systems, with two drumsets, two bass amps, etc. When our first set was over we just carried our instruments upstairs and played there.
Set up and tear-down took forever, but it was great to have the flawless changeover between sets.

Here's the room on the 3rd floor where we performed for dinner. We were set up right in front of the balcony window, with a nice view of the temple.

There were a few stressful moments during the night, like when 3 of my band members called to say police had blocked off both state street and west temple because of the prop 8 protests. Luckily the band was able to get through the traffic and we were set up with about 15 mins to spare before downbeat.

The other stressful moment is actually pretty funny . . . just as we were to begin our first set and the guests were arriving, I bent down to pick up my flute and rrrriiiiipppp there went my tuxedo trousers, right in the front. Luckily my Brandon had an extra safety pin and I got it pinned back up. Denson told me that I should always wear black underwear underneath the tuxedo in case anything like that ever happens. Time to either lose some weight or get bigger tuxedo pants I guess.

Playing the Flute

Some people take doubling lightly. I think it's a very important part of playing . . . but you can't treat it merely as a "double" . . . doubles need to be played as if they were the principle instrument.

A "double" in musician's lingo (specifically sax players) is an extra instrument that you "double" on or also play, typically flute and clarinet. Big band playing requires that you can play multiple saxophones (i.e. soprano), clarinet, and flute. Occasionally you may need to play bass clarinet or oboe, or even piccolo.

Doubles are a challenge for everyone . .. after years of playing just one instrument and achieving a professional level, all of a sudden you're required to pick up another instrument and perform in the same professional setting . . . it can be daunting.

For me, I had to treat each "double" as if I were learning a completely new instrument. Although the fingurings are similar on the clarinet and flute as they are for the saxophone, there are huge difference (like Spanish and Portuguese). Starting with simple scales and moving to more complex, I had to spend about 2 hours daily for a 6 month period on the flute before I was somewhat satisfied with my sound.

Ray Smith, my saxophone guru, told me to practice classical flut rather than jazz, that if I learned to make a good classical sound the jazz would take care of itself. I got some James Galway cds, and Dave Valentine, and the Carribbean Jazz Project cds, and dug in, transcribing and imitating their sound as best I could. I foced myself to play at least one song on the flute at my gigs . . . that made me really practice hard to have th motivation to not sound like an idiot at the gig, I learned "Girl from Ipanema" and "Wave", and eventually started playing in a brazilian group which called for mostly flute. Performing in salsa-merengue bands required that I played high notes on th flute, something that totally eluded me for a long time.

In Costa Rica, my mother in law Guiselle bought me a cane flute for my birthday, and I fell in love. I bought a full 2.5 octave samponia (pan flute) and hve used that for recordings and for fun.

The flute was a worthy foe, and I still struggle withcertain aspects of it, but now I bring my flute to every performance. Playing the song "Nicolle" at the Okayama Jazz Festival in Japan on the flute was an exhilirating experience, I love playing the flute.

Performances in Japan

Larry Marshal, pictured above playing drums, is an incredible player. Listen to some of his past recordings (along with Phillip Strange on Piano) here.
Kazuki Iida was incredible on the keyboard. Hi intuition as a musician anticipated anything I wanted to do, and he created beautiful canvasses of chords over which the solos and melodies came very naturally. Check out his myspace page here, and his website here.
Toshiya Kasamatsu performed exceptionally on bass, laying down the groove with Larry.

It was great to perform with Alicia Saldenha. She's an up-and coming vocalist from Trinidad who's lived in Japan long enough to learn the language, and we talked a lot about her first album which is in the works. She has great talent and I wouldn't be surprised to see her name in big places somewhere down the road. Check out some of her youtube performances here.




This past week I headlined the Okayama Jazz festival in Japan, it was great. I love how appreciative Japanese audiences are of Jazz music . . . they listen intently to every song, and applaud after solos . . .

Here's an article with more pictures from the performance (Be forewarned it's in Japanese).

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival Performance

The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is a celebration of storytelling, folklore, and the interesting art of spinning tales which attracts around 10,000 people each year to Utah Valley.
We had the priviledge of being the headlining musical event at this year's festival.

The music organizer for the event had this to say about our performance:

"Rob Bennion and the group of musicians who make up his band are amazing. Rob’s band kept an eclectic mix of 2500 folks happy for more than an hour. Rob’s music was meant to be “pre-game show” music, but what happened was wonderful – the outdoor audience, waiting for the main show, quit visiting and listened to a tight, dynamic, powerful, enthusiastic group of musicians with tunes that took them from Chattanooga to Ipanema and back. Rob is a phenomenal musician of his own accord, and he surrounded himself with musicians who truly complimented each other. I was so pleased with the Rob Bennion Band’s performance that I instantly booked them for a private party, and I will place Rob top on my list for musicians I am happy to work with. And – Rob is the model gentleman. ."

Ronda Walker Weaver – Timpanogos Storytelling Festival Committee member over Music, Board Member Timpanogos Singer Songwriter Alliance [TSSA]

Today's lesson is about being prepared for a performance. There are many different types of performances, from playing background music at a restaurant to a festival crowd where ou are the main event people paid to come see. Here are some tips to help you be better prepared for your next gig:

1. Knowing your audience is crucial to pulling off a great performance. What age group is the crowd going to be? Think of which songs and what style to play them in. If you're performing for a wedding reception, you won't want to pull out the hard-rockin' blues chart, unless it's later in the night and people are wanting to dance to a blues song. Be sensitive especially about volume levels. In a restaurant setting, play it safe and be as quiet as possible, volume will naturally increase during the course of a performance as the night goes on.

2. Get feedback from the people in charge/people who hired you. If playing at a bar/restaurant, ask the waiters/bartenders about your volume, song choices, get whatever feedback you can. these are the people the manager will talk to to see if you get to come back again. Make especially sure to motivate the crowds to tip their waiters/waitresses/bartenders well, this gets you extra points. Get feedback before, during, and after a performance.

3. Make a set list beforehand, but don't be afraid to alter it as you go. A well-chosen set list gives the band time to prepare and think about the songs before you announce it on the bandstand. It gives you and others peace of mind and cuts down on time between songs. When making the list, keep your audience, band members, the venue, ll aspects of the performance in mind. A good way to organize your set is to perform 3-4 songs in a row with little to no break in between, then take a 20-30 second breather to talk to the crowd, let the band rest a second. Audiences like to have a breather and talking helps increase anticipating for the next song (in moderation of course!)

4. Take good care of your band members, treat them well and the overall performance will be much better. Bring water for them, help everyone with their gear, compliment them on their playing, etc. Making sure they all know beforehand what to expect as far as times, dress, songs, instrumentation, will avoid confusion and possible conflicts.

5. Whenever possible, carpool. This gives you time to chat and get over nerves on the way to a performance, as well as to ensure that you arrive together and on time. When I perform, I like to bring my rythm section with me, so that even if some members are late, the basics are covered.

6. Be adaptable to the needs and wants of your audience. Take requests when possible, extend songs when people are dancing, change your set list to keep the crowd engaged.