Bill Malchow

Here is some blog type stuff.  Many of these were from emails promoting gigs.  You can sign up for my email list HERE.

Last night I’m sitting at the Ear Inn Bar chatting with Victor the bartender. No gig just hanging.   He tells me the night before Bono and the Edge stopped in.   The waitress that served them (Jessica/Jennifer) "was the only one who got a hug". She says they are both very short.    They were working out rhythms and songs, just drinking Guinness until one table started bugging them and they left. One guy next to me wanted to know what they smelled like, weirdo.  I just wanted to know how much they tipped.    The check was $25 and they gave Jessica a $50.  So I plan on tipping $26 before I leave.  

I wonder if when they came in, and they asked for a table, did they get the old "will you be eating dinner, treatment?".

Then I chatted with one of the regulars, Tom. Tom is the stage manager of the metropolitan opera. Can you believe, their annual budget is 300 mil?  He says ticket sales are down and this is a problem.  I bet.  I'm trying to get free tickets from him.

I find out Tom was a pilot for the Navy during the vietnam war, ferrying generals and VIP's around between Vietnam and Hawaii.  So I gave him shit for that cushy job he gave me shit for not having to do anything. Touchee.  Still I couldn't help but think while my Dad was flying huey's for the Army, getting shot at, Tom was in hawaii with the Navy.  No wonder the Army / Navy game is such a big deal.

I’ll be back at the Ear Inn this Monday to play. Skip Ward (bass) and Louie Appel (drums).   We are starting at 10pm instead of midnight so you can all come by and sing a Christmas song or two.

Tonight Thursday, I’m at Rodeo with the Jack Grace Band. He’s got the full band out tonight. (Trombone/Trumpet too). So it ought to be a good one.  I have a feeling we will be singing about drinking.

Also Alex McMurray will be in town January 15.  We are headlining Sullivan Hall.   So please mark it down.   We are going to release his Cd “How to be A Cannonball” to the wild. Yes a CD release party.  The Go Cup All Stars and I will be backing him up and doing some of our stuff too.

- Bill

So I am sitting here, transcribing french horn parts from Paul McCartney's Little Lamb/Dragonfly.

From time to time I play with two Beatles tribute bands.  One is "Bubble Does Beatles", they play mostly to kids and their families, the other is Larrry Russell's Beatlestock who play to adults and try to do more of a sing along thing.   Mostly my role is to play piano, organ and write out parts for strings and horns. Usually we can't afford the horns/strings so I play all those trumpet, violins etc on the keyboard. Occasionally I sing a lead.

I took the gigs cause I always liked the Beatles and figure why not learn all those cool little things that George Martin did.    But every gig turns into mountains of work. Late nights transcribing the tunes, writing charts out, and trying to program my keyboard to sound like backward saxophones through guitar amps. 
Too much work.  Typically a week before the gig I swear I'll never do another one

Then the show comes and you think, wow that was lots of fun, the crowd loved us, I learned some great tunes.  Some time passes and I think oh that wasn't so bad, sure I'll do "Abbey Road" etc.     So here comes another one.

Larry Russel (leader of Beatlestock) says "hey, B.B. King's wants us to do a Paul McCartney birthday show"  I think, Hmm... I've done enough shows that I have charts for nearly every beatles song, this show will be easy. B.B. Kings is nice too. "Ok Larry I'm in". 

Setlists suggestions go back and forth and next thing you know we are doing lots of Paul McCartney solo and Wings tunes.  Dang.  More tunes I've never heard, more charts, more questions like "how can I play that french horn part while I play those flutes"... grrr.  I'm never doing another show again.

I must say though, Paul, if your reading this, nice job! There is some pretty cool stuff here. Mrs. Vanderbilt (hey heyo), Backseat of my Car, Venus and Mars and others (I won't give it all away).   Also, did you know that Badfinger tune "Come and Get It" was written by Paul?  Now we both do.

Larry Russel's Beatles Stock - Thursday June 18. @ B.B. Kings.

Today is May 5. Cinco de mayo. The band and I will be at rodeo bar. There will be no French songs today. There will be no Mexican songs either (I don't know any). There is a Herb Albert song called "Cinco de Mayo" I'm tempted to cover but you'll have to see how my day goes. Either way there will be a mariachi band on before us.

Hmm, maybe we could simulate the Battle of Puebla by playing a french song and then having the mariachi band drown us out. Eh, I shouldn't think out loud here.

Regarding Beer at Barbes. At first I was digging the "speckled-hen"
drafts. The problem is I start thinking what a speckled hen really
might look like, and then somehow that get's me thinking of the
chicken pox. Not good. So that's out for now. I've been trying the
Blue Moon, since there isn't much of summer left and you get a lemon
in that beer. But it's now starting to smell like fall outside. (Weird
for august eh?) So there will have to be a new choice tonight.

Hello,

I'll be continuing the Friday night august residency at Barbes tonight.  There was some back and forthness on my availability tonight, so I may have said last week I wasn't go to be there.  But rest assured I will be.  

I start at midnight and go to about 2am.  

The shows have been fun. The first week I discussed my trip to the new Ikea.  Last week I wasn't so chatty. 

Perhaps I'll talk about the ice age tonight.  The ice ages seem to have been triggered by variations in the Earth's orbit.  Did you know that the guy that discovered this and proved that this was a possibility (mathamaticly speaking) was a janitor?   Goggle: "James Croll".  

hmm. maybe I won't talk about that...

So I met Dr John Tuesday night.  He is my major influence on piano so when I heard he was playing at the Highline ballroom I used all my connections to get backstage. and it worked (thanks Shannon, Chris, and Steve).  So we talked about 15 minutes. We talked about James Booker, the old days, hustling pin ball, ny winters (too cold), and how he can't play so fast anymore due to "the corporation tunnel and all that". But mostly I just stared and kept thinking. Wow, he's talking to me.  See attached pic.

It's been a good week. I had a nice couple of gigs with Shannon McNally last weekend.  We did a bunch of Bobby Charles tunes and she really impressed me... especially being 7 months pregnant!

Today I'll be driving to JFK to pick up Earl Poole Ball (Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Buck Owens, Byrds) for an upstate gig with the Jack Grace Band.  Earl was Johnny Cash's piano player for 20 years so I expect to hear some stories.   Maybe some I can share...

This Friday Bill Malchow and the Go Cup All Stars will be on the main stage at B.B. Kings opening for the Funky Meters. Maybe I can steal some licks from Art Neville.  Hope to see you there.

So I set out last week on a trip to New Orleans. Jazzfest is coming, you know. I decided to drive down since I'll be here a while and wanted to bring my gear.

Highlights so far include:

• Crabs and beer for lunch in Baltimore, MD.
• A nice hour long nap at Maryland's finest highway rest stop approx 12 miles after the crabs.
• Grits at the waffle house in Newton, North Carolina.
• South Carolina - Cowpens National Battlefield. (thanks to Gretchen the lady in my GPS who pointed out I was near).
• Watching the "yacht rock review" in Atlanta, GA.
• My first ever Rodeo near Meridian, MS.
• My first time shooting a gun with some locals in Meridian, MS.
• 4/20 8pm. Arrival in New Orleans. 90 minutes later I'm at Donna's. Eating catfish and watching a barefoot Joe Ashlar tear up his shiny new Hammond organ...

This morning I'm reading the "Park Slope Courier". I'm told after a 16 year absence there is a new Miss Brooklyn 2008. Hurray! But she is from Manhattan. Wha? Apparently she just moved to New York from somewhere else. Is this considered carpet bagging?

 

I'm not a pageant fan but somehow this ticked me off. As I read on I find there weren't enough Brooklyn girls to compete so they had to open it up to the other boroughs. Inside it shows a few of the ladies parading in swim suits and high heels. Hmm, perhaps the Brooklyn girls are too smart for this.

What kind of name is Malchow. I don't know. German?  Here are some other Malchow's

Charles William Malchow - Author 1928 The sexual life,: Embracing the natural sexual impulse, normal sexual habits and propagation, together with sexual physiology and hygiene.
Steve Malchow, Iowa State's senior associate athletic director, he's getting along fine now after experiencing a blood-sugar problem Monday night.
Town of Malchow: Mecklenburg, Germany http://www.m-vp.de/1038/english/1038.htm
Tom Malchow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Malchow Gold Medal Winner, World Record Holder http://www.usolympicteam.com/26_844.htm

More from the Malchow's in the news department. Muncie, Indiana. Here is a Malchow (no relation to me) that was fed up with property taxes and to prove a point paid his property taxes in coins and $1 dollar bills. Read all about here.

Malchow's in the news: The latest version of Malchow has been released today in Brooklyn, NY. Code name "Madelyn" includes superior intelligence, good looks, and the new exciting Malchow OS XI. Congrats to parents Bob and Joyce.

to me!