Brian Kesley
Brian Kesley (Electric and Upright Bassist)
Brian is the epitome of a working musician in New York City. With a true respect for music and a solid foundation in bass, he is open to all types of projects which keeps him very busy. So where has he been, what is he doing and how does technology fit in his active career?
Yesterday and Today
Brian Kesley got his start in music when he was 14 in Detroit, MI. Listening to Jack Bruce and John Paul Jones he naturally gravitated towards the bass. After several years of playing garage rock and with funk bands, he moved to New Orleans where he finally felt at home. While studying at Loyola, Brian had the fortunate opportunity to study with bassist Jessie Boyd and learned business from John Snyder. After Hurricane Katrina, Brian relocated to New York City where he finished his Bachelor’s in Jazz Performance at the New School Universty for Jazz and Contemporary Music. There he had the opportunity to study with legendary bassists Reggie Workman (John Coltrane), Bob Cranshaw (Sonny Rollins), and Andy Mckee (Mingus Big Band, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones). Brian also spent 6 months studying traditional Ghanaian Drumming and Dancing with Dr. Royal Hartigan and Kwabena Boateng. In 2006 and 2007 he traveled to Ghana to study at the Dagbe Cultural Center in Kopeyia Village, Volta Region, Ghana – an experience that was nothing less than life changing.
In 2008 Brian spent 6 months playing a standards gig at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, U.A.E. Brian is now back in NYC and continues to be a true working musician. Recording and gigging with no less than 5 projects at a time, he has found himself playing a wide variety of music. Folk, rock, soul, funk, jazz, country. Currently, you can hear him with Lily & The Parlour Tricks. They have just released a new EP that is available at live shows and will soon be available on the iTunes Music Store. Check out the title track “Apples & A Gun” in the media section of this Article!
Mac for this musician
Notation and Composition
A lot of emphasis is put on a Mac as a recording device and few people know what else is available. As a musicians and composers it is a very good idea to use some sort of notation software for reasons stated bellow. An application like Finale can really make you work much more efficiently and effectively in areas beyond composition. As Brian puts it:
“I use Finale, it feels like, daily. It’s proven beyond useful, whether I am making a simple chord chart, arranging a 16 piece big band arrangement or just keeping track of song ideas. I have compiled a lot of work over the years using it and I can email a .pdf to a band before rehearsal or, where it is most useful, send it to fill in subs for rehearsals or gigs I can’t make. I got in the habit of charting out every song, for every project for the sake of having it on file so if I need to sub out a gig, it’s a piece of cake. The sub likes it because their work load was just cut in half, and the band leader likes it because it makes bringing new people up to speed that much less of a pain.”
Recording
So, yes. It’s no doubt you know what you can do with a Mac when it comes to recording but given the fact we are working digitally we can collaborate with others outside of the studio.
“Since I got an MBox 2 pro, I have really stepped up the amount of recording projects I am doing. I can now have someone email me a bounce, lay down a track into Pro Tools LE or in GarageBand and email back my bass part all on my own time. Usually I just send back the raw track with no plug ins because the most people want just a raw signal to work with when mixing, but with sounds I can get out of GarageBand stomp boxes and amp modelers I could really give them what ever they want. That is a great income stream to have with little overhead. I can work on someone’s album with out putting pants on. It’s GREAT!!”
For more info on collaborating remotely on recordings (with or without pants) check out our article on remote musical collaboration.
Practicing
“Another great use for GarageBand I have found is practicing. I have been really analyzing my time feel and what better way to do that than see your playing in wav form and how it lines up do a metronome visually. I also dump some of my favorite songs into Garage band from iTunes and play along to them and listen back with the original track muted. Talk about eye opening. “
Anything else?
“Also if it weren’t for iCal I wouldn’t know when to brush my teeth. I have been doing a church gig recently and I have to wake up at 6:30am on Sunday’s now, which is painful when you have a late Saturday night hit. The alarm in iCal has saved me more than once in the last few weeks.”
Title Track from the Lily & The Parlour Tricks EP, “Apples & A Gun”
Recent Recordings
Steve Stone
Escape
Brian Kelsley
Sister E
Follow him on Twitter and MySpace
http://twitter.com/Briankesley
http://www.myspace.com/briankesley
Check out his Current Projects
Kate Sland
Undersea Poem
Lily & The Parlour Tricks
Alex Winston
a Locomotive
Jamie Bendell
Anna Ayers
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