Interview With Detroit Funk Legend Demo Cates and The Cates Fomin Project
Earlier this year my web strategst Eric Hebert had the pleasure of interviewing Demo Cates, and he had some interesting insight from his 40+ years of being a professional musician. Eric asked if he could share this interview here for my readers.
Tell me a little about your early years and how you got started in the music business.
I was born in Detroit Michigan. My mother bought me an Alto Sax at age 9. Private lessons came with the horn, and I started performing professionally at 15 years old with The Fabulous Counts, one of Detroit’s many legendary R&B funk bands. We recorded one of our largest albums “What’s Up Front that Counts” here in Toronto…some years after that I decided to make my home here.
Read MoreRadio Broadcasts from England
On Wednesday January the 4th, Jan S Johansen will present the first in a series of four radio broadcasts devoted to my career and music.
The first program can be heard on www.riviera.fm
from 5:00 pm to 7:00 PM EST on Wednesday January 4, 2012. The following programs can be heard each of the following Wednesdays at the same time – Wednesday January 11th, the 18th and 25th.
I hope you’ll tune in to these shows and share your reaction. You can reach me at ChuckAnderson202@comcast.net. I’ll pass your comments on to Jan and to Riviera.fm. The show is located in the South of England.
Read MoreFree Christmas Music – Christmas Wishes by Chuck Anderson
Once a year we all listen to Christmas music. If we don’t choose to listen, we listen anyway because it’s all around us.
The album “Christmas Wishes” is my contribution to the Christmas season. It’s packed with twelve Christmas classics and two new originals.
The instrumentation varies and the arrangements range from traditional to anything but traditional. For example, Jingle Bells has been transformed into a jazz waltz featuring, no surprise, the jazz guitar. A Latin Rockesque treatment is taken on another song while four acoustic guitars provide the texture on still another track. Virtually every song has a different sound and a different twist.
Read MoreGuitar Fingering and Creativity
Fingering
It has value to the reading guitarist because the guitar fingerboard is a treacherous trap of options. The same notes are in too many places. The same C note is on string two, fret one and string three, fret five and string four, fret ten and string five, fret fifteen. Unlike the piano which has one location for each note, the guitar compounds the problem with too many options and then throws in open strings to further confuse the issue. When reading is positional and stays within a four fret region, it’s much easier to read. However, writers and arrangers don’t attempt to stay within a four fret region of the guitar. They typically do not know or care about the guitar’s fingering option issues.
Read MoreLearn Jazz Guitar
I develop guitar players into musicians. My specialization is jazz although I work with and develop guitarists in every style. Subjects taught are technique, chord work and applications, improvisation, solo guitar, sight reading, ear training, theory, songwriting and development of performance repertoire and skills.
My methods are customized and drawn from an enormous background of teaching and performing experience.
Contact me at ChuckAnderson202@comcast.net for more information.
How to Listen to Music
Listening to music is as individual as you are. There is no “right” way to listen but there are some guidelines that might help you get you started.
Music is divided into two large categories: Vocal and Instrumental. If you have a strong preference for either category, that’s a place to start. My personal preference has always been Instrumental. This explains to a degree why I’ve always been drawn to Jazz and Classical. I have never personally been interested in Broadway or Opera or Pop or Folk or …
Read MoreA New Approach to Rhythm
Modular Phonetic Rhythm represents a significant advance in the teaching and application of rhythm. Eliminating many inefficient aspects of rhythm education, Modular Phonetic Rhythm streamlines the traditional educational approach, resulting in a reflexive reaction to rhythm.
Jazz guitarists have never had a way to organize the subject of rhythm in a way that would systematically benefit their solos and their comping. Modular Phonetic Rhythm offers a solution.
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