Category: On the road….

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Death by machine: part deux

Amazingly, two videos of the first fatal autonomous Uber crash have been released to the public. I’m sure we’ll have quite the extended debate over them, and the human ‘safety’ driver, who is supposed to make sure the machine doesn’t make mistakes, or at least take over when it does; this woman failed spectacularly, that’s for sure. She was simply not even looking out the window, instead looking down at something in her lap until a split second before the crash occurred. The most interesting legal question is how much liability she has in this disaster.

When watching the dashcam of the car, one thing becomes clear: the victim made a move that just begged for a correction in the population that only natural selection can provide. There’s most likely no way the car could have been controlled to NOT hit her, certainly not by a person, but probably not even by a machine with infinitely faster response. She just came out of the dark in THE most stupid place to cross, in addition hampered in her mobility by the bike she was dragging along. It seems hard to believe she didn’t jump in front of the car on purpose but let’s assume she didn’t. In my opinion it would be unreasonable to put the blame for her death on anyone or anything other than her.

At the same time, there’s something very very interesting about the video and the little info about what happened that we do have. Apparently, the brakes were not applied at all! That the knucklehead behind the wheel didn’t is perhaps somewhat understandable, she had literally a fraction of a second, but for a machine that’s an eternity. Once she came out of the shadows, in those 2 frames, she’s clearly visible, and clearly in the path of the car. Did its sensors not notice her at all? Did it decide it was too late to start braking? Amazingly what the car was ‘thinking’ will be known, at least to the engineers with access to it. At the same time, I can’t shake the feeling that Google’s cars would have done better. In either case, it’s yet another data set, another set of circumstances that future Uber cars have in their experience.

Finally, to all the doubters of autonomous vehicles: just look at how utterly relaxed and trusting the safety driver was. Amazingly, it has to be prove of how well this tech already works, and Google is significantly ahead in its capabilities. Dead lady or not, this tech is coming quickly; you can improve computers, but you can’t fix stupid!

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Death by machine

So, it happened. A self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian. If I had a dollar for every person I ever discussed this tech with that said “one death, lawsuits will shut it down…..”, I’d be able to pay the families legal fees. Except that’s not what’s gonna happen. You see, these machines record every single detail all the time; if that’s not admissible evidence,  I don’t know what is.

Already police have said it seems the woman jumped out of the shadows onto a dark road,  away from a legal crosswalk, and that a human driver likely could not have prevented hitting her. These cars have 360 degree vision, radar, lidar and who knows what else. Their reaction time is a fraction of the fastest human’s; they don’t get tired, or distracted. I’m not saying they’re flawless, of course not, but every machine of a particular brand has all the knowledge of all the ones that came before it! Every human that has to learn how to drive has to start over. Just think about that for a second..

 

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Dosey Doe in the Woodlands, TX

Today I just want to give props to one of the very best places to play in these United States! When you travel with a band like the Rippingtons, you have what’s called a “rider”, a list of things you need/want ready at the venue. It usually contains stuff like batteries, food and drinks, catering during sound check, all kinds of amenities. Whether all of them are provided is certainly not a given, and the size of the place is not necessarily indicative of compliance. Some spots will even charge us half or full price just to have a beer or two, some stock the dressing room with a nice selection of beverages and food.

And then there is The Big Barn – Dosey Doe in The Woodlands, TX. Not only is it a wonderful venue acoustically and aesthetically (they took a 165 year old tobacco barn from Kentucky and rebuilt it outside of Houston!!) but it might just be the place that takes the best care of us. I mean, from the moment we get there every single person working is not only courteous and  happy to be there, but also goes way beyond what we need or deserve. The boss wants to order three dinners, two to go? No problem. Beer, top shelf whiskey, vodka, desserts….anything we want. They place is filled with genuinely great people, on a level that is beyond rare here in the city of Angels. And guess what: it results in a band that wants to do a great show! Dosey Doe started as a coffee roaster years ago and they still do it. At the end of the night they send us on our way with a pound of beans of our choice, each! Here’s a place that deserves to thrive and I’m glad to see they’re doing well.

So thank you Paul, Kevin, Barry and everyone at Dosey Doe for creating such an amazing place to keep live music alive and kicking! Hope to see you again soon!

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Keiko Matsui

Something quite fascinating is how people have the tendency to categorize. In order to organize this mess of a world, to be able to deal with the chaos and unpredictability humans assign things to boxes: good and evil, healthy and unhealthy, Country music, Metal. Once something has been assigned a category, it rarely gets reclassified. Sometimes it’s quite beneficial, but it can be detrimental too, for instance when people start conforming to the box they’re in, whether they chose to be in there or were put in there by others.

And then there are people like Keiko Matsui. This woman, classical piano wunderkind, became a worldwide star in the world of New Age and later Smooth Jazz, touring the world for 30 years now. This woman made 26 albums before “Journey to the Heart” last year. She now sells 1500 tickets a night in Russia for two weeks straight, a beloved artist at Smooth Jazz nights from the Hollywood Bowl to Java Jazz in Jakarta, Indonesia. But guess what: she keeps growing and innovating, keeps pushing, instead of resting on her laurels and riding this wave into the sunset.

After years of others, mostly men of course, running her life, managers, record labels etc., she has taken control! That album she did last year? Her best one yet, and the most free of all. Produced by none other than Carlitos Del Puerto, son of Cuban bass legend Carlos Del Puerto of Irakere, it’s her first all acoustic project and it’s truly wonderful. She never really was a Smooth Jazz artist to begin with, very few 2 chord R&B jams in her repertoire, but here we have a proper Jazz album, awesome compositions, fantastic playing by a group of great musicians. I’m serious, this is music that would fit in at any real Jazz club in the world and she proved it last week in Napa.

Back in 2000 I did one summer with Keiko and her manager ran the show back then, she would hardly talk to the band. When I joined again in 2013 the situation was much different already. I replaced Eric Baines who was the musical director, so it really was the first time she took on that role, and slowly but surely she realized that she could easily do it! I mean, after almost 30 years of doing your music, you know what you want! Communication across languages can be hard, and explaining feeling in music even harder, but between a group of excellent musicians (JP Mourao, Jackiem Joyner, Dave Karasony) who truly repected her and my above average language skills, we got there. She still had a “Pop”/Classical concept of her show, with strict arrangements and solos that were almost verbatim every night. Doing “Journey to the Heart”, and then touring on it with the Carlitos and Jimmy Branly forced her to adopt more of a true Jazz flow: those guys are UNSTOPPABLE, they cannot be put in a box. They will never play the same thing twice. I heard some of the live recordings and they went for it every time, actually a little too much for Keiko’s fans I’m afraid. Of course Carlitos is the hottest bass player in the world right now, so when Chick Corea called, and Barbra Streisand and Bob James, he moved on and combined with the preference of promoters and fans for the electric band, we got the call again.

Fast forward to last week, when we did 4 nights, two shows a night, at the brand new Blue Note in Napa, CA. I’m not exaggerating when I say all 8 shows where in my top 25 favorite gigs of my life. Keiko was simply outstanding and we played like a real band; I get tears in my eyes again thinking about it, as happened literally every night at some point. The stage is small there, and with the incredible CF6 that Yamaha brought especially for Keiko, we were set up super tight, which is ideal actually for playing Jazz. Keiko played some truly amazing solos, really blew my mind how free and creative, how beautiful, playful and exciting. She improvised stuff on songs I had never heard even a slight variation on. And we were right with her, at all times; it’s incredible what happens when a band trusts itself, when a soloist feels so comfortable. JP went from beautiful whisper quiet Brazilian flavors to screaming rock, rhythmical explorations to surf…. our dynamics as band were incredible, we played so softly a few times, without losing any intensity it shocked me.

Honestly, Keiko became a true Jazz pianist this week. She’s been trying to book shows in Western Europe, but her association with Smooth Jazz has held her back, even though she was always more of a New Age/Pop/Classical pianist. Now, in my opinion, she could and should get booked at any real Jazz club in the world, even with the electric band. It’s beyond inspiring to see a woman of her stature make such a bold and dramatic move, to refuse to stay in a box and boldly go…….. feeling beyond blessed to be able to witness it……

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Jakarta: part three

So now what? It’s Monday afternoon, we don’t have to do anything until Thursday! We haven’t left the hotel except to go to the festival grounds, but we can’t just do nothing and eat and drink everyday. Water is expensive at the Borobodur (think $5 per half liter!) so I decide to see if there’s a market or something around. I bought a SIM card at the festival for $5 that got my phone online with 2GB of data, so Google Maps is working. It was another great demonstration of the plight of the iPhone user, when you see them literally carrying another (local) phone because they don’t realize you can unlock them. Oh that walled garden….but I digress……… My inquiry at the concierge desk leads to the Atrium Plaza, half a mile away. When I ask if we can walk they look very puzzled, suggesting we take a cab, but I convince Dave that we should go on foot anyway! It’s basically a straight shot although there aren’t really any sidewalks; we pass by people fishing in the dirtiest water, moped repairmen, bums chilling and some of the richest stenches I had ever experienced. There’s barbed wire, chemical clouds in ponds in which some are actually fishing….. wow!

The mall is actually quite Western looking; there’s serious security of course: dogs, military police, metal detectors. But when we get inside, it’s pretty nice. We see a Burger King, Starbucks, but also a lot of vendors on the ground level selling clothes, wallets and shoes.  The supermarket is in the basement, but we decide to go up first. All in all there are 6 floors in this thing, with many many restaurants, clothing stores and a few gift shops. Electronics are actually quite expensive here, phones cost even more than in the US, although the selection is enormous. Also in the basement are many, many telecom shops! I’m talking 30 of them with more Samsungs than you could ever imagine. Wherever Dave and I go, people are staring at us; surprisingly we are the only two gringos in the whole joint, a good foot taller than most locals. We end up buying a couple of bags of groceries for next to nothing and head back to the hotel. Still not over my jet lag, a couple of beers after dinner at the lovely Bogor cafe and I’m ready for bed. Tomorrow we go on a real adventure!

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Jakarta: part two

That first Friday we got there, the Java Jazz Festival was already well underway. It was close to 5PM by the time we arrived and Snarky Puppy, whom we really wanted to see, wasn’t to go on until 12:30AM; it was going to be the only time out of three they did when we wouldn’t be playing ourselves, but we were too tired to make it. Getting to the venue required getting on a shuttle bus which could take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes, so it just wasn’t gonna happen. Luckily there was a Jam session every night at the Borobudur where every musician with a badge got 2 free beers! Dave and I made stayed until about 11:30PM when complete exhaustion took over. Organist Tony Monaco was leading the thing and let me tell you, he was GREAT. A lot of familiar faces were everywhere; sometimes it seemed like another night at Cafe Cordiale! Off to bed, Saturday would be time to work….

Woke up pretty early, but thankfully was able to go back to sleep for a few more hours that morning. Lobby call wasn’t until 4PM or so and by that time I felt pretty good actually. We were told the trip to the Jakarta International Expo could take a long time depending on traffic, but it went reasonably fast and we got there in about 25 minutes. Boy, the part we entered through looked like a deserted Zoo or something, a post-apocalyptic amusement park; just gates and empty buildings! A couple of turns later we’re at the main entrance into what looks like a mall. Again everything goes through metal detectors and luggage scanners and we’re in! The building actually is a mall, with sporting goods stores, restaurants etc. On the other side of it though is the main section with many different halls. In all, there were 19 stages, ranging from conference rooms to a couple in the convention center part that were as big as airplane hangars! Ours seats about 3000 or so and is called C1. When we get there, the band before us is just about to start and it turns out they’re really a pretty complex fusion band, not bad actually. After they’re done, we have about 45 minutes to change over the stage which doesn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped….

By the time doors open again to let our crowd in, we’re not quite ready, especially when it comes to monitoring, but the room fills up almost completely and we go for it! It’s a good show, but the repressed style of the Indonesian audience doesn’t quite help overcome the jet lag that sets in halfway for the band. As is normal with festivals, people come and go, so by the end we have a smaller crowd, but it’s all good. We have another chance the next day, a little earlier in the same room. It’s really amazing how well-behaved these folks are! With 50,000 visitors a day you’d expect some trouble, or rowdiness, but it almost feels like a church picnic! It turns out that the whole city is really like that, I expect in large part due to the fact that they are very religious over there. The mosques that litter the city go off on a regular basis, blaring Arabic prayers very loudly into the air. Even the last night, staying on the 22nd floor I was still woken up at 3 in the morning.

On Sunday we do redeem ourselves and play an energetic, refreshed show! This time the audience keeps growing as times goes on and the arch is just perfect. Dean West, our regular East Coast tour manager and soundman is actually there because he’s working with India Arie later on, and he helps us get the monitors right. Quite happy, after Keiko is done with her obligations of signing CDs and such, she, Dave and I go and check out some more music. Tania Maria is awesome, the tribute to George Duke featuring Jeff Lorber, Chuck Loeb and many others is wonderful; the whole place is going off! That night, the jam is pretty great too actually. Organist Tony Monaco starts off the night again and when Dutch musicians Peter Beets and Gijs Dijkhuizen sit in Dave gets very happy. Peter is a pianist there to perform a tribute to Oscar Peterson and Gijs his drummer. Boy, these dudes swing hard! Everyone one is there and many are giving me their free beer tickets, so I find myself in a Smooth Jazz sandwich, getting a little drunker than I prolly should, having an awesome time.

The next day, the adventure is over for most musicians there; Dave and I were supposed to fly back to L.A. as well, but we got hired by Brian Simpson to do another gig six days later so we get to stay! Keiko is flying to Japan on a later flight, and being the class act she is, offers to buy us lunch at the Borobudur. She explains that this place is famous for its Oxtail soup and now I know why. Man, it is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten: rich in flavor without being overwhelming, complex but familiar in the best way. Really, the food at the hotel was incredible every time. Even the bread was just perfect, unsalted butter from New Zealand, delicious deserts from all over the world, Sushi to Rendang, homemade ice cream….. and the coffee…….. so what are we to do? We’ve got 4 more days off and if we just keep eating, I’m gonna turn into a tub!

To be continued….

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Jakarta: part one

Where do I begin? What an amazing trip Dave and I were blessed with! We left on the 26th at 10PM for Taipe, to finally arrive on Friday afternoon in Jakarta, Indonesia. Total travel time was a little north of 24 hours, but they are 15 time zones ahead of us, so one loses a day. We flew EVA Air, a Taiwanese airline, which was very good actually. The 13 hour flight was on one of their Hello Kitty jets! I kid you not, everything had the cat on it: the cutlery, pillow, blanket, the cake had it built in and even the outside of the plane was fully painted. The stewardesses were all beautiful and so pleasant too, it was like looking at a fashion show. We were served some pretty good food too, from chicken porridge for breakfast, to Chinese cabbage and Dragon Fruit. Coffee was excellent, and Taiwan Beer, really that’s the name, was free! It’s a long, long way, but I arrived pretty well rested at 1PM.

We were met at the airport by a representative from the festival who took our passports and just walked us through immigration without ever having to talk to anyone. We got them back the next day with all visas properly executed; this is the way to do it! The drive was quite something. By the airport it’s pretty green and not densely populated, but as we started to get into the city, the shanty-towns got bigger and bigger, with big modern buildings dotting the landscape everywhere. Dirty, dirty, DIRTY waterways everywhere, that much was clear, even from the bus with the windows closed and the airco running. Traffic was crazy, but when we got off the freeway into downtown it really got nuts. With mopeds, carrying dad on the back, two kids between him and mom, and then another kid in the front, with no helmets, flying around, even on sidewalks, the cars were stuck. We sat on the same block, which turned out be 300 yards from the hotel, for more than an hour! People pooping in the river, then a little further two fishing! Yet the faces were peaceful, even on drivers……there was lots of honking, but the polite kind, just to let each other know where everybody is. Even the bums sitting by the river, smoking, playing chess, didn’t look unhappy.

When we finally got to the hotel around 4, we entered a different world. Named after the most famous monument in Indonesia, the Hotel Borobudur is right in the heart of Jakarta, a five star oasis, with an Olympic sized pool and guys with AK47s in the lobby at all times! On Saturday some politician must have stayed there because they opened a can of MPs. I kid you not, there must have been 50 men with AKs guarding the joint. You can’t enter any big building in Jakarta without going through a metal detector, but this was kind of freaky. Otherwise, the hotel was quite great. Excellent rooms, tennis courts with free lessons, and for us free food three times a day! The Bogor cafe in there is famous for its Oxtail Soup which Keiko turned us on to. AMAZING! They had excellent bread, soups, fruit for days and of course lots of Indonesian and international dishes; I must have eaten more different foods in these 9 days than in the whole year before! And then there was the coffee…..we were gonna get spoiled, that much was getting clear….