Tag Archives: bass guitar

“Ryan’s Pub: Trivia Night” World Premiere! @ Third Avenue Playworks (Sturgeon Bay, WI) | Sound Design Notes

Posted on by
1
Written by ALEC SILBERBLATT
Directed by JACOB JANSSEN


featuring
Kelli Strickland as Marci
Doug Mancheski as Richie

SEPTEMBER 24 – OCTOBER 12, 2025

Tickets Here

A man and a woman passionately singing on stage at a pub, holding hands and celebrating, with a vintage jukebox in the background illuminated by warm red lighting.
Larry Mohr Photography

A World Premiere!

“Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night” at Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, is a story about trivia night, cheaters in billowy khakis, bosses with big watches, and bartenders in tight t-shirts, and about coming face to face with demons. Marci and Richie are the best trivia team this side of the Monongahela River and have they got a story to tell! So, grab a seat, pop a can of Iron City, and enjoy Alec Silberblatt’s quirky, distinctive storytelling!

Trivia for Tickets! Leading up to the show, TAP partnered with Cherry Lanes Arcade Bar, Stone Harbor Resort, The Thirsty Cow Taphouse, and Buzz Social to give away tickets for Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night. (all the events have passed)

Design Team

Director – Jacob Janssen
Set Design – Alex Polzin
Costume Design – Kotryna Hilko
Lighting Design – Colin Gawronski
Sound Design, Original Score – Brian Grimm
Production Stage Manager – Kelsey Brennan York
Properties Master – Haley Cranstoun
Guest Artist, Percussion – Nick Lang

TAP’s Community Partner for “Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night” is JAK’s Place, Lakeshore CAP’s unique local response to the shortage of mental health facilities and practitioners in rural Northeastern Wisconsin. JAK’s Place empowers adults with diagnosed mental illness as well as anyone with a mental health concern by building support and providing the resources to move toward recovery. JAK’s Place doors are open Monday through Thursday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Learn More or Contact: (920) 818-0525

Our Pay-What-You-Will Preview is the Wednesday prior to opening night at 7:30 p.m. Those interested in attending the preview to support this organization, may arrive as early as 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the performance for general admission seating. Space is available on a first come, first served basis. Donations may be made in cash or with checks made out to Third Avenue PlayWorks. Half of the proceeds will benefit this show’s Community Partner.

Larry Mohr Photography

Recording Session with our Guest Artist, Nick Lang

For years now, Jacob has been wanting to get his long time friend and fantastic Milwaukee based percussionist Nick Lang to be involved on a project with Third Avenue Playworks. When envisioning the music world and genre of this play, I knew it wanted to live in a rock territory. We’ve got a dive bar jukebox slinging hits from the 80’s, 90’s & today. Heck, just being set in a midwest dive bar made me think of my local dive, which always had metal playing. Plus, the story involves a deal with the devil, I mean come on – it’s gotta be rock’n roll baby. I knew that drums would really come in clutch as a centerpiece to the music sound that transitioned us between scenes. Jacob wanted short, snappy transitions infused with energy, and drums are perfect for that. So we reached out to Nick and he was down! I went over to his home studio in Milwaukee for a day and we had so much fun jamming out together on drums and bass. I really love playing this style of music, getting filthy mc nasty on the jazz bass is such a blast. Really made me want to play this music we created live!


Musically, the main concept for this show was to deconstruct Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” into its bits & pieces and rebuild from there. The song is mentioned a number of times in the script, and is a perfect theme tune or mantra for Marci’s journey to sobriety and conquering her demons. We started with having Nick record the main drum groove from the classic 80’s hit in a number of different styles and variations. I also transformed the original Journey song material through augmented chord structures, re-constructing the bass lines to fit my Devil Tonality (more below). We would shift back and forth between the original Journey bass lines, and the modified Devil versions, resulting in new chord progressions and melodic material. Jamming on different feels, tempos changes, cadences, articulations, dynamics, and exploring variations based on the energy of the moment.

Nick also put impletments on his drum kit so we could record the groove from Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” (also mentioned in the script for a very pivotal moment), but have an industrial, distorted, and literally augmented sort of feel to the drums. Here’s the instrumental version of that remake, with me layering bass, cello, piano, and pipa lute parts on top (plus the bonus demonic version of Taylor singing remix too…)

We also spent time recording new original tunes that explored the devil tonality through a couple of different rock styles: a slow Elliott Smith distorted strummer, a dusty Desert Rock style featuring reverse pipa, some Drum’n Bass industrial glitches, in your face Punk 16th notes, and an open descending bass line with augmented swirlies into hell, you get the picture. Here are a few examples to check out:

Pipa Desert Rock mega mix in 4 parts

Elliott Smith Style, Slow Strum Distorted Version

Long Descending Augmented Devil Line Rock

16th Note Nasty Bass Chuggalug

Moody Dark Tom Exploration

Huge Thanks to Nick Lang for his amazing contributions to this show!!

Set by Alex Polzin, Larry Mohr Photography

Devil Tonality concept (augmented vs diminished)

I started diving into Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ for note combos & chord progressions we could use. But I knew it would take some work to shift it towards a devilish soundscape or tonality. After some exploration I ended up playing Augmented chords for each chord of the song’s progression – and that is when it started to click for me. Traditionally, in western tonalities, the Devil is represented by the tri-tone. This is a diminished (lowered) 5th. For example, if your perfect 5th is from C to G, and you lowered that G to a Gb (or F#), you would then have a tri-tone, aka a diminished 5th. But as we all know, the Beast is also represented by the number 666. Well… when you stack augmented 5ths (raising the 5th instead of lowering it) on a cello, it sounds enharmonically as a grouping of minor 6ths… meaning that the chord structure is a stack of three minor 6ths, aka 666!! So this augmented chord ended up signifying the Devil for our show, 666 🤘.

Then it came down to which scale would I pair with the augmented chords. You can play a whole tone scale over any augmented chord and it will work. The whole tone scale is 6 notes comprising of all whole steps, or major seconds: 1 2 3 #4 #5/b6 b7 1′ (key of C = C D E F# G#/Ab Bb C). However, this scale tonality did not feel rock enough; sometimes it can sound too ethereal, or mysterious but in a lifted up to the sky sort of way. We needed something dirty and coming down from below. So I focused on a different type of augmented scale, still with 6 notes, but comprising of alternating 1/2 steps and minor 3rds: 1 b3 3 5 b6 7 1′ (key of C = C Eb E G Ab B C) . This version of a 6 note scale (666 🤘😛) unlocked everything I needed to Rock. All half steps and minor thirds just keeps lending itself to nasty patterns. So I spent some time recording ideas and parts on pipa and bass guitar in this scale; using rhythm, tempo, and rock feel inspirations from the Journey song, before coming to jam with Nick. Once we were together for the recording session, everything fell into place and it was a blast to jam out in this world. You can see from my notes here some of the tonal ideas and chord progressions that I was exploring (in the key of E)

The Jukebox!

A vintage Wurlitzer jukebox with a green glow, featuring a selection of song buttons and a decorative panel, located in a rustic setting.

In the script there is mention of a Jukebox in the bar. Hayley, our Props Master, was able to track down this fantastic vintage Wurlitzer jukebox for our show! (It’s got full stereo music y’all!) When we originally opened up the back panel to look at the insides, it reminded me of the original atomic bombs. A little brother to fat boy, the next machinery in line at the Manhattan project. After assessing the electronics on board (which did conveniently have an RCA input!) we decided to just gut all of the innards and hot-rod the wiring directly to the speakers. Better to pump in signal from a head amp and control that rather than try to rely on this old technology for the run of the show… if we could even get it working in the first place! And guess what, it sounds fantastic! I had a 9 speaker surround design going, but we specifically used the Jukebox on it’s own for 2 specific transition cues in the play. One of those transitions was a big highlight for me, I love how it played. Doug’s character goes over to the jukebox, punches a chunky button and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” starts playing. The Jukebox it also is utilized as part of the speaker mix in the unsettling devil soundscape, specifically for all of the reverse pipa undulating in unsettling queasy dissonance, whenever the demon is present.

A couple stands together in a dimly lit bar, celebrating or performing in front of a glowing jukebox. The setting features neon beer signs and a wall decorated with photos of past trivia night champions, creating a lively and colorful atmosphere.
Larry Mohr Photography

Fri 6/2 | BlueStem Jazz presents Brennan Connors & Stray Passage at Garver Feed Mill Patio

Posted on by
Reply

GARVER FEED MILL PATIO 
FRIDAY  JUNE 2  7pm  $15 
TICKETS

Bluestem Jazz Presents
BRENNAN CONNORS & STRAY PASSAGE   
BRENNAN CONNORS – sax
BRIAN GRIMM – bass/cello/guqin + pedalboard
GEOFF BRADY – drums/theremin/electronics



Brennan Connors & Stray Passage maintained a regular presence in Madison as an improvising/experimental jazz unit for over a decade. Their album “Emergence” was released in 2017 via the Italian record label Setola Di Maiale.  Saxophonist and leader Brennan Connors has been delving further into his own musical and compositional concepts. Brian Grimm (bass guitar and electric cello) has been composing scores and sounds scapes for live theatre in Chicago, Indianapolis, and throughout Wisconsin for the past 2 years as Geoff Brady (drums, theremin, and electronics) maintains his presence as one of the top percussionists in Madison. “All three members weave in and out of freely tumultuous passages and desolate spaciousness, achieving a collective, convincing direction that challenges the listener’s understanding of the passing of time in live composition” (Emili Earhart, Tone Madison). Always listening deeply to one another and the audience in the room, the trio connects directly to the listener with sensitivity, a wide dynamic range, and deep emotional engagement. Don’t miss the rare chance to see this trio live and in full swing!

Live from Cafe Code in 2021

BlueStem Jazz is a non-profit venture dedicated to presenting progressive, avant-garde, experimental jazz in Madison WI.

Be sure to check out their website to see their many upcoming events! BlueStem Jazz has been working incredibly hard to book as much high quality Jazz and Improvised music as possible in Madison, WI. Including supporting both local and touring talents.

Garver Feed Mill

(from their website)
Located on Madison’s near East Side, nestled behind Olbrich Gardens, the award-winning Garver Feed Mill® is a multi-faceted destination that features local artisans, producers, wellness studios, and retailers offering visitors everything from coffee to ice cream, catering to kombucha.

The renovated Feed Mill honors and preserves Madison’s rich agricultural and industrial history by re-activating the building as a next-generation food production center and provide visitors with the opportunity to taste the best of Madison. The historic Mill has been transformed into a platform for local food businesses to grow, and in turn, expand Madison’s profile as a Midwestern hub of high quality, hand crafted food and drink.

Private and public events in our indoor and outdoor event spaces keep Garver bustling throughout the year, bringing people from near and far to “the Soul of Madison” – the vibrant East Side of the City. In winter months, Garver is home to the Dane County Farmers Market, the largest producer only farmers market in the nation.

Health and wellness enthusiasts looking to connect with themselves, each other, and the world around them will also find community at Garver Feed Mill through a variety of spiritual and physical wellness offerings from yoga and meditation classes to aromatherapy and spa retreats.

Garver is a foodie and wellness destination for locals and out-of-towners alike, benefiting from the close proximity and future programming with Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Olbrich Park.

Episode XXI: Return of the Five Points!

Posted on by
Reply

Tuesday, 7/6/21 8-11pm No Cover @ the Mason Lounge!
416 S. Park St.

On the left side you can see the Five Points set from our last Tuesday night hit at the Mason on 03/10/2020, before the Covid shutdown happened. On the right side, you can see our set list for 07/06/2021 – the first set we’ll play since the pandemic hit! That squiggling green line down the center of the page represents the last 16 months…. Crazy!

Wow!! After playing bass with the Five Points Jazz Collective at the Mason Lounge every Tuesday for 7 years, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and shut everything down. Hard stop. It was one of the many bizarre experiences resulting from the global pandemic that all musicians had their upcoming gigs cancelled immediately. What a shock and unfamiliar place to find our whole community and then of course we felt it in our pocket books for all of 2020, and now half of 2021. This is the least I’ve performed in a long, long, long, long time. Not only did all of that income straight up disappear, but many of us who teach music as well as perform, &/or hold down multiple part time jobs DID NOT qualify for the new “pandemic gig worker unemployment insurance” (which seems like a huge crack to fall in as a professional musician…). But, more importantly, we didn’t get to hang out with all of our bandmates in rehearsals or on stage for over a year… what a drag!

We’re all very aware of the times we live in, so let’s get on to the good news…. the Five Points Jazz Collective is BACK baby, and we’ll be the first group playing live-music at our most beloved craft brew bar, the Mason Lounge! We’ll be bringing you a classic 5 Points set on Tuesday, 7/6/21, filled with Jazz, Funk, Blues and Originals. And for the record, we plan to write a whole bunch more originals moving forward, which I know you’re excited to hear. Come on, just think of Kyle’s tune “Start Somewhere” or Trey’s originals “Unspiration”, and “After Close” – you know you want to hear more of those jibbiddy-jamz. Plus you better believe that I’ve got a few tunes for the 5PJC up my sleeve. There Will Be Funk.

THE CHANGES

  1. TIME
    First thing for all of you regulars to note is that our time has changed, we are bumping the whole show an hour earlier! From now on, we’ll be playing from 8-11pm. A lot of people have been requesting this change, even some of the bandmembers! So come down a little earlier and enjoy local Jazz for a little longer before you head home. We’re pretty excited about this earlier time slot, and we hope it means that we can see more of more of you at the Mason. 😉❤

  2. EVERY TUESDAY?
    Speaking of time and timing… “are we going back to our EVERY Tuesday of the year schedule???” NO. We will not be playing every Tuesday. We’ve talked with the owner, and he’s got some new, cool plans for the music at the Mason. Five Points will play something closer to once a month. However, that probably won’t always be at the Mason, we are looking to branch out and play other spots too. We’d love to hear suggestions from you, what’s a great place you love to see Jazz and Funky music where you think the Five Points would fit in? Leave a comment or contact us and let us know about cool venues we should check out! There will still be themed music nights at the Mason, for instance Jazz night on Tuesday and Bluegrass night on Thursday… however, it won’t be the same house-band playing each week. Which is cool for you, because that means there will be more variety of music for you to check out! Speaking of the owner….

  3. OWNERSHIP
    Right around when the pandemic hit, the ownership of the Mason changed hands. Many of you regulars got to know Bryan, the tall and good natured bartender serving up delicious beers, but maybe you didn’t realize that baseball cap wearin’ son-of-a-gun was the owner! Now the Mason Lounge is in the hands of Matt, also a baseball cap wearer… but with glasses & beard, so don’t get them confused. Matt has been tending bar at the Mason for years and we know that the joint will be in good hands. The Five Points crew went down to visit, and we can confirm that it still looks and feels like the Mason. Matt has kept up the vibe very well! We wish Matt all of the best luck as he takes the Mason into it’s next chapter!

    We’ve got nothing but love for Bryan (even though he spells it with a “y”), he really took care of us and became our friend. One of my favorite things about Tuesdays was when he would come over to the band to ask if anyone needed a drink. I would simply describe how I was feeling, or give him an abstract prompt. He’d scratch his chin, give it a ponder, then say “yea… I think I’ve got something for that…” Then he’d come back with a beer that perfectly interpreted my mood, fancy and indulgence. A sport for the challenge and never did he disappoint. Thanks for all of the Thanksgiving wines and Christmas socks Bryan; and for being an all around upstanding dude. We will all miss seeing you when we play at the Mason, but hopefully you will stop by sometime when we are playing… for old times sake.

  4. LEADERSHIP / LINE UP:
    Speaking of changes in ownership, or leadership in this case… Charlie Painter, our long time fearless bandleader and friend, has officially decided to step down from his roll as bandleader and also to step away from his roll as guitarist for the Five Points Jazz Collective. Charlie decided he really wants to focus on his Charlie Painter Jazz Trio and put his creative energy there. Charlie’s trio has been active around Madison, even in spite of the pandemic. So go check him out at one of his trio gigs and continue to support his music! Charlie is the one who put the band together in the first place and held down the Tuesday night slot at the Mason for an entire DECADE! Can you believe that, that is a lot of Tuesdays. Charlie came up with our setlists, directed the vision of our arrangements, sorted out who would be soloing and when, took care of the money management and booking duties. That’s a lot of work! Not only that but he showed up each week with the whole 2+ hour set memorized and played his heart out. I don’t think I ever heard Charlie be ‘lazy’ up there on stage, he never gave you any half-assed Jazz. Charlie came to play his best each week and approached the bandstand with respect. And he’s been making good use of this pandemic, studying new courses in Jazz Theory from some cats in New York, so you know he’s going to keep learning and ripping. Go see his trio and hear what he’s up to!

    Charlie, we love ya buddy and wish you the best on your new Jazz journeys. Thanks for bringing Trey (piano), Rin (violin), Kyle (trombone), Eric (drums) and myself (bass) together to form the Five Points Jazz Collective (we’ll be keeping the name). We’ll miss playing with you and appreciate all of the work you put in for this group and for the Mason Lounge the past 10 years! 🎶🎵🎼♥♥♥♥

  5. FRANKENCELLO
    Lastly (I think…), speaking of line up changes, I’ll still be playing fretless bass and fretted bass for the Five Points; but in an exciting turn of events, I’m adding Frankencello to my quiver on stage (*applause and cheers*)!! For those of you who don’t know… #Frankencello is my homemade electric cello that I normally play with Madison Free Jazz Trio Brennan Connors & Stray Passage, and with psychedelic Jazz Rock Sextet Lovely Socialite, and solo as BC Grimm. However, now it is slinked up with traditional gut strings and it sounds freakin’ fantastic. It’s almost unbelievable how much more natural and cello-like it sounds with gut strings on an electric cello, rather than steel. More warmth, more resonance, more bass, and of course more girth. I’m excited for it to open up some new sonic possibilities for the band. As an example, we’ll now have two bowed string instruments in our group, and there’s been some discussion of other instruments sneaking on stage as well….

That’s all for now, just wanted to give you all the inside scoop on this juicy gossip, straight from the source. We hope to see some of your shining faces at the Mason next week! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

“In the Practice Room” Bass Guitar No.1!

Posted on by
Reply

Replacement + Position Shift Fingering Exercise on Root 4th 5th in each position

This fall I switched back to standard 4ths tuning on my bass guitars. I had been playing bass guitar tuned in 5ths (an octave lower than cello) for the last 7 years!! So it’s been a totally mind bender to relearn the fretboard in 4ths. 🤪 Transitioning back really makes me appreciate all of the great things about a 4ths tuning system. Truth be told, I hadn’t been practicing bass much in the past 5 or so years, I’ve mostly been focused in on cello. But! Changing my tuning back to 4ths is forcing me to practice 😁 So! Every time I practice, I create multiple exercises and then work on it until I have it in the hands. Sometimes it is hyper focused on a certain technique or theory, but other times it is free spirited. This one came out of pure improvisation, and it is a finger twister! The concept is to play Root 5th 4th in the hand (ex 1 3 1) then Root 5th 4th again but as a 1×2 extension where 2nd finger replaces 3 (or stays put if already extended) in order to shift up a position to play the 4th on the lower string with your 4th finger (1×2 / 4). Then you are a up in the next position and can start the climbing cycle all over again! The key to this exercise is to lift 1st finger off the board when you are on 2nd finger and about to shift up, leading with the 4th finger. Good Luck!

You can purchase the sheet music for this exercise above and hear my play through the exercise (1) slow and staccato and (2) trying it out a little faster in the Instagram post below!

#bassguitar #etude #bassguitarexercises #bassguitarlesson #musiclessons #musicexercise #fingeringexercise #inthepracticeroom #briangrimmcellozone #cellozone #briangrimm #remoteteaching #remotelessons