Your most recent public performance

[CHasR]

go on... what're you up to?
(keep it anonymous if necessary)

Last nite I played a fundraiser for slain cops that was run by a sportscaster. Local sports stars were in attendance & posing for photos (with contributors, I assume?). About 350 in audience, total. Played for a very short time.

But: my gigs are old news, to me-- wanna rather hear 'bout yours!

[SOTSDO]

...the Sounds Of The South Hornline did our second show for a local Blues Brothers revue. We supply the six horns (alto, tenor, baritone, two trumpets and a trombone) plus a good part of the stage equipment, while the venue supplies the rest.

They have been rehearsing this show for almost a year now, and one of the male vocalists still doesn't have either his lines or his lyrics down pat. Very frustrating, and made moreso by the fact that a rehearsal with them entails endless repetitions of each chart from the top, since they (the rhythm folks and most of the vocalists) cannot read music.

Having said all of that, they filled the house, paid those of us who wanted pay, and put on a good show from the theatrical side. We were on point completely, and even supplied our trombone player who does a good job with Minnie The Moocher (complete with white tail coat) to fill out one of the sets.

I always tell people that my impression of the music business is that it is made up of 70% heavy lifting, 5% arguing with other vendors, 20% dealing with personalities, and only 5% actually spent playing.

But,, with this Blues Brothers stuff, the charts are simple as hell (even in the extreme keys that guitar players like to use), the equipment moved is minimal (so little that it could fit in my smart, were it not for the need to bring my lovely wife along for dinner), the setup is easy since we're using their sound system, and they have comfortable chairs to sit in.

I've started fitting our version of it together, and have about two thirds of the tunes down with my on-again, off-again Blue Brother. I've got two places here in town, both of which would love to have access to a well-instrumented Blues Brothers and Rat Pack revue. All we need are the Sinatra charts.

Along those lines, next week I am driving down to Orlando to 1) visit Walt Disney World, eating through their better restaurants and with the two of us riding around in ECVs - the only way for old people in their sixties and seventies to see the place, and 2) pick up the entire music library of a respected arranger.

A group that I am representing purchased the library from his next of kin, and I'm doing the heavy lifting to move it half-way to CO, its ultimate destination. I've got a box trailer that will hold forty filing tub equivalents, plus the back of the car that will hold ten more - hopefully it won't take that many.

I am hoping that he did enough Sinatra, Martin, Darin and Davis charts for six horn to put together a couple of solid sets. We've used the arranger's work in my 5444-4 group, and they are tight and first rate, even if the manuscript is a bit hard to read at times.

[Old Dick]

Later this morning I am off to sing with the Cold Spring (MN) Maennerchor at the Discovery Baptist Church in scenic Sauk Rapids, MN. Who would ever have imagined real Baptists asking a bunch of old white guys, often singing in German, to provide music for their Sunday morning service?

Changing into tux and to bass clarinet, I will be playing in the St. Cloud State University (MN) Wind Ensemble this afternoon at our fall semester concert - "Music Around the World" - with tunes by Gabrieli, Schubert, Holst, Thomson, and Maslanka.

No money exchanges hands at these 'gigs' but the pleasure of performance (along with my social security check) is enough to feed and keep me a generally jolly codger.

[Merlin]

I finished a run of Hairspray last night, playing the Reed 2 book (clarinet, flute, tenor and bari). It's the book that has all of the rockin' tenor solos.

This morning, I'm sitting in a pit for a tech run of Singin' in the Rain on bari/bass clarinet/clarinet/flute.

[Carl H.]

Just finished a guest appearance on clarinet and alto at a local church service to about 900 folks. This afternoon I'll be busy rebuilding the front end of my Durango and tonight I'm playing alto sax, bass, Hammond and synth.

[Groovekiller]

Last night - 10 1/2 hour big band gig with Natalie cole, Don Rickles, plus dance music and dinner music. Started with rehearsal & sound check at 3:30 PM and ended at 1:00 AM at the Fountainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach - Birthday party for the owner, complete with nearly naked dancers and lots of celebrities, Alonzo Mourning for one. I'm still recovering.

[Jacques5646]

Last week, concert of the 12-piece small-big band I'm the 1st tenor of, with guest star Dany Doriz, vibist and Lionel Hampton alumnus ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8KkvNpih38 with his own band ) Hamp with whom he made an extended tour in the 70's. Last tune of our concert was Flying Home, with an arrangement based on Illinois Jacquet's famous impro with yours truly's soloing at the end...a bit nervous when I learned that Doriz toured some years ago with Jacquet himself. Heavy succession to handle; anyway, it worked well and the master seemed satisfied...

[clarnibass]

I have an interesting concert next week. It is part of a festival in one of the country's main central stations (a bus station with a bit of a junkie atmosphere). Many people are playing and about half the time the station will still be operating. especially interesting to play experimental music for all the "regular" people who just go there to shop or go on a bus.

[jbtsax]

I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember the last time I played in public. Guess I need to get out more.

[hakukani]

I played last night with the band in my avatar, the Olliephonic horns. We've been playing a regular gig at the Blue Dragon Musiquarium since June 2008.

There have been personnel changes, and trumpeter Ollie Mitchell is getting a bit frail at 85, so he's just announcing the tunes and not playing anymore.

[Carl H.]

Played guitar for 2 hours this morning at a local coffee shop. It was a guitar quartet and a semi regular gig.

Quiet week for me with the holiday in the middle of it.

[danmcb]

a late night jam session last night at a club in Gent (Belgium where I live).

Excellent rhythm section consisting of a bass and guitar player that have played together for 20 years - two brothers from a musical family (the dad is a fairly well known soprano player locally). The rhythm guitarist particularly had a great style and really swings hard.

There was also an old cat playing trumpet who seems to know every damn tune in the book. I was just on Bb clarinet.

We played (from memory):
There's A Small Hotel
There's No You
Body And Soul
Topsy
Birks Works
Out Of Nowhere
These Foolish Things
All The Things you Are (but in a 6/4 groove - nice!)
Basin St Blues

and a bunch of other stuff. At one point I was sat there waiting for the guys and starting playing the line from "Creole Love call". The trumpet player picked it up and before I knew it - we were off. We also played a version of that blues from Ellington Meets Hawk called "Wanderlust" - just plain nasty.

Real nice to find local guys that play all that stuff and so well. The audience was great too - youngish crowd, and some nice dancers. Generally appreciative and very respectful.

[CHasR]

Oh, well done! fascinating stuff, everyone! Keep 'em comin
..wait....Don Rickles is still alive..?? surely you jest...

back to the mundane for me this week (zzzzzzzzzzz....), funerals, weddings, and a special Bagpipe & Organ 'St Andrew's Day' church service sunday morn. Sadly, no nearly nude dancers.

[SOTSDO]

...I visited Havana in the company of my mother and father. (This was when Fidel was just getting the momentum going that enabled him to overthrow Batista.)

I don't remember too much from the trip, just the following:

• I got to visit the cockpit of the Lockheed Constellation airliner (Pan Am, I think) that delivered us to the place. I don't recall much of the details, but I still have the Junior Pilot wing pin that they gave me.

• I remember with great detail the huge monument on the Malceon, the magnificent drive around the harbor, erected in memory of the "battleship" USS Maine. A limestone column with an eagle on top was impressive, but what got my attention were the two 10" guns from the after turret of the ship and the anchor chain twined around them, all placed atop the two wings of the monument. It started an interest in the Spanish American War that persists to this day.

(By the way, the monument is still there, despite what you read here and there on the internets. It is quite well cared for as well.)

• One evening, when we were returning from dinner at some restaurant or other, we entered the hotel through a back door sort of affair, this due to a driving rainstorm. When we were headed to the front of the hotel to the front desk, we passed by a rear corridor, probably that led to the hotel's posh showroom. And, in that corridor were a bevy of showgirls, who (as far as I could tell, and from what I know of 1950's Cuba (No Castro) these days) were almost completely nude save ornamental head dresses and mule shoes with fluffy feathers on them.

Now, I remember the 10" guns from the Maine quite well - my father even boosted me up so that I could touch them - they were icy cold even on a moderately hot spring day. But, I remember those show girls very, very well, and I didn't even get to lay a paw on them...

[pete]

My last playing gig was approximately 7 years ago. I played alto sax with my wife at a church Christmas production. A lot of your standard Christmas fare, including a somewhat scaled-down version of "Sleigh Ride."

My last singing gig was approximately 5 years ago, at one of the many services at my former church. Nothing big-time or unusual, just a normal service.

I've more-or-less retired from music because of medical issues. I have, somewhat recently, talked with one of my former choir directors and said I'd be happy to assist her in setting up a music department at a new-ish church in the area, but that's dependent upon her getting the job and I wouldn't really be able to do more than one service a week, but I can do a bit of logistics.

[Groovekiller]

..wait....Don Rickles is still alive..?? surely you jest...

Nope. Don's still Rippin' and he tore up the guest of honor to the best of his ability, which is considerable.

[Groovekiller]

back to the mundane for me this week (zzzzzzzzzzz....), funerals, weddings, and a special Bagpipe & Organ 'St Andrew's Day' church service sunday morn. Sadly, no nearly nude dancers.

Not every night is exciting for me. In fact, I'm available for embalmings...

[CHasR]

Not every night is exciting for me. In fact, I'm available for embalmings...

funny you mention that...embalming's become rather a speciality, & good embalmers, always in demand, are indeed the gypsies of the trade. (Hauling a bass sax around is excellent preparation btw)

[Heckelphone]

I performed last with the Ohlone Wind Orchestra (October 2012). They were playing a transcription of Holst's "The Planets", so I sat in on heckelphone (all the bass oboe parts were carried over intact). While I was there, I also covered 2nd oboe, and (on one piece) English horn, the latter two of which I haven't seriously played since grad school (1981). And of course, each of the three horns have different fingerings for some notes (like Bb and C on the staff)... Still, a lot of fun