I do miss...
...the hipster sideburns...
I have this old photo:
That's me in the chair, and my drummer Robby Parker, about to clean up a tooth stub to recement a crown that came loose. Dr. Parker, a
magna cum laude graduate of the University of Texas dental school, doesn't need laughing gas - he's more than funny enough without it.
Next, a caricature:
That was when I was the terror of the
Newton PDA system on AOL. Every Monday night, I hosted an "on line" talk show and trivia contest called "Nothin' But Newton". I was on there for about seven years, and for most of those I threw an annual party at Macworld Boston. This sketch was the result of one of those pizza fests.
I gave it all up when Jobs killed the
Newton system, and stopped working for AOL shortly thereafter. Two years ago, I got a $3,000 check from them as settlement for overtime worked but not paid. Sweet!
Then there's this:
The old man and his young thug son. Some people brag about how smart their children are; I like to point out that my son can whup anybody who ever pulled an illegal move on his Dad.
And this:
That's me on a dirty winter day in a New Orleans used music stuff shop, holding a very old Selmer sax. Too pricey for me though - I already had a good alto.
And this:
Me and "my girls", doing our classic version of
Love Shack before a crowd of three thousand or so. I can't sing worth a lick, but anyone with a deep voice and a high embarrassment threshold can manage
Love Shack.
And this:
Playing for a party is usually fun, but this was us playing for a party for about 800 Shell Oil employees who had just been laid off. The mood was somber, to say the least. However, they did have a great carving station with unlimited rare roast beef - I took home three meals worth at the end of the night.
I don't solo that much, but occasionally I will play the baritone solo from the Basie arrangement of
Misty:
I don't play it enough to have it memorized, but I am proud that I manage the
altissimo portions without a hitch.
However, people would usually rather look at photos of the vocalists:
That's our Anissa, just before she left to move to rural Arkansas. A great vocalist, as well as one who really knew how to put on a show.
And finally, another couple of three vocalists:
I used to use that one as a screen saver on my laptop. The two on the ends are eminently forgettable - the one on the left used to spend half the time at gigs chatting up the young guys (and missing her songs in the process), while the one on the right was competent enough but used to spot herself out in the audience and carry on a conversation that resembled a jackdaw cawing at the moon.
The one in the center is the incomparable Grace Hargis. She used to sing for us back in the early 2000s, but has since moved off to Dallas, where she keeps busy doing Star Furniture commercials.
I sat and watched while she walked out on the stage for the first time during a New Year's Eve with seven hundred or so in a crowded ballroom. The sound level dropped from a mass of drunken chatter down to where you could have heard a pin drop as Grace wobbled out in a low-cut champagne-colored number that left little to the imagination.
This picture scarcely does her justice, but it is nice enough.