I played a trio gig last night in front of the usual Yacht Rock. The gig was a private reception for the Penn State College School of Nursing Alumni (or something like that). The trio consisted of Tommy Sauter on bass and David Ellington on piano (subbing for the injured Louis Heriveaux).
We were a little rough, in my estimation. Ellington made a comment about Chick Corea, and we launched into all the Chick tunes I had with me. Pretty brutal. We also tried Strode Rode (which looks so simple on paper, but frustrated me) and Work (which I used to know, but evidently not as much now). To top it off, the reed I started on felt like it was warped, so I bailed on it and switched to a reed that felt like a 2x4.
I moved over to the 10 High for Yacht Rock. We played a few of our usual tunes, and then reprised Thriller for the people who didn't get to hear us play it on Halloween. I'm not sure how it went. I stand in a back corner of the stage and only hear clearly Mark Bencuya (keyboard 1), Mark Cobb (drums), Greg Lee (bass), and myself. I can hear the vocals ok, and I can hear trace amounts of guitar and keyboard 2. I thought we were doing ok, but I heard comments from other band members that it did not go well. I know that I personally played a lot better for this show than I did on Halloween. Last Saturday I was so burned out by the time we got on stage, my only hope was to get home. The 10 High is much more comfortable to me. That said, it's still pretty intense, similar to recording (and trying not to screw up the end of a good take). The difference is that this take lasts thirty-seven minutes!
We came back from the break and played our usual Yacht Rock stuff. The first couple of songs were sung by Kevin Spencer, who will be subbing with us the next two Thursdays. He sang Africa, Rich Girl, and Reminiscing. Not bad, but his voice is very different from Nick's. Nick has more grit to it; Kevin's voice is more of a clear Broadway kind of thing.
I got off a couple of pretty good solos last night: Lowdown, Reminiscing, I Can't Go For That, and Lady in my Life all felt solid. We'll see if the recording backs me up. Towards the end of the night, we all started screwing around I took a couple of EWI/bari solos. The recordings of that should be interesting.
Last thing...Adam Mewherter has passed away.
He was one of a kind. I met Adam when I started playing around town years ago--we both played some for William Noll. We hung out a little; he played a gig with Platnumb in Dallas, and we hung out for an entire afternoon, just walking around and talking. Adam was an extremely nice guy, and a very good trombonist who played with a lot of personality. We will all miss him dearly.
www.davidfreemanmusic.com
