Thursday, December 31, 2015

Blooz

It's a rare treat these days when I get a call for a non-Yacht Rock related gig.  I'm not sure if I've fallen off everybody's radar, or there just aren't as many random gigs to go around, but as another year closes, it feels that I am even more separated from the local music scene.  Then again, maybe I'm pining for a scene that's been dying off for the last ten years--those gigs just aren't there anymore.

So...whatever.  I played with Scott Glazer's Mojo Dojo last night at Blind Willie's.

Before that...washing machine repair!  I noticed that our washing machine was leaking a significant amount of water--maybe a quart?  After troubleshooting it, I discovered that the water pump was the culprit.  With the help of the internet, I was able to fix it myself.  Woohoo!  It cost me about $65 for a new pump.



The finished project.


Back to Scott's thing:  it's a six piece band reading his arrangements from his massive library of charts.  The band for the evening was Justin Powell (trumpet), Scott Glazer (bass/vocals), David Ellington (keyboard), Nick Johnson (guitar), Kermit Walker (drums), and me (sax).  Some adventures were better than others!  Most of the reading was pretty good, though we collectively had some rough landings.  The energy (and volume) remained high, though.  Lots of blues.  I think I played pretty well under the deafening circumstances.


Surprisingly (based on it being a rainy Wednesday night at the end of the year), the room was pretty full, and everybody seemed to enjoy our playing.  Scott did a great job of managing the crowd's requests.  We finally finished around 12:30 AM, when the bartender started kicking everybody out (us included).


In between sets, I took a walk down the street (mostly to escape the cigarette smoke at Blind Willie's).  There was live band karaoke at the 10 High tonight, according to the doorman.  I didn't bother to explain that I'd spent plenty of time down there with Yacht Rock and didn't plan to ever return.

Come to think of it, I played a jazz gig down there (with Scott on bass!) back when it was just the basement of the Dark Horse, late 90s...