Thursday: I left home at 8:45 AM for a rehearsal for my Saturday Schooner gig. There was lots of traffic!
I was set up shortly after 10 AM. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the band rolled in between 10:30 and 11 AM. Boo. This was mostly a vocal rehearsal because the usual front man (Ganesh) is out of town for the weekend. Vanessa is filling in for him on my gig (Greg Lee is subbing for him on Sunday). They spent most of the time ironing out harmonies and making sure Vanessa knew the songs she was supposed to have learned.
As far as my parts went, Eric Frampton (the opposing keyboardist) was impessed, and that was good enough for me.
From there, I moved a few blocks over and loaded into the 10 High for the Yacht Rock gig that night. I got everything set up and ate lunch, and then drove to Buckhead for a jazz duo gig.
Tyrone Jackson and I played an open house for a law firm at their new offices. Nice place! They ended up jamming us in a corner, and people were pressed up against us, drinking and showing off their wives. Loud, they were, so much so that I didn't bother recording most of the gig. Here's what I did take:
Lots of bluriness in the tune memory department!
Here's some pics from the law offices:
Cake!
From there I moved back to the 10 High where we celebrated the Great Mark Bencuya's birthday by playing our usual gig...not much of a party! It was fun. The first set was really good. Then we went on break and drank...I think Jen (our bartender) is trying to kill us with huge shots. Somewhere in the middle of the second set, we were all completely obliterated, and the gig became a silly mess. When it (mercifully) ended I was fairly sober, but then I was totally exhausted. I managed to get everything back in the truck and get home. Sleep! I got home around 2 AM.
Here are some pics. Let the Mark Dannells Love Fest begin!
Friday: Friday started with me learning a tune for that night--Heart Hotels by Dan Fogelberg. The studio recording has piano, rhodes, strings, and a lyricon solo played by Tom Scott. I accidentally discovered a live version that had the one and only Michael Brecker playing the string part and the solo on tenor. Sweet! I was totally into that.
I worked on that for a little bit, gathered my clothes, and headed to the Park Tavern for our last Summer Series gig (Yacht Rock)--Mustache Rock! After setting up, we did a photo shoot for some new promotional stuff. Here's a cool sampling from our Beatles suits, courtesy of Mark Cobb's iPhone.
I'm wondering why Bencuya and I are standing behind the tall guys.
We soundchecked Heart Hotels. It went pretty well. I'm trying to record myself more these days because I tend to tense up when I know it might be analyzed. Here's a couple of short videos of the first and second solos:
Stop looking at Renee's ass. You're supposed to focus on the saxophone.
Bencuya asked me to pick up the piano part to help fill it out, and I learned it at the gig--a major accomplishment! Going into it, I was pumped about being Michael Brecker, but after that, I was more into trying to nail down the piano part for Bencuya. I think I did! Hopefully he heard it.
A video of the surroundings!
How about some pics:
The Main Street Exiles opened for Yacht Rock--for me, a set of mostly tambourine, plus the solo on Miss You and the sax part on Honky Tonk Women...pretty easy stuff.
The Yacht Rock set was pretty good. The crowd was significantly smaller than the past few--I don't think it sold out. I played pretty well. The only brain fart I was in not being able to remember the horn part to I Want a New Drug. It comes around three times, though, so the first time was not so good, second time was ok, and the third time I got it. I played the whole gig thinking about how I was doing on the recording--Bencuya always records the Park Tavern shows--only to hear afterwards that it was not recorded! Good and bad. Take my word for it--I played pretty well.
So that was that. Today's the big keyboard day with the Schooner. I'll be glad when it's over. My head is swimming with questions like "Is it F/Bb, or Bb/F?", and my fingertips hurt just thinking about it.
Oh well--it's happening...let's see what I can do!
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