Yacht Rock held one last rehearsal to check in with the guys on tomorrow's show with whom we hadn't yet played--those guys being Bill Champlin (formerly of Chicago) and Jeff Carlisi (formerly of .38 Special).
I had nothing to prepare for the .38 Special stuff--there's no saxophone, and barely enough keyboard (if at all) for one guy. It's probably a good thing--the Champlin stuff was kind of a butt kicker.
Right off the bat, we worked on Turn Your Love Around (a tune he cowrote with Jay Graydon and Steve Lukather) down a whole step from the original A minor. I played that for hours yesterday, so I was ready for the album version. Bill threw in some of his own arrangement, including a gospel walk up that scared me to death. He came around to each instrumentalist and showed us really quickly, and I kind of freaked out. You can't tell from this picture, but I am scared to death.
Reaching out to my keyboard, he played it quickly a couple of times and then was like, "Ya got it?" Uhh…no! I was trying to watch his hands, but I could only focus on one at a time, and he played through it and I didn't follow anything after the first chord. On top of that, I was trying to figure out why he was starting with a Eb triad (he then reached down and added a C, so it was Cmin7, which still didn't help) in the key of A minor. After the whole band had played it (after I'd screwed it up with the band), it clicked that he was playing it in G minor--I have my keyboard tuned down a whole step for this song. So then it was a walk up from the four chord. Ah ha! It made much more sense when I could sit down at a piano and think it through. Putting me on the spot completely shut down my brain and ears.
Noticing later the sax strap (for my EWI) around my neck, he asked about taking a sax solo on Turn Your Love Around. Yeah, sure! It also gave me a chance to kind of halfheartedly apologize for not being a good keyboardist.
The other two tunes were not as frightening. You're the Inspiration is mostly strings, and Look Away is mostly pads. No big deal. Hopefully I can contribute something vocally, too.
Following rehearsal, I had just enough time to go home, dump gear, eat lunch, and drive back downtown for another one of those things like I did Wednesday night. Wish I could tell you about it, but I can't.