My AM church gig was moved from 9:30 to 11 AM, which meant a little extra sleep (it also means I was a little more awake). I guess it's the last Christmas gift I will receive.
There's some temporary shuffling going on at the church--the usual song leader is away due to illness, so the bandleader is filling his role. Sitting in the piano chair this week was none other than John Carrozza. Nice! John's a bad ass musician with a very clear and concise Russell Ferante keyboard style. There's nobody else around here who plays like him. His wife was along to sing a few--she has a really hip Bonnie Raitt kind of voice. Very cool people, and quite an impressive duo.
Anyway, the Carrozzas show up with charts for their stuff and roll through the whole rehearsal without a single mistake. The service was the same thing. Effortless. Inspiring. Totally bad ass.
My PM gig was a bit of a snoozer. We had a couple Christmas carols and a couple more of those tunes that don't really work well with improvisation--uneven chord changes and phrase lengths. I feel like I'm in the way on those tunes, so I tend to sit them out. Not much for me to do. There were reports about some sort of distortion coming out of the speakers, but everything was clear in my headphones. Perhaps the powers that be are messing with the amps and EQ beyond where plug the mixer into the floor. Nothing I fix. So it goes...
