Thursday: I had the opportunity to once again play with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra (under the leadership of Rob Opitz) at Venkman's. This month, I was back in the bari sax/bass clarinet chair. How many gigs have I played in this band? Eight? Ten? This one was, by far, the most comfortable. I've now played the charts enough that it only took a couple of times to bring each tune up to speed. On the bandstand, I felt very confident, and while my playing wasn't quite flawless, I was really pleased with my performance.
Friday: Beatles gig! A few years ago, Yacht Rock was playing a Beatles show around once a month; these days, it's two or three times a year. This evening's show was all of Abbey Road, plus seven or eight other Beatle songs. Things were a little loose, a little rusty maybe, but we had a good time.
Video of the show:
Saturday: Back to Yacht Rock. We had a show at a casino in Lake Charles, LA, so we flew to Lafayette in the early afternoon and then took a limo van to the gig.
The travel was the toughest part about it. The rented gear was exceptional, the stage sounded great, and we were only contracted to play from 8:15-9:15 PM! Easy!
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| nice backdrop! |
The crowd was predictably subdued (old, seated, polite, unsure of exactly what they were looking at), but by all accounts, everybody liked us, so it ended up feeling like a corporate show in a hotel ballroom.
Ganesh subbed for Mark Cobb and Scott Sheriff subbed for Mark Bencuya. Both were excellent!
Sunday: The travel home was a pain in the ass. The Lafayette, LA airport is terrible--it's DIY air travel. Do your best to avoid it.