Groucho is Alive/ NOLA benefit 2

Had a great 2 hour gig last night for a private event at The FOx. To my delight ,when I walked in I saw Grouch talking to the cigar roller's who were on the balcony. This guy does a great Groucho and we realised that we had met at another function a couple years ago. I played a lot of my Marx Bros. repertoire. Alone, Cosi Cosa, Everyone Says I Love you, Hail Fredonia, Hurray for Capt. Spaulding and the highlight of the night, Groucho singing Lydia The Tattooed Lady. The event was a 30's theme and was a lot of fun.
Next I headed over to the Red Light Cafe to sit in with the great Tommy Dean at Steve and Patty's Hurricane relief jam session. Lot's of fun and got to play again with Tom Fischer who is an amazing clarinet player from NOLA. More money was raised that went directly to the NOLA musician's who are staying in Atlanta.

Rain

As it was John Lennon's birthday, he would have been 65, a couple of his songs made their way into the set this morning and this evening. I sang In My Life at Unity this morning with Bill on piano and me on bass. We also had Janna on drums for I Release and United We satnd and she rocked the house. Later in the service Bill and I did a New Age/Country rendition The song Mindy helped me write last November "Gratitude". Tonight we had a fun couple of set's at The Jazz Forum. Joel was under the weather so Scott Von Ravensberg filled in and did a great job. It's always fun to play with Scott. Bill Hatcher outdid himself on a medley of Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love(been enjoying the Cream reunion dvd), The Beatles(John Lennon) song Rain, Badfinger's Day After Day, and For No One. A Ray Charles medley followed. Scott was Ray Charles drummer for 4 years and it's easy to see why. After a version of one You Can Soar, we invited Terry Vinyard who has stopped by to come up and play, and he came to play indeed, a swinging number followed by Eric"s (the club owner) request for Chick Corea's Spain which closed the night on an up note. Starting in Nov, we will be changing the time of the jam session to 5-8.

Soaring

Played a really fun gig on sat. at The Lake Oconee Jazz and Blues Fest. Vocalist Gwen Hughes put together a super group with Bill Hatcher, Steve Cunningham, Chris Buroughs and myself. We have all played with one another in different groups but not at the same time. Gwen has a real Knack for putting musicians together and it always leads to good music and this one was the best yet for me. It was real inspiring to be in such good company. Gwen asked me to sing one of the songs and I did the Kalinich/Graham composition You Can Soar part 1. It was a great feeling to perform this song which means so much to me. I was really blown away by Steve Cunningham's guitar part which he made up on the spot as he sight read the chart. It's very clear why his name is on most albums recorded in Atlanta.
Bill Hatcher and Chris Burroughs played a Bass and Drums duet that floored me, the band and the audience. Gwen was at the top of her game and it was a great day for all who were there.

I have been enjoying the new Stevie Wonder cd which is available online and will be in stores next week. He's got all of his classic influences and while it has some modern edge, the chord progressions, synth arrangments and production make this his most enjoyable listen since the end of his golden period 1970-1980
Also getting a lot out of the new Paul McCartney, mainly I have been rediscovering the music of Laura Nyro. While known for the many hits she wrote for B,S, and T, The 5th Dimension,Streisand etc. She also made some great albums later in her carreer like Mother's Spiritual, Nested, and Live at The Bottom Line.