Thursday, November 15, 2012

Thoughts about thanksgiving eve 2012...

One of the many reasons I love our Thanksgiving Eve gig is that it gives us a chance to explore the depth and breath of American popular music.  We've got jazz and soul, gospel and folk, rock and roll, funk, country and hymns, too.  But here's another, often unspoken reason I love doing this gig:  it gives the musicians a chance to be totally creative.

Most working musicians - and many of us committed amateurs - find ourselves playing on somebody else's dime:  it may be a local show production, as a part of somebody else's band, following the needs of worship or whatever.  Don't get me wrong, making sweet music is ALWAYS a gas.  But there is something liberating about this gig because in addition to getting every one's input about what they want to do - and backing one another up - we also get to play FOR one another, too.  Let things rip and see where the creativity carries us.  That is one of the reasons why everyone keeps coming back year after year; we've created a little community of affirmation and encouragement among the musicians and it just keeps getting better and better.
And so while some of the audience may only want 60 minutes of tunes, on this special day I say WTF:  we're going until we're worn out.  I've already cut things back to try to bring this bad boy in at 2 hours - but once we start jamming watch out!  (BTW I'm going to try to get some of last year's fun up on YouTube if I can find the DVD.  It was smokin' and this year looks to be even better.)

In a sanitized and healthier way this feels like the clubs Monk and others used to head for after hours:  only people who REALLY love the music would dig it - they played til all hours of the morning - but those who got it got it in spades.  Same is true for this show.  And another sweet benny is that we get to raise money for a good cause, too!  Starting Sunday @ 4 pm we'll do a complete run through and work out all the horn and harmony parts.  On Monday and Tuesday those who can - and want to - will tighten things up for a few hours.

Then it is show time on Wednesday, November 21st @ 7:30 pm!

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