Gigs? Gigs.

So after sitting in for the Plaid Stallions of 1972 last week I continued to play my ass off. The Chaos Band worked out and we added a couple of new tunes that are just bass/vocal/percussion. (I got a new mount for the woodblock and the cowbell for this!)

The one that really tickled us is Stuck In The Middle With You that I lifted from the Stallions, that lick is just so bouncy and fun to play on the acoustic bass and the Chaos singer already knew and loved the tune. Dancin’ In The Moonlight has potential but it’s harder than it looks to sustain a groove for so long over those simple repeated changes.

(As always, audio is not particularly rehearsed and not particularly well recorded, and is intended as just a notebook sketch of what’s under my fingers right now.)

And I played a serous two straight hours of piano/bass jazz also, sight reading some tunes and revisiting songs I’ve been working on like Raven Speaks and Invitation. I liked Invitation but I told Joseph that I want to play even less on it than I did. I want to subtract some more notes. And we played Wichita Lineman as a jazz instrumental, which tickled me no end.

But wait there’s more… I got a line on some work, someone who told me that in recent times everyone in her band moved away or died(!) and so she’s re-thinking what she wants to do musically, and wants to try an acoustic guitar/upright bass duo to start and maybe add a percussionist later. This was my bread and butter thirty years ago. She sent me a three-set song list of pop/country/americana tunes and I played them all down. It was a lot, but I am playing stronger and stronger all the time. Intonation still needs work but that’s coming along too.

And also! Joseph told me he’s helping out a friend who is auditioning for a regular gig up in Taos, and would I consider playing in a jazz trio of flute/bass/drums. It took me about two seconds to say “yes”. I would LOVE to play in a no-piano-no-guitar quiet jazz trio with a flute, I would SMOKE in a setting like that with good players. I am crossing my fingers it works out…

In the meantime it seems I have a bunch of pop songs to work out, and a bunch more jazz to get under my fingers and into my head.

I was thinking I would wait for Spring to pursue work in any meaningful way but these opportunities are showing up and I can hear myself getting better and stronger every day. Never made my move too soon— I guess this is the time…