Local Gigs

It’s been a few days since I wrote anything for my blog. Let’s go back to last weekend. On Friday, I performed for a church function with Tommie Bradford on drums and Daniel D’Lucca on bass. We played a bunch of standards and a little bit of gospel. What fun! I hadn’t performed standards with other musicians in a while, as most of my gigs lately are solo piano and voice. Tommie and Daniel were both awesome and I had a great time. After the gig, I drove to Pleasanton to hear my friend Simon perform at a piano bar. Amy, Bruce and I sat and listened to Simon, and then took turns sitting in. Few things bring me more joy than just having fun making music with my friends. No pressure, just singing, playing, encouraging, laughing, emoting, dancing…MUSIC! Just pure joy.

On Saturday night, I performed again at Marcello’s in Danville. It was a busy night! Several of the guests had fun listening and singing along with me, making various requests and being surprised by my ability to span a huge range of musical styles. Thanks to Jane and Bruce for singing with me, and to Dan and his wife for coming to the gig!

On Sunday morning, I subbed for Simon at his church. The music director didn’t have a predetermined set of music he wanted performed, so he just threw out some names of tunes (“Jesus, I’ll Never Forget”, “Hallelujah”, etc.), wondering if I knew them. Having grown up in church, of course I knew the songs, and played them on an instrument that replicated an organ without foot pedals. On a tangent: I need to go ahead and learn to play organ. I’ve been wanting to learn for years, but have yet to set aside the time to make the effort. One day…