Gigs: One Trick Pony Tonight; Seasonal Grille Tomorrow

A quick reminder to my West Michigan friends that I’m playing with Francesca Amari and band tonight and tomorrow night.

Tonight’s gig is from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. at One Trick Pony in downtown Grand Rapids. If you’re from around here, you know where it is.

Tomorrow’s gig runs from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Seasonal Grille in Hastings, right across from the courthouse square. Address is 152 West State Street.

Besides Francesca and me, the lineup consists of Dave DeVos on bass, Bobby Thompson on drums, Wright McCargar on keyboards tonight at the Pony, and Mark Kahny on keys tomorrow night at the Grille.

You can count on good food and a good time. Make it if you can.

November 3, 2011 by
Filed Under: Band, Entertainment, Event, Michigan, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , , ,

Gig Alert! November 4 with Francesca Amari at Seasonal Grill

The Seasonal Grille in downtown Hastings, Michigan, is a great place to eat, and if you’re a musician, also a great place to play. I’ve done several gigs there over the past year, and from the start I’ve appreciated the owner, Justin Straube, and his crew as people who genuinely enjoy the music, and who treat musicians well. Perhaps that has something to do with a mutual respect among artists, because the fare that Justin serves up is just that: culinary art. I continue to be amazed that food as superb as what you’ll find at the Seasonal Grille comes at such an affordable price.

But enough of my touting the Grille. Let me switch to talking up my friend Francesca Amari. I met her on a big band gig four or five years ago, and we’ve played together ever since as opportunity has presented itself. Francesca is more than a great vocalist and gifted national cabaret artist: she is also an engaging, well-loved performer who projects a wit and sweetness that are totally authentic. In a word, she shines. She loves her audience, her audience loves her, and as a bandmate, she’s just plain fun to work with.

So you see, you have lots of incentive to come hear Francesca and the band, including moi, at the Seasonal Grille two weeks from now on Friday, November 4. We’ll be there with a full rhythm section consisting of Dave DeVos on bass, Bobby Thompson on drums, and Mark Kahny playing keyboards. This is a more ambitious date for the Grille than the piano–sax duos that I normally do there. I’m pleased that Justin was open to my suggestion to bring in Francesca, who will be visiting Grand Rapids that week. This event will be something more than background music for diners, so I hope you’ll come join us. If you enjoy live jazz and show tunes, I can guarantee you a great evening.

Here are all the details in one compact call-out:

Francesca Amari and Friends

Place: The Seasonal Grille

Date & Time: Friday, November 4, from 6:00–9:00 p.m.

Phone: (269) 948-9222

Address: 152 West State Street, Hastings, MI (right across from the courthouse square)

The band will also be playing the previous evening, Thursday, November 3, at One Trick Pony in Grand Rapids. Downbeat for that gig is 8:00 p.m., and Wright McCargar will be filling the keyboard chair. That will be another fun night, so if you can’t make one, then make the other.

See you in two weeks!

October 21, 2011 by
Filed Under: Band, Entertainment, Event, Jazz, Michigan, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , , ,

What a Blast! Playing Sax with Francesca at the Grand Rapids Festival

What fun it was to play with Francesca Amari this afternoon at the 2009 Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts! And how nice to finally NOT get rained and hailed out. High clouds moved in, thickened and threatened and lenta somewhat somber feeling, but never produced so much as a solitary raindrop.

We played at the main stage by the massive, bright orange Alexander Calder stabile, “La Grande Vitesse,” which is the massive and graceful icon of Grand Rapids. Our 45-minute set included tunes from Francesca’s DVD Better Days, plus jazz standards such as “Fly Me to the Moon” and my own feature tune, “My Funny Valentine.” Our bass player, Dave DeVos, had another gig at the festival and was much missed. But Wright McCargar did a stellar job filling in the bottom end, a job no keyboard player relishes because of the limitations it imposes, but which serves when there’s no bassist.

I was pleased to see my mother and sister, Diane,  out there in the audience. It’s such a blessing to have their support.

So…now the festival is behind me, and I’m preparing myself to head for Nebraska in pursuit of storms. Looks like fellow Michigan storm chaser Mike Kovalchick will be joining me. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us. Sometime tomorrow, we’ll hook up Bill, Tom, Kurt, and a friend of Bill’s. The last time I chased was May 13. I am ready and raring, and I hope the weather roars. The SPC shows a 30 percent area in tomorrow’s outlook, mostly in Iowa.  The 18Z NAM suggests a more western play, but maybe that’ll change.

Right now, storms look like they may have initiated northwest of Des Moines, but what I’m seeing doesn’t look like much–yet. I’m about ready to reboot GR3 and take another look. The guys drove all night to make the play today. I hope they score big. But I have an idea that tomorrow is going to be the main act. And then there’s Monday. I’ll be really curious to see whether the Great Lakes gets the kind of weather the NAM has been suggesting.

June 6, 2009 by
Filed Under: Entertainment, Jazz, Music, Saxophone, Storm Chasing, Weather Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Francesca and Friends at Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts

Next weekend the annual Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts will draw several hundred thousand people from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. The festival, now over thirty years old, is one of West Michigan’s most popular springtime events–an amalgam of literature, art, dance, music, and ethnic food, with the operative word being variety.

On Saturday, June 6, I will be playing sax with Francesca and Friends on the Calder Stage from 3:15 to 4:00 p.m. If you follow this blog, then you’re familiar with Francesca Amari. She’s a stellar performer who covers the spectrum from jazz standards to pop to show tunes, and a lovely friend. It’s always a pleasure and privilege to share the stage with her as a side man, and it will be very cool to have the band featured on the festival’s main stage.

Obviously, I want to be in prime playing shape. I hope to spend some serious time this week practicing my horn after having been away from it for several weeks. A truly nasty bronchitis put me out of commission, and I’m still suffering from an irritating dry cough that feels as if a little gremlin were sitting inside me, tickling my lungs with a feather. The doc finally prescribed an inhaler for me Thursday to help me get past this thing, and I’ve spent some time getting reacquainted with my saxophone. Feels so good!

While time away from the woodshed unquestionably has a deleterious effect on one’s technique, I’ve found that it often frees up creativity. I don’t know why this is–I just know that it’s not a bad thing to take a break from my horn every now and then. I lose something, but I also gain something. And I’m not the only musician who has experienced this phenomenon.

Anyway, I’m back to my patterns, scales, licks, and interval studies. It’s nice to hit them afresh. What’s already there comes back quickly, and it has the advantage of feeling new.

But about the festival. Come on out and get an earful of Francesca and Friends, not to mention the many other sights, sounds, and savory tastes of Festival 2009. It’s a great way to spend a June afternoon in West Michigan.

May 31, 2009 by
Filed Under: Band, Entertainment, Event, Jazz, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jazz and Storm Chasing: Facing the Trade-Offs

And so it begins in earnest. The 2009 Tornado Alley storm chasing season, that is. Me droogs Bill and Tom left today to chase this weekend’s opening action in Iowa, en route to the main play in the Oklahoma/Texas panhandle region. I couldn’t join them as I’ve got a couple of commitments, including a gig with Francesca Amari tomorrow night plus a search for new living accommodations.

Today’s setup out in Iowa was such that I did’t feel too much like I was missing out on something. The storms have turned out to be massive hail producers (LSR from five miles southwest of Greene: “All hail…very little rain falling”), but not a single tornado report have I seen, not in Iowa, not in Wisconsin, not in the entire CONUS.

Tomorrow and Sunday look to be a different matter, though, and I wish like anything I could be out there with the guys watching tubes drop. But as I’ve said, I’ve got commitments.

It’s funny how my two great passions–playing jazz and chasing storms–can conflict. But that’s how it is. You can’t chase storms when you’re on a gig, though ironically, sometimes the storms have come along and canceled the gig. Three years in a row, I got hailed out at the annual Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. It doesn’t seem to matter who I’m playing with. I’m a freeking hail magnet, and in June or July, you book me for an outdoor event at your peril.

This year, I’ve actually adopted a policy of not accepting any gigs during the peak storm chasing months of May and June. That’s the time of year when the storm chaser in me outweighs the jazz musician. Tornado weather is seasonal in a way that jazz isn’t. Once those mid-levels heat up and the steep lapse rates of spring give way to summertime’s Cap of Doom, that’s all she wrote. I don’t have the time or money to chase the Canadian prairies. So I’ve got to grab my storm action when it’s prime time. This year, I hope to spend ten days or so in mid to late May out in Tornado Alley. I am looking forward to it so much I can practically taste it!

Meanwhile, Bill and Tom are out there headed for Oklahoma without me. Sniff! Ah, well. I hope those dirty dogs get skunked. No, wait…what I mean is, I hope my buddies see some really great tornadoes and get all kinds of cool footage that they can show me when they get back, causing me to grin in maniacal delight while dying inside.

Okay, let’s try that one more time. The compensation for not chasing is getting to do a gig at One Trick Pony in downtown Grand Rapids with Francesca, Dave, Wright, and Tommie–some truly fine musicians whom I absolutely love to play with. A Saturday night spent playing my sax is a Saturday night well spent, and I can’t wait to hit the stage with Francesca and Friends. If you happen to be in the vicinity, please drop on down to the Pony and give us a listen. You’ll like what you hear. The show starts at 8:00 and continues till 11:00.  Hope to see you there!

April 24, 2009 by
Filed Under: Jazz, Life, Music, Saxophone, Storm Chasing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,