Hope to see you on March 30, when I will be leading the band at the Black Fox Lounge in Dupont Circle. I’m looking forward to a fun evening of standards, originals, and (I hope) a few surprises. Still putting together the program; watch this space for more info.
I had a great time playing MetroSongs with Jason Mendelson and the Open Doors at Nerd Nite DC on Feb. 11. We covered nine stations in this performance, ending with a very energetic “Mall & Chain (Pentagon City)”.
At the gig, Jason brought out the MetroSongs Vol. 2 CD, “Party Train”. This edition includes my piano playing on track 3: “Ice Skating at the Archives”. Please check out MetroSongs.org for more info on how you can get your very own copy (Vol. 1 is available as well).
Back on the jazz side, I’m back at the Black Fox Lounge in Dupont Circle on Friday the 17th, with vocalist Aaron Myers and the Black Fox Ensemble: yours truly on the piano, Percy White on the bass, and Will Stephens on the drums. We’re fresh from our successful performance at the French Embassy Valentine’s party on Feb. 10, so it should be another fun evening!
Here’s a video of Jason Mendelson and the Open Doors performing as Elvis Costello & the Attractions at the recent Classic Albums 1986 showcase in Takoma Park on Jan. 28. I’m the dude on the right in the black hat.
On Saturday Feb. 11, I’ll be joining Jason Mendelson and the Open Doors to play MetroSongs at Nerd Nite, a celebration of smarts and music at DC9 (9th & U Sts NW in DC). Tickets are $10 for the show, which starts at 6:30 pm. As a former mechanical and software engineer, I feel that I’ll be playing for my people, and am looking forward to the nerdly vibe.
Playing for my people...
In addition to the above, Aaron Myers and the rest of the Black Fox Ensemble are still on track to play at the Soirée Saint-Valentin on Feb. 10 at La Maison Française in the French Embassy in NW DC.
We had a full house at the Electric Maid on Saturday for the Classic Albums 1986 showcase. I was thrilled to join Jason Mendelson and the Open Doors for a re-creation of Elvis Costello’s Blood and Chocolate album. Great work all around by the other musicians on the bill as well.
Jason’s next project is to go back to 1977, a great year for rock and pop albums (and yes, I was there at time to hear some of them). We’re still figuring out which album to take on.
One of the perhaps less-notable albums of that year was Chicago XI. That album did have one big hit, “Baby, What a Big Surprise,” and another number, “Vote for Me,” that strangely echoes what we’re hearing this election year:
I’ll give detroit one year
New cars that run on beer
Or anything except gasolineI’m looking to the sun
More power for everyone
And the cleanest sky that you’ve ever seen
We had a great first show of 2012 last night at the Black Fox Lounge in Dupont Circle, which included a rousing performance of my tribute to DC Metro etiquette “Stand Right”. The response from the audience was very enthusiastic, so I’m hoping that Aaron will make this part of our regular set list.
I didn’t record last night’s performance, but here’s a recording of a previous rendition of this number:
The lead sheet is available on the web site as well, in case you’d like to try out the tune for yourself.
I was thrilled that Aaron Myers agreed to perform my Hanukkah tune in our last gig (Dec. 2) at the Black Fox. Here’s the recording from that show:
Update (Dec. 20): here’s the sheet music for this tune (also on the Original Music page), in case you’d like to learn the tune. Hanukkah sameach! חנוכה שמח!
