Our first hit in Central Park this morning. Not bad. We’re sounding more and more band-like every time we play. Stefan is really working the clarinet like a champ. Tuba Joe brought out little Fiona to the park. She was a calm quiet baby. Delightful.
Our CD went online for sale today at CD Baby so if you like to hear some tracks – or purchase it on line you can do so by clicking on the album cover below:
Some words about Alice that I didn’t get to say at our release party: Alice McNulty is my great aunt – my father’s mother’s kid sister. She was a real card and always had a joke. Most of the jokes were pretty dirty. I remember trying to listen from the top of the stairs after I got sent to bed so I could hear what everyone said I was too young for. I didn’t even understand what I did hear but I do remember my uncles and older cousins laughing it up.
Alice drank very dry martinis.
Alice’s version of a very dry martini was a cold of glass of gin. She would just wave the vermouth over the glass! My grandmother would chastise her: “Face it Alice, your just drinking gin.”
Alice was the only person I’ve ever heard about who broke her arm playing tournament level bridge. The story goes that she was leaning back in her chair, yucking it up, probably with a few drinks in her, and she tipped over backwards.
I remember being at one of my cousin’s weddings. She could tell that we were old enough to be sneaking drinks and she wanted to offer advise. She called us over. “About the drinking…” We thought we were in trouble. “… Just don’t mix your drinks. You can get real sick and that’s where hangovers come from.” Later when it was apparent to her that I was considering a life as a musician she warned me about marijuana, “I figure you’re going to try it because that’s what you’ll do. But its not going to make you a better musician. If you don’t have it in you to begin with the dope will not help you. Don’t rely on it. You don’t need it to be great.”
Alice was very formative in my ability to blow smoke rings. I remember us sitting around the card table with Gummy (that’s our name for my grandmother – another story) helping us to learn bridge. She was a grand master player. She could blow the big ones by snapping her jaw just so. The one’s I really liked were the tiny ones. She would take a drag and then make an “0” with her mouth and then tap her cheek lightly with a red polished finger. Forty or fifty little rings would come popping out.
Alice was also quite the singer. “Gypsy Rose Lee”, “Honeysucke Rose” etc… She knew the words to many, many songs. In fact, many times during any conversation something someone said would rub next to the lyrics of some song she knew and she would sing the appropriate verse. The photo on the album cover is Alice at the beach somewhere and the photo inside the jacket is Alice with a magenta dress singing on the microphone at my brother’s bar mitzvah. You’ll have to buy the CD to see that one…