42nd Street – Tupelo Honey

April 7th, 2008 – 42nd Street Station, Cassidy Holden – Bass, Clifton Hyde – Guitar, Adrian Cunningham – Alto, Jesse Selengut – trumpet / vocals.

A pretty good hit. It was wierd to be down there during the day. I’ve only played in that spot with The Drumadics at night when it is very loud and busy. We still got a good response and all that tile actually made it possible to hear Clifton and Cassidy very well. Singing was nice and loud too and we didn’t have to push too much with the horns. Our biggest hit was “St. Louis Blues” – Slow and dirty, folks dug it.

Adrian Cunningham can play some sax! That guy has mad chops and a great time feel. Sweet guy, too a real joy playing with him.

Tupelo Honey was with Sean Condron on Guitar and Peter Ford on box bass. It was good to be back there. Mike was at the bar pouring me stiff Jack n’ Cokes and Tricia was managing. They treat us real well there and the music was a lot of fun.

Ended the night going over to Banjo Jim’s to play with Gordon Webster (piano). He is filling in for the Cangelosi Cards while they are on a short hiatus. Gavin Fallow was on bass! We haven’t played together since he was in NOIR a few years ago. I had never heard him play anything but modern music. It was great to hear him play standards, swing and old time stuff. Every note of his was poignant warm and heart-felt. He is a great bass player. I appreciate his playing more than ever after last night. It was very fun to play in the hard-bop style a bit last night. I had been listening to one of my idols of the trumpet, Lee Morgan. I did my best to channel his phrasing and intensity.

The last tune of the night was Caravan that Gaspar (on the drums) counted off. It was just stoopid fast. 380 beats per minute or something absurd like that. Dennis Lichtman was on clarinet and he impaled himself on the tempo. I did my best not going past quarter notes. Gordon was just nuts about it. He also has mega-fingers. Big-ups to Gavin for plowing through all that and also to Gaspar who maintained that tempo throughout. It was hot. It is really really fun to come in again with the out head after a drum solo at that tempo. The band just nailed the entrance. It made me proud!!

Also, some great dancers were there. One guy, (sorry dude, I don’t remember your name) was reputed to be one of the best dancers in the US. He was fabulous. He made the girls look great and he made the music sound better! He had so much grace and such caring in his moves you could tell the girls found him wonderful to dance with. They all would just give him moon eyes knowing that all they had to do was stay connected with him and they would have a great time being led about.

Note: At one point Gordon had a dyslexic speech impediment introduced me on the mic as “Jelly Sessingood”