Pete’s Candy Store – Week #5

Some things work and some things don’t. Let’s get to the stuff that didn’t work first.

The Recording was kind of a disaster this week. I must have set it up improperly cause almost every song clipped out in a real ugly way. The song of the week this week, see below, is by default as it was our softest tune and the only one that was red-lining it almost the whole way through.

The Theme of the Week was “slow / fast” and it turned out to be fun but ultimately untenable as a way to make a whole set of music. After about three tunes in we knew that doing another real real slow one or a complete barn burner was contrived at best and just plain unmusical at worst. It’s alright, though. We adjusted quickly and dropped the theme to make for a good show.

Luckily, there were way more things that did work at this performance:

I asked Clifton to be the MC for the night. This proved to be an excellent choice. Generally, I’m the guy that addresses the crowd and welcomes people and talks about the tip bucket and announces the songs and all that, but on Monday I wanted a change of pace and asked Clifton to do it. He was great!! He got the audience involved right away and was funny and warm and silly and creative in that role. The other good outcome of this is that I let go of my need to “present” the music. Instead, I just felt myself getting more and more naked and vulnerable to the moment and let the audience come to me. I felt I was ok to do that as Clifton was doing such a great job framing it for the crowd. The result was that I played and sang much more adventurously and passionately than I have in a while. It felt great. Ultimately, I’ll need to find a middle ground where I can be present and talking to the crowd and also be present completely to my own expression within the music. One member of the audience commented that it was unusual in a very good and surprising way that the guy addressing the band wasn’t the one singing the songs. It made the whole evening I kind of developing adventure for her. Cool.

Anytime you get the crowd singing and clapping is good thing. The sillier the better. On “Lord, Lord, Lord” a guy started dancing with a broom and we got everyone to sing: “Sweep, sweep, sweep. Gonna sweep my troubles away.” Golden.

Ok, but here’s the real scoop that was super fun. Do you remember watching Obama’s inauguration. There was that moment of music with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman and a wonderful clarinetist. So I thought I saw the clarinetist on stage at Pete’s with the band that was on right before us. He looked like that guy, but I couldn’t imagine someone like that playing singer-songwriter pop at Pete’s Candy Store. So, I just dismissed the idea. After the show he comes up and introduces himself and he’s just got to talk to Stefan about his clarinet playing. Sadly, Stefan had already gone cause it turned out to be him, Anthony McGill. Wild. He was blown away by Tin Pan. Awesome. In fact, two other cats in that band are also in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and they were spell bound by our set. Clifton was able to impress them with his deep knowledge of classical music and we all bonded very quickly.

It was McGill’s first time EVER playing in a club! His first public performance doing anything but classical music. So, we had a lot to talk about. Jeremy Turner, a cellist for the Met and the leader of this band, lives here in my hood and he invited us to come hang out and drink beers in his back yard after the show. And that’s where Clifton and I got to play Summertime with Anthony McGill. He was so excited to be improvising. I love that. Great tone, great technique, great ideas and no concept about phrasing or form. It was so much fun watching him explore the music. If we can, we’re going to get him to come out to Central Park and jam with us out there a bit. All those guys were super friendly, interesting people and it was a wonderful evening.

Back to Pete’s. We have started acquiring regulars there. A few people have come more than once and one guy has been there for almost all of our shows. I love that. The themes are working as he said that he never knew what to expect and that he was looking forward to each new week.

The song of the week as mentioned earlier is “Lazy Bones” which I believe was written by Hoagy Carmichael but I transcribed a version by Skip James. It is one of our slowest recorded tunes. Enjoy:

If you are reading this in syndication you can listen here.