DukeCity

Woo-hoo! Happy Birthday, Jim!!!

Enjoy your visit, Michael. Lots of beautiful scenery in these parts!

No doubt, it's the safe thing to do. Sadly, it likely will correlate with musicians' pay on jazz gigs in clubs going down from $80 to $50. When customers limit themselves to splitting one drink between two people, the bar receipts don't justify spending much on entertainment. Cheers (but not too much)!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Pablo!

Hope your birthday is SWINGIN', Jim!

Since the mid-90s RM has been a member of the band on Jay Leno's show, although I heard that there have recently been changes in the band.

I've always enjoyed that record. RM plays such clear, melodic bop lines. Thanks for posting, Scooby.

When Branford mentioned French last night, I was unaware of who French was. Glad to learn a bit about him; sad to be learning about him after he's already gone.

Pancho spent several years teaching at a college in Oklahoma, and maybe 10 years ago moved to Las Cruces to teach trumpet and jazz at NMSU. AJO is still going. I've been playing in the band since I moved here, and have been leading it for the last couple of years. Bill Wood told me about the Vipers. He retired from UNM a few years ago, and doesn't play much that I know of, but I see him occasionally, and he's still doing some composing.

Garduño's is still here, although the Garduño family had financial problems a few years ago and are no longer the owners. Cooperage is still here. When I moved here in '95 it was pretty much exclusively Salsa bands 2-3 nights a week. Some other styles now, and a fair amount of Salsa DJ stuff. Bob Farley Music closed in '91, and he passed in '04. I still hear folks mention it. Sounds like it was a good shop. Plenty of folks here still living in the last century...

Thanks, everyone! I don't post much here, but I check in almost every day to see the shenanigans. Never a dull moment! Cheers!

Played a benefit concert at a church tonight and performed "Equinox" and "Autumn Serenade" ( from the album with Johnny Hartman). AND at intermission, among the potluck of sweets there was sweet potato pie (Trane's favorite).

The local rehearsal band I play in did a swing dance gig a few weeks ago, playing lots of Fletcher Henderson/Goodman charts, Lunceford, Basie, etc. It was great having a bunch of dancers (in addition to lots of folks sitting and listening), and I think the band grooved a LOT harder than usual, knowing that we were playing for dancers rather than getting all in our own heads "thinking about how to swing."

Mark, at the 3:00 mark we're seeing Sonny unpacking his horn and there's a mirror behind him. That's the "reversed" image. When Sonny stands up, the camera man keeps shooting into the mirror.

Congratulations, Chuck!