gig 022 - 1st Anniversary House Band #9
1st anniversary gig at Café Pazzazz
where i've played maybe 20-30 times in the past 12 months
and which was just renovated to hold 75 people
(Café Pazzazz is a cozy and friendly bar in the exquistely charming and cool village of Val-David, Quebec, in the Laurentian mountains about an hour north of Montreal, Quebec, where I have been living for the past 20 months. As of this post I have moved to Ottawa.)
it was an all-star cast of first-class musicians
(for example, I learned last night from our pianist Gary that he was the drummer in the house trio at the legendary Rockhead's Paradise in Montreal's Little Bugundy for 6 years (!) in the early 70s, when cats like George Benson were known to stop by and sit in when in town, and where his bandmates were the inestimable, original and angular jazz guitarist Nelson Symonds and his ancient cohort Nick Aldrich on bass. Nick had played with Cab Calloway back in the 30s and was kind of a freak of nature because he could play jazz walking bass while fast asleep, and frequently did so onstage. It was amazing to hear Gary had been so tight with those cats because they were my heroes growing up, and had really turned me on to the jazz life by regularly letting me hang and play with them all nite long when i was just 15 or 16)
HOUSE BAND #9 - Anniversary Edition
Tom Sokolow – drums
David Gauthier - electric guitar
Richard St-Aubin - acoustic guitar
Francis Myrand - electric bass
Gary Lindner - keys
Felix Leroux - percussion
Guy Seguin - tenor sax
me - tenor sax
3 sets
9:30 pm-1 am
100 or so people crammed in
Val-David's usual assortment of fun-loving freaks
much fun
all the tables pushed to the side and everyone dancing
but exhausting
very exhausting after the drive from ottawa
where we moved this week
and especially with all those amplified instruments next to me
(no mic for me - it's brutal to have to blow so damn hard all night long!)
so what with the move to ottawa this may be my last gig in Val-David for a while
in fact i think i'm going to sign off on this gigblog for now
it's been a blast
and maybe now it's ready for publishing...
Totals:
Number of gigs: 22 gigs in about 6 months
Venues: 7 venues in 3 cities – New York (gig 009), Toronto (gig 021), Montreal (gigs 011 and 013)
and 4 towns in the Laurentians - Val-David, Val-Morin (gig 002), Ste-Agathe des Monts (gig 015), Saint-Sauveur (gig 014)
Audiences of more than 1,000: 3 (gigs 017, 015, 008)
Audiences of less than 25: 3 (gigs 002, 009, 021)
Best paycheque: $1,000
Worst paycheque: $0 (twice)
Different bands: 12
Poetry gigs: 5 (gigs 001, 009, 011, 013, 021)
Solo gigs: 2 (gigs 013 and 011)
Gigs recorded: 4 (021, 017, 008, 003
MP3s on this blog: 2 (gigs 017 and 003)
Gigs with risk factor of 9 or higher: 4 (gigs 021, 017, 014, 001)
Gigs with riff factor of 9 or higher (i.e. 100% improvised): 14
----
and for this last entry:
Risk Factor: 5
Riff Factor: 10
Wild Card: living in exile
Cash Factor: 7
Parking Lot: cars parked 3 deep beneath a full harvest moon
Joy: superabundant grooving all around
After gig snack at 2 am: Tim Horton's soup and sandwich combo
where i've played maybe 20-30 times in the past 12 months
and which was just renovated to hold 75 people
(Café Pazzazz is a cozy and friendly bar in the exquistely charming and cool village of Val-David, Quebec, in the Laurentian mountains about an hour north of Montreal, Quebec, where I have been living for the past 20 months. As of this post I have moved to Ottawa.)
it was an all-star cast of first-class musicians
(for example, I learned last night from our pianist Gary that he was the drummer in the house trio at the legendary Rockhead's Paradise in Montreal's Little Bugundy for 6 years (!) in the early 70s, when cats like George Benson were known to stop by and sit in when in town, and where his bandmates were the inestimable, original and angular jazz guitarist Nelson Symonds and his ancient cohort Nick Aldrich on bass. Nick had played with Cab Calloway back in the 30s and was kind of a freak of nature because he could play jazz walking bass while fast asleep, and frequently did so onstage. It was amazing to hear Gary had been so tight with those cats because they were my heroes growing up, and had really turned me on to the jazz life by regularly letting me hang and play with them all nite long when i was just 15 or 16)
HOUSE BAND #9 - Anniversary Edition
Tom Sokolow – drums
David Gauthier - electric guitar
Richard St-Aubin - acoustic guitar
Francis Myrand - electric bass
Gary Lindner - keys
Felix Leroux - percussion
Guy Seguin - tenor sax
me - tenor sax
3 sets
9:30 pm-1 am
100 or so people crammed in
Val-David's usual assortment of fun-loving freaks
much fun
all the tables pushed to the side and everyone dancing
but exhausting
very exhausting after the drive from ottawa
where we moved this week
and especially with all those amplified instruments next to me
(no mic for me - it's brutal to have to blow so damn hard all night long!)
so what with the move to ottawa this may be my last gig in Val-David for a while
in fact i think i'm going to sign off on this gigblog for now
it's been a blast
and maybe now it's ready for publishing...
Totals:
Number of gigs: 22 gigs in about 6 months
Venues: 7 venues in 3 cities – New York (gig 009), Toronto (gig 021), Montreal (gigs 011 and 013)
and 4 towns in the Laurentians - Val-David, Val-Morin (gig 002), Ste-Agathe des Monts (gig 015), Saint-Sauveur (gig 014)
Audiences of more than 1,000: 3 (gigs 017, 015, 008)
Audiences of less than 25: 3 (gigs 002, 009, 021)
Best paycheque: $1,000
Worst paycheque: $0 (twice)
Different bands: 12
Poetry gigs: 5 (gigs 001, 009, 011, 013, 021)
Solo gigs: 2 (gigs 013 and 011)
Gigs recorded: 4 (021, 017, 008, 003
MP3s on this blog: 2 (gigs 017 and 003)
Gigs with risk factor of 9 or higher: 4 (gigs 021, 017, 014, 001)
Gigs with riff factor of 9 or higher (i.e. 100% improvised): 14
----
and for this last entry:
Risk Factor: 5
Riff Factor: 10
Wild Card: living in exile
Cash Factor: 7
Parking Lot: cars parked 3 deep beneath a full harvest moon
Joy: superabundant grooving all around
After gig snack at 2 am: Tim Horton's soup and sandwich combo
posted by John Sobol at 3:30 PM
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