Dancing...
01/26/09 11:57
My wife, Cathy, and I just played a wedding
reception in Salem this last Saturday night. The
groom was my choir director from high school, so
this was indeed and honor for me to participate
in his life this way. He had a great impact on me
in my formative high school years, and I really
looked up to him.
He asked us to play a couple hours of jazz for the reception. This made me a little nervous (I like to tell my friends I know enough about jazz to be dangerous.) So we worked up about three hour of tunes, which we ended up using after all (the party went longer than expected). We had a blast, and you just can't get much better music than some of these old standards by Davis, Porter, Ellington, and the rest.
What made the evening over the top was when a middle-aged couple started dancing to what we were playing. Not just dancing, but real ballroom stuff, moving around the room, between the tables and everything. We chatted with them between songs and had a nice time with them. I don't think I'll ever forget playing Moon River and having them do he European Waltz all OVER the room, dodging tables effortlessly, spinning and swinging between other guests without even touching them. Amazing.
I've had intoxicated people dance to cover tunes when I've played with other bands, but this was different. I realized I want people to celebrate in the music I create, whether I wrote it or not. Not just getting up and moving at the moving of the "spirits" (if you get my drift), but instead dancing with relationship and meaning. There was real joy in the room that night, and I had a part in creating it. I realized this was part of why I want to do music.
Gotta go practice...
n
He asked us to play a couple hours of jazz for the reception. This made me a little nervous (I like to tell my friends I know enough about jazz to be dangerous.) So we worked up about three hour of tunes, which we ended up using after all (the party went longer than expected). We had a blast, and you just can't get much better music than some of these old standards by Davis, Porter, Ellington, and the rest.
What made the evening over the top was when a middle-aged couple started dancing to what we were playing. Not just dancing, but real ballroom stuff, moving around the room, between the tables and everything. We chatted with them between songs and had a nice time with them. I don't think I'll ever forget playing Moon River and having them do he European Waltz all OVER the room, dodging tables effortlessly, spinning and swinging between other guests without even touching them. Amazing.
I've had intoxicated people dance to cover tunes when I've played with other bands, but this was different. I realized I want people to celebrate in the music I create, whether I wrote it or not. Not just getting up and moving at the moving of the "spirits" (if you get my drift), but instead dancing with relationship and meaning. There was real joy in the room that night, and I had a part in creating it. I realized this was part of why I want to do music.
Gotta go practice...
n