Ok, here goes (there are just way to many people to thank and properly tag). Thank you, first off, to Michael Gamble, Jaya Dorf and Sosh Howell for throwing down the gauntlet to the biggest artistic challenge of my musical career, and for having the faith that we could all pull it off. Thank you to the amazing band. Aurora Nealand, Paul Cosentino, Albert Alva, Keenan McKenzie, Lucian Cobb, Jake Bigblubber Handelman, Gordon Au, Kenneth McGee, Ben Polcer, Craig Gildner, Jason Jurzak and Josh Collazo. Sheer virtuosity and sight-reading required are already herculean enough, but the fact that every single person on every chair threw down solo after solo that crushed too?! Amazing. Just amazing. And on Ellington night, when we needed to fortify the band, Jason Moore and David Wilken jumped in a gelled like bosses. Our special guests also blew me away. Laura Windley did so much work prepping, and unlike all the other guys, she cant just sight read the charts - she has to KNOW the tune. She sounded fantastic, and it was a treat to hear her sing everything from Billie Holiday, to Helen Forrest, to Ivy Anderson, to Helen Ward, to Peggy Lee, to Anita ODay, to even Marion Hutton. Wow! And Russ Wilson just knocked me out of my chair as our own Mr. Five by Five. The power and real deal-ness of it was amazing, and I couldnt have asked for a better shouter! And then theres Allan Vache. Allan is the kind of guy that is a perpetual all-star at traditional jazz festivals all over the world. To have him play with us at a Swing Dance event is a major coup for the swing dance world. But I knew all of that before I heard him play with the band - ro hear him playing in front the band was just sublime. I only hope that I can again have the privilege of getting to do it again sometime, and hopefully soon. But none of this couldve happened without the whole behind-the-scenes crew. Michael Strickland and the sound crew made us sound amazing - specifically, Ive never been able to so perfectly hear my electric guitar, and it allowed me to play purely from my heart, instead of being in my head, worried about the sound. Getting to play both of Charlie Christians big band feature numbers was such a joy, but it might not have been if it hadnt sounded right to me on stage. So thank you for allow me and the whole band to be comfortable on stage, and sound so go in the front of house. Shesha Marvin and Bobby White - what a team! Everything was tight, and far more on schedule than most things. Great! Plus, not a single note would have been playing with overcoming the sheer logistical challenge of printing at least 5,000 pages of music. Thanks to my wife, Rachel Stout, and Albert Alva for jumping in a taping and collating up to 16 parts for 146 tunes (2336 individual parts total). And Tina K. Jordan jumped in as well - spending time volunteering to help at a dance event she PAID to be at. Wow! And then the rest of the behind the scenes crew: Lindsay Ellen Longstreth and the transportation crew, Eva Millwood and the kitchen crew, and everybody else behind the scenes was great. Thanks to Keith Moore for loaning us that amazing 1940s Leedy drum set, and Michael Faltesek for letting me use your awesome Vintage 47 Amps all week. To Gary Chyi and Allen Kerr, thanks for being our sherpas to delicious, delicious things, and allowing us to get off the reservation a couple times during the week. The food and drinks were great, but so was the company. And to everybody at Lindy Focus, thank you for the energy and love, and most importantly, your engagement with the music. Focus is the single most music-centric swing dance event Ive been to, and like Michael Gamble mentioned, you have all invested in the Music. Thank you for supporting such an ambitious undertaking, and for giving us on stage the chance to do it for you. Its an honor, and a privilege and I cant say thank you enough. I know Ive probably skipped some people, but seriously, everybody at Focus was awesome, so thank you all. Ill leave you with this. #lindyfocus #parttwo #purejoy
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 18:45:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015