Saturday, August 11, 2007

San Jose Jazz Festival Weekend

The weekend was officially launched last night for me at the Agenda Restaurant and Lounge. I had such a fun gig with the guys. Wayne Wallace also came and sat in on a few songs which added a whole new dimension to the music. We had a fantastic turnout of people--thank you to all of you who came to hear the band! We even tried out some of the new songs that will be on the next CD and I'm really pleased with how they are translating into a live performance situation. I was a little worried that we wouldn't really be able to pull off the most intricately complicated arrangements without a full band with horn section, but it actually works out just fine and I'm thrilled that I will be able to perform them on stage. People seemed to really respond to the new material--and it feels really good to be able to add more exciting and vibrant music to my repertoire. I'm now even more excited to play with a fuller group on Sunday (4pm, Silicon Valley Stage).

The only bummer last night was that Ray Vega wasn't able to make it to the gig. He was going to come and sit in but his luggage was lost on his flight and he had to go back to the airport to pick it up once it was found. Needless to say, that took most of the evening for him so he couldn't make it down to the club. Bummer for me, but even more a bummer for him. What a drag to be on a plane for hours and hours only to finally arrive to find your luggage is nowhere to be found. I'm sure he wasn't a happy camper last night. I'll go to his masters class today at 1pm at the Improv to say hello and see what he's got going on for the weekend. Hopefully he can drop by the silicon Valley Stage before he heads over to finish out the jazz fest on the Main Stage on Sunday.

This is going to be a really fun weekend. I'm looking forward to exploring all the different stages at the festival and then performing with Wayne Wallace's big band tonight on the latin stage. I will definitely have to pace myself in order to maintain some semblance of energy for all I've got going on!

No comments: