Living it up in Chicago

Kate Smith (my radio promoter) has been an incredible host and support since I arrived in Chicago on Wednesday. She has the patience of a saint and has been driving me around to interviews, gigs and rehearsals. I can't thank her enough for how great she has been to both Murray and me.

Yesterday was a truly amazing fun-filled and packed day of performing. Murray flew in on Thursday night and Friday we did two performances; one at the Cultural Center and the other at Katerina's. Both shows were a HUGE success! The concert at the Cultural Center was packed with people who really enjoyed the 45 minutes we performed. We actually met Steve Hashimoto on bass and Luis Rosario on drums right before we were to perform our first gig with them. I had sent charts and CDs for them to go over long before we arrived in Chicago, and I knew they were both very talented musicians so I wasn't too worried about how things would go. We performed more straight-ahead latin jazz music and they were fantastic!! At the end of the concert we got a standing ovation--VERY nice!! :)

After our first concert we made our way to the neighborhood where Katerina's is located. I took everyone out to lunch before we were to go in to an intense rehearsal to prepare for the evening's gig. We ended up rehearsing for three hours and still weren't able to get to all the material. Some songs had to be cut from the set list and others we were just going to wing it. By the time we were done rehearsing I was completely exhausted. Kate came and picked Murray and I up so we could go back to her place and get in a quick nap. Our gig didn't start until 10pm last night so it gave us some down time in order to recharge our batteries. 8:45 we're back in the car heading back to Katerina's to perform. BTW: Katerina is a wonderful person and incredibly open and friendly. It was fantastic performing at her club. We had another fantastic turn out and people seemed to really respond well to the music. Both Steve and Luis rose to the occasion and played amazing. Murray, too, was fantastic in both his playing and his musical directing.

It's 2am and Kate wants to take us to the Green Mill, the hottest jazz spot in Chicago. Sure, why not!! We're all pretty wired from such a successful evening and it sounded like fun. So off we went to the Green Mill where Barry, the Baritone sax player was leading a group of fantastic musicians. When we arrived the place was packed. We found a table right at the front of the stage and planted ourselves. Pretzels and lemon drop martinis make a great combination, by the way!! :) Thanks to Kate's infinite connections in Chicago, Murray and I were invited to sit in with the band. We played Au Privave and Besame Mucho and had a blast playing with these guys. By the time they were done playing (3:30am!!) I was pretty well spent. We arrived back to Kate's place around 4:30am and we all collapsed into a comatose heap in our respective beds, happy and content that the day had gone so incredibly well.

This has been a great introduction to the Chicago scene and I hope to be able to return here often to perform in the future. Thank you to the Chicago people for being such warm and friendly people.