"Time After Time" we have fun!

For the first time in what seems like months, we had a bit of sunshine this morning in the Twin Cities. Our cold, rainy, unseasonably nasty weather continues and appears to be set to carry on for yet another week which will put us over a month of amazingly unpleasant autumnality. Sigh. It almost makes one wish for an invasion of alien reptiles from outer space just to break up the monotony. Wait, that's on TV this week with Morena Baccarin as spokeslizard. Who's in charge of the weather, anyway? Is it Paul Douglas? Do we get to blame him for our premature misery? Isn't it bad enough that November is coming- did we really have to have two Novembers this year?

However, music can put a smile on your face in spite of the weather and pending lizard domination and it did again today for the folks to came out to the Jazz Workshop at McRae Park. An even dozen of us got together to work on our chops, learn some songs and have a great time. We started out with a bit more than an hour of instrumentals with Ira (alto sax), Wes (tenor sax), Steve (trumpet and flugelhorn as well as today's photographer), Ken and Gene on drums (with two complete kits set up today), Jeff and Margo on bass, and Tim and Bob on guitar. Our vocalists included Annie (who is the workshop coordinator), Dick, Toria and Sheila. Once again we had a ball today!


Today's set list included "Equinox," "Jordu," "Yardbird Suite," "Au Privave," "Autumn In New York," "Autumn Leaves," "Impressions," "Time After Time," "Strange Fruit," "What Is this Thing Called Love," "I've Never Been In Love Before," "Shadow of Your Smile," "What More Can I Say" (an original by Dick), "Groovin' High," "Early Autumn," "Falling In Love With Love," "Bésame Mucho," "Georgia On My Mind," "Nature Boy" and a couple of others I forgot to write down. Suddenly it was ten to four and time to pack up and go.

So there you have it- another fun Saturday afternoon playing jazz. We have some returning old hands most weeks and some new folks most weeks. Maybe you can be one of them sometime! We'll be back at it next week, 10/31/09. Drummers, trumpets and singers, oh my!

In the photos, that's Gene playing drums, Margo playing bass with Jeff behind her, and Ira playing alto sax with Toria and Dick behind him. As noted in a post a week or ten days ago (see below), Ira's Jazz Quartet is playing at the Coffee Grounds in St. Paul tonight.