Catch Me (Up)

I've missed posting the past few Jazz Workshop reports; life has been very busy at our house between the holidays and other things. So here's the catch up note.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving (if the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday then the day after that must be Blue Saturday) saw eleven folks come out to the park to play jazz. This included Russ (trombone), Rich (trumpet), Sam (trumpet- actually a Morrison trumpet synth controller), Wes (tenor sax), Max (bass), Gene (drums), Bill (tenor ukulele), Tim (guitar) and vocalists Annie, Cheryl and Matt.

The set list included "Four," "A Foggy Day," "Along Came Betty," "Turnaround," "The Jody Grind," "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," ""Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," "Christmastime Is Here," "Sleigh Ride," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Blue Christmas," "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Midnight Sun," "C'est Si Bon," "I Get Along Without You Very Well," "Don't Explain," and "The Grinch." Most of these were in preparation for the Santa Breakfast on 12/11/10.

OK, the next Saturday was 12/4/10, at which the usual suspects included Gene (drums), Russ ('bone), Peter (bari sax), Wes (tenor sax), Ira (alto sax), Bill (uke), Tim (guitar), Paul (piano) and vocalists Matt, Vicki, Cheryl and Annie. The intensive focus was on preparing for the Santa Breakfast including working out the arrangements. The song list was much shorter as a result; the instrumental portion of the workshop got through "Beautiful Love," "Milano," "Minority" and "Peri's Scope." With the vocalists we played "Sleigh Ride," "Christmastime Is Here," "The Night Before Christmas," "Jingle Bells," "Frosty The Snowman," "The Grinch," "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To," "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm," "Linus and Lucy," "The Christmas Song," "Mele Kalimaka," "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," and maybe one or two others.

The Santa Breakfast is a non-denominational holiday celebration at McRae Park held a couple of weeks before Christmas. This year the weather threw a monkey wrench into things by having a blizzard on that day and the park proactively cancelled the event.

The next scheduled jazz workshop is on Saturday 12/18/10; there will be no workshops on 12/25/10 and 1/1/11.