April 20, 2019

Next Time: Sat., 4/27, 11am-3pm, TowerLight (3601 Wooddale, St. Louis Park)

Sam's Add-A-Tune: Stablemates (III-378)

The usual crowd of instrumentalists, but still no vocalists able to make it: Sam (trumpet, trombone), Raphael (bass), Steve C (piano), Steve H (alto), John (trombone), Ari (trumpet), Carl (trombone), Wes (tenor) and Roger (tenor).

Sam got us off and running--or flying--with Ornithology (I-317). Well, flying low and not too fast. John took us at a similar pace through There Will Never Be Another You (I-407). Carl wanted to revisit Ornithology via How High The Moon (I-180). Steve C changed direction with Jordu (I-227). Raphael radically changed direction with Mingus' Reincarnation Of A Love Bird (I-342). Roger soon had us loping through A Night In Tunisia (I-302). Yours truly thought it would be interesting to try to sound like Johnny Hodges on Passion Flower (I-321), but Strayhorn pieces sound way better with full orchestration, and only Johnny Hodges is Johnny Hodges. Wes went with an old friend, Dizzy's Groovin' High (I-166). Ari called another familiar bopper, Bird's Au Privave (I-37).

Your scribe is pretty sure Sam called something in here which he failed to write down. Carl took the next call, Nostalgia In Times Square (I-306). It is not often that Mingus gets a curtain call at this Workshop.  Roger opted for the tempo-switching John Lewis tune, Django (I-114). Steve C. decided to cool things out with In A Mellow Tone (I-206). Raphael worked his own fingers to the bone with the longish but fun That Old Black Magic (III-394). Yours truly took things out with that old Irving Berlin Easter standard, I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket (II-187).

--SJH