Three Gig Night

Had to go see Lenny at the Bootlegger. Wouldn't miss it. Way worth it, cat sings so fine. Dave Richardson played keys, Doug Turley was on bass, and George Bryant on tubs (plays for Martin Nievera at The Aladdin). Everyone dug it. Very classy set. Clint stopped in to show the flag for Lenny. Very cool.

I was with this yummie babe.

One lucky dawg. Below, a few Bootlegger gig shots:

OK, on to see my bro' Ronnie Foster. MJ's on Jones between Spring Mt. and D.I. Scott Cannady on bass, Jesse Gopen on tubs, and Morris J. O'Connor on guitar. They were cookin'. Nice room, big stage, decent acoustics. Wish they'd put in a few backlight par cans, and lose those blue & green gels. Had to shoot with flash.

Next stop, the jazz jam at Sonny's. Place was lively, with a lotta fine players steppin' up. Rob Mader subbed for tommy, and was throwin' down (kickin' serious butt on alto tonight!). The awesome Derek Jones (Cirque "Ka" show) was on bass, and the ever so tasty, smooth, and funky Joel Richman on drums. Melvin Macias again on keyboards, and our fearless leader Jerry Lopez on guitar.

Fun evening. I'm tired, now, though. Spent the afternoon moving piles of sandstone rock slabs around the back yard. That was a four-beer job. Then running all around town tonight, whew. Fixin' to go crash.

See everyone at The Palms tomorrow night for some more major Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns Healing.

MONDAY P.S., A CALL FOR HELP

I just sent this email around to the posse:

My friends -

I'm tryin' to find sheet music for two fine old tunes. These were covered by tons of jazz artists such as Ella, Arthur Prysock, Carmen McCrae, etc. MusicNotes.com doesn't have 'em, and I don't have any Realbooks, and I'm tryin' to avoid buyin' 2 entire CDs to get these two tunes on disk:

MISS OTIS REGRETS

"Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to lunch today, madam, Miss Otis regrets, she's unable to lunch today. She is sorry to be delayed..."

DON’T MISUNDERSTAND

"Don’t misunderstand, we are only strangers, On our way to someplace else, to someplace we forgot..."

The backstory is that when I met Cheryl in Birmingham 33 years ago this month at Joe Namath's, we were on a bill there with (the late) O.C. Smith, the "Little Green Apples" dude. That fluff pop novelty tune that made his general public rep notwithstanding, the cat was a stunning Arthur Prysock / Billy Eckstein type baritone cabaret singer. He had this killer trio comprised of Gildo Mahones on keys, Roland Haynes on bass, and Jimmy Smith on drums (the drummer J. Smith, not the B3 player). In addition to being musically dazzling, they were the nicest people. A great memory.

I've always wanted to do those tunes. I wanna put those in my acoustic book -- come outa Loggins left field and go off on this whole other 'WTF?' tangent, 'cuz it's so joyfully personal (aside from the tunes bein' so cool).

Just thought I'd ask for help. I'll see most of ya's tonight.

BobbyG