May 11th gig at The Palms

First, our enthusiastic congratulations to Berklee School of Music's Amanda Corvini on her graduation. Amanda's Mom and Dad are both Berklee alum, and Amanda first came to our attention when her Dad emailed me about them coming out to see Santa Fe, that they loved the band, and that Amanda was in the Tower of Power Ensemble at Berklee, where she played bari sax. We told them "have her bring her axe," and the guys sent her some charts. The rest is history. She sat in and nailed it. Twice now. They are the nicest people!

Below, Amanda has a pretty spiffy pro headshot now. Wow. She no doubt has a great music career ahead of her.

BTW, late-night blog junkies, the Palms post-gig blog update will probably not happen 'til tomorrow mid-day, as this is Cheryl's last night in town this trip home. I think she's comin' to the gig tonight (we're both about to head out right now for Keenan's high school awards banquet prior to coming to the gig). She's gotta leave back out for Walnut Creek in the morning. Gotta get the last of my hang time in.
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CRACK OF NOON TUESDAY POST-GIG UPDATE

Cheryl just left for Walnut Creek, so I'm back at it. Last night was pretty amazing. First, we had no idea when Dave Richardson and Pepe would show from the "Lion King" gig. The show is still pretty much in shake-down mode, and the ending time was a question mark. So, Jerry "calls an audible," putting Gabriel on the kit, and opening with Tony Davich doing Tower's "What Is Hip?" It was slammin'! The house roared.

Then they brought up Bill Zappia to fill on keys for a thumping rendition of "Negrita," replete with Danny and Gil's screaming dueling trumpets solos.

Next: "Michael Grimm in the House!!!" (And, Pepe and Dave had arrived.) Put him to work, singing his awesome rendition of the Ray Charles "You Don't Know Me." Another howling Standing-O.

BTW, Michael will be at Green Valley Ranch this Saturday in the Ovation Showroom, with his large group. A great hang, the early show (7 pm).

Above, Jamie, just back from appearing with the Boston Pops Orchestra, throws down his wonderful original "This Time" (which is slated for the band's upcoming studio CD).

Before long, it looked like we had half of the cast of "The Lion King" in the house, occupying most of the right-front area. They were obviously diggin' it big-time. I was watchin' 'em out the corner of my eyes groovin' especially hard to "San Diego."

Below, Tyriq sportin' a cool t-shirt...

Chiqui Garcia in the House!!

More shots, randomly...

There were so many "Lion King" peeps in the crowd, I couldn't get 'em all in a quick shot after the show. I think we have a whole new cadre of regular fans.

CODA

Very cool piece in the Las Vegas Sun today by Kristen Peterson:

Trombonist to the stars

[Photo by Steve Marcus]

"Trombonist Nathan Tanouye, standing in the Eldorado dry lake bed in Boulder City, has no shortage of local gigs, the Bette Midler and Donny & Marie shows among them, and says Las Vegas is “better than a lot of other cities in terms of gigs.” He began working during his first year as a UNLV student, playing with the Caesars Palace orchestra."

Click the title for the entire article.

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