June 8th gig at The Palms

I'm getting a late start tonight, and will try to hang with it. It was a thundering gig, with a house full of Bad Boys in the audience, and I have a lot of shots to sort through. We were blessed with musical eminence throughout the lounge. No one wanted to leave after the show, it was such a great event. Below, the rapt crowd is diggin' every note...

Some of the musical peeps in the house gracing us with their presence:

• A.B.
• Karl Perazzo
• Chalo Eduarado
• Benny Rietveld
• Tony Lindsay
• Taku Hirano
• Tom Barney
• Rocco Prestia
• Derek Jones
• Blaise Sison
• Dennis Chambers
• Howard Arthur
  
• Michito Sanchez
• Brad Cordle
• Tim Scott
• Joey Finger
• Robert Conti
• Lily Arce
  

(BTW, Howard Arthur will open for Jerry next Monday on guitar.)

I'm sure there are are people I've missed (and I'll get to everyone's online links ASAP). No slight intended, just too much goin' on. Wow!

Will post incrementally...

OK, I'm back. Let's see, can I remember the set list (in no particular order)?

• South American Sojourn
• Brother to Brother
• Higher Ground
• Wishing Well
• Rosanna
• You Don't Know Me
• I Feel Good
• Soul Trilogy
• Indian Summer Day
• Ev'rybody Wants to Love you
• Ain't That Peculiar?
• Living For The City

What am I missing? It was slammin', that's all I can say. Given that we had a nuclear critical mass of top-of-the-line bass cats in the house, Rochon was particularly on fire.

More scenes from a hang...

Above, Karl Perazzo of Santana. Great player, really nice cat.

Below, A.B. (from the Havana Nightclub ensemble) and Karl Perazzo lit things up in a huge percussion jam at the end.

Below, Chalo Eduardo and Gabriel gettin' down.

Wow. Ya just had to be there. Thanks to everyone for comin' to hang. Let's do it all again next Monday (as well as this Saturday at midnight at Palace Station).

Thanks to Howard Arthur for introducing me to Mick McCoy, producer of the Fab Four Live show (Variety Theater inside Planet Hollywood).


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UPDATE: SAD NEWS

From the L.A. Times:

Kenny Rankin dies at 69; singer-songwriter's long career almost defied categorization

A well-regarded guitarist, he wrote the hit song 'Peaceful' for Helen Reddy and played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home.'

By Jon Thurber
June 9, 2009

Kenny Rankin, a singer-songwriter and musician whose song "Peaceful" was a hit for Helen Reddy and who had popular covers himself of a pair of Beatles hits, has died. He was 69.

Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause of death, according to his management company, was lung cancer, which was diagnosed three weeks ago.

His career, which spanned more than five decades, almost defied categorization. A well-regarded guitarist, he played in Bob Dylan's backup band on the influential 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home." He also spent several years on the road opening for comedian George Carlin.

Rankin appeared on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 25 times. Carson was such a fan that he wrote the liner notes for Rankin's 1967 debut LP, "Mind Dusters."

As a singer with a velveteen tenor voice, he had highly successful covers of the Beatles' "Blackbird" and "Penny Lane" in the mid-1970s and in 1976 recorded an LP of standards, "The Kenny Rankin Album," with a large orchestra conducted by Don Costa...

...Paul McCartney was so pleased with Rankin's covers of the Beatles hits, he asked him to sing a medley of them when McCartney was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987...

That is very sad. Cat was a great artist. My heart goes out to his family and friends.



Kenny was also a major supporter of First Tee of Southern Nevada, of which my daughter is Executive Director. She's now reeling from a double-whammy. First Danny Gans (her major sponsor -- i.e., the Danny Gans Junior Golf Academy), now this.
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MORE NEWS: a much happier note

BREAKING: Local tribute artist Trina Johnson-Finn has just been acquitted in the "Phony Toni" case down in Suriname:

Paramaribo, Suriname (CNS) - "Phony Toni" has been acquitted. A Toni Braxton impersonator was found not guilty of trying to fool the R&B songstress' fans into thinking she was the real deal on Tuesday.

Trina Johnson-Finn was arrested in February after concert-goers in Suriname complained they paid as much as $53 per ticket to see the "Un-Break My Heart" hitmaker only to watch a woman pretending to be her on stage.

The pretender has maintained that the concert promoter informed her that people knew they were paying to watch her mimic the Grammy Award winner. She denied fooling the fans deliberately.

Judge Robby Rodrigues said that the Las Vegas entertainer's involvement with the scam was unclear, and ultimately acquitted her of deception.

Promoter Angel Ventura and girlfriend Signet Sampson were arrested last month and are expected to face trial over the fraud.

Johnson-Finn expressed her relief with the judge's decision after being imprisoned for three months, telling reporters, "It was hard dealing with the situation knowing I was innocent. But now I just want to go back home and hug my family, my husband. I haven't seen them for so long."

Glad that's over with. She's had a crappy three months. Do your thorough due diligence prior to taking a gig outside U.S. borders, 'cause your "rights" end there.

Trina will be back home tomorrow at 6:30 pm. American Airlines flight 1825 from Miami, in case you're interested in joining the group of her supporters planning on greeting her arrival at baggage claim.
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NICE LAS VEGAS SUN WRITE-UP ON PHIL WIGFALL TODAY

PEOPLE IN THE ARTS:
Saxophonist interested in more than music

FROM THE "EXACTLY" DEPARTMENT


FROM THE "WTFC?" DEPARTMENT

Whatever.