playing piano in fairbanks ranch

We really never know what we’re gonna play when we get on stage.
—Keith Jarrett

Had a great gig with Barry Cohen last night at the Fairbanks Ranch Country Club. He needed a pianist to play the first hour from 5pm to 6pm, and he asked me to do it. I was thrilled.

The piano was a beautiful black Yamaha grand piano. And it sounded excellent! Except for the fact that it was slightly out-of-tune in the middle keys. But the excellent sound of the upper notes more than made up for it, and I ended up going to those notes often.

I think this was the first time Barry actually got to hear me play for a good length of time. And the keyboardist (Johnny G) was impressed and gave me a compliment as well as Nathan Mills (trumpet/trombone). So, receiving such praise from fellow musicians felt really good.

Anyway, once my hour of piano playing was done, I went back to the stage to play drums with the rest of the quartet. It was a good musical evening for me.

. . . .

Lately, though, I’ve been feeling out-of-sorts… doing clumsy things, tripping a lot, and just now my son pointed out to me that I left the car door open (my car was parked out in the street)… and I feel as if I’ve been out of balance….

…and, somewhat depressed, and wondering about things like friendships. As much as I’m ever so blessed to have been married for so long, I think marriage has caused old frienships to drift apart. And I feel I don’t really know how to make true friends.

Sure, I have musical colleagues, and people I know at the venues I play at, but it just seems I am in want of closer friendships, even though I do come into contact with a lot of people throughout my week. So, for 2006 another of my resolutions is to try and overcome this obstacle and try and connect more with acquaintances, and foster friendships… I admire people like Cyn, who has many lasting and current friendships with people she’s known since high school and university.

I guess I do feel I have close online friendships. That I am grateful for. But I do yearn to have close friends in real life, maybe who are raw vegans (or open to try) so that I can go to these local raw/vegan restaurants and enjoy some dining with friends who can relate to the vegan philosophy.

Anyways, that is my goal… to try and establish some true connections and develop true friendships… although, being Aquarian (and Buddhist) I guess you could say that everyone is my friend!

. . . .

On a lighter note: I also performed at two birthday parties… the gig at Fairbanks Ranch was in celebration of its recipient, a 95 year old man who was an actor/singer from the golden days of film (he was in a wheel chair), and it was cool seeing him perform a number at his age.

And the day before that I performed with Donnie Finnell at a birthday party for a 90 year old great, great grandmother! She was dancing to our music, while using her “walker”! That was cute!