In My Mind’s Zen Garden

Last night was a good night for me at Tio Leo’s! I finally got an opportunity to do a drum solo on “Sing Sing Sing”, after a bit of a dry spell.

. . . .

Well, I’m sure it was a couple of months, but it felt like a year since my last opportunity for a big drum solo. I’m not one to demand a drum solo. I guess a part of me feels that if I demand something so personal and self-gratifying (as my drum solos actually are), then maybe it’s not the right time then.

So, for me, when the band leader calls out “Sing Sing Sing” to be performed by the big band, then that light goes on in my head…. drum solo!

And the solo felt really good. Music director Nathan Mills gave me a good compliment afterwards, saying that I kept the dancers on the dancefloor throughout my long drum solo. And keyboardist James Forstan left his keyboard, came up to me and shook my hand. But it’s personally gratifying to see the dancers actually dancing to my drum solo… a natural high… a sort of one-on-one communication between the dancers and myself, the drummer.

And my drum solo was long. Nowadays, I sort of take my time… let the drum solo build up. I guess it’s all about successful pacing and building up to a crescendo and climax.

After “Sing Sing Sing” we were well-received. The big band, as usual, did a superb job with the song. But it was a very grueling first set (1 and a half hours) that ended with “Sing Sing Sing”! The second set started out with a fiery latin-salsa number called “Con Sazon”, composed by our musical director/trumpeter/trombonist Nathan Mills. And the 2nd/last set continued on to the end with all us musicians playing extremely hard. We were basically all beat up after last night.

But, I did a nice 1 hour yoga routine before going to Tio Leo’s, so I still had some energy left, and bassist Fred Ubaldo and I somehow fell into a very fast paced rendition of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”, after the band’s last song was over! Keyboardist James Forstan step in while the rest of the band started packing up.

It was a great night for me, overall. I felt really good and it’s gigs like these that help balance out all the low-key gigs I have to do most of the time… those gigs where I am basically just background music. Not that I don’t enjoy the low-key gigs… but, it’s nice to be able to “play out” and do a nice long drum solo every-once-in-a-while… and not have to worry about being too loud, and disturbing people while they are dining.

But, variety is the spice of life, as they say.

Tonight will be another nice low-key gig at The Bistro… on drums instead of piano because the regular keyboardist wants to play the gig. I don’t mind… but I want to get back to playing keyboards as soon as possible. It’s been a little bit of a dry spell.