I Finally Had a Gig During this pandemic

It was great to be playing again, as I recently did a gig with one of my favorite jazz bands. Third Coast Jazz.

Has it been 7 months? I guess so!

Anyway, it was great to once again perform with my fellow bandmates. And although it was stressful to say the least because of the pandemic situation, the band wore our masks as often possible, and we were socially distanced.

The gig was at a mansion in Temecula Wine Country, a wonderful sunset / late afternoon wedding and reception. It was wonderful again to perform at someone’s wedding again. It’s just great to be a part of the bride and groom’s special day, and as it turned out they loved us and had a lot of positive words to say about us.

Here’s a review from the bride:

Ahhh! This band just did my wedding, and I was SO AMAZED! The vocalist was awesome, they were super friendly, nice, sounded great, and the wedding literally went by without ANY flaws. They even prompted me as to when I needed to thank everyone, kept me on track with timelines, and really made me and my husband feel SUPER SPECIAL!

Beforehand, they made sure we provided our first dance song, father/daughter song, etc., and they KILLED IT with our first dance song. Youtube it: Snoh Aalegra: Find Someone like you. I would totally hire them again, and again forever! Even during a pandemic…the band was FLAWLESS!

Once again, I was very happy to be performing jazz and top40 music again with my bandmates. Looking forward to the next one.

No work for this musician, but i’m hanging tough and still practicing…

Just a quick update that I’m doing okay and hanging in there. I don’t have any gigs scheduled whatsoever, and who knows when the gigs will start to trickle in again… my main gigs have been retirement homes, senior living centers, corporate events, weddings and miscellaneous private events. Still, nothing has come up.

But I’m still practicing every day and yesterday for Father’s Day I played piano for a good 2 hours, practicing all sorts of things from standards to classical to patriotic songs.

As far as being able to do gigs or jam sessions online?

I still don’t know how to do that, but I’m looking into that possibility. I noticed a few musicians have been using Zoom or Microsoft Teams or some other technology. I confess I’m behind the times, so I need to get that going because I don’t know how much longer will we musicians be unemployed.

But we channel our sadness through our music…

Still Quarantined after all these months

I sincerely hope everyone is doing okay out there. I mean, most of us have been pretty much quarantined since day one. And for those who are fighting this coronavirus pandemic at the frontlines, I commend you for your service. And to those who are taking care of the sick, the elderly, the young and the meek… I commend you too.

The weather has gotten nicer, and so I’ve been able to go out into the garden and do some gardening. And there’s a lot to catch up on after the rains, which seemed to have gone on for weeks.

Movies watched: The Shape of Water, Little Miss Sunshine, Dodgeball, The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, The Millenium Trilogy, to name a few. Of course, I’ve had plenty of time to watch movies.

I practice piano, but I could sure use the time to practice a lot more. Especially some of the Joplin tunes which I forgot some of them already.

Anyway, I need to work on my coin and stamp collection. Just to organize it, catalogue it, etc.

Going to get groceries is quite the endeavor these days. I try to go once every 2 weeks, because it’s this whole ordeal now with social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. But you gotta do it.

More later… I’m out.