Monthly Archives: August 2011

Late August update

It seems I’m letting the time get away from me again. Missed noting a few things that I did this summer.

SNUG played a short one-hour gig outdoors at the San Mateo High School football field on Saturday afternoon, July 9th, as part of the American Cancer Society Rally For Life event. I recorded it with my digital recorder but it was windy, and I forgot the windscreen, and so the results were essentially unlistenable.

I had the privilege of seeing two great shows at this summer’s Stanford Jazz Festival. First, on June 30th, was the wonderful Milton Nascimento and his Band of Four. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since I first heard his collaboration with Wayne Shorter, Native Dancer, back in the mid-seventies. I had seen him once before,  back in the early eighties with a large ensemble, but this time he had a small group with just four other musicians. It was exquisite.

About a month later, on July 24th, I caught Ruth Davies’ Blues Night with special guest Robben Ford. It was great to see Ford play with a larger group for a change rather than in a trio setting.

I had a small jazz gig at the Palo Alto Elk’s Lodge on August 19th, with some of the guys from the group of folks that used to play at the Turtle Bay Seafood & Grill restaurant in Foster City. It was a lot of fun and I hope to do it again.

Aside from that I’ve been going to the Club Fox jam now and then, and also the Sunday one at the Pioneer once in a while. But I am scaling it back a bit for the time being. Just too time-consuming for the small amount of playing involved.