Adventures with Jazz and PhDs
Our next performance is at Fins Coffee! Bring your friends, listen to jazz, play some jazz, hang out! Amazing flyer design was done by Kathleen.
http://www.styleapple.com/public/user_details.php?account=overview&id=2910
Facebook for the event: http://www.facebook.com/events/339244016094097/
From our last endeaver, an awesome family decided to invite the whole band for Thanksgiving dinner. This was the best Thanksgiving I ever had. We played out of the Real Book after dinner, and the host, who was quite modest about his famiarity with Jazz, was really getting into things. Jazz is just so naturally wonderful and good for your soul :P
Once Lawrence and Ken got here, we drove to Santana Row to start playing. It was the most beautiful night with a clear and starry sky. The lines were long, people cheered, security moved us twice, and we played for like 2.5 hours.
Daniel, our cello player, went away for a couple weeks over the Summer. I had no idea what the trip was about until he got back and told us that he spent time in Guatemala playing music at orphanages and giving music clinics to children. Coincidentally, I had been trying to find a cause that we, Terminal Degree, could help raise money for. In particular, after my first Black Friday campout a couple years ago, I've always wanted to play music for the shoppers. I mean, they aren't gonna go anywhere; not if they want that netbook or GPS... haha.
Some people I knew were volunteering at a local family shelter, and for some reason, I felt that they needed some jazz music to go with that. Honestly though, nobody knew what that meant. When the other Terminal Degree cats asked me what they were to expect, I just shrugged and said, "uh, we'll go to this place and play music."
This past weekend we brought back our video game tunes and played at a private party for Professor Jim Whitehead and the Center for Games and Playable Media. We, of course, played the jazz standards we love, but, for the sake of pleasing our audience, we made sure to have the scores for a couple of the game songs. It was the best gig we've done, as it all came together pretty effortlessly. The game songs we did were from: Zelda, Mario 2, Mario, Tetris, Farmville, and Portal. Portal's "Still Alive" is one of the tougher (more unfamiliar) songs, but it came together great! Awesome time with Daniel, Ben, Wes, and Yu!
We definitely need sleigh bells. I totally remember them from being a percussionist back in high school and undergrad. Where can we borrow sleigh bells? Well, I decided to look online to see if it's worth it to just buy them. I checked Amazon and Steve Weiss Music. The latter was where we used to get all our marching band stuff. It looks like it'll be a decent $25. I guess my instrument collection is about to grow +1.
What kind of music would you play for people standing in line for Black Friday sales? We already play jazz, and our last gig had a number of video game favorites. I suppose Christmas music is a given for this gig. I just ordered a Vince Gauraldi book of Christmas leadsheets. The Vince Gaualdi Trio is the group that did all the songs for Peanuts, and more specifically, A Charlie Brown Christmas. We obviously won't play ALL the tunes listed, but it's a start.
Below, I listed a preliminary setlist for our Black Friday Busking :)
