WorlView 7.0 Live at the Sanchez Art Center.
Pacifica Performances hosted WorlView 7.0 last Saturday evening and what a great gig! Mildred Owens, Matt Beasley and Morning Nichols made this happen and thank you all. We even had an article written by Jean Bartlett that was in the Pacifica Tribune the Wednesday before. Nice writing Jean!!!
We had almost a hundred people there to see us. What an acoustically friendly place to play. It was very cool to see so many of my friends turn out. Kerry McCoy and Alta Gracia, Barbara and Steve Miller, Lionel Emde and Renee Batti, Kevin and Earl Johnson, Shawn Terry and Terri Derogatis, Jayne Sanchez, Lori Stotko and Stuart Nafey, Lyssa and a whole bunch more friendly faces. We started the evening with a Woody Shaw original, “Rahsaan’s Run”. We usually close the first set with it but I wanted the band to come out roaring and shake up the place. To open the second set, we played "Happy Birthday" as a cha cha for Stuart. It was his 55th birthday!!! Nice cake Lori....How come you didn't pop outta it?
My brother Richie and his squeeze, Amanda got a chance to get out of the house. They just had a baby girl two weeks ago and I dedicated the song, “Too Young To Go Steady” to them.
My wife Susan was there helping me out with CD sales and inspiring me to places I’ve never gone before. I always play better when she’s there. Thank you Baby!!!! We dedicated "Moon Alley" to her and Jayne Sanchez.
We played my tango “Last Tango In Delano” which is dedicated to my father John L. Worley. My father was a merchant seaman by trade and was a member of the Seafarers International Union. He was sent out to the Central Valley by the SIU to help protect Cesar Chavez and the farm workers who were picketing. This tune is for you Pop. It was commissioned by the Intersection For The Arts to be premeired at our deYoung Museum gig last Fall. Sebastien Lanson was here then and helped me put it together so he's the co-composer. Good work Sebastien.
From the WorlView library, “WorlView”, “Out Of The Night Came You”, “Moon Alley”, “Infra-Rae”, “Silent Heart”, “Visita Social”, Kwockasaurus Rex” and a few more came to life that night. The evening was a success and contributing to it was the sound man. (I think his name is Gary). What big ears you have, dude. He had it dialed in and I never heard the sound better there! Thank you man for that gift.
Well, we have a fun one coming up in February. WorlView 7.0 is going to be guests of the Stanford Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Fred Berry on February 28th. I'll be guest soloing on a few tunes with the SJO and WorlView will be featured on the 2nd set. We plan to play "Clapham Common" by Howard Cespedes, "Cape Breton" by Dr Aaron Lington, "Caravan" arranged by Wayne Wallace and "WorlView" also arranged by Wayne Wallace. Y'all should come out and help support their program. They are going to be touring Europe with Jon Faddis this summer. So come out and lend them your ears and cash. It cost a lot of ducats to get 20+ people out there. And believe me, they're worth every penny.
More to come soon...I promise. It's one of my New Year's resolutions....To blog and blog and blog.......Peace!!!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
1st blog of 2007
Lot’s of stuff happened since my last blog back in November. Sorry it’s taken awhile to do this. It’s partially the curse of being a busy musician/educator.
In December, I subbed on a wonderful show called Christmas Dreamland for AMT (American Musical Theater). It was very challenging but a blast to play. I love playing a gig when you have to run the gamut in musical genres.
I played a couple of times at the Bleu Ginger/Lounge in Milpitas with my trio, WorlView 3.0. That place is starting to catch on in a big way. The food and ambience is great plus it’s one of last remaining venues to hear live jazz in the south bay. Sad….
I played a big band dance at the Elks Lodge in Alameda with my old friend and favorite band leader Rudy Salvini. His band is one of the last remaining professional dance big bands left in the bay area. He’s always got the best cats playing and most of them are from the era when there was live music everywhere.
Susan and I took a Moroccan cooking class, partied with friends at our pad and set up our tree just before x-mas. That’s part of our x-mas tradition.
On new year’s, Susan got a face painting gig in Reno at the High Roller’s party at Harrah’s. She got a moment to visit my good friend, Bob Biagi originally from South San Francisco. Bob plays flute and alto sax and drives a truck up there when he’s not jamming at a session or gig.
I was playing with the Pete Escovedo Orchestra at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Robbie Kwock (Kwockasaurus Rex), Wayne Wallace, Dave Gregoric and Melecio Magdaluyo were on that hit. The band sounded great and we had a great time playing together.
On New Year’s Day, Susan and I were invited to our friends Dave and Shirley Deneau’s cioppino dinner and we had a blast!!! It’s an annual get together and it always kicks total butt. Shirley is the Queen of Foodies and always out does herself much to the delight of our tummies. Dave is a great tenor saxophonist and he sat in with me at the Bleu Ginger the other day and sounded marvelous I might add!
On the 3rd of January, Susan and I flew out to Wisconsin and spent a week with her family and friends. I have to say, Wisconsin is getting pretty hip. We enjoyed some pretty fine wine and cuisine and I even got a chance to sit in with a local favorite Dan, on guitar and vocals at the Elements Restaurant in Two Rivers. Susan and I met a very cool lady named Katherine Egger who convinced me to sit in. Originally there was supposed a jazz trio playing and I was going to sit in with them. But Dan was there instead and I didn’t want to get in his way. It took quite of bit of pressure from Susan’s brother Tom Tittl, Katherine and others to get me up there. But it worked and I played a bit for them. I had so much fun and as the night progressed it got crazier and wilder. There were conga lines, people jamming on percussion instruments and my God, Julie Tittl was dancing as if she were the lead in River Dance. It was wild, the wine was flowing and people were talking about this evening for days after. Mind you, Two Rivers is a sleepy burg of 31,000 and not too much happens there, especially in the winter. Which leads me to where was the snow? Trippy weather I might add. The only time it snowed was late one evening and there was a small sprinkle coming down and that disappeared as soon as the sun was out. Quite a change from all the stories I listened to about how cold it gets there in winter. I guess “old man winter” was vacationing in Florida and sent some of that sun back to WI.
We took a side trip to Green Bay and checked out the Packer Hall of Fame and Lambeau Field, also known as the “Frozen Tundra”. It was interesting checking out the exhibits and playing in the kid’s interactive area. But the coolest thing was wearing my 49er colors in their “hood”.
Naa na na na naaaaa!!!!!!
Well, we’re home now and my next blog will be focused on WorlView 7.0’s latest gig, live at the Sanchez Art Center presented by Pacifica Performances…Till then, asta pasta hombres.
In December, I subbed on a wonderful show called Christmas Dreamland for AMT (American Musical Theater). It was very challenging but a blast to play. I love playing a gig when you have to run the gamut in musical genres.
I played a couple of times at the Bleu Ginger/Lounge in Milpitas with my trio, WorlView 3.0. That place is starting to catch on in a big way. The food and ambience is great plus it’s one of last remaining venues to hear live jazz in the south bay. Sad….
I played a big band dance at the Elks Lodge in Alameda with my old friend and favorite band leader Rudy Salvini. His band is one of the last remaining professional dance big bands left in the bay area. He’s always got the best cats playing and most of them are from the era when there was live music everywhere.
Susan and I took a Moroccan cooking class, partied with friends at our pad and set up our tree just before x-mas. That’s part of our x-mas tradition.
On new year’s, Susan got a face painting gig in Reno at the High Roller’s party at Harrah’s. She got a moment to visit my good friend, Bob Biagi originally from South San Francisco. Bob plays flute and alto sax and drives a truck up there when he’s not jamming at a session or gig.
I was playing with the Pete Escovedo Orchestra at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Robbie Kwock (Kwockasaurus Rex), Wayne Wallace, Dave Gregoric and Melecio Magdaluyo were on that hit. The band sounded great and we had a great time playing together.
On New Year’s Day, Susan and I were invited to our friends Dave and Shirley Deneau’s cioppino dinner and we had a blast!!! It’s an annual get together and it always kicks total butt. Shirley is the Queen of Foodies and always out does herself much to the delight of our tummies. Dave is a great tenor saxophonist and he sat in with me at the Bleu Ginger the other day and sounded marvelous I might add!
On the 3rd of January, Susan and I flew out to Wisconsin and spent a week with her family and friends. I have to say, Wisconsin is getting pretty hip. We enjoyed some pretty fine wine and cuisine and I even got a chance to sit in with a local favorite Dan, on guitar and vocals at the Elements Restaurant in Two Rivers. Susan and I met a very cool lady named Katherine Egger who convinced me to sit in. Originally there was supposed a jazz trio playing and I was going to sit in with them. But Dan was there instead and I didn’t want to get in his way. It took quite of bit of pressure from Susan’s brother Tom Tittl, Katherine and others to get me up there. But it worked and I played a bit for them. I had so much fun and as the night progressed it got crazier and wilder. There were conga lines, people jamming on percussion instruments and my God, Julie Tittl was dancing as if she were the lead in River Dance. It was wild, the wine was flowing and people were talking about this evening for days after. Mind you, Two Rivers is a sleepy burg of 31,000 and not too much happens there, especially in the winter. Which leads me to where was the snow? Trippy weather I might add. The only time it snowed was late one evening and there was a small sprinkle coming down and that disappeared as soon as the sun was out. Quite a change from all the stories I listened to about how cold it gets there in winter. I guess “old man winter” was vacationing in Florida and sent some of that sun back to WI.
We took a side trip to Green Bay and checked out the Packer Hall of Fame and Lambeau Field, also known as the “Frozen Tundra”. It was interesting checking out the exhibits and playing in the kid’s interactive area. But the coolest thing was wearing my 49er colors in their “hood”.
Naa na na na naaaaa!!!!!!
Well, we’re home now and my next blog will be focused on WorlView 7.0’s latest gig, live at the Sanchez Art Center presented by Pacifica Performances…Till then, asta pasta hombres.
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