The Curse Continues
This would be a great running joke if it weren't really funny: Another place where we've played has gone under.
When TD/D first got its start, we played at a great little neighborhood coffeehouse called Ke Davi; in January, it shut its doors. Last fall, a subset of the TD/D members at the time (Alex, Gordon and I) played at a great little neighborhood coffeehouse called Perk-N-Steep; a few months later, it closed. Lately, we'd been playing at the Coffee Haus in downtown Plano. Alex moved to the Bay Area last month, so we were joking that the curse must be broken (although Gordon subbed on the last gig a few weeks ago).
But today, in reply to an email I sent last night to book the next gig at the Coffee Haus, I received a single sentence:
Coffee Haus has closed permanently.
At that point, I went into full Darth Vader mode: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I guess it's settled; TD/D has to sit down and do a demo CD so that we can get booked in the bigger places, because we're evidently a death sentence for small, independent coffeehouses. I emailed the rest of the band, as well as Gordon and Alex. Alex concurred that we'd have to aim bigger so that the Metroplex wouldn't run out of coffeehouses; Gordon wondered if Starbucks could withstand our assault. I'm secretly wondering if my subbing in Gordon's band this weekend will curse their usual location as well. Oh, and they recently turned down a gig at a coffeehouse in Cleburne; should TD/D travel for two hours just to close down another place?
I realize that it's not
really a curse but an unfortunate coincidence...still, can the chain end here? There has to be a better slogan for our band than "we'll pack your place when we play, and you'll shut your doors a few months later."
On the other hand...if there's a place you can't stand, let us know and we'll be happy to extend the curse for a nominal fee *grin*.
Loose but Fun
Generally speaking, the gig went well last night. Since we hadn't played together in four months, and had two new people in the rhythm section, the evening was not without its loose moments, but, thankfully,
we were loose as well. We were there to play music and have fun, so that aspect was quite successful. I don't think there were quite as many people as the last time, but it was a pretty healthy mix of family, friends, a few of my students, and even a couple of people who were there to get concert-attendance credit for a class over at the college (they were surprised to find out that I teach there).
Thanks to missing guitar and bass parts, we weren't able to break out the really heavy artillery and play "Foosball" last night, but we did add a rendition of Kenny Garrett's "Sing a Song of Song" to the mix, and I think it turned out well. I also had some ideas come to me during the gig for spicing up a few of the tunes with some extra harmony parts in the horns (most notably "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," which has a whole lotta unison goin' on). The cool thing about jazz is that, even later on when we have a CD, we're not obligated to play everything the exact same way from gig to gig; there'll always be a bit of tweaking going on.
I also think that the nearly four months from the last gig until now will be the longest we'll go without playing anytime soon. We're hoping for a regular thing at the Coffee Haus (we're shooting for once a month), as well as some of the places we've found out about over the summer, and having Steven in Arlington this fall could open up some more possibilties for us.
Thanks to everyone who came out last night; if you missed it, we should have another date posted really soon.
If You're Headed to the Gig...
...you can
click here for the official map, or go
here to get one that will expand out to your neighborhood. If street parking isn't available, there's a nice garage in the back of the building off J Place.
At any rate, I hope anyone who reads this can come out and hear us, definitely buy some coffee or an espresso drink, and show us some love at the tip jar if you're so inclined. But, most importantly, we want you there. The band's in a transition stage right now, but we're still going strong, so join us for a summer night of jazz.
