More Green Tea and Jazz.

Nov. 24, 2002

All Asia Cafe. Central Square, Cambridge.

The second week for this gig. (See Green Tea and Jazz) I had sent out an emailing, and quite a few people had replied that they thought they'd make it, but few showed. 11:30 to 1 is too early for my crowd, I guess.

My daughter Sheri and her boyfriend Jason did make it though, and Mal [my wife] was there. Always nice to have family in the audience. Also, my old friend Norman showed up. He was a student of mine at Berklee many years ago, and we played in a band together for 15 years. I guess, next to the family, he's my most loyal fan. Funny how having a guitarist in the audience still makes me self-conscious.

This week the club was open when I got there. Patty owns the club, and her son was there, getting his first violin lesson. A first violin lesson is not something that my ears welcome at 11 on a Sunday morning! Not that I'd want to discourage a budding musician, but I did wish he was not budding so close to the stage as I set up.

I brought the Ampeg B-15 this time, and even with that, it took me a while to get a fat sound. Next time I'll take it off the wheels and let it vibrate the wooden stage. But this time, since the room was pretty empty, I played at a very low volume, and that amp gets beefy at just a slightly higher volume.

Since it was a small crowd, and I wanted them to be able to talk amongst themselves, I stuck mostly to bossas and ballads. In retrospect, I should have played more up-tempo tunes. "Softly As In a Morning Sunrise" got some applause, as it always does. I realize now that I didn't play "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," which is another one that is up-beat and has a lot of improv. Anyway, I came away thinking that I need to add more up-beat tunes to my repetoire. Need to brush up on "Dolphin Dance," and develop "Stella," and "All the Things You Are" a bit more.

After the last set, Jason mentioned that he needs a jazz guitar piece for a film he's making. He and Sheri have an independent film company, Mindscape Pictures (www.mindscapepictures.com). He said one tune in that set seemed appropriate, but, since I didn't announce the tunes, he couldn't tell me which one. We'll figure that out. If it was one that is not an original (I played "Blue Illusion" and "Baba Ghanosh" in that set), then I said I could compose something similar, so that we didn't have to worry about licensing. Could prove to be an interesting project.

Once again, the All Asia was an enjoyable gig. (By the way, the Pad Thai is the best I've ever had.) I'll be back there in January, and I've taken a 1 to 3 PM slot. Maybe my friends will be out of bed by then.