Anyway, the opening piano solo was the first of a line of great performances by the entire band. We were in an excellent ballroom with wood floors and walls; the room had fantastic acoustics. The dance was sold-out, so the place was filled up and... everyone was dancing! More and more I am getting to the point where I don't have to watch the music so much, and there was a moment when I looked out on the dance floor while playing and saw that the entire room was filled with dancers. The lights were dimmed and there was a glittering ball spinning above the hall. And, the most incredible thing was watching the dancers were moving in perfect rhythm with the music. My hands on the piano, the dancers, the music--everything was in perfect sync. It was awesome.
Last night we (Swing Memories) had one of our best performances yet at the Superstition Sunrise Resort. However, the evening began awkwardly: I showed up later than I would have liked (due to the traffic from a lesson in Scottsdale). I hustled into the ballroom 10 minutes before downbeat and Skeets says, "I know we didn't rehearse the opening piece but we'd really like to do it. Oh, by the way, it starts with a piano solo. What'cha think?" Anyway, I think it came out very well--maybe my best solos yet (if I do say so myself). :-)
Anyway, the opening piano solo was the first of a line of great performances by the entire band. We were in an excellent ballroom with wood floors and walls; the room had fantastic acoustics. The dance was sold-out, so the place was filled up and... everyone was dancing! More and more I am getting to the point where I don't have to watch the music so much, and there was a moment when I looked out on the dance floor while playing and saw that the entire room was filled with dancers. The lights were dimmed and there was a glittering ball spinning above the hall. And, the most incredible thing was watching the dancers were moving in perfect rhythm with the music. My hands on the piano, the dancers, the music--everything was in perfect sync. It was awesome.
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This past week Swing Memories performed at a few public dances, the most recent being this past Saturday at Farnsworth Hall in Mesa. Anali and some friends came and had a good time dancing! (Thanks Dave, Adrienne and Angie!)
Upcoming Performances: This Wednesday (Jan. 27th) we're at Superstition Sunrise Resort from 7-10pm. Then, Monday Feb. 7th we're at Crescent Run from 7-9pm. Feb. 11th there's a Valentine's dance from 7-10pm at Mt. Brook. Then, on Feb 12th we're back at the VFW again from 6-9pm. If you haven't had a chance to check us out, you ought to do yourself a favor and come and listen (and dance!). My Google calendar has all the addresses listed or check out the band's webpage: swingmemories.yolasite.com Just a quick update on some other performances this week and next: • Tuesday 1/25 7pm - Silveridge Pops at The Mesa Regal Resort • Tuesday 2/1 7pm - Silveridge Pops at Superstition Sunrise Resort • Wednesday 2/2 7pm - Mesa City Band at Sunland Village Ah, you fickle Project. I had thought that I'd be posting my latest hymn tune this week ("Navy Hymn"-click for a gorgeous, if brief, performance) or even a new Mars piece ("Medusae Fossae"). But, alas, it was not meant to be.
Instead, I've been writing backing tracks that I can use at St. Mark's. My drummer has recently gone AWOL (and the bass player has been missing for months!). As much as I'd rather have a living body filling those roles, I've decided that I can't wait any longer. Unfortunately I don't have enough arms and hands to play all those parts by myself. Yet, with the wonders of modern technology, I can record myself playing bass and (synthesized) drums and then use them while I play live guitar during the church service. Today I demonstrated this for the rector at the church, who mightily approved (it does sound pretty good, if I say so myself). Anyway, I've been busy programming Mainstage and writing drum patterns and recording bass lines. When I'm done I should be able to control a wide variety of backing tracks with foot switches (thanks to Apogee GiO). Once I get the basic rhythm tracks down, maybe I'll get really adventurous with some guitar leads or piano backings. Honestly, it's been a ton of fun and I don't mind that I have temporarily shelved my other compositions. Besides, there's a good deal of composition that goes into writing these parts and this has been satisfying that particular itch. Some related notes: Swing Memories is at the VFW this Saturday with two more swing gigs next week. Also, the Mesa City Band performs at Friendship Village next Tuesday (with my conducting debut!). And for an unrelated note: I just discovered The Ministry of Shakespeare, a podcast where they explore different readings of Shakespeare. I only listened to the most recent episode, but it was very cool. Yesterday I discovered the joys and frustrations of iMovie. It's pretty easy to use; I was able to make clips intuitively. It also takes forever to do anything with it. For every minute of video, the computer spent about 3 minutes to 'encode' it. So it was slow but easy work, and I had plenty of other things to do while the computer encoded the videos.
Anyway, I've posted just a few clips of the recital. I didn't put up all of them because uploading the videos was also slow work. Enjoy! Link - Winter 2010 Recital Page The New Year began on Saturday, but Monday was the first day of getting back into the rhythm that will carry us through 2011. Anali and I both ended our vacations; she went back to the library and I went back to my office and rehearsals. It felt good to get back, and I'm anxious to continue with many of my projects into the new year.
I have three new students starting this week, which I'm very pleased about. I have a new piece coming for Shades of Silver and String, as well as one for Sounds of a Sphere. And, of course, I am constantly toying with other ideas and projects--even I'm not entirely sure what will come to fruition over the next few weeks. Overall I'm pleased with the way this Project has gone since I began in August. For my father's birthday I prepared a CD with many of my pieces and recordings and was pleasantly surprised to see how much music I had written and recorded. On another note, I discovered yesterday at the Silveridge rehearsal that the Pops Orchestra has a website. Aside from some general info, there is a nice calendar showing our performances with links to maps. The flute section of the orchestra will be performing my arrangement of Haydn's String Quartet Op. 76 No. 5 II on Feb. 9th and I'll be playing alto flute (which I enjoy a lot!). I'm also very fond of that piece, so I'm looking forward to that performance in particular. |
Chris PerryMusician & educator Archives
March 2015
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