On Monday night, my friend Josh Irving played at a fairly new Brazilian jazz club in New York called Cachaça.  Josh is a saxophonist I’ve known for nearly nine years now (has it been that long already?).  His quartet featured long time collaborator George Dulin on piano, Danny Zanker on bass, and special guest Francisco Mela on drums.  Josh kindly gave me an opportunity to sit in on his song "9 Goes To 10".  I didn’t know it at the time, but Jen took this video on her digital camera:

It was really dark in there!  This is the first video of me playing since high school (I dare anyone to try to dig that recording up!), so I thought I’d post it here.  This is actually my least favorite of Josh’s compositions to play on…it just has this way of kicking my ass and is very difficult for me to find anything melodic to play over the chord changes.  Last time I saw Josh perform this tune, he had Dan Pratt  playing tenor.  Dan made it sound like a piece of cake!  Not surprisingly, as everything he plays is supremely lyrical.  That’s one of the beautiful things about New York…there are always brilliant musicians to inspire you!

Incidently, Josh and I recorded a more relaxed version of this tune in the studio in 2000.  It’s totally different in this setting…

Anyway, this really has me excited to play more jazz.  I have a very busy next three months, but I’m managing to get some tenor time in there.

Farther than a full tank from Chicago, Martha’s Vineyard is the final resting place of John Belushi. This weekend, the Blues Brothers star and soul music fanatic surely crashed the wedding in spirit as the Duke Baxter Band put on a memorable show for our very hip and generous hosts.

Sittin’ on the dock of the bay…

The weather was perfect all weekend, which made for pleasant ferry rides both ways. We docked in Oak Bluffs where we amused ourselves with severely undercooked lunches and the comically overprotective ranting of a high school soccer coach. Due to lack of vehicles this side of the water, part of the band went ahead to set up the gear. When they came back, we learned that it was possible to fit eight musicians into a Honda CRV with their luggage and instruments. Shame nobody had John Philip Sousa on their iPods…

We couldn’t sound check, so we just turned invisible

The wedding was on the grounds of a beautiful contemporary house with beach access. There was a giant tent topped with white pennants set up in the back yard for the reception. The ceremony itself was in a sandy clearing near the water’s edge. I would have loved to parade our dusty dress shoes past the shoeshine fellas at Grand Central.

Matt restricts his gear to the essential effects

None of us had much sleep between Friday’s late night rehearsal and Saturday’s early ferry trip. Fortunately, our hosts let us use a bedroom and private bath for our “backstage” area. We had several hours to kill before the opening set, and much of the time was spent catnapping or cowbelling, even simultaneously.

I sure hope she wore cowboy boots for the ceremony

We even got some group photos of the band taken shortly before taking the stage. Not with much success in the dwindling dusk light, but we were on the beach and that’s what counted. I also warmed up my sax by playing on the beach, which will be my second favorite place I’ve played after I’ve played on a mountaintop.

Everybody needs somebody to sing lead like Darren

Two new arrangements, Joe Cocker’s “The Letter” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, enhanced three powerful sets that had everyone dancing til 12:30 am. The “sweatiest guy on the dance floor” contest was almost too close to call!

Elizabeth sure knows how to play this thing

Complete darkness, a starry sky, a comfy deck with lawn chairs, and a bag of Sour Patch Watermelons is one of the better ways to wait an hour for a ride. That’s how we passed the time while waiting to go to the guest house they put us up in for the night.

And there were shadow dancers!

We were expecting a tiny cottage with sparse furnishings, but were thrilled to find a marvelous home lit up and waiting for us with amenities including ping pong and a piano in the basement. Darren cooked us pasta and we stayed up until 5 am having a good time and jumping in the ocean.

The next day, we finally caught up on our sleep, checked out the beach in the morning, got lunch in town, and rode the ferry back to the mainland. Definitely a five star gig all the way!