I must admit there is a good feeling to participating in a function which is successful in raising over $20,000 for homeless children in Vietnam. Last night, our little impromptu band (various saxophones, keyboard, drums and bass) did a very good job in playing for around 700 people at the beginning of the night. All of our rehearsals came good in the end, and overall our sound had a very professional feel about it and I must admit I had a good time. The function was very well organised, and I even ran into a few old friends that I hadn’t seen for a while. Small world.
I was particularly pleased about David’s performance and he handled the stresses and strains of lead instrumentalist very well. He was able to use a professional wireless microphone which clipped onto the bell of the saxophones, and the sound (once we got the tonal balance right) was very good. His only hiccup came when the photographer for the night shined a very strong spotlight in his face but then again that sort of thing would distract anyone…
It’s amazing how much music gear we have, and how much we needed to take for the occasion – keyboard + stand, saxophones, music stands, cables, computer (David did all of the audiovisual productions as well) and a great number of odds and ends. Fortunately we didn’t need the keyboard amplifier, microphones, microphone stands, mixer etc otherwise we would have needed to hire a truck.
I learnt a few things about our family members too. I never knew my delightful niece could shimmy like that – I wonder how much the photographs are worth.
So now back to normalcy, at least once we’ve unpacked the car.
On the Stuart front, things are fairly quiet, although the same thing cannot be said about some of the noise I’m making at the moment. The good thing is that my eye has settled down well and I suspect that my appointment with my specialist this week will be one of the ‘looks good, see you in three months’ type of appointment which most surgeons find is the best kind. Now perhaps I can settle down a bit and get some practice done.
