iPods, Songs, and a Confluence of Men

I had a ball at Raz last night. I've always wanted to have a party of all my friends at my house where I could just play the piano all evening. Who cares what the caterer would cost? I would be having the time of my life. That's basically what happened last night.

My dear friend Terry, who is the PR Manager of the Tucson Symphony, had invited our friend Cassandra and me for a birthday drink. Cassandra was formerly the Development Associate at TSO at the time I was the Information Systems Manager. The three of us shared cubicle walls in an office and developed a close and enduring friendship. Terry knows I would like to live in his closet and stroke his wardrobe on a regular basis. He's the only guy I know who loves Nordstrom almost as much as I.

As we were sitting there hearing about the new and seemingly permanent (finally!) man in Cassandra's life and the gossip at the Symphony, who should walk in the door of Raz but Frank and one of the fillies, actually the filly who cuts my hair. (Don't let anyone tell you Tucson is not a small town.) Then at 6:30 the Professor came in and was seated directly ahead of me so we could maintain eye contact and he could feed me tunes. (Oh, and an hour later the retired lawyer/real estate investor came in. He was wearing a clean shirt.)

The Professor's knowledge of jazz repertoire is astonishing. He kept feeding me song titles that I'd never played before. I could usually get eight or sixteen measures of the song, but tended to fall down at the bridge. Yesterday at work I bought a couple of songs off iTunes to try to get them in my head. I didn't master them yesterday, but I'm starting to build up, with the Professor's help, quite a list of fine songs to learn and add to my repertoire.

I may have to remove all the audible books from my iPod to have room for all these new tunes I'm going to learn.

I am really astonished with the musical inventiveness inside the Professor's skull. I hold my ear up to his ear just to hear what's going on inside there, and I am amazed. As this relationship (yes, I'm feeling like I can call it a relationship) develops, I can't wait to continue sitting on a piano bench with him and developing my style based on what he hears.

My friend Joe, who has the classic rock band East2West, came in and sang three numbers. I think we have the possibility of being fabulous together, but it will require a PA system. The system at Raz wasn't working last night so Joe really had to push to enable me to hear him and enable the audience to hear him. And I blew a chord because I was distracted by the sound situation. I hope Joe had enough fun that he'll want to work with me again, despite my blowing last night.

I may have doubts about the woman who is acting as event planner for these Tuesday night gigs, but I'm going to enjoy them as long as they last and as long as I can stand working with her.