Now playing in iTunes: Stop Your Groanin’, Paul deLay.
An appropriate (and random) choice by iTunes there, as last night brought me a peak experience: sitting in with Paul himself. I went to the Ken Johnson benefit (see previous post) with low expectations, since unlike some folks, I hadn’t been “assigned” in advance to any of the groupings that were slated to play. But a helpful word from David Moore got me a slot sitting in with Terry Robb, Aric Riley and Marty Henninger on drums (bass player was Susie?). That was a kick in the pants right there…Terry called some of my favorite tunes, like “Worried Life Blues” and “My Baby Left Me.” And as a closer, we played “Cissy Strut” which let me mess around on the organ; at the end Terry and I were trading fours — GREAT fun.
So toward the end of my set with Terry, Paul deLay and his band were arriving for their upcoming set (Kinzel & Hyde were between Terry and Paul). Paul took a seat near the stage and was listening to Terry and band. A little while after I’d played with Terry, I walked into the “Green Room” to chat with Ken a bit, and then on my way out I walked past Paul. He stopped me and asked if we’d met before. Heh…not really. Then he said that he wasn’t sure if David Vest (the piano player in his band) was going to show, and he asked me if I’d mind sitting in with him if David didn’t arrive before they played. Well, there’s really only one answer to that question, y’know?
So that’s how I ended up onstage with Paul, Brad Ulrich on bari sax, Dave Kahl on bass, Peter Dammann (yow!) and Chris Carlson (of the Duffy Bishop Band) on guitars, and a great drummer whose name I didn’t catch. It was a pretty cool roller-coaster ride…don’t remember how many tunes we played, but we seemed to cover nearly all possible feels. Paul was great about letting me know what he wanted from the keys, and was generous with the solos. He sat right next to me, and it was an added treat to watch him work from so close. Very cool to see and feel how much he enjoys it.
When it was all over I chatted with the guys in the band a bit, listened to some of King Juju & The Beats’ set, and then decided it had been a full evening and I should take off. Thanks to David Moore providing the keyboard rig (he’d played with Jim Miller, Jim Hurley & others earlier in the day), I had nothing to haul outta there…a wonderful feeling. So I headed home and called it a night.
[sigh]
As for today, I’ve got some miscellaneous projects to attack and hopefully wrap up. So with this post being plenty long enough already, I’ll bring it to a close and get started on that stuff.