John Hancotte's Bass Desires: A Platinum Style Reception at the Savannah Yacht Club

A black-tie affair captured after our 1st set

Had to make a whirlwind trek down & back to the Savannah area for a wedding reception. This was a great gig and an opportunity to witness some serious humidity that makes Atlanta feel like an arid desert. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it felt like like walking into a bathroom after a 30 minute shower with no fan or window. It was liquid air. Glad to report that the band did play indoors, although the a.c. was put to the test. We were at the Savannah Yacht Club, of course, which turned out to be a "larger than it first appeared to be" venue layout for the very large number of attendees.

Getting there was half the fun, of course. I encountered the blessed traffic snarl of I-75 below The Ted where they are repaving (I think) & where an hourly accident occurs, due to the driving habits of the ATL's elite "automobile insurance information exchanging club" (The AIIEC). This put me a bit late getting to G-Clef's sprawling abode in Clayton County, where I was also meeting up with D-Mac. The three of us rode on and actually made good time through a couple of rather severe storms and stopping for lunch at ye olde Subway just past Macon. We got in and set up in fine fashion just in time for soundcheck, which was at 4. We had a Father-Daughter dance to go over: "I Loved Her First" by the country group "Heartland". Here's my chart of it, converted from a word document form (not a spreadsheet but a table):

I made this for a different band's event, so yes, I've played it before. We shortened it by ending the tune after the 2nd chorus and going to the very end. The fiddle line was played on soprano sax by our newest member, Anton Harris (this link takes you to CD Baby, where you can check out his band's debut of original modern jazz - most excellent in a Branford style, if I'm allowed a one-word generalization). It all sounded great, I must say, especially with Kevin Harry's Southern drawl-isms. Another tune we put together was the great "Hot Chocolate" ditty "You Sexy Thing". Once again, Kevin was called into action and I have to say that one is a tough one to sing convincingly. I've always been impressed by the range in that tune: over an F chord, the melody sweeps from an A to an A 1-octave higher. Very arpeggiated melody, like singing the chord in it's 1st inversion. That is challenging, IMHO. He did well, and the music was tight. For the show, we went straight from YST into our Michael Jackson medley (a great merge), which I'd personally still like to extend by making "Billie Jean" a bit longer.

We wore tuxes (and some wore dresses) for the event, so it was appropriate that we convened out front for a quick photo shoot. Hope it came out well - I haven't seen the shot yet. This was the first Platinum gig I can recall that we actually played longer than we were obligated to, only by 1 extra song. Gus had already (and rightfully so) started breaking down his kit when V told us we had 1 more to do. Of course, we were trying to pack it all up as fast as possible to get back on the road. D-Mac did the honors by driving us all the way back - way to go D! We all know how boring I-16 can be. Very straight and, well, boring. I dozed a bit, knowing I had my obligation to Charley in the early morning. I got home around 5 a.m., no worse for wear (yeah, right).

The view from the venue.

The patio just outside from the stage.

Anton brought his soprano for the 1st time.

Ice Yacht.

They really enjoyed themselves - and nobody told us to turn down, even though a guest of honor table was directly in front of D.J.'s stage left speaker stack!

Still, I got in 2 hours of sleep and then I was back at it for 2 services at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church. The day starts with rehearsals. I must admit I had a hard time concentrating. I read fairly well, although to this day I have to think a bit more in reading bass clef as opposed to treble clef. Then they go ahead and change the key of the song to suit the vocalists, so I'm transposing as well. We also modulated in one of the songs, but for some reason the modulation was nixed (I think nixxed is way the way it should be spelled) on the 2nd service. I wear headphones to monitor myself and the others, so sometimes it can be hard to tell when somebody didn't modulate. It was good to see David Freeman, a founding member of Platinum. It was also great to play with the long-standing drummer for Mt. Bethel, Chris Wilkes, who is moving up to the nether-regions of Portland, Maine to open a school of music with his wife. Also in the band is Dustin, who I've known since the days of Limelight. Chuck, the musical director, is an amazing pianist with big ears and the ability to call the shots on the fly. I keep my eyes on him just in case. Always a privilege to play on this great stage!