Silent Auction at Atlanta Athletic Club: Time To Dance

Photo taken and processed by Kevin Harry on his iPhone 4.

We did this event last year as well.  It was discussed;  I had reviewed the dates, as I have been working on taxes and tabulating mileage and expenses.  It was mentioned that it could have been the night that Whitney Houston died.  And so it was.  Once again, we were held captive until they were ready for us.  It was Platinum sans Virginia, but with Dianna and even Anton, so it was a 7 piece.  We did a shortened version of our typical set; ie one or so slower numbers, Motown, then KC, no rap, then Last Dance.  We added the latest from Bruno Mars: Locked Out Of Heaven, ie the one we rehearsed weeks ago with the hip dance moves.  I practiced my dancing but I'm still not quite ready for prime time.  I move to left when everybody else goes to the right.  That's my style!  Glen helped me a bit, perhaps as much as he could.  Even better, he broke some ice and asked about Jack and Spencer.  It was nice to connect with him a bit on a personal level.  Very cool of him.  He sang the majority of the tunes.  Derek looked like he just got back from The Biggest Loser.  He has really shed some pounds, not that he needed to.  I guess he has eliminated some empty calorie intake recently.  Good for him.  Sure played well.  Anton was back and ready, but I missed his keys.  I guess we weren't doing many of the tunes he plays keys on for that matter.  Gus gets MVP for absolutely killing the drum and sample parts on LOOH, nailing all of the vocal stabs and the half-time near the end.  Dianna gets points for looking and singing like Beyonce - she works it like no one else.  Kevin brings the magic without fail - a strong front man with a whimsical side.

Played my Precision and it sounded fine.  No buzz/grounding issue like there is every so often.  Took a minute or two to get warmed up and not drift away into la-la land.  I botched the first bridge on Georgia On My Mind:

should be:
vi           ii           vi          IV
vi           ii           vi          V/V

I played:

vi           ii           vi          ii
vi           ii           vi          V/V

It sounded weird, but it could have been much worse.   At least my note made it another C minor and not something completely out of key.  We play it in the key of Bb, so that the bridge starts on Gm, fwiw.  The responsibility of bass should never go unnoticed.

What else?  It was early on, whatever it was.  Nothing as bad as that.  Shortly after that, we did the theme song of the night, Heart and Soul.  Yes, the classic piano ditty as heard in Tom Hanks' Big.  That bridge is strange, at least the changes I found online.  We got through it, keeping the tag in place for the duration of the form.  I had rehearsed Last Dance in my car outside of Padriac's the night before, so I was refreshed on the form.  That is a fun tune on bass, but I may want to try it with a pick next time.  I think it was tracked with a pick - those licks are just too clean and quick.  Disco's finest moment?  Discuss amongst yourselves.

Thanks again to Kevin for his artistic rendering of my laidback personna non-grata.  Always an honor to be treated through his lens.