Look out Ray Brown!
Recently I've been playing for the musical Plaid Tidings, a Christmas spinoff of Forever Plaid. It's been a kick. Haven't done a musical since Oliver Twist (w/ Christopher Lloyd) at the Sundance outdoor theater back when I was an undergrad.
Anyway, here's the four Plaids in their calypso digs during intermission. The elderly fellow is the pianist, Bob Bailey, who is 89 years young. In his earlier days he played piano for the Dean Martin show, as well as Nat King Cole, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, Pearl Bailey, and Mel Thorme -- to name a few. He and his wife have served four missions. He's quite a guy and an incredible pianist. I have been gigging with him since I was an undergrad. He's one of these guys that can play just about any standard in any key. For the Dean Martin show he'd have to arrange on-the-fly in rehearsals to accommodate the various celebs that would appear each show, constantly having to shift keys around & alter pre-arranged tunes to put the guests and Dean in the best light. I've heard him make key-wandering vocalists sound great.
If he's doing an actual performance-type gig, one of his schticks is to have audience members give the last four digits of their phone numbers which, using them as scale steps, he then improvises a tune using the consecutive digits as a motive of sorts. It's very cool.
Anyway, here's the four Plaids in their calypso digs during intermission. The elderly fellow is the pianist, Bob Bailey, who is 89 years young. In his earlier days he played piano for the Dean Martin show, as well as Nat King Cole, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, Pearl Bailey, and Mel Thorme -- to name a few. He and his wife have served four missions. He's quite a guy and an incredible pianist. I have been gigging with him since I was an undergrad. He's one of these guys that can play just about any standard in any key. For the Dean Martin show he'd have to arrange on-the-fly in rehearsals to accommodate the various celebs that would appear each show, constantly having to shift keys around & alter pre-arranged tunes to put the guests and Dean in the best light. I've heard him make key-wandering vocalists sound great.
If he's doing an actual performance-type gig, one of his schticks is to have audience members give the last four digits of their phone numbers which, using them as scale steps, he then improvises a tune using the consecutive digits as a motive of sorts. It's very cool.
This is the pit band (we're actually right on stage). That's Mitch Lee (a drummer I have been gigging with for at least 14 years), Bob, and myself (with the double-chin, as Andrea likes to point out).
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