I Like My Job

So I might only be working part time still, but I can't complain much more than that. We are back in the swing of things at the Bistro, so I'll be nice and busy now-a-days. We have had a couple of cool events since the last post too. on September 10th we had an event at Neiman Marcus called Fashion's Night Out. It was a nationwide event at all Neiman Marcus locations. Jazz St. Louis was one of two not-for-profits that took part in the St. Louis event, raffling off a $500 NM gift card and putting on a concert with Good 4 the Soul and a few of our kids from the student groups we teach. The event was a lot of fun, featuring runway shows every 30 minutes, open bar, and hors devours from some of St. Louis' best restaurants. It was pretty nice spending the night around rich people and hot models....

This past weekend tops that though. On Saturday, we presented saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Touhill (a performance hall on the campus of Univ. of Missouri StL). For those of you who don't know, Sonny Rollins is commonly referred to as "the last living jazz legend." He has played with EVERYBODY: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Max Roach, you name 'em, he played with 'em. Anyway, Rollins is now 79 and still touring, but mostly overseas. It was a huge show for us, with 1400 people turning out for this once in a lifetime experience. I spent all day backstage helping out the band and got to meet and talk with Sonny a pretty decent amount. It was quite an honor talking to such a legend in the jazz world. The best part was that he was sooo down to earth. He could easily be a huge prima donna, but he definitely was not. Its great working with the best artists in the business when they are actually nice people. Pat Martino was the same way. But then there are people that are terrible to work with who 99.9% of people have never heard of. Oh well. Anyway, the concert was incredible and he signed my all-access pass after the show! Good Stuff!

As far as MY band goes, I have only been to one rehearsal so far, but it was a lot of fun. I just got my friend Steve to join as the tenor and bari sax player, so we now have two horns. We are playing a lot of great tunes: some Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Joe Cocker and other stuff in that vein. Our gig is still two months off, but we are hoping to book some more stuff around that time, so that should be exciting.

In other news, I have been REALLY lazy with my climbing, but hopefully will really get back into it now that the weather is starting to cool off, which means Bouldering Season!!! Also, this past Friday we had our housewarming party (finally). It was a good time, but the turnout wasn't quite as good as I would've hoped. We did have some neighbors join us though, so that was nice.

And last but not least: HOW 'BOUT 'DEM BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone (ESPECIALLY Tony) got to watch the awesomeness that was Da Bears incredible defeat of the defending Superbowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Talk about an intense game.

Sorry if this post is a little disjointed and rambling, but I am in the middle of watching a marathon of The Office on TBS....Hopefully next time I will have some pictures for you! Talk to you soon!