Jazz at the Seasons Restuarant

Sunday, 07 November 2004 23:00

News Blog

FYI, the Seasons was rated for best restaurant in the Fox Cities, for the second year in a row! We had another nice weekend playing there. Friday night Tom had an unexpected conflict so Roger Teske played his fretted Taylor bass with me. He said he got this bass used, it once belonged to the bass player for Dave Mason. Dave Mason had a hit in the early 70's called "We Just Disagree" which was incidentally written by a composer in Sheboygan. That song makes it to my list of 70's hits, interesting story as well. The bass sounded great and was an interesting acoustic sounding mix with jazz guitar and classical guitar. Roger could make a washboard sound good though.

Saturday night Tom was back. Two students joined us from UW Fox Valley - they were taking a jazz appreciation course and their assignment was to hear some live jazz and critique two songs. We hooked Domonic and his friend for three sets, that was nice. Good conversation as well, their teacher is Dave Jordahl. I had the pleasure to play with Dave years ago with the GJG and he is a true jazz artist. There was also a former drummer from Stan Kenton's band there, he requested "Polkadots and Moonbeams" but we forgot to play it! Wes Montgomery did a beautiful version of that song on his debut album "Incredible Guitar". I will learn that and if our drummer comes back I'll be ready. Our backing tracks went much easier due to preparation and more planning, we mixed this in with unaccompanied guitar and bass. Tom got to show off his new horn, it seems like it added more range and a fuller tone. This replaces his prior horn of 25 years. He even sported a 'trombone' tie as well.

Last set was a mix of some new tunes from the 60's and 70's - we picked some Beatles ballads, Moody Blues, Jimmy Buffet, a little blues, and a few requests as well. The bar crowd stayed around for a little past eleven - Dominic, Judy and her friends, and another table I didn't recognize.