Fat Tuesday on Sunday

Several of the orchestra members asked me to play some Dixieland Jazz with them in celebration of Fat Tuesday. They were performing it after the morning services at the Methodist church in town on the Sunday before Fat Tuesday - yesterday. The church itself is a small sweet historical building. They recently built a community center and a separate building to serve food.

We performed in the building where coffee and brunch was available after the morning services. They also wanted me to play the new church-owned white string bass. White. That’s different! Hmmm.

So, off I went to the one rehearsal on Saturday morning. There was actual written music for our little bunch of musicians performing on trumpet, clarinet, trombone, guitar, banjo, drums and me on the shockingly white bass. The poor thing just had new strings put on it and was having difficulties staying in tune.

I do have to say that the musical arrangements were wonderful and I loved all the “walking bass” parts. But, as a classical musician, my finger was sore from all the picking!

For the performance on Sunday, we played Basin Street Blues, Darktown Strutters Ball, Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue, When the Saints Go Marching In, and Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey. We took all the repeats and played the line up three times.

Everyone loved it and there is talk of a repeat performance for the seniors group later in the month.

I had invited Natalie and Winnie to join me, if they could. I thought this short concert was a perfect venue for Winnie to see live music - she could dance, talk, sing and no one would notice. She ended up sitting at a close table and just staring at all the action. She loved it. Her first live performance. There also were Mardi Gras beads, cookies, King Cake and Rice Krispie Bars involved. I told her about the hidden baby baked into the cake. The person who get it has to buy the cake the following year!

All in all, a huge hit!