Tuesday, August 17, 2010

End of Berklee, Back to Life

So where I last left off, I had just finished up a whirlwind of a gig with the Middle Eastern ensemble, which went amazingly well, plus I got the recordings of the set, so I'll see if I can upload them.

After a short, two song set with another ensemble on Tuesday, real work began for the workshop concert on that Thursday. What was truly stressful about this whole thing was that a number of songs we were going to be doing on Tuesday were just being put in front of us! Nevertheless, we managed to pull three new songs together for our show on Thursday, which had five total tunes in the set. Overall, the concert was a great success, and I felt that I and everyone else played great! What was also great was that my whole family was able to come...it was great to see all of them, plus I got a free dinner out of it :)

I had originally planned to stay and watch the other workshop, but I had to run over to the BPC in time for the Instrumental Showcase concert, which included the Funk/Fusion all stars, of which I was a part. I arrived in time, and when I walked out on stage, I couldn't believe the number of people in the crowd...I dont think I had ever played in front of that many people before in my life! But no time for nerves...this was showtime. From the first beat to the last, there was nothing but pure energy, music, fun and soul...it was unbelievable to play with so many amazing people. After such a great gig, there was only one place left to go: Teriyaki House!!!!!!!!! After a bunch of us ate, those of us in the workshop called Terri Lynne, our teacher, just to thank her for all the great work. What a great night!

After a lazy Friday in which I mostly said goodbyes and bought records, I left the Berklee 5 week program on a bus headed for Portland. Once home, I had only a day of rest before I started on my next project: rehearsing with my old band, DysFunktional Mayhem, for our upcoming one -year reunion show at SPACE Gallery in Portland. As I am writing this post, I have just gotten back from a two day marathon rehearsal at out keyboard player's house in Acton, Maine (Oh yeah Massachusetts, you thought you had the only Acton...hah!), which although beautiful, was extremely out of the way and took over an hour to get to. What was also great about the trip is that I actually did all the driving, which had never happened with our crew, and the role reversal was not lost on anyone!

In closing, what can I say about Berklee except that it was one of the greatest and most incredible experiences that I've ever had. Ive definitely gotten better from it, in large part because I got to play with incredible musicians and benefit from their experiences as well as learning more about myself and what I can/need to do on my instrument.

Im positive all that will come in handy when I take the stage this Wednesday (tomorrow!!) with DysFunktional Mayhem at Space Gallery at 8pm in Portland. Will Gattis opens up the show, and then DFM will be rocking and funking up the house! Hope you can make it...its FREE!!!!

More to come...

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