Storyville Jazz Band
The rumors are true, I have returned to the real world. My 3-week stint at the Homestead has come to and end. Gramps, who lives about 60 miles east of the Homestead in Roseburg, came and picked me up on Tuesday: I gave him a quick tour, we ate lunch, and then I said my see-you-laters.
We drove back to Roseburg, and on the way Gramps asked if I would be interested in going with him to his weekly dancing night at the Moose Lodge. Uh, YEAH. How could I pass that up? We ate dinner (at 4:45pm, no joke) with some of his friends who mainly asked about Antarctica. The dancing started at 6pm, but we showed up fashionably late at 7pm. Oh yeah, we were cool.
The Moose Lodge in Roseburg, OR is quite the place, especially when it’s elderly dancing night. The Storyville Jazz Band was ripping it up as we walked into the ballroom. We took our seat with the rest of the crew, and Gramps got right to dancing! During the first set break, Gramps asked the drummer if I could sit on a few songs. Things were starting to get interesting.
Soon enough, they called me up on stage: Loraine (the pianist) introduced me to the crowd and told everyone about my upcoming Antarctic adventures. We kicked out some jams, mainly jazzy/swingy tunes with really simple drums. It was great, I didn’t really have to think much about what I was playing and I could just enjoy myself up on stage. Wow. It was fun.
That wrapped up their 2nd set, and I went back to where Gramps’ crew was sitting and hung out, answering more questions about Antarctica. A few minutes later Lary, the father of the saxophone player, sat down next to me and asked if I would be interested in joining his son’s band. Apparently his son recently recorded a demo with some players that had connections to Luther Vandross and The Temptations. Really? Wow, that’s cool. Then he says, “I’ve got the demo out in the car, wanna come listen to it?” Uh, YEAH!
So we go outside to his truck and listen to the demo. It sounded pretty good considering it was recorded in his living room. Lary told me more about the “famous” musicians his son was playing with, and how they wanted to take their show on the road. He also made sure to mention just about every instant in which you could hear his son’s saxophone. After about 3 songs, his wife came running out to the car to tell me that I was needed inside. What? Really? OK.
I ran back inside and right as I entered the ballroom, Loraine shouted through the PA, “There he is! Get on up here, Eli!” I ran up on stage, jumped behind the drums, and we finished off their 3rd and final set together.
Wow, what a night.
