| Hi Friends of Music, I just finished a morning recording session and now I’m in my office trying to lasso the weekly gig email. Nat Adderley is helping out by filling the air with his version of the minor jazz classic “Jeannine”. Words are starting to come to me and so I’ll take you back a few days to where I’ve been.
I flew to San Franciso for a quick hit at the Pete Douglas Beach House and you talk about ultimate setups for music, this is right up there! His concert space sits at the ocean edge at Half Moon Bay. Pete’s a rusty old guy that likes to talk about the history of jazz in the Bay Area, spicing things up by throwing in beat poet excerpts from Ferlinghetti and Kerouac.  The entrance to the Half Moon gig. The road getting to Half Moon Bay is a magical bendy thing that descends into the town through a beautiful green tree laden canyon. After a mega perfecto salad at a Whole Foods-esque establishment, we then unloaded the gear and worked out the kinks in the music. The band was Geoffrey Keezer on piano, Essiet Essiet on bass, Sylvia Cuenca on drums, Denise Donatelli singing and me on the guitar. It was a great night of music!  The view from the back of the stage with Peter on the left, Denise, Keezer at the piano, Essiet on bass, and Sylvia on drums. You ever heard of the big wave spot Mavericks? It turns out we we’re looking directly out to the takeoff zone as we played our gig. There weren’t any waves this time around but my next plan is to book a show when I know the waves will be rumbling. I’d love to watch the whole thing go down in real time. (I’m not going out, it’s too big!)  The view from the gig out to Mavericks. It’s located at the end of the point in the distance. I’ve got a bunch of gigs this week and it all starts tomorrow at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego. It’ll be a night of Blurring the Edges featuring Fred Benedetti on guitar, Tripp on sax, and Peter the guitar-man. We’ve got a new program worked out and if you mix that in with the great performance space, it’s a shoe-in!  Live at Cuyamaca! On Thursday it’ll be my on going solo guitar session at the Roxy in Encinitas—the six string revolution! Saturday is a double header with first an afternoon slot at the Encinitas Street Fair with Leonard and Tripp. From there I’ll make my way to 98 Bottles in San Diego to connect with Anthony Smith’s group. He has a double CD that he recorded at SpragueLand and this night will be his CD release concert. It’s a great band with Mike Wofford, Holly Hofmann and others and we’ll be doing Anthony’s original music from the album. Big fun!  Band break! Left to right top row, Peter, Duncan, Holly Hofmann and Mike Wofford. In the front, Rob Thorsen and Anthony Smith. Next up, (and maybe I should just sleep there) I’ll be back on Sunday night at 98 Bottles to play the music of Ella Fitzgerald. Bassist Danny Weller has assembled a great group with vocalist Rebecca Jade at the helm and together we’ll trance into Ella’s world. See you then!
On Monday, Tripp, Bob Magnusson and I head down to Cabo for some music and surfing. We’re playing a show at the Cabo Surf Hotel so if you know any folks that hang out down there please share the music news. When we get back we’re playing a concert the next night at Dizzy’s with the Mesa College Big Band. I’m letting you know now because I’m pretty sure I won’t have time to get an email out while I’m surfing in Mexico. Instead it’ll be a low tech week, unwinding, scanning the horizon, and making my moves in slo-mo. See you soon and thanks for reading along, Peter |
“Costa Azul”
Next week we’re heading to Mexico and this got me thinking about a tune that I composed in 2008 while I was on a surf and music excursion in Cabo San Lucas. Our good pals C.J. and Sheila put us up in their beach house overlooking the Zipper’s surf spot. The vibe was fantastic and we had a bunch of long uninterrupted days, hanging under the palapa, watching the waves break and awaiting a spell when the lineup would empty out. I was continually noodling with my guitar and this little tune magically appeared one day. We recorded it when we got back and now it’s on my Free Floating SpragueSongs album. Check it out!