| Salutations in Good Health!
Instead of hand shakes and hugs I’ve learned to do this foot bump that the world health organization claims is bulletproof. It at least carries a little humor with it to make up for the loss of human connection that comes with hand touching hand. May we all prevail in good health! Good gigs last week and for this week it’s as if we’re on tour with the Blurring the Edges band. Hallelujah, two gigs back to back! Unheard of in this day of lugging the gear, setting up, playing a show, packing up, lugging the gear again and that’s it, never to return to the venue until the next year. Back in the day (BITD) our stints at the jazz clubs in La Jolla were 5 nights a week for a month straight. Talk about getting the arrangements tight! And gear, not only did we have less of it, we only dealt with it once a week. But I like now too! Playing concerts where it’s all about the music, where silence is an option to add into the mix—this reigns supreme over blenders and coffee roasting hoopla clogging up the air waves with boisterous clients yacking in the back. This reminds me of a clever tune that Jim Plank wrote years ago — “Table For Two, Away From the Band Please”. That’s pretty much the whole story…  This photo was taken in the late ’80’s during a break from one of our long stints at Elarios in La Jolla. That’s me on the left, Tripp, Bob Magnusson, Kevyn Lettau, and Billy Mintz the forever merry prankster. Yes, back to the mini tour taking place this week — it’s Fred Benedetti on guitar, Tripp on sax and flute, me on guitar and we’re first concertizing at the Ramona Library on Thursday night. After the gig we’ll board the tour bus and even though it could drive to our destination for the next gig in less than an hour, it’ll drive in circles all night just to give us the flavor of being on tour. We’ll arrive the next day (Saturday), just in time to play a 7:30pm downbeat at Grossmont College. Again the same band and this time, having one show under our belt, we’ll play with fortitude and assuredness. (“Slaying it” is how the metal guys refer to it). Maybe we’ll call it the Blur Tour (try saying that ten times fast) and it ought to be a hoot. Join in if you can!  Blurring the Edges in 2019. love from the road, Peter |