Sunday, June 04, 2006

A Celebration of Time and Love

I'm back from my parents' anniversary reception, and I have to say that the whole thing was great. Everybody really liked the band; the standards that we played actually had some meaning to the mostly-older crowd, because a lot of it was the music of "their day." It was a challenge to keep focused sometimes, because a lot of my parents' friends (many of whom I hadn't seen since my sister's wedding ten years ago) came up to talk to me when I wasn't soloing; this resulted in some longer bass solos than expected, but it was all good.

I met some people who had spent quite a bit of time involved with music, including a former big-band tenor player who had toured with some "name" bands and even fronted his own for a while, as well as a guy who sang in a rock band for 28 years. I also had at least three people tell me that they had a daughter who used to play tenor in school but had given it up to concentrate on piano or changed interests or whatever.

But the coolest thing about the reception was just getting to celebrate Mom and Dad. Everyone who's met them always commented on what nice people they are, and the 100+ people who descended upon the country club over those three hours to celebrate with them are living proof of how many lives they have touched. Seeing some of the fruits of their time together--such as my sister with my two nephews and one more "in the oven," as Dad said, and me with my music, the training for which was heavily bankrolled by Mom and Dad--just drove the point home even more that these were two people who were meant to be together for all time.

We got some serious chill time at Mom and Dad's house afterwards, and then we had to leave way too early this morning so one of the guys could go play another gig; another guy had one a few hours after we got back, and I was off to an alumni meeting; the life of a musician rarely involves lots of measures of rest, as it were. But even though it was a whirlwind trip of sorts, there wasn't any other place that I would have been yesterday, and it was a privilege to participate.

Summer teaching starts in the morning, but I also have lots of topics to post about, so expect some new stuff on a daily basis for a while.

2 comments:

Eric Grubbs said...

Definitely not a wallpaper gig I take it . . .

Kev said...

Actually, in a way it was a wallpaper gig in that the people weren't actively listening, but the background served more of a purpose than it would have at, say, your typical corporate banquet or what-not (mostly because the music resonated with them on a personal level, and because I was one of the players). However, there was, as I said in the post, a lot of interaction between me and the guests.