Yesterday’s gig was an event worth remembering. Members of Purple Calypso went down to perform with saxophonist Andrea Rivera- Luna, and guitarist Nick Arne at Squizzles in Wilton, CT. This felt like a routine performance to the whole group. this story is best told from the beginning. Ben arrived at the Natal’s house to be driven the 30 minute drive to the event. When he arrived at the house, he met Nick Arne. Nick is a very funny guy who plays the blues with so much soul that it radiates into everyone else’s playing. Nick and Joe where standing there as Ben walked in, jamming. As soon as he walked into the room, it was time to play some music and at the same time practice a little bit before the performance. The 10 minute practice session consisted of Blue Trane, Tenor Madness (although there were no tenor saxes to be found), and Autumn Leaves. After that was finished, it was time to load the car. . . The Volvo seemed at the start not to be able to hold the equipment: 3 guitars, a saxophone, 2 music stands, a mic stand, and 3 medium sized amplifiers, but somehow everything was wedged in and then they were merrily on their way. 3 oranges and 30 minutes later they arrived at Squizzles frozen yogurt in Wilton. The next step was for them to unload everything and somehow get some power for the outdoor event. They placed everything down on one side not thinking that power was going to be an issue. Turns out that there was no power on that side of the building so they proceeded to carry everything to the other side where there was an outside power source. So after hooking everything up they plugged the power strip into the outlet and no sound came out of the amps. The group were determined to get electricity running. So Nick and Ben walked into the healthy ice cream shop and asked for some assistance. The nice lady said to run the extension cable that they had through the door and into an outlet inside the building. They were happy and then quickly got the ball rolling. It was starting to get close to 7:15 pm when the musicians tarted playing “Tenor Madness” by Sonny Rollins. The song went well and so did the next ones played that night. At about 8 o clock, Andrea, our other saxophonist came in to play at about 8 o clock, and at that time the set up would be two alto saxes and two guitarists. The musicians then performed Blue Trane which with the on the spot harmonies sounded pretty cool. After a few more tunes, and some laughs and giggles the musicians had a break. They went in to get their free frozen yogurt. Although the frozen yogurt place was rated ridiculously low ratings on Yelp, it tasted rather scrumptious for free yogurt. After the yogurt the musicians continued to play some more music. The next few songs featured very interesting alterations in chords and the continuous motif of the sax part in Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop”. It was now almost 10 o clock, and the shop was about to close. The musicians decided to call it a wrap. Now the next step was getting home. The next part of the story is the most interesting and comical part. Joe said that he would be able to drive Ben up to Wilton but not back up to Wilton. So now it was Andrea’s turn to drive us back. Ben and Joe got to meet her parents, who were from Peru, first. Joe had told Ben that the car was very small, but Ben had not thought of how small it could have been. At least Nick left with his 2 guitars, and 3 amps. Joe, Ben and Andrea along with her parents walked around the corner to the parking lot. The sight was then amusing to both Joe and Ben. The only car, except for a big white van, in the parking lot, was a tiny Volkswagen convertible. They had two saxophones, 3 bulky stands, and a guitar to somehow fit into that car, not to mention that they also had to fit 5 people into the 4 seat car. Again with a lot of wedging and a guitar on the mother’s lap they did it, but it was not entirely over; they had to fit 3 kids into the back. Eventually it worked. Andre took the far left seat, Joe took the big hump of an armrest in the middle of the car and Ben sat squished in the right passenger seat. The father told us all that everyone had to eat, and Joe and Ben said alrighty then. Everyone stopped at the diner and after the 45 minute food break, at 11, we headed out again. The three musicians wedged ourselves all back into the car and started driving back home. Ben decided to start a conversation and wondered where and with whom Andrea studies, and she replied Andrew Beals. Ben started a whole theory discussion and a lot of musical humor that everyone seemed to get except for the parents. It was then that the musicians all started singing a solo that they all knew (Later by Sonny Stitt). We finally arrived home after a quick stop to the gas station to refuel, and finally 11:50 pm Ben arrived home, and about 5 minutes later Joe got home. It was a very eventful night for Purple Calypso, and a very tiring one aswell. Thank you for everyone that showed up to the gig and listened. Keep posted for more gigs and events either at our webiste, purplecalypso, or right here on our Facebook page!
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 17:01:32 +0000
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