I had the great pleasure of making 2 new friends this past weekend. In my day job, I work for the MS Society of Canada. This past weekend we hosted the annual Chapter Chairs meeting in the Lower Mainland. When I did my presentation to the Chairs, I started off with a joke saying that if anyone in the room played jazz keyboard I really would like to talk with them after today’s meetings. I explained that in my other “non MS-work life” I was a professional musician who, among other things, fronted a jazz band whose keyboard player just gave notice for the end of the year. The Chair of the Kelowna Chapter, Diane Kelly, piped up and said that her husband was a sax player; to which I jokingly said: “Sorry, the sax spot is filled.” And this is how it started.
That night before dinner, her husband, who had come to Vancouver with Diane, joined us in the lounge for drinks. It turns out that Rick is not only a sax player, but a multi-sax player at that. Among his collection of vintage horns (you gotta’ love this guy!) is a low A Selmer Mark VI that he has owned since new, and a curvy Buescher soprano. Rick and I got along so well over dinner that we bored everyone at the table with talk of vintage saxes and bands, etc. etc. etc. I invited he and Diane out to Abbotsford the next night for a visit and dinner before the Bassic Sax Jazz Ensemble show at the Yorkshire Rose. I am very pleased that they came out for not only a visit and dinner, but that they also stayed for most of the show. (They had to drive back to the hotel in Coquitlam that night, and then back through Abbotsford the next day on the way home to Kelowna.)
Here are a couple of pictures that I really like that were taken of Rick in the studio on Saturday night.
