A few weeks ago I was asked to play for a friend’s open house. I hummed and hawed about it, since I wasn’t really planning on doing any more jazz gigs with my seemingly-permanently-hiatused jazz band. But when Elizabeth asked, I was planning on phoning a piano player anyway, so I thought, why not?
Fast forward 6 weeks, and the show is almost upon us. In just 24 hours from now I’ll be packing all my gear for the Bassic Sax Jazz Ensemble’s performance at Coastal Rivers Pet Hospital. We’ll be performing there between 1-5 tomorrow, during the clinic’s grand opening.
This performance will be a different one for me, since it again will be a duet, but this time with a piano player who I know through The Moonliters (the Big Band I play in). However, when Geoff Brown and I play 3+ hours of standards, we’ll be doing it without the other 15 players who normally share the stage with us.
Geoff and I will be standing in place of the clinic’s cockatiel—who BTW seemed to love my sound check yesterday—entertaining what will likely be hundreds of people visiting Drs. Borgmann and Taylor’s clinic for the first time. (Coastal Rivers is an amalgamation of two very established clinics—Whatcom Road Veterinary Clinic and Abbotsford Vet Clinic—into one almost super clinic, with state-of-the-art equipment and services.)
Although strictly background music, since I’m doing this for a friend, my standards are higher for myself than if I was doing this for anyone else who called me. Until I went to the clinic yesterday afternoon for a mini sound check to see how the sound would bounce around—or wouldn’t—Elizabeth had never even heard me play. For all she knew I was totally BS’ing her. Lucky for her, I know which end of the saxophone to blow into. 😉
Although they clinic will be suspending regular services from noon onwards tomorrow, the clinic bird, cats, a visiting raptor, owl, as well as an opossum, will be in the back. Now the cockatiel liked my playing yesterday, and seemed intrigued by the sounds emanating from my horn, but how the rest of the animals will appreciate the hours of live jazz, that’s anybody’s guess. Can a sax talk to the animals?
Maybe some of them would prefer classical, or maybe even pop. If so, they’re out outta luck, since Geoff and I will be doing many of the Bassic Sax Jazz Ensemble’s repertoire of standards spanning the 1930s to the 70s. Or perhaps the animals would prefer a band made up of their own kind, if so, they’re really outta luck, since I couldn’t find a bunch of these guys in the Metro Vancouver area if I tried! 😉
If you’re in the area, and would like to see the new Coastal Rivers facility, please drop in. The staff will be happy to show you around. They will be giving guided tours of the back-end of the clinic, including the new hydrotherapy pool, the specialized cat and exotics exam rooms, dog exam rooms, the lab, X-ray area, dental procedure area, as well as the two ORs. There will be a draw for a couple of door prizes as well.
The open house is tomorrow, February 6, from 1-5 pm. The clinic is located at 1993 Riverside Road, in Abbotsford. If you do stop in, please come and say “hi”. You can’t miss Geoff and I. We’ll be in the foyer—normally the dog waiting area.
