Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

I absolutely loved playing all that Machaut on douçaine yesterday! The pop tunes that gave me great pleasure were Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Downtown, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Penny Lane and Those were the Days. I hate to admit it, but even Afternoon Delight was kind of fun. I also played Matador and Duerne Flyver, by Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, although Amercians would not have known those. I will take another look at the Icelandic tunes as well. I really like the work of Skarpheðinn Þorkelsson, Sigvaldi Snær Kaldalóns and Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. I just need to be more selective. I will put some of the Italian dances back in, just not the long ones. I was concerned about fatigue, since it was a three-hour solo gig. It's odd that douçaine does not kill my sinuses (like clarinet and oboe) with the whole cleft palate thing. I actually started a few minutes early, went a few minutes late and did not take any 15-minute breaks. The swabbing and chatting with listeners were enough of a break. A few friends dropped by, like Curtis Stigers, Mons from the Scandinavian Triplets Band and Ray from church. He even brought me coffee!

no kidding

It's not a good sign when my 42 x 30 britches feel tight . I have been doing crunches for the last few days so I at least look a little less blob-like. I actually thought about walking home from my gig yesterday, but 90+ minutes in the sun without sunscreen did not seem like a brilliant idea. Besides, I had already been on my feet for three hours playing solo douçaine at the Saturday market. That was a fun gig! I found myself wanting to do more medieval music and Danish national song treasury while being annoyed at most of the handful of pop tuness that I brought. I only had about a dozen pop tunes but did not play them all. I thought I would enjoy the Abba more. I had Chiquitita and Fernando, for heaven's sake! I was also not playing much of the Icelandic stuff, and I brought a lot. I do, however, love playing that stuff with Jen as Darkwood Consort. Bass Clarinet and viola takes a little of the cuteness out of it tonewise, but the quality and entertainment value are definitely there. Our Icelandic program is actually one of our favorites, so I was surprised to be so annoyed by some of the same material yesterday. I guess the difference with the Danish tunes is that a lot of them go back to the 15-16th century when the douçaine was still around. my early ornamentation skills work really nicely there. Even in the 19th century Weyse, they seem to work and I love them on the douçaine.