by Charlie Barnett | Sep 24, 2009 | Charlie's Blog
The Dick Kaufmann concert at the Atlas theater was a huge success. Dick sang well and the audience LOVED it. Some thoughts on this:
- The Atlas is foolish to let Scott Burgess go as their house sound guy. He is talented, knows their system and gear. If they start letting independent sound guys in without any supervision, that place will quickly go downhill.
- The Atlas also in in need of a house production person. How ridiculous it was to be looking for an hour(!) to find someone with a key to the loading dock. Just infuriating. That theater has the potential of becoming a wonderful performing venue – or being another DC organizational casualty. We will know soon enough.
- I love playing with great players. Chaise Lounge was Dick’s band with a few additional players – all of them great. (Tom Williams – trumpet, Bob Spates – violin, Dan Hovey – guitar) Life feels so good in such solid company. Playing music is like playing tennis for some people. When you are playing with great players, your own playing gets better. Oh and, BTW, I enjoyed being at the piano for this show.
- The importance of hanging out after the gig is not to be underestimated. We all went to the bar next to the theater and had a few drinks after the show. The bar was the H Street Country Club. I had heard that they were going to put a 9 hole indoor putt-putt golf course in here – where is it? Such a great idea.
- The importance of a well dressed band: Looking sharp has become a mission with Chaise Lounge.
by Charlie Barnett | Sep 22, 2009 | Charlie's Blog
Ever since our interview with Liane Hansen on NPR, our CD sales have skyrocketed. Well… FOR US… they have skyrocketed. Still, it is pretty cool to have CDbaby request literally hundreds of CDs. Of both CDs: The Early Years and Second Hand Smoke. The other thing that has happened is that a few people have requested the sheet music for our songs. I think that I am going to post lead-sheets for our songs on the CL site. I know that if I was digging around for the music for a song I liked I would LOVE to find an accurate lead-sheet in the right key. Every time I try and buy music online – it turns out to be so difficult I end up going to Dale music and buying a book.
Tonight, Chaise Lounge (plus a few fellow travelers) is backing up Dick Kaufmann at the Atlas Theater here in Washington DC. He will be doing three duets with Marilyn. I will be playing an entire evening at the piano. I am a much better pianist than a guitarist anyway. On board are Dan Hovey on guitar, Tom Williams on trumpet and flugel, Bob Spates on violin, and David Lonkevich on flute. There was a dress rehearsal on Sunday that lasted six hours. The show hits tonight at 8 PM. We are all looking forward to it.
Started work this week on two film projects. One is the theme for a show that the Newseum is producing. Paul Sparrow is in charge. Susan Brooks Kelly is editing. It is a short piece of music but has to be… just so…
Also a film for Susan Koch. More about that as I get into it. It is a terrific film.
I found a batch of used Manhasset music stands on Ebay and bought them today. At some point others will love me for putting all my junky wire stands in the car for emergencies and having a house full of sturdy workman-like music stands.
by Charlie Barnett | Sep 20, 2009 | Charlie's Blog
Chaise Lounge • Photo by Elliot Berlin
I almost forgot to listen to this this morning. Luckily I got to tune in to “Weekend Edition” in time to hear Marilyn be absolutely charming with Leane Hansen. Of course I knew this was going to air this morning. What I didn’t know was how nicely they would edit out all our “ums” and “ahs,” making us sound so comfortable and smooth. And Leane has a way of making one feel comfortable and smart, and yes, smooth. As Mo pointed out, the only thing missing was our best line. When Leane asked us if we thought we were on track for “fame and fortune,” I answered that we were just hoping to become “known and solvent.” It was a great experience. Take a listen on the NPR site.
by Charlie Barnett | Sep 16, 2009 | Charlie's Blog
The Last Days of Cleopatra
Here it is Wednesday. Sept 16th: I am home.
We: the cast, crew and producers put on two readings of The Last Days of Cleopatra on Monday and Tuesday. I am so happy with everyone’s performance. I cannot imagine that you could see this and not have some sense that it is a viable commercial and artistic piece of work. There were moments of absolute bliss. If you are reading this and you were not there, I can only say that you should never ever miss an opportunity like this again.
Even the after-party was wonderful. Dick Kaufmann treated us all to drinks across the street at Tredeci. I think the only one of our cast who wasn’t able to come was Laura Marie Duncan who had to toddle off to play Nelly Forbush at Lincoln Center. So she had her own enchanted evening. The rest of us stayed to drink and hang on to the Cleo experience as long as possible.
While this was going on I was missing the DC premier of “Coal Country” , Phylis Geller and Mari-Lynn Evans’ stunning documentary. I was truly sorry to miss this. Apparently the crowd was great and the response wonderful. This is the second film by these two talented women that I have scored. The New York premier is on October 20th at Town Hall!!!! whoa. The film will be shown along with a concert by Kathy Mattea, Justin Townes Earle, and others who were featured in the film’s soundtrack. I won’t miss this.
The premier airdate is Oct 24th on Discovery Green.
by Charlie Barnett | Sep 12, 2009 | Charlie's Blog
Last night I met Reggie Marshal at Sweet Rhythm. This old jazz club is in its last week of existence. Sonny Fortune is recording a live cd there for the next few nights. Knowing Reggie allowed me to hang with Sonny for an hour befor the show. What a trip he is! He played wit Elvin, Miles, Cannonball, you name it. And he has the stories. I could have listened to him talk all night. His set- the one I heard- was intense. And I’m pretty sure he was just warming up. His drummer Steve Johns is terrific. Steve has a 13 yr old son named Daryl who has played bass with Sonny. I didn’t hear him. But everyone in the band had and agreed that the kid can really play.
This was the perfect break from the Broadway Bubble I’ve been in. A beautiful unreformed beatnick who sat with us told me she felt sorry for people so square they couldn’t dig Sonny’s sound.
New York is just grand some nights.
