First Contact

Taking a few minutes out to write this blog is to preserve a little strange something that I feel should be included in the records of events that was 2011.  I believe it is important to commit a certain amount of material to the historical record.

 

A bit of old-school jazz-speak on the way through the desert.

Spent the latter half or 2011 playing with the Jerry Becker Quartet.   

Among the many interesting adventures I have had with this group of characters during my brief tenure with this "aggregation." our trip to Abiqiui probably takes the cake for weirdness and I learned a valuable lesson.

I guess I should start with the valuable lesson bit.  As much as I have loved getting to know these characters they have not been very aggressive in getting paid for their work.  To be perfectly honest I can not even remember agreeing to do this gig.   So, we are going up to Abiquiu, NM at a really tough financial time.

I decided, with a lot of work, to just go with the flow and let whatever happened be OK.

I was particularly skeptical about what would happen financially on this gig because it had a trifecta of red flags going for it.  1)  Going to the boonies in December  2)  It was an art gallery opening, which has its own special meaning in Santa Fe Speak   3)  It was donation only, not even a partial guarantee.

Nice Sign, but I was still nonplussed at the prospects for a successful gig

at the Rising Moon Gallery

Things got even worse than I thought when we made our final approach.  Not only were we in the boonies and coming up fast on the gig, and the gig appeared to be in a "container?"

(The lovely and perceptive Patti disagrees with me on this whole container bit.)

Ok, it is was a merry looking container, but a container nonetheless.

And it got a bit merrier!

When we got  inside and met our host is when things got really weird.  This cat could have walked onto any Star-Trek set and been a perfect Vulcan ambassador or teacher just exactly the way he was.   Standing, oh maybe five foot ten with a thick head of white hear in a perfect bowl haircut.  Wearing a black turtleneck sweater of some odd luxuriant (alien) quality.  He was decorated also, of course, in large gobs of the ubiquitous turquoise jewelry sported  by those Santa Feans of a certain class and mind set.  He had this one piece of jewelry that really stood out was a  large,dark triangular piece that looked exactly like a Vulcan Idik.

I will have to get to the rest of this writing a bit later....in the meantime....

Meet the Band....

 

Doug Frantz: Drums

Chris McMahon: Fretless Electric Bass

Jerry Becker: Tenor Sax and fearless leader

Cameron Weckerley:  Keyboards

Turning point (and fear), and a serious lack of faith in New Mexico.

Every since we got rear ended by an uninsured motorist coming out of The Canyon Road Teahouse on 12/20/11 I have been in debilitating pain and have lost most of the use of my right hand.,, which for a keyboardist/guitarist/producer this is very bad news.

All seems to have been fine until 12/20/11 when Patti and I were rear-ended on the ice.   Now I have neck pain which has ratched up to at least an 8 and is intolerable.  What is worse is that there seems to be bone spur in my neck pressing against my spine which is rendering my right hand, numb, weak and not very useful for music.

This is a seriously last ditch effort, which has a serious risk associated with it...not tremendously confident in the outcome, but here we go...I wish this was going down at UCLA instead of the backwaters of NM....

Men in Black

As those of you who read this blog know, I spent a fair amount of this year as a substitute teacher which turns out to be a pretty great job if one still harbors any professional musical aspirations.  The downside is, when summer comes the money stops.  Having yet to break into the either the private teaching or club scene here I do not have that backup source of income.

Having been spurred into action by desperation, usually what it takes I am afraid, I have been pounding the pavement both metaphorically and literally.  In that spirit I jumped on my motorcycle packing my demos and press kits and rode to the the biggest, baddest casino in the area,  Buffalo Thunder.  Which is where I encountered some very large guys in some very serious looking suits who were constantly talking into their cuff links. I was there to see the marketing manager though and I was not going to back down or leave until I did.

I can tell you those cats did not want me to find the corporate offices.  After several attempts to escort me outside the casino or employ a strategy of misdirection.  The biggest irony is that after being sent to every corner of the casino, sometimes more than once, the person I needed to see was readily available behind an unlocked door in a relatively unsecured part of the facility.

The woman in charge of marketing was gracious enough to grant me an impromptu interview and look with some interest at my demos and press kit.  Whether they immediately ended up in the circular file I do not know, but I did get her card and permission to make a follow up call.  I think I might even have something intelligent to say after getting some very sound advice from my most trusted friend in the music industry, Michael Ferenci.

I will keep you posted.


Cameron