Last day of the week already!
Lunch
Mama's Mexican Kitchen. Yes, again. The only reason I already know at this early hour is because I'll attend a farewell lunch for a colleague of mine. You never know whether she'll readi this, so: All the best for your future Abi. It was a pleasure working with you!.
Seattle is a wonderful place. It is small enough to still be considered a village (at least by me) with a lot of freestanding houses, but big and populous enough that a lot of stuff is happening culturally. For instance, there are several concert series every summer: Chateau Ste. Michelle, Marymoor Park, and Zoo concerts, although with the kind of thunderous weather we had this week I wouldn't want to be at an outdoors venue now. And I don't even count the concert series at many of the nearby casinos. Then there is the Gorge, White River Amphitheatre, Paramount Theatre, Moore Theatre, Showbox, and a slew of other 'ordinary' concert venues. with (almost) all of the big names coming through. And whereas my wife and I usually go to 8-12 concerts each summer, this year was not interesting enough. We saw Counting Crows at Ste Michelle, Hall and Oates (I love LFDH) at Marymoor, John Mayer at the Gorge, and nothing at the Zoo. I'll have to fix my concert dependence this October and November by seeing 30 jazz concerts in 45 days attending the Earshot Jazz Festival. And there is a lot of good stuff on the calendar. The Keith Jarrett Trio performing one of only 4 concerts in the US this year, Philip Glass, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas, and a kind of artist residency by Bill Frisell performing in 4 different settings; amongst them one with Charles Lloyd. And lots of artist from regions like Cuba, Brasil, India/Pakistan, Africa, and Europe. A wonderful eclectic program I'm so looking forward to.
Non-G&L question
For those playing gigs, any exciting engagements on the horizon? And for those merely attending gigs, any exciting ones you look forward to? And pop quiz: what does LFDH mean?
As I wrote yesterday, unfortunately no Savannah Bluesboy 90 talk about yet. That one will have to wait until a later stint. Lets skip the G&L question and see if I can come up with a suitable replacement ...
Yesterday I mentioned the Hyatt estate in connection to the logs Dale had. As it turns out, I had the opportunity to make a deal for Lacewood #1 with Ken Hyatt, Dale's son. For reasons outside mine and Ken's control it unfortunately didn't happen. But strangely and completely independently from these events, I got the chance to get Lacewood #26. Some of us might remember Gary Maki (JoseyWales) posting his happy tidings he had been able to score this exceedingly rare instrument on eBay. At the time I was in the Netherlands for business and missed out on the auction. Still, built for shop foreman John Rodriguez, assembled by Gene Englehart, one of only 7, here it is:
Not withstanding these date stamps in the pocket and on the neck heel
which are both from before Dale Hyatt retired on November 4, 1991 this is one of the first BBE-era instruments finished on November 11, 1991. This instrument is just drop-dead gorgeous both visually as well as sonically (which unfortunately I am not able to demonstrate). So here is just some more porn.
One interesting detail is the neck plate:
Notice the hyphens!
OK, that'll be it for the week. Or maybe not. Still contemplating another one tomorrow. But maybe I should keep that one for the next Open Mic.
- Jos
