Penthouse, please.

Monday's gig at Hotel Icon was a smashing success according to the hotel management, the clients, and myself. I had the awesome privilege of playing with Joel Fulgham and Thomas Helton, Devin Colllins and my darling hubby Paul Peacock. The party was put together by Robert Shipman of Haute Soiree with help from Rob Smith of Events in Bloom.

We played on the private terrace of the Ritz Suite Penthouse, a 3 level suite of sheer opulence. I wanted to close the door to the second floor master bed and bath and slip into the built-for-three claw foot tub full of rose petals. Here's the lobby:



The afternoon leading up to this gig was yet another comedy of errors. I discovered my books (binders full of my tunes in my keys) had been left at the Convention center on Saturday. So I went home to reprint the charts only to discover that BOTH printers were out of ink and nonoperational. No time to go to Kinkos, so I pulled out the months old stacks of charts that had a few of my tunes in them and shoved them into binders without first punching holes; a sloppy compromise but effective. Of course, Thomas and Joel didn't need a book, just a title, a key, and a tempo. Silly me.

In addition to the music snafu, my pianist had car trouble and I had to go pick him up before the gig. No big deal, really it was more or less on the way, but it set us back a bit time-wise. Then the valet, trying to be oh-so-helpful, took his clothes and shoes and somehow musplaced his shoes along the way. He had to play the gig in his hightop converse sneakers, (and black suit) which I decided was an excellent look for him and needed to become his "schtick."

Then Paul's jacket was moved by the staff. We still have not located that piece of clothing.

We also discovered that our keyboard music stand is long gone.

Then there was the wind. I was not completely clear on the fact that we were actually playing outside until we got there, so none of us had clothespins for our music. that led to some fun slapstick.

Considering the situation as a whole, this should have been a disaster of a night. But it was great. The band was solid and took good care of me. They had a good time and enjoyed the hotel's hospitality, which was impeccable. The decor was gorgeous and my dear friend David Jones was kind enough to take some photos of the band before he had to skeedaddle to another party. I will post those as soon as I have them!

Man this feels good.