Happy New Year 2001 To ALL!

I had two New Years Eve gigs last night so got to ring in 2001 not once but twice. The first gig was for an upscale retirement residential community. They moved their clocks ahead three hours (midnight = 9pm) . The banquet dinner & party was held in their grand ballroom (the food was great). I sang & played lots of festive swing era party music (Tico Tico, Beer Barrel Polka, Those Were The Days, Jump Jive Wail, Sinatra Medley etc). The champagne flowed and everyone got into the mood and danced partied the evening away. The balloons dropped at 9pm but from the excitment of the crowd and the final countdown and song energy build up, it really felt like 12 midnight. I think my KN5000 was really able to deliver the realisitc sound of a big band and create excitement for this crowd (especially using manual sequencer pads: Drum Rolls and other assorted efx etc). I really gave them variety: from country (Boot Scooting Boogie), Showtunes (Phantom of The Opera/Music of the Night medley & Over the Rainbow), Latin (Besasme Mucho, Tango Medley), Classic Standards (What A Wonderful World, Sinatra medley) to Big Band/Blues (Chattanooga Choo/ Night Train medley), and of course the traditional New Years Eve and party songs (What Are You Doing New Year's Eve, Auld Lang Syne, Beer Barrel Polka, YMCA, Hokey Pokey). After that gig, I rushed immediately over to my (next) New Years party gig across town for a rollicking bluesy time of singing & playing (this time with a couple of other musicians: Sax player and bass player), the KN5000's digital Drawbar B3 bluesy Organ sounds (Stanley Turrentines "Sugar", Herbie Hancock's "Water Melon Man", "That's Life" , "Let The Good Times Roll", etc) and rang the New Year again for this younger rowdier partying crowd (this time at the actual stroke of midnight (local time). For all the styles of music I play (from coctail jazz to blues, country, and rock), the Technics KN5000 really delivers.

I'm looking forward to hearing how everyone else's New Years Eve Gigs went.

Scott

I had sort of a "double" also. I played the New Year's Eve party at the Ramada Inn in Shreveport. We had a rare snowstorm (the previous one with any accumulation was in 1982). With the Indepence Bowl being held Sunday night, the motel was filled with Mississippi State and Texas A&M fans. A lot of them decided to watch the game from the motel, while others braved the storm and came back about 10 o'clock. They were mostly college-aged, or just past. They wanted to celebrate victory and BOOGIE.
Songs included "Cold Shot", "Gimme 3 Steps", "Old Time Rock n Roll", "Taking Care Of Business", line dances, etc. Then "Wondeful Tonight, and the usual New Year's Eve songs. They were screaming for more at closing time
Then I had to drive to a town over in Texas for a wedding and reception. I took just the PSR9000, using the mic input, and internal speakers. Because of the weather, only a handfull of people were there. A total switch--'The Wedding March", Sinatra, Big Band, etc. (the bride and groom were both pushing 70.)
I'm ready for Tuesday off-first day off in 23 days.
Later tonight, I'm putting a picture from the NY party on my web page. www.donmasonmusic.com
DonM

Hi Scott,
"It's Finally Over! Whew!!" 33 gigs in a row since december 1st. Now I can cruise for a few weeks with a back to normal schedule. I need the time to get into my KN6000 and set it up for live performance.

As for New Years Eve it was wonderfull. I played a very big Active upscale Retiremnet Community, 475 people, big Buffet Dinner, and Dancing from 9pm to 1am. I threw everything at them including Sinatra (Summerwind, Come Fly with me) Latin (merenque, rumba, chacha, samba, salsa, tango, mambo) Waltz (vienna, mazurka, last waltz, could I have this dance,) Disco (YMCA, Volare, You'll never find, Who let the Dogs out)Peabody, Polka, Big band (gigalo, chattanooga choo choo, all of me, apple blossom time) R&R (old time R&R,
All shook up, Johnny be Good) Country, (Achey Breaky, kansas city, all my x's) ballads (make the world go away, and I love you so, wind beneath my wings), electric slide. macarena, boot swcootin boogie, I gave them some workout and they loved it dancing all night long ending with a large screen TV view of the times square count down, after that I did a Dixieland medley of auld lang syne, saints go marching in, bill bailey, hello dolly of which they responded with a Mummers Strut Line. It was great. Now I'll have a new experience coming up with the Technics KN6000 should be Fun :>)

Happy New Year!

Donny NJ

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-01-2001).]

Along with my i30 I went to a private party with about 30 people maybe. I started playing at 19.15 untill 23.45 without ONE single brake! I did not even went to the bathroom or something haha! But it was really nice and people were (belly)dancing and everything and we sang a lot of songs. I will show pictures soon.
The music I played for 90% was of course Balkan, Gipsy, Turkish, Macedonian songs. But of course I also played some Walzer, Mambo, Polka, Tango and Disco (Macarena, American Rap, Insomnia, basically being a nice DJ with my Korg). Then also some Rock&Roll and international songs:
- Let it be
- Torn (Natalie Imbugria)
- No Scrubs
- Another Day in Paradise
- Easy Lover
- I can't dance
- Another Brick in The Wall
- Bob Marley 10 minutes
and so on.

It was a pretty nice little party.

Pics will follow.

Ilija

Played with the band firday saturday and sunday.

Friday - played at a local resturaunt with our 7 piece big band. It went well, played Miller, Dorsey, Basie, Mills Bro, Sinatra.

Saturday - played for a dance club 50 miles away with our 5 piece band lots of waltzes, latins, swing and tangos. The job went well.

Sunday - played for a local VFW post new years party with our 5 piece band. Very few people there, and the ones that were, were in their 70's. Played the same old stuff that we played on friday. The VFW lost money on this one. Felt bad, was bored, dull party.

One of the main reasons this is getting old is because it is not my band and I have very little control over the situation. I don't front the band and am not the leader.

It's time for me to do a solo act.

Have a great 2001!

Tom

I hate to brag but I had the easiest NYE gig of my life. Couple that with an EAGLES playoff win (which we ALL watched)and it was a BANNER day!
Music started at 6:30 as the first few tables filled up. My first song was "The summer wind" (because of the snow) and a woman came up to me and just watched and swayed through the entire song. After she sat down, her son came up to me and informed me that it was mom's favorite song, and that I made her very happy - then he slipped a $50 into my hand and returned to his table.
Song selection was varied but on the quiet side-Here's that rainy day,Green Dolphin street,Andrew Lloyd Weber medley, BadMoon rising & Jimmy Buffet stuff(Mom's table too!)
Lot's of easy, middle of the road stuff - no dancing; just a classy buffett dinner.
Lobster tails, Prime rib carving station, Stir fry, Pasta, raw bar - you name it, we had it.(Food was wonderful!)
The last guests were seated by 8:30 and we were packing up at exactly 10 pm! No countdown - no shouting......ahhhhhh.
(This was a first for me!)
I was in my house at 11:00 - in bed by 11:30 and if my daughters hadn't called from their "sleepovers" at midnight - we'd have been dead to the world till 9AM next morning.
I was glad that this gig was so laid back because last year was such a madhouse - I knew it would never compare. So....I took home $900 for about 3 coctail sets and a great meal -life is good.
Have a great year everyone!

Hi All,
While I still do my solo act, most of my play-for-pay gigs these days are with a seven member BEACH-SOUL-R&B-VARIETY band ( www.thecollegians.com ). The notable thing about this New Year's Eve gig was the fact that I used an "arranger keyboard" with the band for the first time. I usually use a Kurzwiel K2000 on the upper tier and an Alesis Quadrasynth +Piano on the lower. The Alesis has a decent "leslie" simulation and some very usable organ sounds. I use the K2000 for most other sounds (pianos, clav, strings, brass, harmonica, sax, etc.) We use a midi file on one song and I normally set up a Roland hardware sequencer to drive the Alesis. I say to myself, the X1 has all the sounds I play on the K2000 and I could play that one midi without setting up the sequencer. Plus, I could utilize the organ sounds on the X1 to compliment the Alesis and add some variety. So, that's what I did. I replaced the Kurzwiel with the X1.
How did it work out? On the one midi file song (Brick House) the X1 did just great and it was super to simply insert the disc and press play. I had customized the one touch voices to what I would need with the band and thus was able to call up the sounds as need even faster and smoother than with the K2000 which I've been using for over 6 years. Beyond that it was a mixed bag. The X1 harmonica was not as good as the Kurz and the strings, while adaquate were not what I really needed on some of the passages. Of course these were all the factory default patches. I'm sure if I tweaked them and saved them I'd be more satisfied. In all I would have to say the X1 worked out very well. But, I ended up staying with the Alesis for the organ sounds. In fact the X1 pulled us out of a small hole. A group of folk kept asking for a polka and did not want "BEER BARREL" which is our default "token" polka. So, I told the guys to smile and act like they were playing and flipped to a polka registration. I laid PENNSYLVANIA POLKA on them with the arranger function and an accordion voice. It worked out very well.
The gig was for a local Moose lodge with about 350 in attendance. We did our usual "east coast beach music" along with some 60s & 70s soul and R&B. "I Swear" was a favorite slow song and our sax player knocked them out with "Song Bird". All in all it was not a bad outing for a "Beach" band from the mountians of Virginia - West Virginia playing for a Moose lodge on a wintery night with an outside temperature of 12 degrees F and 5 to 7 inches of snow on the ground.
DVJ

[This message has been edited by deatonent (edited 01-03-2001).]