September Drums

September is a time of renewal for me. I met a guy in my fitness club. He is very much into the music industry as a teacher, conductor and keyboardist, and has been for over 30 years. We had a great conversation about jazz greats. I let him know that I don't play jazz but love to listen to it. Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett were of mutual interest. He mentioned that Main St. in Newmarket has some venues that are trying to get a live music scene going. I sent him an email with a 2 paragraph pitch for the Sarafu approach to starting up the piano sighting community. He's a busy guy so maybe it's better to keep him informed without trying to get him actively involved.

There's a coffee shop in Toronto called 'Tango Palace' on Queen St. East. I used to live there 20 years ago. They sometimes had live music of a friend of mine that sang and played guitar. She is the inspiration for the jam sessions that I envision. She curated a jam night at a building on Queen near Broadview that is now an LCBO store. At one point one of the partners at Tango Palace was sitting there reading a newspaper and I mentioned that it would be nice if they had a piano. Within about a day, he facilitated getting a decent upright piano. His partner wasn't crazy about his solo initiative but for a few months I had a place to play right near home. This was very nice...