The 21st meeting of the Community Music Hangout took place on Saturday July 15, 2023 at the West Piano i.e Carly. Although the day dawned foggy and damp, by noontime the sun was shining bright! The piano stared the day with cumbersome, sticky action. But as the day warmed, and the relative humidity dropped, the piano got better and better! This week we had a drummer! Zach wheeled up a drumkit and hung out for most of the day on Saturday. It was great to have the rhythm back up. I really enjoyed being able to explore some different areas that I can’t reach without a drummer. Thanks for schlepping your gear into the park to join in the fun! Not long after Zach had set up, we saw Andy the wind player! We hadn’t seen Andy at the hangout for sometime so it was great to have him back. Great sax and flute playing, Andy! We saw more familiar faces as the day went along. Rikki was there, adding her lovely voice to the mix. Brian was back again, and his voice sounded especially sweet when he took the lead on Ben E. King’s Stand By Me. We had Mark and Abby back and singing as well. While all that was going on, Hillary and her little guy, River, contributed to the atmosphere by blowing lots of bubbles into the air! And that’s not all! We also saw Nina again, although this time she brought a violin (previously she brough a cello). Excellent! And I learned that, even though we may be playing a John Denver song, that her instrument is always a violin and never a fiddle. Duly noted! And we saw Paul with his melodica! It was great seeing all of these familiar faces again. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
The highlight of the day came when I heard a woman say, “Oh is it open mic?”. Whenever I hear something like that, it is guaranteed that something interesting is about to happen. In their group, they had two young men who freestyle. Also, they were in the midst of a Segway tour! I passed the mic over the top of the piano and Netzach and Nico threw down a bunch of bars. That’s 2x CMH first. First freestyle and first participation from atop a segway! Electrifying. We met more friendly faces as the day went along. We had Brian on piano, Kate with Jordan on guitar, and a man requested Ben Folds. That man is called Soul Train on the Weekend. Yeah buddy. All told, it was another one of those days that stretches on long past the scheduled 2pm stop time. How could we stop while the vibes were following so freely? And so, we played until 4:30 before finally packing it in. It was a fabulous day. I need stronger / more-liberally-applied sunscreen. Join us for CMH #22 on Saturday July 22 at Carly i.e. the West Piano!