The Community Music Hangout gathered on Sunday, January 7th for the 42nd edition of the Hang. It was the ultimate jam of life, the universe, and everything. Although the skies were blue and sunny, it was cold! Probably the coldest of the 42 hangouts. But it was crisp and bright and, most of all, DRY. Carly, the piano, played brilliantly as a result. It’s remarkable how resilient that piano has been! Rikki and I rolled up and got things set up, Joe followed close behind. Soon, Brian biked up and we had a jam quorum and we were rolling right along. We were reeling off songs and enjoying the morning. After a sticky start last week, it was such a joy to play the piano in the dry air. One of the highlights of the day was when we saw young Mateo, the sax player. His whole family came back to the hangout, Glenn, Jennifer and older brother + trumpeter Tristan! Glenn brought a horn section to the hangout. And Jennifer brought some Filipino Spanish Bread to share. YUM. Way to go, all of you! Thank you for bringing your energy to the Hangout. We played a couple of the songs that Tristan and Mateo knew. And we talked them through some basics on how to jam and improvise. I hope they keep coming back! When I started the Hangout, I hadn’t considered that we might be able to give kids their first audience, their first jam. And I find it really special. The Hangout is for all ages! As we rolled along, we saw Hugh and he added a bit of hand percussion. Michael showed up with a very small improvised drum kit. Meanwhile, Izzy was moved to get up and start dancing to the music. Great energy. Just as we were shutting down, I asked if anyone wanted to jump on the piano and play a tune. With a little coaxing, Lilah hopped on. She’d been at the Hangout before and said she’d come back with a song. And she did! She led the hangout through a few tunes from the songbook to close out the day and it was excellent. Great playing, Lilah! Thanks for jumping in. We had to shut it down early because Kyle and I had three hours of jazz to play that evening at Waystone in North Beach (and catch us there every Monday from 6-9!). Boy, it was really hard to leave. In fact, it took us about 30 minutes to pull ourselves away. It was, once again, a fabulous day of making music in the park with and for everyone! Thank you to everyone who took part. We’ll see you next time for CMH #43 on Sunday January 14th from 11:30 – 2:30 (or later)