On Sunday, March 24th, the Community Music Hangout gathered for the 49th edition of the Hang. One more to the big five-oh! We gathered under sunny skies and blustery conditions. At one point the PA speaker blew over. Actually, that happened twice (and then I took the hint and left it on the ground). The themes of the day were: people getting back into music after a time away, and people performing in public for the first time. Good themes, in my opinion. We were off to a quick start as Hangout-newcomer Chris met Rikki and I at the piano when we rolled up. Welcome! She played an old recital song and sang Girl from Ipanema, and in Portuguese no less. Great stuff, hope she comes back again soon with more music. Joe showed up early as well, and, after a moment, we met Gianluca who played a bit of Joe’s cajon. We also had the youngest member of the 49th hangout in young Coleman step up and bash away at the piano. All ages welcome at the Hang. Then, Zach turned up with his drum kit. Nice to see ya, dude! Soon, Brian biked up to the piano to join the fun. Nice to see ya! Brian sang great all day, but the highlight was when he carried us through “Different Drummer by Linda Ronstadt. That tune was requested for Mary and it was her birthday! Happy Birthday, Mary. Thanks for the suggestion, we had a lot of fun with that tune. Next up we had John sing for the first time in public! And he did fantastic. After he was done, he said he had been so scared. But you couldn’t tell. And he faced his fear down and lived to tell the tale! Come on back and sing another one. Next up, we had Karl sing Fastball’s “The Way”. Great job! I had fun accompanying on that one. Check out the video below. And then we had Kar’s friend David do a great job singing a tune that has completely slipped my mind. I have to take better notes! Great job, both of you, come back again soon. Next up, we had David playing a piano piece from the movie Interstellar. He later said this was his first time performing in public! And he played beautifully. He did great interpretations of some really challenging pieces. Wonderful job! We also had my man Mateo on alto sax. Great job, dude.
We were really rolling along at this point. We had Cathy play us a traditional Chinese folk song which was jaunty and fun. And she also brought an oboe along with her and we played Pachelbel’s Canon in D! In all of the many hours of Hangouts, nobody has brought a double reeded instrument to the hangout. Awesome. Next up, I guess, would be the bassoon? Who’s got one?! The Greenday song “Basket Case” uses the same chords at Canon in D, so we had to segue right into that one from Canon. Good times. A little while later, we saw a few familiar faces we hadn’t seen in a while. We had Ben on drums, Shijie and Liz on piano. Liz did a fun version of Bohemian Rhapsody for solo piano. Cool! We also had newcomers Reuben and Jared jump in the jam with a guitar and banjo. I really enjoyed their energy and enthusiasm. Great playing. Reuben was on the keys when Marshall sang a great smokey version of the great San Francisco song, “Dock of the Bay.” Great playing, great singing. We were having lots of fun! Check out the video of that song below.
As we were winding down at around 4, Ang got in just before the buzzer with some cajon playing. Way to make it to the jam! The wind was getting pretty crazy when we wrapped up. But it was another fabulous day of making music in the park with friends new and old. I’m already looking to next week: CMH #50! Wow. Fifty Hangouts. At more than 3 hours a piece that’s 150 hours of musical good times. Time well spent! See you on Sunday, March 31st for the 50th edition of the Community Music Hangout.