The Community Music Hangout gathered for the 51st edition of the Hang on Saturday, April 6th, 2024. We gathered under glorious blue skies with a steady cooling breeze at our backs. Someone had done a bit of damage to the piano; nothing that made him play worse, but it was the kind of thing that just makes you wonder what is wrong with some people. Nevertheless, we persevered and made a plan to address the damage. Onward! When I rolled up to the piano, we had some early attendees already present. Caesar, with the great big voice and the magnetic demeanor. And Alex, with his deep and broad selection of pop and classical tunes. Soon, Eric rolled up with his drums and we were off and rolling at CMH #51. Hangout friends / regulars Joe and Ken biked up at that point, on their way elsewhere, they stopped to play and vibe for a bit. Nice to see you all. And then we kept rolling on with even more regulars. Brian biked up, as well as Lief, and Emma. And Nick! It was a great group of regulars. Before they all showed up, I had just been saying how the day was sort of quiet to that point. And then it wasn’t! Lovely. Great to see you all. Especially those of you I hadn’t seen for 20-30 Hangouts! We also met John who borrowed Nick's guitar to sing us a Bee Gees, all the way from Ottawa. Nice! The highlight of the day was unquestionably Riccardo from Italy. In between songs, I asked who was playing next, as I often do. Riccardo put his hand in the air and stepped up to the piano. This moment right here is always a thrilling one. You never know what someone is going to happen next. All you know is this person has something musical they want to share. How exciting! I didn’t even know he was Italian when he stepped up. Below is a video of part of the beautiful original song that he played. He wrote it to propose marriage to his now-wife; they were on their honeymoon! To them, we wish for many happy returns.

We continued rolling along. We met a new friend in Reddy who took the mic to sing “Across the Universe”. Lovely! She said she’s coming back next weekend, and I look forward to that. Next, we saw Alissa. She came to the hangout at some point last summer and, this weekend, she was back! It’s very cool that we’ve been doing the Hangout long enough that we can run into people from 30+ Hangouts ago! Fun. She played and sang great; come back and see us again soon. Next up, my friends Eugene and Nat made it out to the piano separately at the same time. This was fortuitous because Nat is a lovely jazz singer and Eugene is a lovely jazz pianist! We reeled off a bunch of songs together. Check out the videos below! Nat sings “All of You”. Eugene backs me up while I sing “There Will Never Be Another You”, and Eugene and I play “Dexterity”. Special thanks to Rikki for these videos



It was just about 4pm by the time we packed it in for the day. It was, once again, a glorious way to spend a few hours. For me, it doesn’t get much better than making music in the park with friends new and old. Thank you to everyone who stopped by or took part! We’ll see you next weekend on Sunday April 14th at the a special location: Inner Sunset Flea Market! We’ll be at Irving and 11th Ave from 12-2. See you there!