On Saturday, May 18th, the Community Music Hangout gathered for the 57th edition of the Hang. We gathered under sunny skies, at first, but the wind was strong and cold and with it came the marine layer before long. Notice the difference from the first to last pictures! Nevertheless, it was again a lovely day to spend a timeless span making music with whoever came around. And there were a lot of players and singers around! First, we saw Jonah who I met at Jess’s excellent intimate music event, Vibe at the Studio. Definitely check that out! It was great to see Jonah again and he threw down some freestyle verses over the piano. A fun way to start the day. Soon, Brian biked up and we were underway. Next up we met Steve. Steve plays in a fun local band called City Boys play City Pop which is a fun and challenging genre. Definitely check them out. Steve also brough his friend and bandmate Cam. We love when friends bring friends to the hangout. Great guitar, mandolin, piano, and singing you two. Thanks for joining, hope to see you again soon. Check out this video below of Cam and Seve taking us through a City Pop tune the name of which I regrettably do not remember.
A little while later, we met Sean, who was on his way to busk by the bridge in front of the Conservatory of Flowers. Great singing, dude! Hope to see you again soon. Then, we saw Fontaine again. Nice! She asked if we had any Disney songs, so we did “A Whole New World”. Great fun! Check out the video below
Moments later, Nick strolled up with his guitar and wee practice amp. Great to see you as always, my friend. Nick recently landed a job in LA and soon it will be his last music hangout for a while. We wish you well in your next endeavor, dude! And look forward to seeing you again on the flip side. It was around this time that Ben rolled up to the piano. Great to see you again, dude. Phenomenal playing, as always. I really enjoyed this blues jam we did together. Check out the video below.
Next up at the Music Hangout: Jess! Nice to see you, as always. Jess and I are joining forces between the Community Music Hangout and her Vibe at the Studio monthly intimate music event. I can see how our two events complement each other and I’m looking forward to building together. Jess did a bold and beautiful rendition of “Respect” by Aretha. It was great! Thanks, Jess. Then, we had Tal back at the Hangout and up to take a chance, daring to go out of his comfort zone. Tal plays mainly classical – which he also did, beautifully – however, he wanted to play Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. It took a bit of working out / getting comfortable, but then we made our way clear to the other side of the tune. Great job, Tal. I think it’s wonderful that you took a chance on performing something new and challenging. I hope you’ll come back and keep doing that! Good things will happen. A little while later, Sage biked up! Nice. Sage is one of the first folks I met at the piano, very early on in the Music Hangout. Great to see him again. And great singing on “When I Come Around” as well as the doowop backgrounds on “The Longest Time” (along with Brian – a dynamic duo, to be sure!). Around this time Edward was also at the piano and he played some lovely Chopin for us. Thank you, sir! As we were starting to wind down, I put the call out for more players, as I do repeatedly at every hang. I could see that a father was trying to goad his teenaged son into stepping up to the piano. Dad even took hold of son’s wrist and held son’s hand aloft. This young man, Jaydon, was voluntold to play. And, my goodness, were we all glad that he did. First he played a fabulous snippet from Bill Evan’s “Alice in Wonderland”. And then I managed to talk him into playing another tune, and we did Black Orpheus together. Check out the videos below. Fantastic playing, young man. I hope you never stop playing.

It was after 4 PM by the time we packed it in for the day. Despite the bracing winds, it was such a lovely day. I love the typical hangout pattern so very much. It starts quiet, we see some regulars, we meet some new folks, something unexpected and beautiful happens, we play longer than we think, and we go away happy and deeply satisfied. That’s the Community Music Hangout! We’ll be back again for CMH #58 on Saturday May 25th starting at 11:30. See you there!