One, two, three. GO!

Last night "the Trio Informally Known as Gracie" stepped out in public for the first time, at Birdland in Manhattan. The context? Janis Siegel’s weekend gig there to promote her new Telarc release, A Thousand Beautiful Things. For this recording and series of dates, Janis  has selected songs written by the likes of Annie Lennox and Nellie McKay, and given them a Latin flavor that had last night’s audience toe-tapping and shoulder-dancing (we performers love that) in their seats. She had invited Ann Hampton Callaway and myself to come sit in, and we three had decided what song to sing, but not how we would sing it. Other than deciding on drum accompaniment, we left the arrangement, such as it would turn out to be, up to the inspiration of the moment. An experiment.

Toward the end of her first set, Janis brought us onstage, we grabbed a note from the piano, looked at each other... took a deep breath... Janis began “I can’t give you anything but love, baby”... and then we sashayed into a swinging, spontaneous romp through the song. Playing tag. Call and response. Big band horn riffs. Solos. Blocks of chords. Scatting. Playing! Yes, Dear Readers. This is why it’s called “playing” music. What a wonderful thing!

Today it is raining hard, and oh how I am looking forward to being in town to smell the scent of rain on pavement and to all the city has to offer, but most of all, to working on my own shows with Tex Arnold, and to singing with the Janis and Ann more often as we prepare for our trio gigs - projected lift-off in early 2007, but there may be a few more sightings like last night's before then. Grab your coat, and get your hat!