a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

Well my dear blog, it seems we are in the midwest, doing a remote post. And the specific location for that remote post, is none other than Purgatory. Let me explain.

I’m on this documentary crew, and my first ever out of town trip was proposed, and it seemed like a good idea. Going to Chicago, recording music, all good things, right? The details slowly look downward. The flight will be leaving at 6am, we will return the next night at midnight, and there is no real schedule of the recordings we are doing.

Last night I was up later than I should have been, and decided at 1am to take a 2 hour nap, leaving enough time to finish packing and shower before i was picked up at 4:15. It must have been the power of sleep, or satanic intervention or something, but My alarm did not go off. I was woken up by the driver, calling from outside the building. Now, there is no greater state of panic than one realizes they have overslept. I attempted to dress in a semi professional manner, but that fell through quickly. I didnt even pack anything other than what i had done the previous night, and I am dredding to discover what I have forgotten.

I arrived first of the crew at the airport, at 4:37am. Who knew we lived that close to Newark Airport? When the rest of the dudes showed up at 5am, I was a little worried, considering they had 5 extremely heavy bags to check, and had not parked their car. Did i mention the flight boarded at 5:30? The bags were overweight, there were problems with parking, the works. So at 5:26, still not through security, they said “steve, go ahead, hopefully we’ll see you on the plane”. Lo And Behold, everyone made it on the flight, literally 2 minutes before they closed the doors. I was so delerious, I had no idea what was going on.

But luckily, they got me my own hotel room, which in theory is amazing. It is “in theory” because its not fucking ready yet! and where is my fucking soy chai!! what:? ok. you have no idea how excited i was to take a shower and sleep for 2 hrs before the first recording starts, but those plans have been thwarted by the evil Hiltion of Oakdale. I’ll bet that Paris slut is behind this.

and so, in the hotel lobby, where wireless is a plenty, we wait. and wait some more.