We went to New York in the chill of winter primarily for the APAP booking conference, which was great and all, but I have to say that our last night in NYC trumped EVERYTHING!!!
The last night we were in New York, we went to Birdland to sit in at Jim Caruso's Cast Party. This is a very entertaining night, with the ever so entertaining Jim Caruso at the helm. He gets a lot of Broadway and Cabaret singers, and I sent him an email about a month before to see if we could sit in. Yup. He sent back a very nice note and there you go.
So ... that Monday night ... it had been a long, long few days of conference, rehearsal and showcase, Angie (me) being VERY tired at this point ... and at some point in the show (~11:30 pm-ish), Jim announces that Jon Hendricks is the house. THE Jon Hendricks???!!! We thought he was joking until Mr Hendricks stood up and then we all couldn't even breathe for about 15 minutes!!!
Well. Needless to say, it was a thrill to be right there at that moment. Jon Hendricks and his daughter, Aria, sang two tunes ... fabulous. And I know that I spent the next half dozen songs reminding myself that I can sing and it was going to be great
. BTW, that tune we decided to sing is 4-part a cappella beginning with me alone. Yike.We got up there, bowed to the Master, and sang our song.
It was beautiful. We were so inspired, and they listened. Maybe because we were so different from every act prior, but I know we sang well and felt great about our performance. The sound guy was fantastic. What a beautiful room!
Here it is: Jon H stood up for us as we ended, ran down to the aisle and was waiting there to hug us all. Loved what we did and MAN!!!!! THAT moment is burned into our beings forever.
I am especially thrilled for Dave and Juliet because I know how Jon Hendricks, especially, has influenced them both in their singing, lyric writing and performance. What they bring to our group is just awesome, and to have happened to be at Birdland THAT night with the opportunity to sing for one of the Masters was amazing.
