Keepin busy in August! Summer is almost over..!

I cannot believe that summer has come and is nearing an end so quickly! Sometimes I feel like I get so depressed in the winter, hah, maybe that is a Washington thing.

One good thing about winter though is that I get a much better practice routine going! During the summer so many gigs, nice days, and other random things distract me from getting any real work done. (The most recent has been surfing... gnarley duuude!)

I have been working on a couple corporate bands to get started, and now I finally have all the charts together. I am going to start having a weekly jam session over at my place on Sundays, and out of this hopefully will come charging the big band! Do not know what we will call it yet, but it is all set and ready to go. All we need is horn players that can read and play their shit to come over and play through some of these arrangements. If you are interested, contact me and I will get you more details.

Anyways, the Sunday jam this week is going to be in Port Orchard at my parents house - if you happen to be in P.O. come stop by the Dojo and check it out! It will be picnic style, so bring some food and a blanket/chairs.

Until then I have two gigs at the Faire Gallery and Cafe, Tonight and Thursday night for their happy hour events, a solo piano performance at St. Michelle winery on Wednesday (Diana Krall is playing there this weekend, should be great!) and a private event with the WaterBabies (Jason Parker) on Friday, and DMQ on Saturday on Bainbridge Island.

Hope everything is good for everyone! Right now I am listening to Enrico Pierenunzi's album Night Gone By. Check it out.

Mack

Summer is busy time for us "Catz"

Have been playing a lot of gigs lately, corporate events, private gigs, and a few awesome club dates and stuff too.

Notable gigs :

Oysterville Jazz and Oysters festival - Rocked the house with May Palmer (R&B singer)  Totally fun, never ate so many oysters in my life!  Oysterville is a mysterious place, it is about 35 min. north of Long Beach Washington!  It was a great time, beautiful place!

Orange - Played Brewfest in Portland with the band Orange, lead by Ted Wallis.  Fun gig, crazy time.  Lots of bro's at this gig, we played at the Rockbottom in downtown Portland!

DMQ @ Highdive - Pretty good, unfortunately our draw was not what we were hoping for, but for the people that were there it was a good time!  Our next show is at the Tractor Tavern (Dudley Manlove Quartet's After School Special)  Come party and bring supplies to donate to local elementary schools!

Played a bunch more but those are the ones that I thought were really worth mentioning right now!  

Went and saw Ahmad Jhamal also at Jazz Alley!  Good show all around, however Ahmad's playing is somewhat of a mystery to me.  I have not spent much time listening to him, but I think I need to now!  I want to see if the way he was playing when I saw him is how he always plays!

Upcoming awesome things :

Dave Peck Trio @ Tulas August 28th and 29th - My mentor is returning to Tula's after a break from playing live!  This is going to kick ass.

Trio CD - A trio cd is in the works with fellow musicians Brad Gibson and Devin Lowe on Drums and Bass respectively!  Should be a fun time, we have  a very unique way of playing together!

Mack Grout Band - Quartet show in Lynnwood, Nov. 7th!  Benefit for the Lynnwood food bank.  This is a full on concert, be there or be square!  Trio featuring Clark Gibson on Saxophones.

This post might not be that interesting sorry!  Will update more from now on!  

Me and Ian Borak (Drums) have been working on a soundtrack for a commercial, should be on television in the next couple of months!  Will have to let you guys know!

Cheers,

Mack

P.S.  Also keep your ears out - yours truly has an interview/lesson excerpt on NPR!  I will keep you all updated.  

Metronome?