Dave played at Tula's this weekend. It was an excellent show the night I was there (Saturday). Eric Eagle was playing drums, and Dean Johnson was on upright bass.
It was an evening of playing standards and a few originals. My favorite was Blue Bird, which as far as I know is an original waltz, it was great.
What I really enjoyed about the music was the freedom of it. Harmonically, Dave is the master at voice leading and reharm'ing tunes, not to mention playing with a great balance amongst his fingers. The second set I thought the music really started to open up -- they played two ninety minute sets.
I study with Dave Peck because I think he is the shit in Seattle as far as pianists go! There are other great players, but I idolize the way he can play and make everything sound so great. I like that he plays lots of medium tempo tunes, and ballads ... it has always been more important to me to play beautifully than to 'burn'. ALTHOUGH, I have been working on burning tempo's lately. One thing I have been doing is using the cd metronome by Paul Carmen (google). It is just a mp3 track of him playing time, 32 bar forms, but it is excellent to practice to. Tempos range from 40-400 bpm! Dave turned me on to it, and I know that Dave practices with it a lot as well, and I could really tell at this last gig. His chops were turned on more than usual!
Anyways, it is turkey day, so I might as well say what I am thankful for.
I am thankful that I get to play (and teach) music as a job. Although it is stressful sometimes, and sometimes I feel like it takes the magic out of music for me, it is totally worth it in the end. The majority of the stuff that I dislike is all of the office work that I have to do. I want to start working enough so that I can just hire a secretary or assistant!
I am also thankful for my friends and family, Chelsea, Moh, Mom, Jade, Jana, Dad! Love you guys!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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