Lynnwood Food Bank Benefit!

A week ago, my quartet played a gig at the Lynnwood Free Methodist Church to benefit the Lynnwood food-bank. It was exciting to have a showcase gig for a good cause, and we earned over $1,600.00 for the food bank!

Clark Gibson was playing sax, Adam Kessler was playing drums and Devin Lowe was playing a lil' bass in your face.

Getting ready for the concert, I had a whole bunch of music picked out for us to perform, but it turned out that two forty-five minute sets was only a third of the material I picked out. Although we did not get a true rehearsal in (hard with everyones schedules) we played charts that were easy enough to get through as a band with very little rehearsal time. Some of those included Get Happy, Pure Imagination, I'm Walkin and a Charlie Parker transcription of Dewey Square. It was a fun gig, the music was all around exciting, however as a musician I cannot be satisfied! LoL! Next time we will be tighter, play better and have even MORE fun!!!

You can check out a clip from the gig on my website, www.mackgrout.com

Mack

Excited about an upcoming gig this weekend!

I am super excited to be playing a gig this Saturday at the Lynnwood Free Methodist Church.

My band is playing a jazz concert to raise money for the Lynnwood Food Bank. It should be really fun, everyone in the band is a great musician. I am super stoked, although I play gigs and work all the time, I am trying to push more of 'my' thing lately. This concert is a good representation of who I am as a musician, and what I do, and what I want to do all the time. Obviously, I love all the bands that I play with, but it feels sometimes that I am so busy working all the time that I am not focusing on doing what I want to do, and pushing my career as a musician (sideman aside).

Anyways, get more information at the official website (Google Lynnwood Food Bank) or at the Facebook event page here.

Also, on Facebook you can see a lot of the pictures from the Dudley Manlove Spooktacular, 2009, which kicked @$$!

Other notable gigs:

Zubbatto Syndicate : Adventurous Rock Jazz Hop written by Andrew Bosardin. I love playing in Andrews bands, it is an adventure, and he is a good friend of mine! Come out, were at Town Hall this Thursday! Brought to you by the Seattle City of the Music fund... or something like that!

Water Babies : Love it, rocked the Waterstreet in Port Townsend

Spirit of Peace Church : Gettin the hang of being a music minister

Crystal Ballroom : Felt like a rockstar! Wait a minute, I was a rockstar! It was interesting to play it for tons of peeps at a public show, and then the next night to have to play it for a lot of people at a gigantic private wedding!

Nordstrom : ..... What is this? I feel that all pianists probably try this gig out at least once --- you can look for me soon at the Bellevue Nordstroms, weekends during the day!