a typical week of gigs - busy lately.

Last weeks gigs - yes I make a living playing music, but it is a lot of hard work.

Sunday/Monday - Orcas Island, Private party, over night.

Tuesday - Teach in Port Orchard

Wednesday - Tulalip Casino with DMQ

Thursday - Nothing! Went to my best friend Derek's police academy graduation. I can not believe he is a real cop now. Since we were little kids I knew along with everyone else he was gonna be a cop so it was like a important life moment to watch him graduate from the police academy.

Friday - Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival w/ May Palmer, Queen of Ivory Soul! Awesome gig, fun band, nasty RnB!

Saturday - DMQ played a private gig in Winthrop Washington. Woke up to hot air balloons, wanted to go on one sooo bad!

Sunday - Had to get up early to get back to the west side of the state to play a solo piano private party.

Monday - Teach at FMS.

Each gig averages four hours long, with another two to eight hours in prep/travel time! I am tired, and super excited to go to Hawaii in a little over a month!

Cheers,

Mack

Tonight at the Tractor Tavern

Just wanted to make a special note that tonight at the Tractor Tavern, my cover band I play in, "The Dudley Manlove Quartet" is going to be rockin the house with all sorts of 60's, 70's and 80's covers!

We really want to have a great show, and a great crowd, so come out and party and dance with us! Buy your tickets ahead of time and they are only $8.00, or $10.00 at the door! Show starts at 9:30

Hopefully we will see you there, here is a fan video from one of our shows last year - look how much fun they are having! That can be you!

Here is the Tractor's website

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?

How to practice video's? Oh great!

I made a short youtube video about how I want my students to practice effectively, in order to see the best results in the shortest amount of time.  



Fortunately for me, Youtube loves to thumbnail all of my videos when I look the most ridiculous!  It looks like I am singing "oooo"!  This is not a voice lesson!  Anyways, to all my students, there is no new information inside this video... but if you watch it let it remind you what it takes to really learn something.  Don't forget the "Mess around time" though!  

As for everything else, I had a rehearsal for a gig this coming Wednesday with Jacob Stickney at Lucid.  It is going to be cool, it is always fun to play in Jacob's band.  His originals are fun and I love everyone in that group.  Hmm, any other gigs of note..?  Playing the finish line of a race at 8:00 am Sunday with the Little Big Band (sub-group of the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra), played three private events last week, and am taking the trio down to Astoria tomorrow to play a gig.  Rocked the house at Lucid (awesome new local jazz club) with Bridgid Roney and Richelle Gay and Kiranda.  For Kiranda's gig there were not many people there, so we got to mess around and all practice our free-styling and what-not.  I have also met and performed with May Palmer, Queen of Ivory Soul.  What a great front woman she is!  

Dudley is playing the Triple Door on July 3rd!  Be there or be square.  We are also holding auditions for a new guitarist.  If you are interested, contact me through my website.

Cheers,

Mack 

Proud of Seattle today! Seattle students drown out anti-gay demonstration | Top Stories |

This is so awesome, I am so excited that the counter-protest was such a success.  If I was at the protest I feel like I would have wanted to punch em out!  I guess thats why the police are there, but man, people do not get beat up for being dumb asses anymore!  I am glad the message could get across peacefully, so funny that there are christians out there that preach hate.  Those people are not welcome in our state/city.

Seattle students drown out anti-gay demonstration | Top Stories |
Seattle News, Local News, Breaking News, Weather | KING5.com


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