district lounge, farewell my friend

It was July 28th, the last of Five years of wednesday performances at the district lounge. Many odd and interesting nights, so many different musicians and passer byes, spontaneous friends and moments of never see you agains, late night lock ins, wedding parties crash, authors, buissiness men, a hooker who dropped her stash, leroy moor in the corner, I heard him clap, the jewish birthright came and in hebrew I let them rap, Andre rou orchestra took turns on the piano, sang christmas songs with an oboe player on my knee, and the strangers became fellows as the coffee became whiskey, there were, cellos, basses, drums, horns, pianos, guitars, vocalists, rappers, percussionists, poets, harmonicas, if the walls could sing... would sing just about anything. Was an intersection for anyone, artist, traveler, and our community. The last night was truly an honor as so many came that these wednesday nights were important to. I played for two and a half hours straight and when I was done, started to feel those five years as one big emotion. Will miss those days and now asking my guitar for guidance...

Shoreline Community College takes on recording project

The college hired me and Steve Kin (bass and keys) to lay some tracks for the audio engineering class, we quickly put them to work. We brought in; stand up bass, electric bass, acoustic, electric guitars, harmonica, had them set up a drum kit and mic up the grand piano, after all set the room looked like spaghetti with cables running all over the place. We decided to improvise over a basic instrumental form and melody I had been bringing out live.

A few hours later, each instrument played only once, we had something seemingly pretty good. They mixed it and sent it to us, and I love it. I have not named it yet so am open to suggestion. Now the professor will bring us in for the fall quarter class as the subject matter and we will create an album together. Class is in and I am the text book, don't just skip to the summeay and the final will be 100% your grade.

Listen to Song

the cop, the crow, and the darkness

We were plugging in as 'poof' the power goes out on the entire block of California and Oregon of west Seattle: Shadowland was in the dark. So we waited with our whiskys on the patio with a view of the intersection as cars tried to negotiate the right of way in top Seattle passive aggressive form, not smooth. We were having a mild chuckle over the chaos as a police officer arrives to work the intersection... our dripping chuckle improved to a gushing hysteria. The officer, instead of standing in the center of the intersection and directing traffic, places himself on the corner and begins yelling at cars when they don't perform textbookfully. "HE GOES, YOU GO", "WHAT'S AMATTER WITH YOU, IT'S LIKE A STOP SIGN", "GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONE" and on and on. Finally the lights come back after the fried crow remains had been excavated from the power lines, we were ready to makes some sound. Leif Totusek, Steve Kim, and I ventured forth toward the horizon filled with chutes and ladders, hot potato, twister, and fencing, I think it sounded a lot like music. As goes another Monday night at Shadowland.

Enza's Troupe Deville sunday brunches

The Fabulous Enza, Italian chef with an infectious warmth of personality welcomed troupe deville in to her Sunday brunch. We were there for the crepes and espreso but the stage and piano took us all over. The early afternoon into the late afternoon became a piano round with singing, laughing, dancing, and opera pouring out into the streets of queen ann hill. The neighborhood has never been the same since the opera, flamenco, blues of Troupe Deville found it's sunday zany hang out at Enza's. People are starting to show up more and more for brunch to witness the improvisational. who knows, anything goes nature of crepes, espreso, Troupe Deville, the fabulous Enza, and the mystery of what ever else might walk through the door.

Valentines @ Benaroya Hall

benaroyarehearsal It was the opera, flamenco, jazz, story, violin, humor, blues, improvisation, collaberation, standing ovation, at the sold out valentines show of andre feriante and troupe de ville at benaroya hall. Amidst the eclectic, masterful performances were the intimate stories of different artists lives and how we all came to be friends through our 'living the dream' but also came the personalities when sharing the stage.

ericandsteve-benaroya There were slick stabs at one another, inside jokes created with the audience, steve thoreson and I while drinking our bubbly water, became a pelegrino comercial: exagerated delicous drinking, vanna white like bottle presentations, lifting of bottles at one another with tv smiles and head nods. This is the 'who knows what will happen' style when three artist (opera, flamenco, blues) take the stage together as troupe deville. My many thanks and honor to be involved with such an extraordinary cast.