1/21/24

One of the drummers I mentioned in my post about the blues jam, Terelle has been talking about the two of us working as a rhythm section for church gigs. I’ve never played a church gig  but it is music and I am more than willing to give basically anything a shot. 

There were a few false starts but we finally got some stuff going lastt week, three sets in one day. Bring it Terelle!

I was up at 6am getting dressed and loading gear, picked up Terelle and headed to United Baptist Church near Hopkins.  First sermon at 7:45 second at 10. This was amazing.  Joe is the organist/musical director playing a full Hammond/Leslie set up! Just a standard keyboard for Tyrone. Both of these dudes can throw down. First rate players and a real joy to work with.  

I didn’t know any of the tunes and we semi walked through them before the first service. It goes like this. Mid tempo tune with some bounce as people are coming in. Slower tune while the preacher is warming them up. And by that I mean singing in a way that made me lose my place a couple of times because it was so good. I could feel it, everybody could feel it.  Just amazing. 

The third tune is when they pass the plate and it is a mover that is made to make them shake and we threw down on it. Then we sit out while the preacher is giving the sermon and we end it all with a mid tempo tune that makes the whole room (and the people online) feel warm and alive. 

I could talk about this for hours. The way the song has structure but sometimes we vamp here and sometimes there. How in the first sermon the preacher sang one part three times and eight in the next sermon. How sometimes we just stop then all jump in hard on the one 32 bars later. 

How we played the same four songs in both sermons but none of them felt the same.  

All of this and some of the kindest people who welcomed a stranger in and made me feel like a part of everything and then paid me!! Just amazing and I went home for a bit floating. 

Then around four we headed over to Sandtown-Winchester to play an anniversary celebration for this pastors 25th anniversary of preaching. 

This was for the Laborers for Jesus Church but we weren’t in that church, this was a community center in another part of town. I don’t know what is going on here I just go where Terelle tells me to go…       

Anyway the piano player/musical director was a real nice guy (but I can’t remember his name!!) and another top level player. We did a quick walk through two songs and it was time to go. 

We only played a total of three. The third was pretty straight forward so  it was fine without knowing it. And that was kinda it. The preacher preached. They fed everybody that came around and it was another real nice time with a lot of kind people.  

That is the short version of it all. I went from zero church gigs in my life to three in one day and it was beautiful. Tons of details I left out and I could talk about this for hours. We aren’t sure where we will end up but Terelle is working this and he is bringing me along and I am not gonna argue with the man.