These photos from that night: DFQ @ Vibrato 10.15.16, speak for themselves.  You can sense the energy and excitement from the facial expressions on each band member: unadulterated joy!  Yeah we were having a good time!  As I commented in the Facebook post of that evening:

“Wow!!! A packed house and great night of hard-hittin’ jazz at Vibrato Grill Jazz!!! Dream night!”

I’ve mentioned before that 2016 was a challenging year gig-wise.  But we also had some very memorable gigs: starting the year by recording “RESILIENCE!” live at Alvas Showroom, one of the last performances at the Beverly Hills supper club: H.O.M.E. [House of Music and Entertainment] and of course our CD release performance at Jazz @LACMA [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] in front of an audience of over 2,000 as well as being recorded for radio broadcast on KKJZ 88.1 FM the following Sunday.  However, I’d have to say our October 15th performance at Herb Alpert’s wonderfully ambient Vibrato Jazz Grill, for me personally was the most memorable gig of 2016.  By this point in the year, we had become familiar and confident with the originals and began expanding each of our own ideas and approaches to the music;   -owning each of our own interpretations of the tunes.  And to get to express this collectively with each other in front of a packed Saturday night house of some of LA’s most stellar, ‘beautiful people’ was a musician’s dream gig.  It was as if the Universe saying ‘thank you’ to Jane Getz, Bill Markus, Thomas White for their efforts not only in this year, but for the last 21st years!  And also to Rita Edmond, who has selflessly taken the role of becoming the voice of my original music with lyrics.  Of course I have to say that a BIG THANKS goes out to legendary bassist Pat Senatore who has been artistic director at Vibrato Grill Jazz. Throughout his tenure, Pat has generously kept me working through  all these years and from time to time book the DFQ.  That October night was one of those rare nights.  Of course for me, most fulfilling was getting an opportunity to play my music and explore my personal vision that I currently hold for the band and what I want to do as an instrumentalist, specifically on the baritone sax.   The ambient Vibrato Grill Jazz room IMHO, is one of  best jazz rooms in the country; -a perfect venue to play in.  Playing before an intimate audience such as Vibrato, my first objective is to immediately set a mood and create and sustain a “vibe“.  My compositions are designed to accomplish that.  Especially tunes from my larger works and suites are designed to set certain universal laws into motion and hopefully reach manifestation.  The titles of the tunes are the specific things sought to be put into motion.  This was magnificently realized in the video “Elation“; setting that mood into being.  This was my favorite performance of the evening.  “Elation” is the third movement from my jazz suite: “Perceptions” that is on our CD, “RESILIENCE!” and is one of those tunes.  It captures everything I am attempting to accomplish compositionally and improvisationally with the baritone sax.

Here is the video playlist from that evening, starting with the composition “Elation”.  Indeed, -Most Memorable gig of 2016!

DFQ @ Vibrato Grill 10.15.16 Playlist