Odds 'n Ends

Much of the first part of the week spent catching up with old DC mate and keyboardist Gregg Karukas & his better half, in town to gig with Smooth Jazz All-Stars guitarist Peter White & sax-man Michael Paulo. A near capacity crowd packed the McCoy Studio Theater last sunday evening and were treated to an evening of stellar musicianship. And while I generally prefer my jazz to be quite a bit more angular and oblique, it's always fun to watch Gregg perform. Hanging around for sound-check and then backstage before and after the show I got to meet all of the artists and chin-wag ad-nauseum about the trials of the road, how to deal with Facebook friends & fans, the jazz scene in Jakarta, Indonesia... Bassist Dwayne "Smitty" Smith, it turns out, is also a DC refugee and we compared notes on the scene, mutual friends, favorite clubs & venues...

Gregg @ Sound-Check

Michael & Peter

Peter & Gregg

Peter

Dwayne "Smitty" Smith

The arrival of Chester earlier in the week has helped keep the excitement pace up on the home front. Sleeping through the entire night last night meant the missus & I finally got a decent night's rest. Puppy poop & piddle, I am happy to report, is now entirely confined to a couple of strategically placed & ridiculously overpriced pads made just for such purposes. Spare no expense when attempting the save relatively new bamboo floors & rugs, I suppose.

Proposals completed & submitted for a new restaurant project on Oahu on monday, stylist is standing by... still waiting for the word. Let's hope the word is GO!

Wednesday evening brought an interview to be included in an artist in residence program at one of the major south shore resort hotels.  Again, awaiting the good word as this could be a great opportunity to show & sell personal work with the rapid approach of the winter holiday season. Now, to just find some work that might match someone's sofa!

Trip To Hana

Old DC pal and superstar Smooth Jazz keyboard artist Gregg Karukas has been in the islands for the past few days to play a gig in Waikiki last saturday night. Besides having several great jazz bands back in the DC days, Gregg was also the original keyboardist for The Rippingtons, the band leader for the old Gary Shandling Show on HBO, has scored several feature films, toured with drummer Alphonse Mouzon, Melissa Manchester, Boney James and a host of others. Gregg has also released 11 of his own very fine recordings, his latest, GK just about to be released. You can get it online here.

After wrapping up his saturday gig on Oahu, Gregg hopped a plane Maui bound has been hanging around my house for the past couple of days relaxing, getting into the Maui vibe (can we expect a maui tune on the next release?) and catching me up on old friends from the east coast.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed out east along the Hana Coast to check out the waterfalls, secluded beaches, jungle foliage and roadside homemade banana-coconut ice cream (thanks Coconut Glen!). Here's a couple of pics from the outing.

Gregg at Twin Falls:

The old Catholic Church on the Wailua Penninsula:

The old church's interior:

The Keanae Coast looking towards Wailua: