A local musician, John Owen called. Jennifer used to sing for him, but he was calling for me. He needed a sub for that evening. My first thought was to say no, but I AM a working musician, so OK. He told me it was going to be jazz, “an easy gig, only two hours".
I should know better than to believe any gig is easy, but I took only a couple of fake books with me (memorized tunes aren't my forte, they are more my pianissimo!) and headed to the British Properties for an “easy” 5th anniversary party.
The couple who answered the door were gorgeous. They were out of some foreign film about young Iranian models. We traded stories about children (they have a one year old), and then it was down to work. I sat at a beautiful Yamaha C3 grand piano overlooking the entire Burrard Inlet. I pointed to Nanaimo, and said I was born over there. They didn't seem impressed. I'm a closet geographer. Anyway, I told the hostess that I was ready to play jazz, and I saw her nose scrunch up. “Do you play any popular music?” Yes, I thought, but I left that book at home. Kids, work on your memorization. It comes in handy. I played as many pop tunes as I could remember, but I kept coming back to the jazz tunes I brought with me, and that I love. The couple kept asking for pop tunes, so I said “I can read anything. What music do you have?" Well, that changed the whole evening. Kids, learn how to sight read. You can make a lot of money. It turns out they are into, of course, Persian music.
I had already played an Indian night of music a couple of years ago. The family sent me Cds ahead of time and I wrote out three piano tunes for their party. I was ready with those. I practiced them. The crowd loved it. “Now that's real music”, a man from the crowd said.
This was different. I had never SEEN this Persian music. However, after playing the Indian music, I new that it would sound and read like western music, and I was happy to see that the difficulty was about a grade 6 to 8 level. Almost every tempo was 84. It is very melancoly music. “This song was sung by a man to his daughter just before his execution under the Shaw” someone explained. I kind of got into it. The crowd went nuts. They asked for the same songs over and over (thank God!, or Allah!) so I got better at them. Anyway, I was a hit, after sweatting over bringing the wrong tunes for the wrong crowd. I was asked to play an extra hour, and got a nice tip. Phew!
Vancouver is changing. I should get organized and tell people I play international parties. Maybe after I change the baby, take my beautiful wife out on a long awaited date (for both of us), fix my crashed computer, slap on baseboards throughout the apartment, buy a new apartment, rent out the old one, fix the Thomas The Train that split in two (aren't those well made British toys?), etc. etc., oh yeah, and practice!
