Hey all you windy city-ites!!! I am threading this just to let everyone know what Brian and I have been talking about this last week. If you have read the roadtrip threads, you know Brian is tentatively talking about coming here for one or two showcases (depending on the interest) on May 23 and/or the 24th (wed and thur)...Jack S and I go to Fitzgeralds almost every Tues for open mike, and I know you agree (if you've been there)it is a great venue. Good sound, large warm inviting room, drinks and the new Wishbone restaurant (barbeque) opened there this week
www.fitzgeraldsnightclub.com If we can get this room for our showcase, we will have a great time.

I spoke to Bill Fitzgerald yesterday, and he has a few tentative things planned already around that time. He will get back to me within a week about those dates. I am thinking we should wait on him as our FIRST choice, as it is the best place. If anyone would like to chime in here, feel free, nothing is set yet.

If we can get a date from him and have good interest---we can look at a 2nd showcase and we can all talk about what might be good for the second one. I go to a place in Naperville called Hemingways Bar at Keywester Restaurant. It is new, clean and has good food, drinks and a killer sound system. I know Naperville is a little far out, but this IS a great place---that being said, there is alot of work to do on the FIRST showcase before we even think about a second one, so let's not worry about the second one right now...

So to sum up where we're at, if we can get Fitzgerald's for either the 23rd or 24th I am thinking this will be great. Bill said that he has no problem with no cover and he will pay a sound man, since we'll all be buying drinks there. I hope you all like this idea, and jump on the bandwagon and help make this a GREAT event---let's make Brian PROUD of our chapter

Herbie

I used to do the Tuesday night FitzGeralds thing, too. And yeah, the big room is a great room. (The Side Bar is cool, too... but definately too small for this thing!)

Oh, and color me interested!

Hi, everyone,

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth yet, though it may seem like it to most of you here--and for that, mea culpa. Some of you know the details of what's been happening to me and mine over the past couple of years since our last JPF Showcase (at first, most of it good and then, oy vey); I'll spare you the goriest of the details (if you're curious, e-mail me), but can say that just as my band and touring was taking off, my mom in FL got sick; since July '05 my life has been a rollercoaster of first traveling up and back to care for her, then her death in April (and the legal and administrative aftereffects, not to mention grief). Had some nasty injuries in '06 (fracture, sprains, bruises, etc.) from falls I took; my singing partner Susan broke her ankle at the Fox Valley Folk Festival after-party and could not bear weight on it or drive for twelve weeks last fall. Just as things got back on track, I broke my foot on New Year's Day and my elderly inlaws in NYC suffered catastrophic illnesses themselves. I've been bouncing up & back between here & there like a ping-pong ball AND trying not to cancel any more gigs at the same time. Meanwhile, I did my fifth year in the Chicago Bar Assn. Christmas Spirits show (unbeknownst to my castmates, in double knee braces and on handfuls of Aleve); and have been involved in putting together the annual FARM (Folk Alliance Midwest) conference--for the first two years as Registrar and now as President. SASS! (in our sometimes incarnation as a trio) formally showcased at the main Folk Alliance conference last month in Memphis. I have had to turn over my half of the Chicago Songwriters' Collective reins to John Ludwig; and I suspect that it's going to be time very soon to pass the JPF Chicago torch on to one of you as well. Unlike when we started, we now have an active and vital online community here; and I have high hopes that under the leadership of someone with more time and vigor our chapter will grow and prosper.

Meanwhile, I would love to be able to perform in the Roadtrip Showcases in May (either solo or with Susan as SASS!) and will do what I can to help administer them and provide the PA if necessary (I have a full 10-ch. system with speakers and stands now). My home is available to host Brian, of course, and I look forward to seeing him (and hopefully, Linda) again. I apologize for not checking in here more often; but as I told Herbie, between my music, my mom's estate, my in-laws and my clients I've been online or on the phone 8-12 hours a day as it is.

Looking forward to meeting with you all and hearing you perform again!

Sandy

PS--if you want to see what's been keeping me busy between the episodes of medical and family "tsuris," check out:
www.myspace.com/sandyandina
www.myspace.com/sassandthesasstrio
www.sass-music.com
www.andinarich.com
and
www.farmfolk.org (would love to have a JPF presence at the FARM Gathering 2007 in Techny)

Hi Todd
Glad you would like to partake in the fun!!!

Hey Sandy
sorry it's been tough sledding for you...We'll be looking forward to seeing you in May

Herbie

Hi,

I would be interested in participating in the showcase. I'm a jazz musician and play with groups from a trio to quintet. Probably for a showcase I'd try to do it with just 3 people, since the guys will want $$$. Fitzgeralds would be cool. However I think for me, since I live in Chicago, Naperville would just be too far to go. I don't think I could get the people I like to play with to travel that far for a showcase.

I would love to do a networking thing, meet Brian etc. if the showcase doesn't work out. It would be really cool to meet you all and see what you're into.

kathy

Dunno if it will be the same as before, but we've always run the Roadtrip showcases (at least the ones here, in DC and Santa Monica in which I've played) on a gratis basis--gratis, that is, in terms of performer compensation. Last time we had a showcase at all (which had to, due to unforeseen circumstances, become a non-Roadtrip showcase) we had to pay the soundperson at Uncommon Ground and I think we had a net balance of, IIRC, left in the tip bucket of six dollars (which, added to the $4.50 we cleared at our first U.G. showcase, will be the gigantic $10.50 treasury I will ceremoniously turn over to our next leader.

I would seriously suggest you broach the subject of your bandmates accompanying you for free just this once (unless they're AFofM Local 10 members, in which case the union reps are constantly breathing down their necks--which is why I chose to join Local 1000 instead). Unless we have a very small roster, I doubt anyone but JPF Award winners would get to do more than one number per evening anyway. If you can't convince them to play without being compensated or don't want to go solo, be aware that this chapter is brimming with people who are willing and able to accompany you for the sheer joy of it. Collaboration is often the order of the day.

What are you doing up at 4:30 am Sandina?

I'm in!

Plish

A man of few words, I see.

Hi all

We are now using the other more recent thread for this event!

Herbie