This was the week for JMDL'er visits to LA! Chris Coccaro (our "C Karma")
is in from NYC this week shooting a commercial and surprised me with a
email. We got together last night and ran around the town having a good old
"Joni" time. Les told me of the resturant in Venice where a lone Joni
painting hangs so we had a wonderful dinner there and I got up the nerve to
be gauche enough to snap a photo ;-) (with permission). The abstract
painting is very pretty and has a quality of changing hues and textures as
you move around it. We then raced off to The Baked Potato in North
Hollywood where Clark, thankfully, was holding some space for us at the bar
and composing a new song. Joni band veterans and legends Vinnie Colaiuta
(WTRF, DED & NRH) and Michael Landau (WTRF, DED, Chalkmark & TI) were
playing with Abe Laboriel, Sr. and Greg Mathieson were playing together,
billed as the "Dyno-Four." Oh and were they ever! I was wishing Lahm or
Fred Simon could have been there to adequately describe what we were
hearing. They seemed to go through one long continuous riff of every style
of West Coast jazz of the past 30 years. They were tremendously energetic
and absolutely stunning. The crowd went wild after every performance. The
guys were so into it and seemed so happy to be playing together - they would
cheer, hug and high-five each other after almost every song. They all seem
like such great people. Afterward, Chris, Clark and I hung outside on the
sidewalk and talked about all kinds of things for over an hour and then
Chris and I headed back down to Hollywood and cruised along Sunset blasting
and singing DJRD. Chris also told us many great stories about a wonderful
conversation with Joni's dad and his time at the Mendel exhibit in Saskatoon
a year ago today. It was such a happy surprise to meet Chris, whose posts I
always enjoy and I'm so glad he looked us up.
I've added some photos of the LA JMDL'ers get-togethers with Gary Zack and
Chris (and the Joni painting ;-) at the link below. Kakki NP: Covers
Vol. 19 - Thanks Bob!
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1481388&a=13272687
If you use AOL, use this link to see the photos.
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1481388&a=13272687";>
Click here</a>
