Welcome
Through out all the years of gigs, I’ve often said, ”Man I could write a book.” Many of the humorous, strange, exciting, things that have happened in my history of gigging are long forgotton…..but maybe through these writings, after some reflection, some of those times will come back to me and I’ll be able to share them with you.
In addition to my high school teaching job, like many musicians I know, I keep a busy evening schedule making phone calls to agents, clients, band members, band Ieaders who hire me as a freelance artist, checking Craigslist and Berklee ads for gigs, following up gig related phone calls, rehearsals, listening and writing drum charts for new tunes etc. I even manage to take a lesson here and there and hopefully find some time to practice. This week was especially busy (which is the way I like it) I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not working. Every Monday I do a two hour paid rehearsal at my house, Tuesday I teach a free after school drum clinic, Wednesday I had a gig (a function for my peers at school/loads of fun), Thursday I got to recharge my battery, Friday I gigged w/ an old friend that I hadn’t seen in 20 years, a great bass player and singer John Dasoni. John was the musical director for the Platter’s for 18 years. He called me to do a show with one of the lead singers of the Platters. One thing I learned from that gig was that I better start bringing my reading glasses. The drummer who did the Platters gigs before me made changes to the drum book in pencil. Under dim lights I found it impossible to read. I had to ask my guitar player, Raleigh Green, what was written during the first intermission. The leader was never the wiser and we had a great time playing songs like, “Only You, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and The Great Pretender.
Saturday night my band Jumpstreet did a ‘boat gig’. The Isles of Shoals Steamship Authority books us several times a year to do their party cruises in Portsmouth, NH. I love this gig because, #1, it’s 20 minutes from my house in North Eastern Massachusetts and # 2, the crew and owner are super nice and treat us wonderfully, # 3 the crowds are receptive to whatever we play which makes for an easy, enjoyable gig…….oh yeah, and # 4, the musicians in Jumpstreet are not only “A” players, but are simply awesome people and good friends. We load in at 7:30 and the boat departs at 8:30. There were almost 200 people on board for this trip. We usuually start off with a mellow set but after observing customers’ body language, I could tell it was time to crank it up. We ended up doing straight ahead high energy dance music for the rest of the night. When the folks are having that much fun, then you know the band is too! On Sunday I got to sleep in until 11am! Then it was off to mom’s to see the family for Mother’s Day.
Michael Ruggelo & Joshua Kadison