Topic: House Concerts

[Slack]

I just held my first house concert last month and I must say it was pretty cool - not exactly country blues, so at the risk of telling you more than you want to know....

Looking for something fun to do, and because El Paso is a "B" market for music, I signed up at http://concertsinyourhome.com last fall... and lucked out immediately when The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet contacted me about playing.  Gonzalo Bergara is a Gypsy Jazz virtuoso.  They were in Phoenix, AZ doing both a workshop and a concert and drove to El Paso to do my living room before returning to LA where they are based.  They made a good gate ($15 suggested donation), and sold a bunch of CDs - 45 of my friends and neighbors showed up and everyone had a fabulous time.  One advantage of holding your own house concert -- you can book yourself as the opening act.    "Johnny Swingo and his Drinking Problem" played for about 20 minutes. Lots of fun.  My other motivation for posting is maybe I can attract some of the pros that hang out around here to El Paso (like Johnm and Ginny, Suzy, Del Rey, Ari, et al) If you've ever thought about doing a house concert, I encourage you - a good way to support artists. And the guys that run concertsinyourhome.com are very helpful and supportive - they've got it down. I know Jan Marie has done a couple of concerts through them and that Del Rey and Steve Cheseborough are listed artists.  Anyway, here is a little slide show of the concert w/ GBQ music ("Meatwad's Revenge) to accompany.



 

[Richard]

Yes 

[Pan]

Great stuff!!! I hope you will host many successful house concerts in the future!

[CF]

House concerts are taking off up here in Canada more & more as well. They just make sense, especially for us acoustic musicians. People pay to experience music in an intimate setting & by & large they listen to what you're doing. So much warmer & more charming & musically pleasing than so many bars nowadays.
That looks like you had a real good show there Slack. And, wow, is that a hot band!

[Slack]

It was a great concert - the men were astonished and the women were swooning.    A lot of work, but a lot of fun.

Very hot band -- they've got some tracks off their CD "Portena Soledad" on lala.com and bunch of stuff on youtube and myspace as well.  Nice guys too, Gonzalo has been playing Gypsy Jazz since 2000 - he gave it up for 6 months thinking it was impossible and then got re-inspired by the Woody Allen movie "Sweet and Low Down" (great sound track), of all things!. The bass player and rhythm guitarist (and Gonzalo used to, before he got too busy with the gypsy jazz stuff) play in a beatles tribute band. They can all sing as well -- doing perfect three part harmony on "This Boy" (that was about 2am when we were "relaxing").   

[Johnm]

That sounds like it was a lot of fun, John D., and the band sounds great.  It's especially neat to hear the clarinet on that type of material, more like late Django stuff, and it looks like you and your pals were having a really good time, too.  I've played a lot of house concerts in the past 10-15 years and it's hard to find a better listening situation; nice not to be competing with a big screen TV and a pool table, too!  They can be surprisingly remunerative, too, really a good deal for players and listeners, I think.
All best,
Johnm

[Bald Melon Jefferson]

 No blues? Gonzolo is a heck of a blues player too!
Just wanted to pop in and plug Gonzalo because he's a great guitarist and is indeed a very nice guy. I picked-up Portena Soledad from him when he headlined Djangofest L.A. 2 years back. Great album with some strong Latin influences coming through the mix. Saw him in John Jorgenson's band the year prior as well.  Hope to see him locally again here in May.
 Very cool Slack! Love house concerts... but no room for a quartet at our house, let alone an audience.
 Thanks for sharing.
Gary

[JTBlue]

This looks like so much fun, Slack!  I've hosted house concerts, but always for classical performers.  This is a good idea.

JTBlue