Un Exitaso! (Success!)

Wow! ¡Yoshi's fue increible! ¡Todo un exito! We sold out the first show at 8 pm last night and the second show was full as well (I don't know the numbers on that one yet, but it's a 300-seat house and it looked 75% full for the 10 pm show). Orlando and I had a blast singing and the band and the sound were killer. Not only that, we had the dance floor completely full for the first set (the second set had quite a few latin jazz tunes in a row that weren't as dancer-friendly). I nailed my tunes and got a workout on percussion and coros when I wasn't singing lead. The funniest compleat f***up was the stupid spoken hey-hey-hey section on Oye Cayuco--we nailed it the first time and the second time it came in at the end of the tune, I just couldn't jump in on the off beat, try as I might. But we were laughing about it, and I told Orlando we should've had a recording of that for David Flores, who made fun of it to begin with when we did the gig with the Reno Jazz Orchestra. My husband doesn't like that section either. To my amazement he didn't give me crap about it afterward--he probably missed it. My brothers and their sweet girlfriends came, and they danced--I was so impressed. Afterwards my brother Peter said, "Are all your gigs this good?" I said, "Well, I don't play with a 19-piece band every night, that's for sure." Emilio came for the second set and brought Sebastian, who lasted through about three songs like a little jazz-loving five-year-old gentleman, so debonair, and then crashed lying across two chairs for the rest of the show.

I also sold a lot of CDs, which was gratifying. We had had such an early soundcheck--4 pm--that I had contemplated going back home before the show (some people did), but Wayne said "What, and miss this hang?" So I sat and listened to bad jokes and it really was worthwhile. Bassist Peter Barshay told a "dirty marquee" story ("You wanna here a dirty marquee story?") about when he was in a short-lived band with Eddie Marshall that they decided to call "Throbbing Member." Apparently they played some famous New York club and the marquee read "Tonight: Eddie Marshall's Throbbing Member." I also loved all the hilarious asides that I heard behind me during the gig ("Perez Prado just rolled over in his grave" after one tune). At the end of the show Orlando sang the encore and made a gracious speech commending Wayne and Michael Zilber for putting together this amazing big band: "There are so few working 19-piece bands these days." From behind me I hear: "And we're not one of them."

We got home and bid farewell to my brothers and I was actually able sleep somewhat. Getting my hair out of this hairstyle I had done yesterday is going to be another story. As usual, I'm making lists in my head of all the things I've put off for the past few weeks while I was shedding for this gig and irrationally thinking I'm going get them done today, but if I'm smart I'll find some way to relax. Yeah, right.