New Years Eve at Cabo

This was (except for a one-year hiatus in the 80s when I was too tied down to play) my 39th New Years Eve gig. My first was with Chuck McKelvey's band for twenty bucks. I remember afterward sitting in a booth at Pike's Verdugo Oaks in La Canada staring down at the twenty I'd just made, which I was just about to break for a hamburger and a coke, shaking my head in wonder. Over the years I played with Ansel Hill in Orange County, the Guy Lombardo band in a live remote from the Coconut Grove ballroom at the beach in Santa Cruz, with a bunch of ex-Kenton guys in Los Angeles, with the Modernaires and the Orchestra I led at the Casino in Avalon--26 miles across the sea. In between there were countless square bands, bands that were thrown together for the occasion, and yes, it is better to have a little history with the other players on the stand.

We played at Cabo Loco, where we did our first gig back in July. It's a room we may have outgrown, but we were assigned some of the space in the restaurant section of the room, There were plenty of enthusiastic dancers and the singers rose to the occasion. The horns alas were all sightreading except for me. Lucinda played her husband Chris' bari chair. John B was brought back from retirement to play trumpet. John Tolleson played plenty of trombone. Monte Mann played bass, Leroy and Javier made it, Janice got back from Atlanta in time. Jimmy tried out his new cordless mic with mixed results as he learns the ropes of not being roped to anything. Brendan gave blood as he split a finger on the conga.

Missing was a table full of people named "Cruz." David had a gig in Victoria, running sound for another band. The sound gods abandoned us several times during the gig, so we missed David.

Overall, nobody noticed, everybody got good and drunk and danced and stayed at the motel so the cops lined up at the stop sign didn't have very many customers. I got home at 4--still better than watching the sun come up over the driveway.