Marilyn's Birthday!!

Two days before our “Dot Dot Dot” Cd release party at the Hamilton, the band got together before a rehearsal to celebrate Mo’s birthday, complete with a home-baked chocolate cake and a rousing rendition of the Birthday Song!

Chaise Lounge celebrates Marilyn's birthday!

The smiling birthday girl...

– Joe Jackson

The Old And the New (by Tommy)

I had to step back while cooking over the weekend. I got a kick out of noticing my iPad on one side providing a decent recipe for grilled eggplant and the vinyl sharing the same space. Sorry iTunes, sometimes you can’t beat the sounds coming off the grooves of the LP! Hopefully in a week I’ll be cookin’ to the new Dot Dot Dot LP!

The analog world working with the digital!

— Tommy

Does being on Pandora mean you are famous? (by Marilyn)

According to my kids, the answer is a big fat YES!  They have long been fans of the Internet radio service and were recently inspired to type in “Chaise Lounge” and see what happened. Should I have told them, as the familiar song played and their little jaws dropped with astonishment, pride and adoration, that “getting onto Pandora” is not quite the same as getting onto the American Idol finale? I think not. So, as they basked in my fame, I appreciated the algorithm that likens us to Paris Combo and Nossa Alma Canta (Hat tip to Christian and Alejo!).  And then, famous mom or not, it was time to liven things up and go back to the Michael Jackson station.  (Wait until these kids hear about our newest chart – see Charlie’s last blog post 🙂 )

—Marilyn

Benny bugled and I heard the call (by Gary)

Needless to say I was happy Charlie wanted to have a few Benny Goodman tunes added to the Chaise Lounge “book.” Pete helped in this request by calling either “Seven Come Eleven” or “Wholly Cats” if CL had to play a  jump-tune “head” arrangement. The clean lines of BG’s playing both melodies and solos always floated over the chord changes in a natural way but still “swang” like crazy.  And, most listeners can hear the BG swing style even when being played by others. I also had the pleasure of working with the late, great rhythm guitarist Steve Jordan.  Steve worked with Benny and had many great stories about BG that wound up in Steve’s book, Rhythm Man.  Steve said that, when on the road and after a performance, BG would practice late into the night while the rest of his band had anything but practice on their minds.  Thanks, Charlie and Pete, for allowing me to perform some of BG’s more familiar tunes with CL.  

—Gary