Have Shorts, Sports Shirt, Sandals, and Tux - Will Travel
Despite snow on the ground in Durango, CO where my guitar-playing-teaching brother Terry lives (and snow a LOT of places), my experience is Spring has indeed sprung, and my packing the suitcase now involves all kinds of other clothes. But always the tux with the red handkerchief in the breast pocket.
It will get a good workout June 6 at Long Center in Lafayette, IN where I will play my 33rd annual variety show concert on the 3/21 Wurlitzer. I’ll be sharing the stage with some wonderfully talented young people (details at www.lctos.org).
At the tail end of a trip to the Midwest, I will be privileged to don the tuxedo again for a special concert at the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, IN. It’s the annual Buddy Nolan Memorial Concert on the Grande Page pipe organ he made famous with his Midnight at the Embassy concerts back in the 1960’s.
I was privileged to perform the very first Nolan memorial event, and my return visit this time is made more special by the fact that the magnificent four-manual console has been completely rebuilt from top-to-bottom, and will make its grand re-entrance at this concert. There will be a huge crowd because the love affair between this pipe organ and the folks in Fort Wayne is strong, and the console’s return from its Carlton Smith “make-over” is big news in northeastern Indiana.
In mid-May I had an interesting two-day visit that included a stop in Joliet, IL and a chance to play the great Barton organ at the Rialto Square Theatre for a JATOE chapter meeting. It was well-attended with nomination of officers as part of the business. The organ was great fun to play (despite the fact the busy theatre kept practice time to a minimum. Thank heaven for multiple memories. Jim Patak still had my pistons in the memory bank!! Whew!!)
That Saturday stop was followed by a Sunday Mother’s Day program for the Central Indiana Chapter. This was staged at the Long Center in Lafayette, my musical “home away from home.” We gave the Wurlitzer a good workout as did Justin Stahl and others.
--Ken Double, ATOS CE