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Played 6 shows at Blues Alley for Melba Moore this weekend!
9 years ago
So I landed my first "Big profile gig" to be a sideman for Singer/Actress, Melba Moore for the weekend (May 13-15).
The pay wasn't "Big profile" but the amount I was getting paid nightly added up so at the end of the weekend I wasn't complaining plus Melba's name would be great to add to my "Sideman Discography"
At first I didn't know who she was but I knew about Blues Alley. So I mentioned the gig to my parents and they didn't believe me so they told me to repeat myself. They freaked out and then told me to google her.
So I did
Heres some info on Melba,
"In 1975 Moore signed with Buddah Records and released the critically successful R&B album, Peach Melba, which included the minor hit, "I Am His Lady". The following year she scored her first significant hit with the Van McCoy-penned "This Is It", which reached the Billboard Hot 100, the top-20 position on the R&B chart, and top-10 in the UK, becoming her biggest success in that country. 'This is It' also became the number 1 disco track in the UK for that year. It would be 18 years later that Australian singer Dannii Minogue will cover this song and make it to number 10 on the ARIA charts. In 1976 she scored her third Grammy nomination with the R&B ballad "Lean on Me", which had been recorded originally by Vivian Reed and later by Moore's idol Aretha Franklin who recorded the song as a B-side to her 1971 hit "Spanish Harlem". The song is most notable for Moore's extended long note at the end. In 1983 she re-recorded the song as a tribute to McCoy, who had died four years earlier. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Moore struggled to match the success of "This Is It" with minor R&B/dance hits, gaining another hit with 1979's "You Stepped Into My Life", which was released on Epic Records and hit the top 20 on the R&B charts."
She also did work on "All Dogs go to heaven", " Les Misérables", The fighting Temptations with Beyoncé and you can hear more of her story on TV One's "unsung".
Now heres the challenges.
The commute, but I got that figured out but when I was asked to play the show, the show was a week away and the rehearsal was a day BEFORE the show. So I REALLY had to buckle down and learn these tunes
We get to the rehearsal and I met melba and she was very very sweet yet she KNEW what she wanted and if something wasn't right she would let you know.
She was stressed that we weren't gonna make her sound good but Cmon now you have new musicians a week before a show to learn 9 songs 1 of which is a Medley but it all worked out but we could tell she was still worried.
Come show time she was blown away on how we sounded in the venue and how much bigger we sounded and everyone in the audience kept on stopping us and telling us (the band) how great we made Melba sound and was shocked that it was our first times playing together as a unit.
Hopefully Melba will be in touch with me and will ask me to perform with her in Europe or something.
oh yeah thats a thing....She liked my personality and skill so much she would compliment me on my dimples and how she would want to pinch them...made me blush on stage and stuff...right before a drum solo too lol.
Expect video tomorrow!
The pay wasn't "Big profile" but the amount I was getting paid nightly added up so at the end of the weekend I wasn't complaining plus Melba's name would be great to add to my "Sideman Discography"
At first I didn't know who she was but I knew about Blues Alley. So I mentioned the gig to my parents and they didn't believe me so they told me to repeat myself. They freaked out and then told me to google her.
So I did
Heres some info on Melba,
"In 1975 Moore signed with Buddah Records and released the critically successful R&B album, Peach Melba, which included the minor hit, "I Am His Lady". The following year she scored her first significant hit with the Van McCoy-penned "This Is It", which reached the Billboard Hot 100, the top-20 position on the R&B chart, and top-10 in the UK, becoming her biggest success in that country. 'This is It' also became the number 1 disco track in the UK for that year. It would be 18 years later that Australian singer Dannii Minogue will cover this song and make it to number 10 on the ARIA charts. In 1976 she scored her third Grammy nomination with the R&B ballad "Lean on Me", which had been recorded originally by Vivian Reed and later by Moore's idol Aretha Franklin who recorded the song as a B-side to her 1971 hit "Spanish Harlem". The song is most notable for Moore's extended long note at the end. In 1983 she re-recorded the song as a tribute to McCoy, who had died four years earlier. Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Moore struggled to match the success of "This Is It" with minor R&B/dance hits, gaining another hit with 1979's "You Stepped Into My Life", which was released on Epic Records and hit the top 20 on the R&B charts."
She also did work on "All Dogs go to heaven", " Les Misérables", The fighting Temptations with Beyoncé and you can hear more of her story on TV One's "unsung".
Now heres the challenges.
The commute, but I got that figured out but when I was asked to play the show, the show was a week away and the rehearsal was a day BEFORE the show. So I REALLY had to buckle down and learn these tunes
We get to the rehearsal and I met melba and she was very very sweet yet she KNEW what she wanted and if something wasn't right she would let you know.
She was stressed that we weren't gonna make her sound good but Cmon now you have new musicians a week before a show to learn 9 songs 1 of which is a Medley but it all worked out but we could tell she was still worried.
Come show time she was blown away on how we sounded in the venue and how much bigger we sounded and everyone in the audience kept on stopping us and telling us (the band) how great we made Melba sound and was shocked that it was our first times playing together as a unit.
Hopefully Melba will be in touch with me and will ask me to perform with her in Europe or something.
oh yeah thats a thing....She liked my personality and skill so much she would compliment me on my dimples and how she would want to pinch them...made me blush on stage and stuff...right before a drum solo too lol.
Expect video tomorrow!
I have her 1983 album "Never Say Never" that Kashif was associated with. Love that one and play it often.