I was able to fit in my ‘end of the year’ set at my local school, Holy Infancy, a block from home. I’ve done freebies here for years, just to stay in touch with the teachers and the kids I met when they were in pre-school and are now in 5th grade.
I also have their playground sounds on the new CD, so there’s a deep connection. I also learned Tutti Tah in my first sessions with those pre-K kids long ago.
I set a up a speaker and a simple system and stool behind the school on the Greenway, a nice urban development in our neighborhood. What was once train tracks, is now a smooth walkway and grass linking blocks and blocks of Southside folks.
I feel comfortable asking these kids what they want to hear so we did Bear Hunt, Giants, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Tutti Tah. It was neat to have the 5th graders chime in with some of the more ‘juvenile’ tunes, having not quite left their ‘kids’ attitudes behind. The power of my continuity in their community.
I was not in my prime, though. I almost did PB&J twice but I caught myself and did I Like Peanut Butter fairly seamlessly. So, in spite of juggling these performance balls as I stumbled in my head, I regained my balance. Lesson relearned… don’t just ‘mail it in’, because of (or in spite of) the comfort zone of a familiar audience. I surprised myself.
It’s off to my second gig of the day, a mere mile away at Moravian Academy. It doesn’t get more local than this.