Music makes me happy

I arrived home on Friday night with my cheeks hurting.

You know how smiling for long periods of time make your cheeks hurt? That's exactly what happened to me on Friday night.

Some friends and I went to 49 West in Annapolis to hear what Tom Mitchell billed as Dixie meets Gypsy Jazz. The group of musicians included Henning Hoehne on clarinet and tenor sax, Matvei Sigalov on electric violin, John Previti on bass, and Randy Morser and Tom Mitchell on guitar. It was a night filled with great hot jazz tunes from the 20s and 30s, and The Hot Club sound of Django Reinhardt.

During the show Henning commented that it was only the 4th time that he and Matvei had played together. We asked him during one of the breaks if he was joking about that -- because they were absolutely fantastic. He said no, they'd only practiced four times previously, and had just met John that night!

When accomplished musicians who are expert at their artform get together, it's magic.