BACK FROM VEGAS! - Part 1 - Bass stuff

We just returned from a much needed 4 day vacation to Sin City and I've got a bunch to report.

We caught Penn & Teller at the Rio Thursday evening and the show had a nice bass connection. When you entered the theater, the first thing you saw was a pair of boxes on stage. One was clear plexiglas and the other a wood box with hasp and hinge hardware. On the side of the stage was a piano/upright bass duo playing some furious jazz compositions. Every so often the duo would stop and the piano player would invite audience members on stage to inspect the boxes on behalf of P & T. Then the pair would fire back up into another arrangement. The bassist was good, no doubt about it but he had to be to keep up with the piano player - this guy was awesome. His name is Mike Jones and looks like a little bald Elton John. The bassist was the epitomy of "cool" looking sort of like Ritchie Samboura (sic) with shoulder length hair and black leather hat.

It wasn't until the middle of the show - When Penn Gillette layed down a tight chordal solo on the bass as part of the act - that I realized the bassist we saw during the prelude was Penn himself!! I'm sure no one else made the connection during the show but I was studying the guys tone/technique and it was obvious after about 10 seconds. It also explained why the bassist disappeared about 15 minutes before the show started.

It amazes me sometimes that entertainers find the time to put in enough work to become good at things outside of their main discipline.