Back when I was in Los Angeles, I got a call to come play a gig down in Fullerton. I never heard of the piano player who called me, and had no idea how he got my name, but he asked me a few questions about "the standards" and that was the "Audition". No rehearsal, just go play the gig. I show up and there he is on piano and vocals, and a drummer. It's basically a cabaret / piano bar thing, so off we go. He's calling tunes I know, and I am watching his hands - I see that he is playing a lot of roots with the pinky of his left hand, so I am feeling like I can make it through the night. Second set, he starts drinking, and he gets into working the crowd - playing a tune, stopping in the middle of it for a monologue, then back into the tune or maybe another tune, but without telling me what is going on. More drinks and he starts playing some really obscure stuff, a lot of it from Broadway, but I am hanging onto his left hand, and doing a decent job of following him. At least most of these show tunes have recognizable progressions.. Break time, and he goes around to the tables joking, shaking hands and drinking. Oh heck.. Last set, he's drunk as a skunk, and away we go - he starts playing some "standards" I have never heard of, ever. And he's drinking with one hand, his left, of course, and playing piano with the other, and he is way soused, to the point of stopping playing piano altogether and standing on the piano bench and singing with just me and the drummer, who is lost, too, holding the music together. He stops in the middle of some tune to do a really rambling booze soaked monologue, then turns to me and says, (I wish I could remember the actual name of the tune, but, for example) " do you know Ocobahabie Serenade?" Uh, no, I say. "You'll love it! - one, two, one, two, three four--" I did three nights a week for almost nine months, with this guy and it was the same thing every night.
