Relections on the May 11th Benefit Concert at Trumpets

Wow-I am just totally blown away-and don't even know where to start but here goes!
Monday Night-May 11 Trumpets Jazz Club around 7:15...............
I walk inside the door-Natascha looks at me with that-we're already packed look-and indeed almost every seat was taken. Next thing I know-Rufus and Doris Reid are standing in front of me-giving me big hugs-and I am feeling so much love-and then I look around and Natascha is right-the "house" is nearly full-amazing. Then I look at the band assembling-getting situated-every one coming to me with their arms outstretched-oh my goodness-the flood of emotions for me and the out pouring of love and good vibes. I had missed my band so much-and it was incredible to see everyone-and the guest composers Russ Vines, Oliver Lake, Howard Johnson, Mike Kaplan,Bill Kirchner, Marcelino Feliciano on vocals and the subs in the band-Niki Denner, Matt King and Jim McNeely on piano-Tim Ferguson on bass, Joe Mosello, and Vinnie Citro on trumpet-just incredible!
Enrico asked me if I wanted a table, and I said I better do that, becuase I would need to sit down, but I also knew that I wanted to walk around and see everyone-which is exactly what I did.
The thing to bear in mind is that 2 months previously-I had my surgery-was in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks- 2 weeks of that being in isloation-came home-stayed home most of the time except for work-and this was the first time I had seen a lot of my band members and friends let alone be out in public and in a club-at night! Overwhelming doesn't even begin to describe what I was feeling.
The minute the band started to play-I knew the evening was going to be great! The band was totally smokin'-great energy-great vibes-great solos!
As I went around the room and talked to everyone, I was just amazed at not only how many people there were, but that there were people there from all different "walks of life"-and how cool that was! One of my friends told me that a mutual friend of ours said he saw a bunch of people that he knew-but didn't know that I knew them. This friend had come to the club at 8PM, and couldn't get, then came back at 9PM and still couldn't get in. Another friend said "everyone came out!"
I tried to talk to everyone-but I couldn't get to the folks at the bar-just too many people there. I did make it to the foyer of the club, and then outside-wow-the club set up tables and chairs in the parking lot for the folks that couldn't make it inside-and they had their own party going-it was great! I'm guessing that there were 250 people there-at least-I think the club seats around 150 or so.
At one point I saw musicians from the Cecils Big Band-which plays on Monday nights at Cecils Jazz Club. What I didn't know until the end of the night-was that they took up a collection at Cecils from the audience and the band members-and then brought it over. How incredibly generous! A lot of those musicians have subbed in our band over the years-and it was so wonderful to seem them there.
I saw many of our regular audience members-man-I have really missed talking to all of you-and it was so heart warming to see all of you there!
A big thank you to Chris Drukker who shot a lot of photos during the night-at some point I'll post them on our myspace page so you can see them.
A big , big thank you to Dennis "Dencon" Connors who shot video-all night-and "lit" the place-talk about working waaaaaaay over time. Dennis started coming to the big band from the very first gigs at Tierney's and has been documenting us-shooting photos and now video-for the past 12 years-just an incredible photographer, and has become a great friend too!!!
A big thank you to my friend Susan Brink who came down from Lake George, NY and ran a raffle-with the prize being a free night at the Clarion Hotel and a $50 gift certificate to Mario's Restaurant (both in the village of Lake Geroge)-during the Lake George Jazz Festival -which we are playing on-Sept 20.
Thank you to the Montclair Times-Joan Finn, The Star Ledger-Zan Stewart and Elzy Kolb for writing about this event-as well as WBGO -for making sure everyone knew about it.
A huge thank you to Natascha Radke Henke-who somehow commandeered the "door" and made sure that everyone was taken care of-unless of course there was no more room-which happened many times in the course of the evening.
Another huge thank you to Tom Colao, Ben Williams and Erick Storckman who put all of this together. Erick did a magnificent job of putting the music together (I handed it off to him only a few days before saying-"I'm not sure everything is in order"-so he had a big job there)-and in directing the band-just wonderful!
A really huge thank you to everyone who played in the band and of course to the guest composers-you all made an incredible night of music. I'm betting there are some "behind the scenes " stuff that I don't know about-so I'm going to say thank you to that too ;-).
I miss playing with all of you,I miss the comraderie, I miss Cifelli's jokes between tunes that only those of us within earshot can hear ;-),I miss our rehearsals filled with great music and pizza and the latest news on whaz up with everyone. I'm getting my strength back bit by bit, (with the help of Tom, Ron,Tim, Ken and Lou -thanks guys!)-so we'll all be playing together real soon.
Thank you to Trumpets Jazz Club for opening the club up on a night when they are regularly closed-and providing the staff-you guys worked really hard-thanks!
And a really, really HUGE THANK YOU to all who attended and gave so generously-you have no idea how much this has helped me-in so many ways. Your love and support is just so wonderful!
I tried to say hello and thank you to everyone-but if I didn't get to see you-it's probably becuase I couldn't get through all of the people-but please know that I saw you from afar and I really appreciated you coming. I'm going to do my best to repond to all of you who left notes for me-but it may take me a while-so please be patient with me.
I felt a HUGE dose of healing from all of you on Monday night-so big- that it will continue on for a long, long time-and I thank you for that with all of my heart-you are all so wonderful!
love,
DMo