Bobby McFerrin

My friend Susan had an extra ticket to see Bobby McFerrin at Disney Hall on Wednesday night and offered it to me. I was very happy to accept. His program, entitled "Spirit You All" or "Spirityouall" consisted of spirituals. He had a 5-piece jazz band with keyboards, drums, bass, guitars and even a fiddle. He also improvised with his band, which always amazes me that people who play with each other long enough can work together in something unscripted.

One of my favorite parts was audience participation. He did some call-and-response, some sing-alongs, and at one point he invited anyone to come sit on stage with him and sing Amen. If we had not been so far away, I would have easily accepted the offer. Imagine! Sitting next to Bobby McFerrin and singing with him.

I came home and perused his recordings on Amazon and purchased the CD Circlesongs. One of the new Amazon things is that if you buy certain CDs, you get automatic, instant mp3 downloads of the songs, so I have been enjoying these minimalist improvisatory acapella songs.

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Day 4 - Clutter Cleanse: I'm going through my collection of CDs and making sure that I have the songs I want on my computer (which is backed up in several locations). The home-burned ones (about 10 at this point) are going in the trash.

Day 5 - Clutter Cleanse: I sent one book I bought at a library sale off to a new owner on paperbackswap.com