Hadley's Party

Once again Hadley had the fattest party, really fun, and thankfully, we were invited to join him in the celebration.

Its really nice to be welcomed to represent the Rumba community, at this multicultural party packed with talented musicians.

Hadley is a true character, i just love his sense of independent thinking. He has figured out a way to not fall into the trappings of modern life, and really enjoys the down to earth basics: Gardening, cooking, and playing music....

His garden is beautifully in bloom, and he is a very talented horticulturalist. He always has cutting and seeds to share! He's too cool.... and we are happy to report... he is happily hooked up! So nice to see him and his gal love birding. She is really nice, and they seem just right for each other.. how cool.

He is a trained lawyer, but decided to be a musician and educator long ago, how cool is that! He is very socially conscious, proactively involved in the community, and plays many instruments very well. He is the only piano player i know with conga chops!

http://www.musictocelebratelife.com/

You can contact him through his website, if you are looking for his CD, or looking to book one of his projects. He has a latin jazz group called Los Bros and a Caribbean group called Marimba Pacifica (pictured below). He also has a Samba troupe that performs at Carnival in SF annually.

Anyway, this year was too fun. The weather was sunny and crisp. Hadley made a turkey for everyone, tapped a pony of good ale, and the pot luck was ON!

Irish Rick and i joined Hadley in an early Yambu Mantancero on the top deck. You can look out over the bay and enjoy the SF skyline, as the sun warms your spirits. Its such a nice place to play, that top deck, we almost always have a comfortable jam up there.

These parties are so fun, as Hadley knows musicians from several different traditions. There is often Ewe, Rumba, Ska jams, Latin Jazz, Samba, you name it.

There seems to be multiple simultaneous jams every time he has a party, and there are four separate places to play.

Last year, i played Hadley's huge Marimba for hours with some fat ska players in the back studio. Hadley built this big ass Marimba, keys the size of snow shoes. You can see it in the back ground of this picture of one of Hadley's gigs. It makes you feel small, playing such a big set, and the bass tones rock! - Tumbao heaven! Who needs a bass player, the Tumbaos come from a Marimula any way! Too fun.... It was worth the blisters! (not used to using huge mallets for hours!)





...This year was attended by many musicians, including several rumberos - Yaya Maldonado, Ricky Agular, Hector Lugo, Javier Navarrette, Mike Green, Trevino Leon, Irish Rick, Rich Taylor, and a few other cats. We played rumba till nightfall, then went inside for the latin Jazz jam in the front room till late. So fun!

Thanks Hadley, looking forward to see what you put together for Carnival this year.

(video is of last years party - Yaya, Rick Agular, Colin Douglass and Chris 'flaco' Walker, in this short clip)

Tony