Empire State of Mind

So we've had 4 performances now. We started at Tanglewood, then played in New Bedford, MA, then Philadelphia, and last night we played in Rochester. I have to admit that I've been writing and deleting parts of this entry for the past 5-10 minutes, but the Colbert Report is playing in the background, and Steven Colbert just quoted Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," so I think I'll start there.

What does that song have to do with the Silk Road Ensemble, you might ask? We played it as one of our encores last night! The other cellist in the group, Mike Block, made quite a nice arrangement for the ensemble. It begins with a gorgeous cello solo and as the other strings come in evolves into a groove, at which point the rest of the group enters. If you haven't heard it, it's incredibly catchy, but it might get stuck in your head - just a warning - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

We were rehearsing it during soundcheck, and Mike asked me if I wanted to play a solo in the verse, so of course I jumped on the opportunity. So I got to play a guitar solo in front of thousands of people last night! There's one to take off of my bucket list. I threw in the obligatory pentatonic 16th note triplet licks, and I felt it generally went pretty well. I'd probably be more concise next time, but a lot of people came up to me afterward who were excited about my playing, so I took that as a good sign.

Anyway, we're off to Cleveland today and playing there tomorrow. This will be my first time in Cleveland, and I think also Ohio in general. I wouldn't mind staying where we are for a couple more days though, at a hotel on a lake in Canandaigua, NY. It's gorgeous today. Philly was HOT, as was Providence (where we stayed when we played in New Bedford), but I enjoyed both places. Had some time off in Philly so I got a chance to practice a bit while we stayed at the Ritz Carlton (had to drop that somewhere...). Ok. Bus leaves in an hour.