Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz Sextet

Commission from the Tucson Jazz Society.

Ahhh, another wonderful night of jazz! This time, the TJS trucked me out to the lovely Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (which has the most wonderful and awesome waitstaff, who very, very, very kindly went to a lot of trouble to find me a roll of duct tape for my light blind!)

This was a real treat. I was painting Pete Escovedo, and his friends...every one of them a musical legend in their own right. It was a great honor to be asked to paint musicians of such renown.

Speaking of the painting...it was a challenge! I had a few color hangups, and I nearly destroyed the whole thing with my horrible judgment. (Alizarin Crimson is being grounded from my palette for its bad behavior. ) Then all of a sudden, Pete announced it was the last number! So, I grabbed out my India ink and a brush and painted on a new layer of black outlines as quickly as I could, and then I had the encore number for the final splattering touches. Phew! Talk about pressure. Not only that, but my light was so hot, the tablecloth was smoking, so I kept pouring my painting water onto the table underneath, to try to keep it cool enough so that it wouldn't burst into flames!
...It's exciting, this being-an-artist thing.

I guess it all turned out right in the end. And after the show, David Matthews (the pianist) and I had an awesome conversation about Joseph Mallord William Turner, which was fan-freakin'-tabulous!
Life is good, and Latin jazz is so, so nice.

(c) J. E. Seames 2008