Misty

 There’s been a wide range of ages among the members of our band over the years, from 14 to 80, and we have a tradition of musical affinity between the oldest and youngest bandmates. For instance, a decade ago, we loved watching the bonds build between teenaged guitarist Jacob Scarr and septuagenarian fiddler Joe Dobbs. And now the tradition continues. When our newest Floodster Vanessa Coffman first started sitting in with us back in January, tribal elder Doug Chaffin immediately found a strong musical kinship. And now, 10 months later, those bonds are even stronger. For instance, listen to this moment from a recent rehearsal when the two of them gently complement each other’s intricate steps in an improvisational glide through a jazz standard. Here’s Doug’s guitar and Veezy’s tenor sax weaving in and out of “Misty.”

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

 When Bob Dylan wrote this song 50 years ago, it was a matter of necessity. In the winter of ’69, he had arrived at the Columbia Records studio to record the great “Nashville Skyline” album having written only four of the songs he’d need to fill that record. So, over the next two days at the Ramada Inn where he was staying for the recording session, Bob wrote “Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You,” a piece that worked so well it ended up being the beautiful final cut of the  album. In many ways, it was the signature tune for that whole project. The Flood started playing around with the song back in the ‘70s when Rog Samples and Charlie worked out this particular arrangement, and it seems to come back into our collective consciousness ever few decades or so. Here’s a ride we all took on that Dylan train at last night’s rehearsal.

Ain't Misbehavin'

 There are lots of stories about the great jazz songwriter Fats Waller. Our favorite is about the time he was kidnapped off the streets of Chicago. Now, it was 1926 and Fats was just leaving a gig in the early morning when four men grabbed him, bundled him into a car and sped off to a hotel. Ordered inside and, with a gun to his back, he was pushed toward a piano and told to play. It was only then that Fats realized that HE was the “surprise gift” at Al Capone’s birthday party! Now that is a command performance. It was three years later that Fats — who copyrighted more than 400 songs in his oh-so-brief lifetime (he died at just 39!) — wrote our favorite Waller composition. Here’s our 2020 rendition of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” from a recent Flood rehearsal.

Vanessa Coffman is Our Newest Floodster

 Our dear friend Vanessa Coffman turns 20 years old today and we’re happy to announced that going into this new decade, she is also the newest Floodster. At the end of The Flood’s rehearsal last night, we were thrilled that Vanessa accepted our invitation to join the band.  Now, regular listeners know that Vanessa — we call her Veezy around here, incidentally — started sitting in with the band last winter. It was former Floodster Stew Schneider who first called our attention to this wonderful young player. During the holiday season last year, Stew called to say, “Man, you’ve got to drop everything and come hear this young woman play tenor sax!”  It was in January — exactly nine months ago today, in fact — that she took in her first Flood session. Everyone in the room was immediately wowed, and she’s been coming back ever since. Of course, the horrid COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the weekly rehearsal in March, but we stayed in touch with her during the six-month shutdown and when rehearsals resumed last month, she was right there in the mix. In fact, during the awful year of loneliness and loss, Veezy Coffman has been a bright light, enhancing everything we play with her beautiful tone and her imaginative musical ideas. Take a listen to this. From a last night’s rehearsal, it’s a bit of Veezy’s work on “Summertime.” Happy birthday, Veezy Coffman — welcome to the Family Flood!