Swing!

Last week he attended Matthew’s big Valentine’s Day shindig. Last night, we attended Daniel’s. The USU jazz bands have held an annual dinner/dance at a nearby city social hall for the past twenty years. We have been in attendance for the past three or four years, missing I think only the first one that Daniel played for. We always skip the dinner part and eat in advance so that at least Malia can eat out with us, and that was the plan again this year. This is the first time that we have gone on actual Valentine’s Day, and it was good that Kevin had the afternoon off and we left plenty early because we had a longer than normal wait at the restaurant before our table was ready. Because pretty much everybody and their sweeties were at the Olive Garden this evening. No surprise there. The kitchen was totally overwhelmed due to a larger than normal number of take-out orders in addition to the multitude of in person diners, so there was a point when we thought Daniel might need to leave and eat his dinner for leftovers at a later time. But the food arrived just in time for him to eat and be on his way.

One of the big differences between these Valentine’s events and the boys’ normal concerts is the kind of jazz they play. The rest of their concerts generally comprise newer jazz, a lot of which is a bit too dissonant for me and not much to my liking. But for Valentine’s Day, all the bands select more traditional jazz standards, the kind that were popular in the 40’s and 50’s and the kind that I love the most. These are the songs you can dance to. And I particularly love the ones where I can sing along to!

It has been fun attending these events that our boys have been a part of. With Matthew graduating this year and Daniel planning to graduate next spring, we know that we won’t be attending many more, at least until Matthew gets to Utah State after his mission. He is already looking forward to being able to play for Jazz Night at Elite Hall. And then, Daniel will get to experience the event from in front of the band stand!