July 98 | Rick | Steve | Trevor

Kate Meets Patrick

Some of you remember me from a while back. I'm Kate aka Mrs Shorty. Mat has been in touch wtih me off and on sharing some neat stuff from this BBS so I thought I'm come back to see you all for a bit ;)

As I was telling Roy from St Louis (remember him?), last weekend (Fri afternoon) my family and I were at the local mall. It was really packed this day as a new store had just opened (Mars Music) and they were giving away lots of things (buy 1 set of drum sticks, get 11 pairs free, etc.) So you could see tons of musicians in the area. Not to mention a member of KISS made an appearance.

Anyway, we went into the main entrance of the mall. 2 of our 3 offspring were with me ( 19 yrs and 17 yrs) So here we are ... in the main lobby. We get on the escalator (and I always look up to see what is at the top) so I see 3 gentlemen as they slowly ascend to the top.

Looking up, I said "Oh my God" ( I don't say that often ) then our 17 yr. old daughter said "What did you say THAT for?" I said "Look...isn't that Patrick????" She looked....." Uhuh... that ain't no Patrick Moraz" I said " but look...his hair was cut short like that on the CNN news thing. It looks just like him from the back."

By this time, the 3 'mystery men' were at the top floor, headed right. We keep a close eye on them. I insisted this time "That looks like Patrick!"

so my daughter said "well lets see if it is in fact PATRICK " she said his name sorta LOUD, in hopes the 'person' would hear it but the acoustics were not right. By this time the 3 men stopped in the middle of the mall just talking. The taller one turns around.

NOW our daughter says "It IS Patrick" We quickly walk up to them before they have a chance to move. When we got right up on them, we just stood there, not saying a word.

When Patrick notices there are others present a look of surprise comes over his face when he sees it is us. Now if you know Patrick, you can just see this in your minds eye. he's all happy and talking...hugging each one of us. He introduced us to his friends then he then asked me if I knew why he was in town. ( seems his lady friend, Phyllis, was going to call us but now that I think about it, she may have our old phone number :( Oh well) I was thinking it may have been for the grand opening of Mars Music but somehow I just couldn't see that. He then explains why he's here to promote a few things and he tells us that he'll be playing at the Gibson Cafe, Sat, and to invite all our friends. We chat for a bit longer then we moved on.

Day of the show:

Now...as for Patrick and his performance...what can I say....he's Patrick :) Still as lovable, spontaneous and eccentric as ever We (the family and some young musician friends of ours) sat just to the right of Patrick. If I had stood up and reached over, I could play the keyboard...we were that close.

BTW.... be looking for a new album

(when? I don't know...neither does Patrick...no record label as of yet).

It will be called "Away to Freedom" or "A Way To Freedom" (don't know which)

He played a couple of things from it. Very dreamy stuff ... reminiscent of YES, sorta.

He did a lot of improvisation as a warm up. Then he 'lectured' a bit. LOL this man is so wonderful. He's so brilliant but still has child like fun in him as he was goofing off with that little pen like contraption where you talk into it and your voice turns out odd? It was like you'd need a universal translator or something. Such a nut Then he spoke of other musicians in the audience. ( oh I forgot....there was a NAM convention going on so there were musicians all over the place)

First Add On:
Patrick did an improv with a musician he introduced as Bob (Robert) W..... (last name was beyond me) Both played on electric keyboards. It was a nice little jam session.

Patrick then did something from The Story of I...then moved into a song from Windows of Time. Then more new music (there was some neat add on sound that Patrick signaled to be cued up as Patrick played along on keyboard...birds and other stuff ...can't remember what else..it was dreamy ... verh soothing... )

2ND Add On:
he then introduced a young guitarist named Sinone Nobli (go ahead..you say it ) This kid has a nice mellow jazz sound. Then, after his solo, Patrick joined him. I promise you if you had been there, you could have closed your eyes and said "Its Trevor Rabin and Patrick Moraz". I get goose bumps just replaying it in my head. It all flowed like it was simply MADE for this date and time.

Mind you, these 2 have NEVER played together before. It was magical (but not as magical as O'Connor and Moraz. THAT was a near religious experience ).

Then Patrick talked about an auction that was going on later that night. Stuff from different musicians, etc. He said he had a painting that he did, so he put it up for auction. He named some other items that were up for grabs (one item from Elton John) The $$ went to the organization for musicians called "Save the Music.

Also, there were quite a few photographers in Gibson Cafe, shooting lots of pics as Patrick played. One or 2 had a video camera.

Ok..moving on..

Next...oh man....what came next really woke me UP!!! I don't know if you all know who Bernard Purdie is (he's played for just about everybody!) but this man.... WOW...is he ever fantastic on drums! In case you don't know who he is, he's an older 'black' guy.... Jazz drummer.

Anyway, the 3 of them ( Moraz/Nobli/Purdie) did a jam session that was out of this world. I guess you could classify it as a Jazz/Blues fusion. They really rocked the house! Everyone was clapping, moving, tapping their feet. It was contagious. If you weren't moving, you must have been dead ;)

And I must repeat..these 3 have NEVER played together before... ....EVER! It was so very kwel! I didn't think but I should have smuggled my tape recorder in there. Oh well....its in my head :)

Patrick was going on about how he's really enjoying the electric keyboards these days. The type he was using, he said, was very close and almost as comfortable as a Baby Grand Piano (the key word here is close/almost. It still missed the mark of a Baby Grand for him I guess )

Everybody wanted to talk with Patrick so I didn't get to say much to him after the show (we spoke more the day before). The Gibson Cafe was full but not packed but I'm glad I ran into Patrick the day before or I would have missed this very neat jam session.

Do check out the people Patrick is hooked up with, at Magic Net

Wish you all could have been here for this one. Now I'm looking forward to seeing YES , Wed., Aug 5th

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