Posted by ProvDog on April 8, 2009, 2:03 pm
172.190.62.107
Dear BRIAN AUGER ~
I got to see you play for the first time last Sunday (4/5/2009) at the Glendale Arizona Jazz And Blues Festival and I'm still all charged up about it. (Purchased the "Live At The Baked Potato" DVD there, and man is it GREAT!)
I know you had problems with the electric generators during the show and this bummed you out a bit. But I doubt you have any idea how irrelevant technical difficulties are to someone who has gotten so much indescribable pleasure out of listening to your music for decades and who is getting to see you play live for the first time.
I approached you after the show with my brother and told you that the very first Jazz album I ever purchased in my life was "LIVE OBLIVION; Vol 1." This was in 1977, after I heard "BUMPIN' ON SUNSET" played on AM radio, after having just crossed Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. I was totally blown away by that number, and the Hammond B-3 instantly became my favorite musical instrument and you instantly became my favorite player of it. Nothing has changed about either of those two things since '77.
I can honestly say that I have whistled "BUMPIN' ON SUNSET" in my lifetime more than I have any other song ever recorded - perhaps a million times. (I go with the slightly more uptempo version from the "Live Oblivion" recording.) Oh, I own Wes Montgomery's original, too (from his "Tequila" album), and it's a real gem. But to my mind, you OWN that song, my friend!
So now, let me ask you: What song do you suppose that YOU have whistled more than any other in your lifetime? Heck, why not name two - one from your own body of work, and one by someone else? [Please don't say, "One Hundred Bottles Of Beer On The Wall."]
Thanks again, Brian, for the 32 years of musical enjoyment. My life would have sorely missed the musical Bumpin' and Groovin' without your tunes carrying me along.
Bless And Be Blessed.
~ProvDog
Postscript: And if anybody else wishes to name their life's most whistled tune, please feel free!
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