Jason Parker Quartet Tour: Day Nine, Palm Springs

The Jason Parker Quartet hit the road for a two-week tour in May 2010. We were equipped with audio, video and cameras to document the whole experience. You can find all posts about the tour here.

Day nine of the JPQ tour was our second day in Palm Springs, and day two with my wife Darrah along for the ride. As I have mentioned elsewhere, the tour began when Darrah’s childhood friend Worth asked us to play at her wedding at the Parker Palm Springs (yes, there’s a bit of serendipity there!). Darrah flew down for the wedding and got the chance to hang out with the band and experience life on tour for a few days.

We started the day lounging poolside at the Ace Hotel. If you’ve never stayed at an Ace before, I highly recommend it. They have hotels in Seattle, Portland, Palm Springs and New York. They find old trashy hotels and “hip” them up. The atmosphere at the one in Palm Springs was a constant pool party, with music blaring all day, poolside cocktail service and lots of fun each night. Not a bad place to spend a couple days. Josh and I even did some synchronized swimming (see the video below).

The wedding and reception at the Parker were absolutely gorgeous, albeit very hot – it was in the 90’s for most of the day. During the ceremony there were hummingbirds flying around as the sun set…how did they plan that??? We had fun playing the reception and the crowd was really appreciative. Worth said “just do what you do” which is always great to hear from a bride.

The after-party was held in Gene Autry’s old house, which is on the grounds of the hotel. It was like stepping back into 1950’s Los Angeles in there, and quite a trip!

All-in-all it was a picture perfect day. Not your typical day on tour with a jazz band, but then nothing about the JPQ tour was typical!

Here’s the video highlight reel from day nine:

We didn’t do much driving on this day, just from the Ace to the Parker and back, so we only listened to one CD. But it was a good one:

1. Miles Davis – Porgy & Bess