Last night was a hit at the Westchase Starbucks with Rich Van Voorst and Mark Feinman. I have played with them at the Waters and Anderson Starbucks as a sub on several occasions and enjoyed this change of scenery.
Westchase is one of those upscale suburban developments that thinks it is a posh European town, with a marketplace area and cafes.
Truth be told, the houses are cookie-cutter and you don’t always experience the sense of community planners had intended. Nonetheless, the Starbucks here had quite a bit of charm, with the London phonebooth out front, the ample cafe-style seating (I guess they all have that), a the carved, wooden Starbucks sign. We played outdoors from 7:30-9:30.
Rich, a candidate for MM in Jazz Comp at USF, works at this particular store and has worked to get weekly live jazz in four West Tampa/Pinellas County Starbucks locations! I really appreciate Rich’s efforts to make live jazz happen wherever it can and am in awe of management who is willing to see the value of having such music, even if the numbers don’t always come out favorably. Everytime I’ve played a Starbucks gig with these guys, the turnout has been great and the response extremely positive.
I have been in contact with management at several Polk County Starbucks about creating weekly live jazz in Lakeland and am excited to see what may come out of this. If you’re a jazz musician looking for a gig, consider contacting your local Starbucks manager about setting up a weekly. Just make sure you promote like there’s no tomorrow!
[...] If you are in or near the Lakeland, Florida area, come see matthewwengerdtrio play its first outing at the Lakeland North Starbucks. We hit at 7:30 (but come early to get your daily dose) and will play two sets. I’ve been telling my faithful readers about the subbing I’ve been doing in Tampa with the Mars’ trio. Tampa has a stronger market for this sort of thing, so I am very grateful to Stephanie, the manager at the 98 N store, for having the foresight to book live jazz in Lakeland. [...]