New Oyster House memories

I celebrated my birthday on Sunday with a few of my friends at the Oyster House in Studio City.  My friend Dave Welch took some amazing photos that night. In addition to being an incredibly talented trumpet and flugelhorn player, he also happens to be a professional photographer. I highly recommend him!! A great time was had by all, as you can see by the photos....

Laura Pursell (that's me!)

Everyone enjoyed the classy, velvety vocals of George Brittenham

Lawrence Juber surprised us all by dropping in! Here is, sitting in with Doug MacDonald

One of my favorite bass players and a dear friend - Adam Cohen

Carl Tassi sitting in on drums...how cool is this cat??

Here I am singing "The Song is You"

The band

Tony Russell singing "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans" - Tony is always a crowd favorite!

Singing with Dori Amarillio - a fantastic player. I was so glad he dropped by. I will be doing more with Dori!

Doug MacDonald - it just doesn't get any better!

Another great shot of George Brittenham

Fabulous drummer and dear friend Frank Wilson, who subbed out his regular gig to share this night with me. Love you, Frank!

The incomparable Dori

Doing my thing with the band

Lawrence Juber - I wish he could have stayed longer, but he had a session early the next morning. Can you believe all this talent??

Jazz great Ron Anthony...an old friend who taught me half the songs I sing

Photos by Dave Welch
www.photoswithclass.com

Another night at Barone's

Last Saturday, David and I headed out to Barone's with Tony Russell and his wife Rosemarie, to hear Thelma Jones sing, with Karen Hernandez on piano and Chico Fernandez on drums. What a great night, and wow, was Thelma on fire!! Standouts included "God Bless the Child" (performed as a rumba), "For All We Know", and a rousing closing number whose title I can't remember. It was late. Guitar great Barry Zweig dropped in for dinner, and of course he was summoned to go outside and get his guitar - which he did - and he played all night! I ordered a steak (which I never do) and right after finishing my meal, Thelma called me onstage to sing a song...my steak hadn't yet reached my stomach. Oh dear. I was completely caught off guard, started in with "Like Someone in Love", only to forget the lyrics to the 2nd verse!! I have no idea what I sang to get through that section, but I felt like Jason Castro from American Idol, ripping apart "Tambourine Man". Oh well...like I said, it was late. Right after that, Tony, Thelma and I all joined in on a raucous version of "Sunny Side of the Street", and the audience sang along. (When Tony gets involved, it's always raucous!) But the audience hadn't seen anything yet! Thelma took a break from singing, while Tony took the stage to entertain the audience with "some jokes"..let me tell you, this was probably the best night Tony's ever had. He had Barry Zweig laughing so hard, he had to stop a few times. Tony's a true master, and it's too bad this wasn't caught on film!

Photos from Barone's

Well, a good time was had by all who came to Barone's last Thursday! Stephen was in great form, and a few singers sat in, including Sheri Pedigo, who did a rousing rendition of "Let's Stay Together" and then performing "Crazy" (after filling the audience in on the fact that my Dad recorded with Patsy Cline). Only in LA could you get such a tepid response to that fact, but moving on....
Tony Russell came by, sat down at the piano, and performed solo for us for 1/2 an hour, singing some great ballads, such as "Old Folks", which had people in tears. It was a real "Cheers" moment, and a night I'll remember.
My dear friend Penny took these photos. Enjoy!