On April 25th, the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha, Epsilon Mu chapter, organized a Poetry Night event. Using their contacts, they were able to have established speakers perform original poems and spoken word. However, in order to elicit more participation from the student body, they also allowed people to perform any kind of talent they posses. I was approached by Junior Fagmabilla, who suggested that I perform something for the poetry audience. At first I was reluctant because I felt a musical performance would be out of place at a Poetry Night. However, as Junior explained, "Music is a form of poetry." Other folks were performing songs on the piano, and another planned to play a saxophone song. I decided to give it a go, since I haven't had the opportunity to play in front of an audience in a really long time.
I wanted to play an original piece that I had been working on. However, given the time constraints, I wasn't able to finish it to my liking. Junior suggested we have a jam session to get the creative juices flowing. He spit some lines over my guitar playing, and we fed off each others energy. The only downside was that we practiced only twice before the show. It was mostly improvisational, with myself playing circles of notes, but it was still pretty solid. I used the main riff from Metallica's "Sanitarium," and adjusted to give a more relaxed, groovy feel. It went over pretty well.
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After our joint performance, Junior asked that I play a song to close the show. I was the last act of the night. I was put on the spot, and didn't have anything prepared. I asked the crowd if anyone knew Spanish. After two or three people raised their hands, I started playing a rendition of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba." I even sang a little bit! Don't look that up on YouTube though; I made sure I erased any evidence of my singing from the Internet!
