Shufflin' off to Buffalo

Sunday departures have a routine all their own. The concerts are matinees, so we perform them “en route” (prepare accordingly!) to the hotel. Most people will travel in their concert attire, some will hang their concert attire on the bus, changing at the lunch stop. I prefer to pack a lunch for the ride so the lunch stop can be used for phone calls home or errands if needed. There is little or no time for warming up on your instrument prior to departure most Sundays, and time at the concert site is limited. We need a different mind set on Sundays. Sundays also mark the official end of each week, giving us a night off for a leisurely dinner and some needed down time.

We were performing in our first “real” hall, the Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, home of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and about a block from the childhood home of Sam, one of our newer clarinet players. We played for a large and very enthusiastic audience, with Sam having a cheering section all her own. No surprise that we pulled out God Bless America one more time.

After checking in to the hotel, one of the buses departed for an evening at the home of Jon Bisesi, a percussionist on Home Guard. Roughly half the Tour Band accepted the kind invitation of Jon’s parents, excited to spend an evening in their home. Jon’s father was waiting in the front yard as we disembarked from the bus, Jon’s mother on the front step. Other family members and friends of Jon’s were waiting on the back deck, and Jon must have warned his family about the vast amounts of food the Band can consume, because the food was plentiful and delicious. His mother gave us a tour of the house, complete with childhood photos of Jon and his sister. Time went all too quickly and soon it was time to go. As the bus pulled up in front of the house, neighbors opened blinds and peeked from behind curtains in curiosity. I imagine they were wondering what a bus was doing in front of the Bisesi’s house.

Leslye and I struck out on our own this morning for a walk. Armed with directions from the Bell Captain, we headed for the Marina and Naval Park. Expecting a nice walk along the water, we made several unexpected discoveries on the way there and back. Our first discovery was a Viet Nam Memorial near the entrance to the Naval Park. Nearby we found a series of wooden figures carved from massive silver maples that had come down during the terrible winter storms Buffalo had suffered in recent years. We found a figure of Ben Franklin, Jay Leno, a black bear, and to our delight, one of Harold Arlen, a Buffalo native.

Buffalo has an amazing collection of Art Deco buildings. In so many other cities across America, these building have been replaced by glass and steel, but every block we walked we passed a building worth stopping to view. We made our way to City Hall, one of the grandest of their Art Deco masterpieces, hoping to go inside and visit the observation deck on the 25th floor, or even the chamber on the 13th floor with the stained glass dome. Although we were able to enter the building, the lobby was dimly lit and deserted. A mural above the doors and intricate Art Deco detailing on every wall, the lobby was a piece of artwork in its own right. We took some time looking around, but the feeling that we’d come upon a building that belonged in a Ghost Busters movie had us moving on in search of some breakfast items.

Wandering in the vicinity of the hotel, we came upon a small plaza with fountains and a pond that, when frozen in the winter, became an ice rink. On the far side of the plaza, we found a small breakfast place with fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs and breakfast panini. I picked up an egg and some fresh watermelon to supplement my oatmeal; back to the hotel, with enough time to have a leisurely breakfast before loading the buses. Next stop - Rochester!