Working Life

— This thing called music.

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For me, playing music is life.  I play to live and I live to play.  Ask anyone who knows me well.  I feel blessed to have an occupation which feeds both my brain and my soul.

Playing music, particularly jazz-based music, is an intellectual process, but also a highly-charged emotional one; and one that creates and perpetuates (feeds-nourishes) human connections.  I play an average of several hundred gigs a year, mostly in the southern Ontario area.  Many of these gigs are at resorts in the Muskoka region; some of them are at restaurants, hotels and clubs; and still others are at private parties like anniversaries, birthdays and engagements.  I also play at a great number of weddings, where I provide cocktail and dinner music.  I work frequently as a member of the duo “Nightlife” with guitarist and long-time musical partner and lifelong friend Gerry Holden.

Playing at these functions is always interesting.  I often think of the Jimmy Buffet quote “No matter what time of day it is, it’s 5:00 somewhere in the world, so let’s party”  (I may have paraphrased slightly).  Being a cocktail performer is like being at an endless party.  Everybody suddenly becomes your friend.  I frequently speak with people at gigs who tell me about the personal connections they have with tunes they hear me perform.  From them I hear passion, joy, tragedy, humour, longing, loneliness and pain, and everything in between.  Through it all, I do my best to just keep the music coming.  I know I have succeeded in my job when I see people smiling and nodding their heads at me, singing along with tunes I’m playing, dropping a note on my piano, or actually coming up and speaking to me.  ”Sing us a song, you’re the piano man…”

If you're trying to get in touch in order to inquire about booking me for a function, feel free to use the e-mail address: music@scottwhittington.com