Third City: Washington DC - The Kennedy Center {Tour Life}

In October 2013, I went on my first National Tour with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. I sang the Abyssinian Mass written by Mr. Marsalis with Chorale Le Chateau led by Damien Sneed. 

We drove to DC early in the morning and I slept most of the time. I was so afraid to be riding a tour bus everywhere, but it was so totally fine. I had some amazing meditative music and it always kept me pretty zen. Before I knew it, we were in DC (it was only 3 hours anyway). I was SO excited to be back there as I hadn't really stepped foot in DC in a good 22 years. Yikes! What?

I was also extremely excited to sing at the Kennedy Center and to see my best good friends Parker and David. I was definitely taking pictures of everything like that tourist that I was.

There's me on the right, with the hat on! Behind the piano!
Photo credit: Frank Stewart

Mmm, lobster.

In between soundcheck and the show, we got to go out in the city and have lunch. I had THE MOST DELICIOUS Lobster Ravioli at CIRCA at Foggy Bottom. I mean, so good. After that we went up to the top of the Kennedy Center to look at all of DC from there. I was told the that view at night was stunning, but I didn't get a chance to indulge. Next time, for sure!

I actually bought a wig for the tour. I don't normally wear wigs, I don't know how to put them on or ANYTHING. I had my friend Lauren Michelle help me out with the pincurls and the actual putting on of the wig. I was pretty excited too and I was telling just about everyone that I was walked by that I was wearing a wig. How convenient!

But by the time I got on that stage, I was sweating bullets and I felt like my scalp was slowly being ripped off of my skull. I was also afraid to move too much just in case it shifted or something. And to top it all off, I wore the most Presidential dress I could find, because you know, we're in DC and everything. BUT I only brought knee highs, not full stockings. SO between my wig potentially falling off and the entire audience noticing that there was about 1/8 of my legs showing between the knee highs and the dress, I was very happy to stand in the back out of anyone's line of sight. As luck would have it, I was moved to the front row at the last minute. Yep, of course. Cheers!

Luckily, there were no knee high or wig mishaps and we had another thrilling concert. My phone had no reception so I sent my friends in the audience about a million texts before I got to meet up with them really quickly and take about a thousand selfies before getting on the bus to the hotel which wasn't very close to the venue this time around. My dinner was these AMAZING Angus Sliders and Truffle Mashed Potatoes at the rooftop revolving restaurant in the hotel. I'm drooling thinking about them. BRB walking to DC to get more.

Also, they were topped with fried onions.

Here's a snippet of our performance!

Post by Wynton Marsalis.