House Party!

I can hear my bandmates downstairs setting up for a little house party tonight at our apartment.  We were supposed to play at a club on the Asian side of Istanbul but it got canceled, so we just called the folks who were planning to meet us there and told them to come here instead.  Last night I had the chance to sing with Nadia, a Turkish girl who's just finishing high school and will be auditioning for a place at music schools in Britain.  She's beautiful, sings beautifully, and has a beautiful spirit.  We did a duet with "Summertime"--it was one of the high points of my trip so far!  We're hoping she'll be able to join us tonight. 

We just got the news that we can't play past 9 pm here at the apartment, so I guess we're now planning to play until 9 and then go out for dinner.  This part of town doesn't really wake up until noon and stays up until 4 am, so 9 pm is about right for dinnertime! 

Another of our Turkish friends, Omer, sang "Lullaby of Birdland" with us last night--not an easy song to sing and he was great!  He's going to try to get here tonight, too.  And the mother and brother of our keyboard player, Benny, just arrived in Istanbul and are heading our way as I write this. 

I apologize for the less-than-fluency of this post, but I've had much less sleep than I need this week, and I'm jet-lagging.  So putting together a full sentence is about as much as I can manage.  Nothing pretty, I'm afraid.  And now I need to go down and join the party...  (No pictures to post until I get back home since I forgot to bring my camera-to-computer cord.)