As we finish up our 7½ week tour, we are all having mixed feelings about this experience coming to an end. It’s a bit sad to be playing our last concert and listening to Steve sing and narrate the story of Tormé Sings Tormé. The last time we’ll be wearing our black suits and colorful ties, dining backstage before the show, sharing stories and gags on the bus. At the same time all of us have to be looking forward to getting back to the normalcy of our lives. Some of us – specifically Michael Meza and Eric Erhardt – are going right back out on the road, both on cruise ships. Well at least they’ll be seeing some more warm, balmy weather.

For the final show tonight, we introduced some impromptu hilarity featuring Michael Meza playing the theme from “The Godfather” into the bell of Mike Fahn’s valve trombone (simulating a mandolin, I believe) while Fahn rattled off, in Brando’s exact dialect from the movie, one of the key scenes with Enzo, the baker, “… for your fadda…” Mike Fahn, who is all about impromptu hilarity, also scatted a final tribute to Steve March Tormé thanking him for the opportunity to be on this tour with him and his father’s great music.

Some stats… We have ridden approximately 9,183 miles on the bus, and that’s a bit conservative. Not all small side trips are added in there. We have stayed in 27 different hotels. By my very crude count, we have played our music for over 22,000 people.

I have laughed so hard I cracked my ribs 13 times. Impromptu hilarity galore.

Thanks, Steve. For your fadda... till the next time…

To begin with, Madison, the state capitol of Wisconsin, was a treat. An absolute first-class small Northern city, like small cities in Europe and a bit like Burlington, VT. Surrounded by big Lake Monona. Very college and young professional oriented, coffee shops and quaint restaurants all around the downtown area where we stayed. We gave a concert at the Overture Hall, a facility with a lengthy year-round schedule of top rate acts. Steve March Tormé had many friends and relatives in attendance.

But then the snow came! 4-5” had fallen as we left the venue to go back to the hotel. And sure enough… the bus got stuck on a patch of snow at a street corner. Couldn‘t go forward, couldn’t go back. Tires spinning, more snow falling. Streets nearly deserted. Bob, our driver, um… let’s say he got a bit irritated.

Out of nowhere, a large Ford pickup 4-wheel drive pulls up and out steps the brother of our sax player, Gary Herbig! (He had been at the concert). He attaches a nylon towrope to the front of the bus, and with his help and the combined 650 hp of the two engines we climbed the slippery, hilly streets back to the hotel.

Yesterday we left the hotel at 7:30 am, after Bob and Pete had to dig the bus out of the snow which had fallen overnight. Luckily, the conditions en route to Michigan via the Chicago area weren’t too bad at all. No snow, good visibility, but high winds.

They PREDICTED a big blizzard starting later… we’ll see. Nope. Didn't happen.

Good show last night in Jackson. We have still skirted the really bad, icy weather that has hit the Midwest. I can’t believe our luck. I hope the same holds true for my drive home on Monday/Tuesday.

Pretty soon gonna start to feel nostalgic about these long bus rides… but not today. This one is grueling: 500 miles from Columbus, OH, to Madison, WI. Today we are having a showing of “This Is Spinal Tap” in the bus. Not nearly as funny as "The Godfather."

We played last night at the historic Southern Theatre in downtown. Following the destruction of 4 theaters in Columbus between 1889 and 1893, th Great Southern Fireproof Theater opened in 1896. In 1903 the touring production of Ben Hur played there, with a cast of 350 and two teams of horses pulled chariots on treadmills! A beautiful hall with concentric arches for acoustical amplification, its stage hosted such luminaries as John Philip Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt, Al Jolson, Isadora Duncan and W. C. Fields!

And Steve March Tormé.

Tonight we arrived in Madison WI, where Steve was reunited with his lovely wife Angela and their two young daughters, Ruby and Sonny. Steve now lives nearby in Wisconsin.

Also as luck would have it, I was able to hear my brother Judd perform in concert with #1 hit country singer Rodney Atkins ("Watching You"). Communicating by cell phone, we were able to hook up tickets, backstage passes and transportation. I went with Nicole, our production manager, because she was the ONLY other person on the bus who had heard of (and was a fan of) Rodney Atkins! It was a treat to see Judd playing in front of about 6,000 people at the local arena here. Rodney Atkins wasn’t bad either….

Photo shows Jeff, Nicole, Rodney Atkins and Judd Fuller

By fortunate happenstance, I actually got the chance to go home for one night! My good friends Ernie & Mary Mazza attended the concert in Bronx (NY) at the Lehman Performing Arts Center on Friday night, and since they’re from my hometown, I talked them into giving me a ride to my house. Got a chance to see my kitty kat – she was very good actually, naturally missed me and wanted to cuddle but otherwise fairly emotional healthy, and a little fatter than when I left her!

Then my friend Pam came down to visit with her mom and the two dogs, my best walkin’ and hikin’ buddies. Though it was short, it was sweet. Pam and I drove to the hotel Saturday night and she rode the bus with us to the gig Sunday at Stony Brook, LI.

Had a great gig at SUNY Stony Brook, small recital hall, packed house. AT least Pam came, AND the band was healthy again!

Oh, didn't I tell you about the strange stomach/intestinal bug that caught at least half the band on Friday in the Bronx? OMG, you wouldn’t believe how much, um, vomiting and diarrhea there was. We think it came through the ventilation system at the hotel in Bethesda. Even on stage, during the performance, there were 4 pails in case anyone had to throw up – no one did. Yes, it affected me personally: at the start of the sound check on Friday I had to abruptly excuse myself in order to, excuse me, barf rather violently for about 5 minutes.

Anyway, by Sunday afternoon in Stony Brook the band was for the most part healthy again and the concert was great.

But good things don’t last long, and Monday morning we headed from NJ to Ohio tracking Route 80 West all the way. So, just because we were still in NJ on this FRIGID morning (15º at 8 am), what should happen?? The bus broke down, of course. The NJ gods just wouldn’t let us get away cleanly! A hose on the rear tag axle (extra turning wheels) gave way after a bump on the roadway. It’s not a serious problem affecting safety, but the damned alert signal (an annoying high pitch) wouldn’t go off, so Pete and Bob had to don overalls UNDER the bus to disconnect the lousy signal alarm. Yucks!!

Two events of note (or notoriety really) recently on the bus. Yesterday during the long drive, we had a marathon showing of “The Godfather” on the bus’s video screen -- Steve and Mike Fahn providing alternate comic relief during some of the more intensely violent and dark scenes, and Vito providing translation from the Italian into English. (What does “pezzanovanta” mean, Vito?)

The day before, Wendell and Steve got into a hilarious trivia session about -- of all things -- ROLLER DERBY. You know, the staged matches between teams like the Detroit Devils, Bay Area Bombers, Texas Outlaws and L. A. T-Birds, where real men and women skate around the way-too-small oval track doing their best to hurl and strike, hurt and maim each other? Who could forget the memorable skaters like Ronnie “Psycho” Raines, “Skinnie Minnie” Miller, “Toughie” Brashoun, Honey Sanchez, Lester Quarrels, “747” Earlene Brown, and the #1 skater of them all… Shirley Hardman. Really... who could forget them?

Michael Meza, trumpet. Has toured the USA, Europe and the Far East many times, including twelve road productions of “West Side Story.” Has performed with Cab Calloway and Mel Lewis. His favorite photo shows himself standing alongside Maurice André, the French trumpeter regarded as the greatest player in the world. His pet peeve: Smooth Jazz. “It’s neither smooth, nor is it jazz!” says Michael.

Steve Rawlins, piano, arranger, musical director. Active as composer, arranger and orchestrator, Steve has written seven books on jazz for vocalists and instrumentalists published by Hal Leonard and PMI. He’s worked with Steve March Tormé since 1997. Rawlins was a staff arranger at the Merv Griffin Show (1975 – 1978) and has written for The Academy Awards, The Emmys , The Superbowl, and artists including: Benny Goodman, Smokey Robinson and Bette Midler.

Ron Krasinski, drums. The Groovemaster! First played with Steve March Tormé on the “Name That Tune” TV show in the 70’s. Has toured and recorded with Dr. Dre, Seals & Crofts, Sheena Easton and Barry Manilow. Composes music for TV and has appeared on Broadway most recently in “Ring Of Fire,” as both actor and drummer. Greatest memory on the road: hanging out all night after a concert in Beatle George Harrison’s hotel suite… when dawn broke through the windows, Harrison and Albert Lee played “Here Comes The Sun”!

Charles Trundy, sound engineer. For over 25 years this man has been the ears in the audience. On our gig, he manages a complex, multi-channel mix involving from 2-4 separate house mixes (some on time-delay) as well as 6 monitor mixes on stage. Has been sound man for Chicago, Natalie Cole, Duane Allman, the senior Mel Tormé and now the younger Steve March Tormé. Hats off you to you, Charles, we know we’re in good ears with you.

Nicole Dessin, lighting and stage director. Nicole received her degree in Lighting Design from the University of Florida, and was Master Electrician at the Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Gainesville. She and I are the only two Connecticut residents in this company, so we’ve worked a lot of the same places. She’s done lighting and I’ve done music at the Yale Rep, Long Wharf and ESPN.

Meanwhile, last night was a night off in Bethesda, so I visited with my dear old friends, Roger & Pum Cooke, who came to our concert the night before. Roger is a jazz bassist with a PhD in the Philosophy of Mathematics (yikes!) who has lived and taught in Holland for at least 30 years. Now he works 70% of the time in DC at an economic think tank, Resources for the Future, trying to figure out things like how much is global warming going to cost and how to plan for it economically. Heavy stuff…