On Friday, April 30, the three restaurants at 2200 Westlake hosted a Patio Launch Party to celebrate a lovely spring day and the beginning of spring/summer al fresco dining season. The Pan Pacific Hotel approached J&J Music to help provide some swinging Jazz music to set the tone for their day event. The hotel also hoped to find a group with a tie to Cornish College of the Arts (being as how the school is directly across the street from the 2200 businesses. Who better to represent Cornish and offer up some joyful jazz than the Josh Rawlings Trio (aka the Cornish Trio – each member is a graduate of Cornish)?

Starting at 12 p.m. and continuing through 3:00 p.m., the Josh Rawlings Trio huddled together under a tent hoping for the best with the cold and windy rain taunting them. After the very first tune however, the clouds literally parted! And amazingly enough, the clouds and rain did not return until they finished their last song! We’re not saying that the Josh Rawlings Trio has special super-hero powers over the weather, but their music may have somehow appeased the rain Gods. With the rain clouds gone, the event became a very joyous and fun afternoon for everyone and even the kids came out and enjoyed a little music.

All in all, the day was a lot of fun and the band even serenaded the Tutta Bella crew enough that each member got a pizza at the end of the day…not bad for a good afternoon’s work! Right after the Trio, May Palmer: The Queen of Ivory Soul, got up and brought the evening to a close with her sultry and soulful singing. It was certainly a fun day of music at 2200 Westlake and J&J Music looks forward to working with Pan Pacific Hotel to organize more live music in the coming summer months…and preferably when we don’t need to appease the rain Gods!