performing history 1970 's

In 1972, I moved to Olympia, Washington to join a rock band named The Gross National Product. We played mostly in bars in Tacoma. The band broke up but I continued living in Olympia. While attending The Evergreen State College, I began my solo career as a boogie and blues piano player, vocalist, and harmonica player. I also performed Irish and American fiddle tunes that I transcribed onto harmonica. Through time, jazz piano became more of a feature. My performing circuit was a network of out-of-the-way bars and restaurants along the shores of Puget Sound. My audience was mostly loggers, fishermen, their communities, and Folk Clubs. I repaired and played old pianos that had been neglected for decades. I was the house pianist at the Towne Tavern in Port Townsend, a regular at the The Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor, and also at The Mariner in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. In a composition class, I met six other composers. In 1974 the seven of us formed a jazz band named The Old Coast Hiway Orchestra and Tattoo Parlour. We were four women and three men. We all composed and arranged for the four women vocalists and sometimes created as many as seven part vocal harmonies. The instrumentation included piano, harmonica, guitar and trombone. Lori also played clarinet and saw. We added colleges, universities, and prisons to our venues. The band we called OCHOTeePee broke up in 1976. Through the rest of the 1970's I played as a soloist and performed jazz standards. For several months I traveled and performed in Peru and Bolivia. Throughout the 1970's I played modern and free jazz in separate, artsy venues at universities, galleries, and museums. Those groups were mostly duos and trios but the free form duo that performed the most was piano and drums. We called that band Who Is Walter Sneed?