Variety is the spice of life . . . .

I'm going with friends Friday night to see Wynton Marsalis at the new Segerstrom Concert Hall, which is part of the OC Performing Arts Center. They describe the show as - "Wynton Marsalis is an icon of the jazz world. As a musician, band leader, composer, educator and advocate, he has furthered the art of jazz through sheer commitment and unmatched creativity as well as immense talent. The eight-time Grammy winner is joined by a stellar group of colleagues for a not-to-be-missed evening of swinging music."

I've never seen Marsalis play, but have heard great things about him. I've always liked jazz because when I was a kid, my folks would take us to a pizza parlor that also had live jazz music one night a week. The folks would drink a pitcher or two of beer, and my brother and I would drink "suicides" - a mixture of coke, 7-up, root beer and dr. pepper or orange . . . . They were called suicides because if you drank more than 2 of them, you were likely to get a horrible belly ache . . .