Hanging out with rock stars ... who happen to be jazz musicians

 (Lots of pictures in this one. Enjoy!)

Finished product: See below.

As I said yesterday, our time with Mr. Marsalis was brief. He had two handlers with him, and they kept things moving along and discouraged people from hanging too close to Mr. Marsalis. And that’s fine. When it was announced that everyone who was to get pictures taken had had them taken, it was time for him to go, but in the meantime, several members of the band had made their way into the room.

I grabbed my Ted Nash and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra CD and started looking for Ted. He was not there. I ended up next to drummer Ali Jackson and there was nobody talking to him at that moment. He had a big friendly smile and firm handshake, and he really looked genuinely glad to have someone to talk to. He signed my CD and we took a picture:

Ali, like any drummer, in a rhythm, so quick to sign my CD, we didn't get that shot, just this one. You can see how much fun I'm having, can't you?

Like any talented drummer, his energy was palpable. He practically broke my ribs when he slung his arm around me to take this picture. I told him I really liked his work with the quintet on the recording with Richard Galliano and he really lit up after that. “Oh, yeah. Thanks very much. That’s great. Thank you.” Just a very pleasant guy. I thanked him for the autograph, thanked him for coming down to Alabama and told him I looked forward to seeing him and the band again soon.

From there I made my way over to trombonist Chris Crenshaw. Funny (embarrassing) thing was, even though I knew who he was and I knew that Vincent Gardner was not on this trip (the very talented Andre Hayward subbing for him, unless there's been a personnel change I'm not aware of), I stuck out the CD and pen and said, “Can I have an autograph, Vincent?” And Chris, ever the gentleman, just grabbed the pen and CD, started signing, and said, “Sure. Sure. It’s Chris, actually.”

Chris, actually, signs my CD. I think I'm still blushing from my ID error.

 I realized my mistake and apologized. He just said, “It’s all good, man. It’s all good. Vince is a tall guy, too. We’re both tall.” That made me feel a little better. I complimented Chris on his singing (he's a wonderful vocalist) and thanked him, too, for playing in Alabama. He just said thanks. And yes, he's tall. 6'5" I'd say:

Don't worry. I can take him. I'll box him out for the rebound. (We mid-westerners know how to do that.)

Then, I found myself next to trumpeter Marcus Printup. Very cool guy. He asked my name and remembered it. He signed my CD: 

Marcus adds his signature. He's not getting my Conn trumpet. And, what the...? Left-handed! Just like his boss!

I told him how Herb Alpert always made me want to play trumpet, but I ended up at the piano instead. I even told him about my Conn 1941 trumpet and he said, “Oh, that’s a good one. Great instrument. Don’t ever sell that one, and if you do, sell it to me.” He had a couple of friends that kept distracting him, but I still got a decent picture with him. Did I mention he’s a very cool guy?

Marcus Printup and Eric. (Seriously, he's a cool guy.)

So, no Ted Nash (or Wynton Marsalis) signature, but I did have 20% of the band sign on the jacket, one from every section except the saxes. (See above.)

We briefly checked out the after party, which for us was free because we paid for the meet and greet. Good thing, too, because there was just this fairly decent band and drinks were not free (cash bar only), and we weren’t up for snacks and hanging out in the lobby, so we took this nondescript photo and then headed for home:

Sorry, don't know who they are, but they were good. Really, they were. Sirote Theatre is where we saw Bill Frisell.

 The ride home was pretty much like the ride down: wet, windy, and lit by lightning, but I’m not saying anything more about the weather, and that’s all I can say about meeting and greeting Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Recent New Orleans trip schedule = Beginner's guide to the "Big Easy"

Oddly enough, it took me five trips to New Orleans before I finally got around to doing all the things that tourists are supposed to do when they visit there. So my most recent NOLA travelogue is really a list of stuff that you should do if you’re visiting “the Big Easy” for the first time:

See the inside of St. Louis Cathedral – It is the oldest continually operating Catholic church in the United States, and the inside is far nicer and just as photo-worthy as the often depicted outside. Mrs. S and I went inside to hear Ellis Marsalis play a free Christmas concert, accompanied by the rest of his quartet including his drummer son, Jason. The chords that Mr. Marsalis played when he tackled “Oh Tannenbaum” were spine tingling. During the concert, filming and photography were not allowed, so we came back the next day to take photos. Don’t miss it. (Keep your distance from the guys on the bench outside with the 16-ounce malt liquor cans in paper bags.)

Have beignets and coffee at Café Du Monde – This is probably the staple of the New Orleans tourist experience, and again, we had never done it. The beignets were tasty and a plate of three with two large coffees was just the right amount of food and drink for Mrs. S and I to go away satisfied, yet craving more. We went back on our second morning of the trip as well. Bring cash. It helps if you speak Thai (but since you can only order one thing to eat and maybe five to drink, communication is not an issue).

Eat a meal at the Acme Oyster House – This we had actually done before, but not in a while. We went on our first full day for lunch. We had some char-grilled Gulf oysters that were phenomenal, along with two different Po-boys and a glass of local beer. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to do it again the next day, doubled up on the oyster order, and got two different Po-boys and another local beer to wash everything down. Highly likely that in future trips to NOLA, we will eat all our lunches here.

Tour a rum distillery – Yes, there is a rum distillery in New Orleans. It’s not much of one, but it is a rum distillery. (Okay, it’s a shabby warehouse with some tanks that can be used to make booze.) They do three tours daily (call ahead) and they are a little out of the way in a seedy neighborhood by a cement factory, but the rum is tasty, they serve samples, and although the tour is pricy at $10, you get $5 off a bottle of rum if you buy one (and you will). Definitely something different to  do, especially if you are newly devoted to spirits, as I am. Which leads to our next tourist “must-do”:

Have a cocktail at the carousel bar at The Monteleone – If you are not up on your cocktails, you can order the signature drink, The Monteleone, which is a variation on a martini (I think). That’s what Mrs. S had. Made her drunk enough to lose her scarf. I had a Sazerac, another New Orleans cocktail. It takes about 15 minutes for the bar to go around once, so drink slowly or have two.

Me and my Sazerac (photo © Mrs. S)

Listen to jazz at Snug Harbor – There’s nothing like real live jazz, and all I can say is, you may want to do Preservation Hall for the tourist’s touristy jazz, but I would recommend Snug for the “in-the-know” tourist’s jazz. We heard Delfeayo Marsalis lead the Uptown Jazz Ensemble, a 17-piece band that played on a stage that wasn’t more than 15 by 20 feet in a room that couldn’t have been more than 50 x 20 total. An awesome experience and only an $8 cab ride to and from just about anywhere in the French Quarter. You can keep your costs down by not ordering too many $8 drinks.

Dinner at Stella – I’m pretty sure this is the best restaurant in New Orleans. If you buy the cheapest wine on the list, two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts, you won’t get away for much less than $250 – 300. The tasting menu is something like $125, plus another $95 for the flight of paired wines. If you’ve hit the lottery, you can try one of their $150 vodkas or the $3000/ounce caviar.  With the Acme Oyster House, this is the only other thing on the list we did not do for the first time (and hopefully not for the last, either).

That’s it. Two and a half days, three nights. Really, the perfect trip. Geaux, geaux, geaux to New Orleans! (Author is not provided with compensation by any party affiliated with the city of New Orleans.)

Shot by The Innkeeper’s Gun

Not too long ago, I mentioned my infatuation with Bombella, the latest work by Abdullah Ibrahim which also features the incredibly awesome WDR Big Band Cologne. As it happened, the bass player of the WDR, John Goldsby, read my review and emailed me a few nice comments. He said that if I would be interested in reviewing his trio album which was due out soon, that he would be glad to send me a gratis advanced copy. Of course, I told him I would be happy to oblige by listening to his music and writing a review.

Now, let me say (as a sort of disclaimer), when I accept stuff for free, like I do with the Amazon Vine Club, I am careful not to let the fact that I have no skin in the game affect my opinion of whatever it is I’m reviewing. If I don’t like it, I say so. If I like it, I say so. If I couldn’t care one way or the other, I say so. That is to say, I’m an honest reviewer and if anything, I tend towards being overly critical. So, I was a little nervous accepting Mr. Goldsby’s offer, because if I didn’t like his work, I was faced with the unenviable task of having to tell him that.

Surprisingly, and happily, even though Goldsby’s trio is a piano-less, sax-bass-drums band, I really liked his work. It’s called The Innkeeper’s Gun, and it is a sparse-sounding, but richly detailed work that swings. I won’t bother reprinting my whole five-star review here, so feel free to click on the link and read the review I posted to Amazon. You might even want to pick up or download your own copy of TIG while you’re there.

I’m glad I blog. Making friends and hearing new jazz is what it’s all about.

And by the way, now I’m a conductor

Here’s a little more about the “concert” where my 17-piece jazz arrangement was played.

Since I showed up first and most of the band had arrived and was ready to play, we decided to go ahead and start with my piece. The piano player hadn’t showed up, so my instructor asked me if I wanted to play on my piece. Simple fact of the matter was, I had spent so much time working on my arrangement, that I hadn’t played the piano in nearly two weeks, other than occasional relaxing plunking and a few notes here and there to work out arrangement parts. So, my instructor agreed to play the piano. The big band instructor asked if I wanted to conduct, but I told him I didn’t know how. It turned out, however, that the bass trombone player also hadn’t showed up and I needed the bass trombone, mainly for the foghorn accent sounds. So he said he would play, and I had no choice but to conduct. The instructor said, “Don’t worry. This band won’t look at you anyway.” So I explained the intricacies (?) of my piece, counted off, and away we went. It went surprisingly well. After we had played my piece twice, I gathered up the scores and sat down, but then the guitar player, who had to play on his piece and had also written piano and bass trombone parts, said, “We need you to conduct again.” Fortunately, I knew the piece pretty well from our in-class review, so I counted and pointed and away we went. Then we decided to read one of the instructor’s recently completed pieces, and of course, he wrote a fancy trombone part for himself, so I got to conduct his piece sight unseen. The first time through, he stood up and gave a few cues, but the second time through, when it came time for the cues, he was looking at me expectantly, so I gave them.

Really, it was no big deal, but at least now, I can say I have conducting experience without telling a lie.

Busy, busy, busy

I've been so busy at work and getting ready for the jazz combos concert, my blog has fallen into cobwebs. Sorry about that. The good news is, after tomorrow, I won't have any music that I'm rigorously practicing or working on, so I'll be freed up to do some listening of new music I bought, and some reviews of jazz books I've got on hand. I plan to use the four day holiday weekend to accomplish that and hanging the Christmas lights, since Mrs. S will be away visiting her family.

It's a good feeling the day before the concert, because there's no going back.

By the way, saw "Mamma Mia" live last night. It was fun, but I felt the music was dragging the whole time. I guess having grown up listening to ABBA sort of jades me when it comes to remade versions. Plus, since it is a traveling Broadway show, they have to have some recorded stuff instead of live. Still, I recommend that show (the movie not so much) if you haven't seen it yet.

Rhythmless practice

Just after I got back from Las Vegas a week and a half ago, I sat down to work on our band tunes, and I had a hard time getting my drum machine to work. I fiddled with the power switch and adapter connection and eventually got it to run, after a fashion. A few days later, with only four weeks until our concert, it refused to start up at all. I took it apart and tried to clean the connections and whatnot, but it was done. Since I had bought it used and got basically two years out of it, I decided it was time to buy a new one. Then I found out how expensive these suckers really are. So I went used again on e-bay.

I was really concerned about buying a used machine, because sometimes people are pretty lackadaisical about shipping off their used items. But I found a machine I wanted and was able to get it at a price about one-third of new. Imagine my surprise when I got the machine sent to Alabama (from San Diego) in just three days. I was delighted.

Until I turned the machine on, that is.

It didn't work. The sound was fading in and out, and both channels did not work properly, either in headphones or with jacks. Turning down the volume and messing with the jacks and adapter cord and connection helped (just like with my old machine that gave up the ghost), but I was worried. Since I could make it work, however, I decided to see how it performed over the weekend. Unfortunately, I found some of the buttons and functions inoperable, especially the ones which would allow me to eliminate the bass sounds so I could play just with the drum tracks. So, I am still without a drum machine and practicing with no rhythmic support (not good).

Of course, I will try to get my money back on the defective machine, but with less than three weeks to the concert, I can't wait around and guess at quality anymore, so I ordered a brand new machine from a reputable dealer on Amazon.com. Hopefully they will succeed in getting me the machine this week so I can get back to practicing with precise rhythm and timing.

Solo pianists and band performers can take liberties with time and timing in jazz (sometimes), but in a large combo with lots of solos and parts that bounce back and forth and respond and call, time and timing take on a new importance and "criticality". The level of my performance depends on being able to eliminate this rhythmless practice and get the timing as well as the notes of my parts down as soon as possible.

Come on, Amazon, don't fail me now!

Neither here nor there...

I still suck at ear training. Best I can get is 64% right. Usually, I'm in the 40% area. In fact, I think I'm getting worse. I noticed I can't even detect octaves half the time now. That's really bad.

I watched the Arturo Sandoval story, "For Love or Country", starring Andy Garcia. It was pretty good.

Spent two and a half hours today on my jazz theory class homework. It was all about harmonic minor scales and 13th chords, two more weak areas for me, and man, it was a lot of work. So when I can't play anything in the band tomorrow, I'll tell the director (who also teaches the jazz theory class) that I had too much homework. We'll see how that goes.

I've been listening to a lot of Dizzy Gillespie lately. Sometimes, you just forget how good some of these musicians are when you haven't listened to them for a while, and then when you do, you just can't put them away because they sound so fresh all of a sudden. I can honestly say, only jazz music does that to me. Or so it seems.

And it finally stopped raining in Alabama. I got some sunlight vitamin D today and it felt great!

I put out an ad online looking for a free piano. No surprise that one hasn't shown up yet. I may have to break down and spend some money on one. I should do it soon, too.

New Orleans Travelogue - Part 5: One place to skip

The original title for this part of my travelogue was going to be: "Mardi gras museum and three-piece jazz band top stuffy servers and mediocre (and expensive) food at tourist trap Arnaud's," but that would have been too long and cumbersome. In a nutshell, however, that is really all you need to know.

Here are some details anyway:

We decided to eat at Arnaud's on our last night for a lot of the usual reasons. It's a famous, reputedly great restaurant. It's part of the New Orleans culinary scene. It was close to our hotel. And we'd never been there before. When I called for reservations, we found out there was the added bonus of sitting in the "less classy" room, where you could order off the same haute menu while listening to live jazz music (for only $4 per person more) and not have to dress to the nines. That was for us, so we signed on.

I won't detail all the things that went wrong at Arnaud's. Suffice to say when the guy gave me a wine list then asked if I was ready to order the wine before he'd so much as showed me a menu, I knew we were in trouble. When I ordered a wine off the "special" prix fixe menu and was told I could only order it if I ordered off that menu, regardless of price and regardless of the fact that our a la carte meal totalled about twice what the prix fixe menu did, I was flabbergasted. "This is, um, some kind of rule," the goofball said. "Just give me the wine I asked for, asshole, I'm the customer!" I wanted to say, but I didn't want to create any enmity right at the start of our last meal in New Orleans, so I ordered something else and bit my tongue.

And it was good I bit my tongue, because the meal was completely unimpressive and not something I wanted to taste too closely anyway. Baked oysters: spongy, lifeless and ordinary. Fish: bland and uninspired. Steak with crabmeat: Salted to death, cooked poorly, unoriginal, and freaking expensive. The wine was good, but that was because I picked it. Then came, "You want us to remove the wine label? We don't know how to do that. Here's a duffel bag to carry it home with."

Truly disappointing. I was glad when it came time to refuse dessert and I felt good giving them a tip that was even more mediocre than their service and food.


What was not disappointing was the live music. The trumpet, banjo, bass trio was nothing all that special, but they were professional and played quite well. They took requests and went table to table, and for lack of a better idea, I requested "C Jam Blues". The bass player was a cut-up. He immediately goes, "Yeah, C Jam Blues. Okay, what key?" But that request tipped them off that they were talking to one of their own, another jazz musician, and the bass player even invited me to sit in on his other band's rehearsal the next morning at 10:30. (I declined, as we would be well on our way home by then.) So, I enjoyed chatting with them, hearing some good music, and forgetting about the awfully average meal.

Mrs. S then informed me that the guide book we had told us not to miss the Mardi Gras exhibit, so that got us ushered through the hoity toity section of the restaurant (where I saw at least one bow tie and two white jackets, so yeah, keep them away from us riff-raff) and upstairs to the display. It was impressive enough to keep Mrs. S's camera continuously firing for the next twenty minutes.And I would say, if you do do Arnaud's, that yeah, don't miss the costume display. It's one of a kind, unlike the food.

I guess we can conclude the restaurant summary by simply saying, two out of three wasn't bad, and we had memorable experiences at all of them, so I would count that as a successful trip. I think Mrs. S agrees.

New Orleans Travelogue - Part 4: Did I mention there's music?

If you've ever wandered down Bourbon Street after dark, or even during the day, you know there is no shortage of music to be heard. You also know there is no shortage of touts trying to push you into their joint, or sometimes half-naked girls trying to pull you into theirs. Curiously, though, I actually found jazz pretty hard to come by.

When I say jazz, I mean jazz. On my first afternoon in New Orleans, Mrs. S and I went straight to the Music Factory music store. There, they have jazz broken out into several sub-categories such as: blues, traditional, vocal, modern, ... and such. They also have zydeco, New Orleans jazz (?), and a couple of categories that didn't make sense (to me). I relay this as a point of reference in that, in the city that may or may not have invented jazz, you can't really walk up to someone and say, hey, where can I go to hear some good jazz music, one - because there are so many places where one could go, and two - because they won't know what kind of jazz you are talking about (and you might not know, either).

So on our first night in the Big Easy, we cut to the chase and went to Preservation Hall. We weren't too keen on paying $10 to stand in a non air conditioned barn, but we figured we owed ourselves the experience. Plus since the band only does 45-minute sets, we figured that would be good enough.


Well, it was touristy, but I have to say, the band was very good and the experience was worth it. It was a sextet, with alto sax, drums, trombone, tuba, piano and lead trumpet. They sang a few songs, but mostly just played. You couldn't really hear the piano unless she (a Japanese woman no less) was soloing. But the sound was good and very, I'll say "traditional". Of course, they try to make money selling you nondescript CD's and by taking requests. I paid $5 to hear St. Louis Blues, mainly because I think I was the only native English speaker in the audience and it was the only song name I could think of that I thought the band could play. They seemed to appreciate it, though, and I was accommodated also with a piano solo. But it was hot and muggy, so when that set ended, we called it a night.

Here's me in front of the hall the next day.


We stumbled into some more live jazz the third night of our stay, but I'll leave that for my next post.

That’s that

So, on my way to the concert Friday night, I’m stopped at a yield sign waiting for traffic to let up enough for me to merge. The guy behind me decides it’s let up enough to go ahead and merge. Unfortunately, he completely forgot there was a car in front of him. Mine.

I suppose there are worse things than a traffic accident to take one’s mind off of things and help one lose some of one’s nervousness and settle down before performing in a concert. I calmly got out of the car and honestly, at first I couldn’t see any damage. We looked underneath and around, and all I could see were some vague scrapes where the dirt had some off my car. Me and the perp didn’t even bother to exchange info, as I simply couldn’t see anything wrong and wanted to go back to thinking about the concert.

The concert was standing room only. Literally. The audience was siting on the staircases at the top. I had about ten or twelve supporters of my own there, only one from where I work, the rest colleagues and former colleagues of Mrs. S. Our band played first and we led off with Splanky. I had the first solo and it was really the only time anyone was going to hear me. The rhythm section and I nailed the behind-the-beat opening, played our 24 bars, then I soloed. I dropped in a Pop Goes the Weasel lick halfway through, but otherwise stuck to an unadventurous but nice sounding blues-scale-based line. It received the usual lukewarm opening solo applause. (Later, somebody told me they thought I would be soloing a lot longer, which was why they didn’t clap.)

From that point on, I was home free. The pressure was off. The rest of the concert went well, even if it ended up being a little long.

Fourth ever jazz concert is done and gone. Back to practicing from The Jazz Piano Book and working on technique, plus I’m going to start a new, critical listening project which I will outline in some detail soon. Updates to Yoity Tot are also long overdue.

Ups and Downs

As we kick off Jazz Appreciation Month...

The past week has been filled with a series of ups and downs. Monday night was big band rehearsal, and our drummer was absent. This allowed us to hear the band in a completely different light, and the fact that I wasn't playing very well at all really came out. On one of the songs, I was even play a completely wrong chord, pretty much altering the whole progression of the song. Although I arrived at rehearsal full of confidence after a productive weekend of practicing, by the end of rehearsal, I was starting to feel like an accident that put my hand into some kind of cast for the next three weeks would not be completely unwelcome.

Due to the emotional strain of putting down our eighteen year old cat on Tuesday (a story that I won't go into other than to say that after spending 18 years together with any sort of living thing, it has to be the hardest decision in the world to decide to end that being's life), I didn't practice very much on Tuesday, so I showed up for band practice on Wednesday, pretty much looking forward to the drummer being back and covering up my mediocre, uninspiring sound.

Unfortunately, the drummer wasn't there yesterday either.

So I did what any other jazz pianist with my lack of skills would do: I created space. I played sparser chords more sparingly, played fewer notes, played less on the beat, and even got a section taken away from me where we changed how we play the solos. I was fine with all those decisions, and I think they were made for the betterment of the music. Plus my overall sound was more interesting because I stopped doubling the left hand with the right.

Jazz ensemble actually went pretty well from start to finish. I picked up some good pointers on soloing and was able to implement them right away. At my piano lesson, we worked on some chord voicings for one of the songs I've been having trouble with in big band. The end result was, my confidence is back, my willingness and desire to practice is back, and my sound is better.

That's what I'm going to school to learn, anyway, so it's good to know we are at least accomplishing that.

There was a quote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, that John Coltrane once said, "This (jazz) music is a serious as life itself." I'm not sure I buy that on its face, but I will say, if you had to pick something to take seriously while pursuing it, jazz would be a good selection.

Time to Practice

In a first for our jazz combo, we came up with a play list well in advance of our concert, which is going to be April 13. Since we are technically students, our recital has to take a specific format, namely, we have to cover what are considered the four "main" areas of jazz performance, namely, swing, blues, ballad, and Latin. Our play list, in alphabetical order, therefore, looks like this:

Cherokee
D Natural Blues
Desafinado
Ruby, My Dear

Ruby is a carryover from our Valentine's songfest song, which we didn't get to perform as the program designer "picked" a different song for us. Cherokee was insisted upon by our director, despite at least two of us having a certain disinclination to perform it (including me). D Natural Blues and Desafinado we came up with on the fly, ran through them once or twice, and they sounded good enough, so we decided to stick with them.

And that was that.

I'm glad the selection process is out of the way, because now I can practice those songs diligently and confidently, knowing that every minute I put into improving them will not go to waste. Still, coupled with the four (maybe five) songs that the big band will be performing on April 17, that's eight songs I've got to get down pat and really be able to play. I should be able to master them, though, because I don't have much of anything going on between now and the concerts. There can be no excuses for not accomplishing some serious polishing of my chops on these tunes.

I'm almost as excited about learning these songs as I am about how I will feel when this semester is over and I can play whatever I want once again. The home stretch is the best part of studying jazz in school.

Back against the wall

A while back, shortly after I joined the big band, I made the comment that I thought playing in the big band would balance well with playing in the jazz combo because I wouldn't have to work as hard in the big band as I do in the combo.

Well, I think I was wrong.

We are preparing for our April 17 concert, and we have a singer who does jazz workshops coming in to sing with us, Kathy Kosins. We will be doing two songs with her, plus an undetermined number of other songs, possibly including two Count Basie songs arranged by Neil Hefti. Long and short: there are critical piano parts in each of the Basie songs, and plenty of solo licks in the two vocalist songs, and it is very hard to practice the songs outside of the band because there is nothing for the piano to do when the singer is singing and the brass is blowing. I've taken to recording bits of our practice sessions to play back and play along with, but that hasn't gone so well (yet). Fortunately, I have the Atomic Basie CD, so I can play along with the two Hefti tunes. I also bought two of Ms. Kosins CD's (which haven't arrived at my house yet), one of which has one of the songs were doing with her on it, so hopefully, I'll be able to learn and swing those four tunes, plus our boogaloo tune which everyone is intent on doing (except me).

As if that weren't enough, our combo director wants us to work on Cherokee, which is a very difficult tune (for me) to play, and one I've given up on several times but now will not be permitted to give up on. Our drummer threw Keith Jarrett's The Magician in You into the mix, and I, unthinkingly, threw Falling Grace in (which I can play serviceably enough). And, last week when we practiced without our director, we came to the conclusion that I would be responsible for leading our group into and out of the endings of all our songs, a responsibility that I will not shirk, because I do believe the piano is "the key" to that part of the song, but it is something I'm not very experienced with and will have to work hard on.

So, even if I only do, say, fifteen minutes a day per tune, that's almost two hours, and that isn't that much practice when learning tunes. That's also more time than I have available to practice. Suffice to say, my back is now against the wall, and the only thing that can save me is focusing on these tunes in my private lessons and practicing my butt off every weekend and during spring break.

I asked for it, I got it.

Nothing like a curveball

Last night was the Valentine's Songfest Concert. Four bands playing six songs, and it really was quite a big success. The concert led off with the Wednesday night combo which I play in, then the "second" big band, which I also play in, then the Thursday night combo, which is just a trio, then the "big" big band.

At rehearsal in the late afternoon with the second big band, I was still utterly unable to play my six bar solo without flubbing it, and I started to become genuinely worried I was going to make an ass of myself when it came time to play. When I played it by myself or just for the director, I didn't have a problem, but when I played it leading into the band, I had to make it up. It was awful. But eventually, we ran out of time and I simply hoped to get lucky when it came time for the performance. I'm sure my band mates were hoping the same.

The curveball came at our next rehearsal for the combo. Over the last five weeks, we've play about six different songs, but since two weeks ago, we'd only played two: My Romance, and Ruby, My Dear. Last week, we decided we would play Ruby at the concert, and that was what we worked on all during practice, and that was the only song I practiced during the week. So, sure enough, our director comes in and says, "You guys know you're playing My Romance, right?" The guitar and tuba player both go, yeah, we know, whereupon I said, "You gotta be shittin' me." Then, for a brief second, I assumed the guys were playing a joke on me, and I asked them if they were, but they assured me, no. No joke. The program has My Romance, and we're the first act. Everybody said, don't worry you sound fine, and hey, it's jazz! And while I'm fully aware I can play some simulacrum of the song, I'm also aware I can't play it half as well as I can play Ruby. Oh well. We dive in. We sounded great during practice, we worked out some chording ideas, and my confidence returned.

So, showtime. My Romance did sound pretty good. We got through our solos, but somehow we got confused with the section on tradeoffs, and like the last time we flubbed a song publicly (which was a slightly different group), no one was quite sure what happened. But, we kept going, avoided the train wreck (where the song goes off the track and comes to a complete stop), signaled for the head, and finished the song safe. I don't think the audience even recognized we had goofed.

Then came My Funny Valentine with the big band. And lo and behold, while I did stumble slightly, I did not flub the solo by any means, and as a matter of fact, got it mostly spot on. I was overjoyed. The rest of that song and the original that we did were fine, including a solo in the second piece that was not as interesting as when I played it in practice but still sounded somewhat accomplished.

In short, then: I continue to progress. Slowly, but progressing nonetheless. And I have to say, I do have a lot of fun during the concert. The feeling of exhilaration after the concert is great, too, not to mention the feeling of being free from having to master some songs, patterns, solos, etc. Just liberation and freedom to plunk around the keyboard as I will.

There's nothing like a curveball to make the concert experience all the more rewarding!

Jitters

For four years, I played organ at good ol' St. Mel's in Cleveland OH, mainly as accompanist to the adult and children's choir. Our “season” ran basically with the school year: from Labor Day through Memorial Day. Every week I played a limited liturgical repertoire spiced with simple Bach and Handel chorales and whatnot, always on the same instrument, always with the same choir, largely for the same people.

And every week I got nervous as hell.

I'm amazed to think back to that now and realize, I can honestly never remember a single occasion when I did not get nervous. One would have thought that after a while, it becomes second nature, you really don't think about all the people who are hearing you play, and you don't get nervous, but I always did.

When we played the Flying Monkey last semester, I was nervous, but not in a terrible sort of way. I was mainly just worried about how the performance would go, since the band hadn't played together but one of the previous four weeks. For some reason, though, with tomorrow night's concert looming, I am pretty nervous. This is despite the fact that both of the bands I'm playing in have practiced together every week for the last five, and that I have also practiced hard and finally mastered all my sections. I should be less nervous, but I'm actually more so.

I think a lot of it has to do with the venue, which this time is an actual hall, where everybody will be able to see and hear me clearly. All I can do now is put it out of my mind, concentrate on not letting the cold or flu bug I'm fighting win out, and then play like I know I can play.

Not a very helpful entry, I know, but hopefully insightful to some of you performing jazz musicians out there. Break a leg!

Entry #100: Let me introduce you to the Steinway

At UAH, where I'm studying music, there are three pianos. The first is an electronic Yamaha P-140, which is utilitarian but still, being newly purchased to replace a similar keyboard where some of the key keys didn't come back up after being struck, is very, very good. That is the piano that I use when the "varsity" big band is rehearsing while we (the "junior varsity" big band) are, which is every Monday and Wednesday. Then there is a Yamaha grand, which generally sits in the practice room but is often moved on stage for the varsity big band's rehearsal. I get to use that one when our combo practices (Wednesday after big band). The third piano is a Steinway grand, which is only used for recitals and concerts. It is stored in a room behind the main stage. I'd only ever seen it once.

Until last night.

A cold snap here in north Alabama forced the music department to move the Steinway out of storage, due to it being in the northwest corner of the building, in an unheated storage area of an unheated recital hall. (And we all know that extreme temperatures, cold or hot, wreak havoc on pianos.) So, the varsity big band pianist got to play the Steinway during their practice, while I finally got to use the Yamaha for our junior varsity practice. But after that, our jazz combo moved into the recital hall and I got to fiddle on the Steinway.

Which was nice.

It felt about the same, but the response seemed a little sharper than the Yamaha. I didn't like the sustain pedal, because it sat up pretty high and was a little stiff to press down on. Plus, I couldn't really tell what kind of response I was getting. The strings were impressive to look at, and the sound was decidedly fuller, which made me regret that I can't play the piano very well. I would have liked to have been able to do something on it other than my meager hack moves. It was sort of like driving a Ferrari three blocks to the grocery store: Yeah, it was fun, but it could have been so much more. Still, I can console myself with that thought that not every pianist ever even gets to play a Steinway, but I not only got to rehearse on one, I will get to perform on it next week as well.

So, February 11 is the big day. In the combo (which will probably lead off the concert), we'll be doing "Ruby, My Dear", and in the big band (which should play third after the other combo), we'll be doing "My Funny Valentine" and a commissioned original, "I Hung the Moon Up There Just For You". I'm going to have to really practice hard this weekend to get everything up to speed, but I'm pretty close already, so, it shouldn't be a problem.

For those of you in the neighborhood, I hope to see you there.

Big band begins

This week I had my first practice with a big band. Due to lack of a second piano player, I was asked to join the second big band group, and even though it means I'll have to get up at 4:30 twice a week so I can leave work early to make the 4:00 start time, I was anxious for the experience and agreed to join.

It appears that the band will have 14 members, but we are hoping to add a tenor sax, so it might end up being more. The director gave me three pieces of music right after I sat down at the piano. One was an original song and arrangement, one was an arrangement of "My Funny Valentine", and the other was some kind of boogaloo piece. After a brief introduction of myself and two other new members, we jumped right into the two numbers, since we are preparing both of them for a Valentine's concert on February 11.

I have to say, I'm a bit amazed at how little I really have to do. Comping chords - if they aren't too complicated - is one of the few things (I think) I do reasonably well, and so I did that, straight up in both hands through the first song (the name of which eludes me). I started to embellish a little bit, but it occurred to me that if there was something I was expected to play, it would be shown on the piano part given me, and since there wasn't anything there, I stopped doing that. (I talked to the director afterwards, and he said, "Yep. Just play what's there." Okey-doke. Vanilla it is!) There was a lot of sitting through repeated sections of songs as the trombones "try it", then the saxes, then the trumpets, then all together, then add the rhythm section, but really, I kind of like that pace. It's especially nice to play in that environment knowing that I will also be playing in the same combo this semester that I played in last semester, a class where the pace will be a lot more brisk and the demands on my skills and speed will be a lot higher - which is the essence of playing in a smaller group. But enough about the combo...

After about fifty minutes on that one song, we worked on "My Funny Valentine" which starts with a slow (really slow, quarter note = 56) six-bar piano solo. Honestly, I couldn't play it that slow. It was impossible. I kept wanting to swing it and take off. I'm going to have to get my drum machine out, turn it down (if it goes that low), and pound those slow bars into my brain. I'll need to get my piano instructor to suggest some interesting chords to comp with so I'm not just playing straight up during my debut big band solo. We only really had about fifteen or twenty minutes to work on that, so practice seemed like it was over before it even began. I felt relieved, and happy, though.

So, now I'm playing in two groups, one at a leisurely, comfortable pace, the other at whatever pace we are going that day. It promises to give me a lot of good, solid musical experience, across a broad spectrum in a very short time. And with my reduced alcohol intake and increase in practice time of late, I expect to realize the dividends very soon. At least, a successful concert four weeks from now. (Speaking of which, if you are in the area, have a look at the concert schedule, and swing by to hear me sometime.)

Let there be music

A while back, my computer went on the fritz, and after two days of tinkering, I finally got it back up and running. When I did, however, my speakers were making an awful racket. Thinking something with my sound card got messed up, I just unplugged the speakers and went without sound for about three months. Then I got to thinking that because I could still hear some sound instead of nothing, along with the crackling noise coming from the speakers, maybe the sound card was fine and the speakers needed replacement.

Long story short, this turned out to be the case. I replaced the USB powered speakers with independently controlled speakers with their own power supply, so now, when I work on my computer (or blog, or play poker online, or workout near the computer, or whatever), I can listen to jazz. Just in the last week, I'd say I've listened to three hours of music a day, and now that I'm off for the next two weeks, I expect that to go up even more. Having been able to devote so much time to listening, I'm going to be able to write a lot of the reviews (on Amazon.com) of music I purchased over the last two months. Being able to listen to music actually increased my productivity!

So, my advice is keep those speakers and sound card working, and keep the music spinning. It's worth it.

Debut as jazz musician complete

Debut as jazz musician complete - recording contract still on hold, pending actual reception of an offer...

Well, last night The Flying Monkey played host to three bands from UAH, one of them the Wednesday night ensemble that I play in. At our designated start time of 7:00, only two of our band members were there, but nobody else was ready to play, so when we had everyone but our singer present (some time long about 7:20), we went onstage and began. We opened with Have You Met Miss Jones, which went servably well, with no major goofs and no outstanding lines or anything. My Funny Valentine was next, even though it wasn't on our playlist, and it too was adequate without being professional. Our third song was Wave, which was very sharp, fun, driving, and right on. That was the definite highlight of our set. Then our singer showed up, so we went to Lady Sings the Blues, which again, was clean and crisp without being impressive. We closed our set with Michelle, and unfortunately, that was our mistake. The bass and guitar got out of sync, and the sound set-up wasn't good enough for me to be able to pick up what was being played and choose an instrument to play along with. I played a few notes in spots just to "fill", but finally had to sit out as the wanderings got more and more convoluted and distorted. We managed to get back to the head and plow through the song one more time, before we more or less just stopped, and what the applause lacked in enthusiasm was made up by politeness.

It went about as expected.

I guess that looking at the positive, there's a lot to be said. First, it was my first concert in jazz, so I've got that under my belt. Second, everybody made positive remarks. Nobody said anything like, "You guys sounded great except for that last song" or "What happened?" Everybody just said, "You sounded good" or "Good job", and I like that positivity. Third, I learned that if any band is going to sound good, a minimal amount of organization is required, but there has to be some, and that, in the future, if the organization is lacking, someone (maybe me) can just take charge and bring in the necessary level of planning and focus, in order to at least have a complete set of songs, in a specific order, that everyone can play.

If my expectations aren't met and I need to take charge, I'm okay with that. At any rate, I'll definitely be a better musician for last night's experience. It will still be quite a while before I'll be recording anything, though.

How to prepare to give a jazz concert

Here's a list of things a jazz ensemble should do to prepare for a concert:

1) Make sure you have a designated practice space that will not be commandeered by other musicians or groups, forcing you to cut short or cancel your own practice sessions.
2) Decide well in advance where the concert will be held - don't wait until less than one week before to finalize the venue.
3) Decide the date of the concert also well in advance - don't wait until the week before to decide, "Well, Tuesday, not Thursday." (This, together with #2 is also important in being able to tell folks who might attend your concert when and where it will be held - two of the critical factors in getting people to show up for... like... ANYTHING!)
4) Practice together every week for four weeks leading up to the concert. That is to say, one group session a month before is probably not enough preparation.
5) Decide on the songs you will play at least a month in advance so everyone can work out everything to their satisfaction. Whatever you do, do not wait until less than a week before the concert to finalize the repertoire.
6) Make sure everyone knows they are responsible for bringing their own equipment or otherwise making arrangements for having equipment at the gig - again, don't wait until a week before to tell everyone and expect them to be able to comply.

I'm sure there are a number of other things a jazz ensemble needs to do to get properly prepared for a concert. I'm sure our jazz ensemble didn't do any of those things, either. We sure didn't do the six listed above...

Our concert is Tuesday, Nov. 18. Hey, baby, it's jazz. We're going to make it happen, and it will be all right.