Alright, alright. A few friends have been asking for a blog update- *cough cough* Daniel Western- and I'm sorry it's taken so long. I suppose I'll stop promising to keep this more updated, because it's obviously not happening. Things are warp speed out here! So, updates will happen when they happen, and I'll try and jam pack them full of info as much as I can for you guys.
I'll try and run through the major musical events that have happened in the past two weeks. First of all, Rick Baptist was our guest artist on July 2nd. Rick is probably one of, if not THE most recorded studio trumpet player ever. He's played on a bunch of John Williams movie scores, all the Disney Pixar movies, Family Guy, the Dancing with the Stars band, the Academy Awards orchestra, etc etc etc....Chances are if you've gone to the movies at all this summer, you've heard him playing. Rick was a super fun guy, and had some of the greatest gig stories I've ever heard. Hopefully he's going to help get us into a studio to see a movie scoring session, which would be really sweet. Here's a picture of me and Rick:
By the way, Rick filled us in about how much money he makes as a studio musician, and let me tell you, it's REDONKULOUS. I won't go into all the details, but he got a check in the mail about a week ago for the royalties he's received for movies and television shows that have been replayed or resold as DVDs or whatever. Guess how much that was? $185,000. For things he's ALREADY been paid for. Now imagine what he actually gets paid the first time, and you do the math.
Last week we had a clinic and guest performance with drummer Gregg Field. Gregg is another one of these ridiculously talented, successful, and nice musicians we've met out here in LA. He's played/worked with almost everyone, from Basie's band to Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, P. Diddy, etc. He also is one of the top producers for the Concord record label, which he informed us has grown to become the largest independent record label in the world.
Gregg gave us SO much great information on how to approach time and how to really make a band swing. Not only was everything he said great for personal practice (for all instruments, not just drums), but I'm sure it will come in handy for teaching jazz ensembles in the future as well. His big concept involved, "spanking the beat from the bottom," which is very difficult to explain over the internet, but it basically all comes down to the crispness of timing of his high-hat on the drum set. Playing with Gregg was an absolute joy- everything felt perfect and easy, and the band settled right in and sounded fantastic. We played a concert mostly out of the Basie songbook, and it was pure fun. I have to admit that my musical experience so far hasn't necessarily let me to play a lot of the classic big band repertoire, so I'm thrilled to be covering a lot of it with such a great band out here.
Did I mention that Gregg is married to Monica Mancini? As in Henry Mancini's daughter? Yeah, during one of his clinics, Gregg started off a story by saying, "My father in law, Henry Mancini..." and we all had to blink twice before that statement really registered. What?!
Onward and upward...4 members of the sax section, including myself, traveled up to North Hollywood this weekend to have a lesson with Bob Sheppard. Bob is a terrific saxophonist with many studio and record credits to his name, and he's also on faculty at USC. Probably the coolest thing to me is that he's played with Steely Dan, which would be my absolute dream gig. Anyways, Bob was welcoming and gracious enough to have us all over at his house for the lesson. He has a home studio set up with a ton of cool stuff in it, including a larger collection of mouthpieces than I will probably ever own, and enough old reeds to replace popsicle sticks in a kindergarten craft closet.
Bob had tons of great things to say, but the main point I took away from the lesson was that practicing music is supposed to be fun. I know that sounds obvious and simple enough, but if we musicians are truly honest with ourselves, a lot of us will probably admit that we don't have fun practicing nearly often enough. We get too caught up in academic assignments, and strict practice routines, and logging hours and taking notes, and competing with our classmates and peers. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but too often we can't see the forest for the trees; we get so involved in checking off items on our practice list that we forget to actually make music. Bob reminded us that none of the players we admire mastered their art by working though tons of books- they learned by playing with other musicians. You can't always wait around until you feel "ready" to perform or play with others. Sometimes you've just got to jump right in and react, and as Bob said, "You've got to try, and you've got to fail." That's how you really learn and improve.
I think I've decided I need a little more failure in my musical development. I need to stop worrying so much about "sounding good" for others and just aim to challenge myself to the point where I really improve. I need to take more risks in my practice and playing. And I have a hunch that these changes will make my practice more fun.
Speaking of fun, I had a blast this past weekend while my mom and brother visited. They came into LA on Friday, and they caught all of our sets in the park on Friday and Saturday. I was ecstatic to say the least. Performing for guests is always fun, but when those guests are family, it's really something special. It was really wonderful to finally have family from Alabama meet and interact with my band "family" here out in California.
Here's a video of part of our train station set from last Saturday. My mom makes a star guest appearance around 8:08! She'll be a youtube celebrity in no time.
On my off days this past weekend, I spent time with my family exploring the Southern California coast and LA. We spent bajoodles of time in the car and stuck in traffic, and I've concluded that driving is just riskier out here. Hardly anyone uses turn signals, merging onto the highway is a death defying stunt, and pretty much 100% of people think they have the right of way 100% of the time. People refer to freeways as "The 57" or "The 405", rather than just "Highway 405". As my good friend and California native put it, "We're just really personal with our traffic around here." I haven't really developed that bond yet, and I'll take crappy Tuscaloosa drivers over SoCal drivers any day.
I think I officially have 1 month of shows with the band left after today. It's insane how fast time has flown out here, and I'm sure I'll blink again and it will be over. I'm doing my best to make everything and every day count. Fortunately, I feel like once this program ends, it's only going to be the beginning of great things to come. I've had a lot of doors opened this summer, and I've made a lot of friends that I plan on holding onto long past August 14th.
If you've stuck it out through this wickedly long post, you're a trooper! Gold stars for you! There will be a quiz later ; ) Peace, happiness, and love to all.
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