Onward and Upward

I can't believe it's over.  After 11 weeks working for Disney with 20 other amazing friends and musicians, we had to say goodbye.

I wish I could communicate completely exactly how I felt on our last days together.  It was a strange mix of joy and sadness, of wanting to stay in the moment and knowing in the back of my mind that we would soon have to move on.  While I will miss all of my fellow college band members dearly, I know the time was right for us to part ways.  We have much to accomplish outside of this summer.  There is a whole world waiting out there for us.  Onward and upward, as Ron would say.

I want to take a little time to mention all of my friends from this summer individually.  I've always felt like I express myself more accurately in writing than in speech, so hopefully this will let all of my bandmates know how much they really mean to me.  And hopefully for my other readers, it will give you a large enough slice of there personalities to know what wonderful people they all are.

Corinne- I seriously couldn't have asked for a better in-room roommate this summer.  You are such a beautiful person inside and out, and everything you do is filled with such authentic joy and passion.  Thank you for all the love you brought to the band.  I know you'll be a friend I'll have for life.  Best of luck with taking Provo by storm with all your great plans!

Stephanie- You are truly one of the most unique people I have ever met.  It was thoroughly entertaining to have you as a roommate all summer.  I hope you always stay true to who you are, and keep up your rollerblading and scrabble skills!  You're incredibly talented, creative, brilliant, and witty, and I hope you find a career path where you can use all your skills to their fullest extent.

Lexie- I think all of us in the band will agree that you have an incredible amount of energy!  I always admired your outgoing personality and your kindness to people of all backgrounds.  I'm very proud of your job with the Navy, and I hope they treat you well!  Maybe you can teach those soldiers some dance moves ; )

Brett- There's no doubt you're an incredible musician.  However, I learned this summer that you're also a great friend.  It was great to see you come out of your shell this summer, loosen up, and have fun!  I hope you can take some of the joy from this summer and apply it to all of your musical endeavors.  I wish you the best of luck, though you don't need it- I know you'll do great things.

Dan- I really admired your playing from day one in the band.  It was a blast sitting and dancing next to you all summer, and you kept me laughing even through all the long rehearsals.  You've really got it together, and I wish you nothing but success with your CD and all your projects that follow.  Just remember us little guys when you make it big someday! :)

Ben Katz- NEW YORK!  I'm really glad we got to know each other this summer, and I'm happy to say I now have a good friend in NYC.  I hope the New School treats you well, and I hope I'll be able to get up there and visit you sometime soon.  I'm sure you'll take over the city with your killer sax playing AND your super fly Express wardrobe!

Andrew- You made me laugh all summer long with your quotable quotes and hilarious party shirts.  Besides being a super fun guy to hang out with, you're also an incredibly talented trumpet player with chops of steel!  I'm happy for your move to North Texas, and I know you'll do great things there.  Don't let anything get in the way of your positive attitude and incredible work ethic- remember, after this summer, you can do anything!

Mike- I'm sorry we never found Italian ices, but I do hope you still enjoyed your time in California!  After watching our final train station video, I'm even more impressed by your incredible trumpet range.  I know after this summer though that you are capable of much more than just screaming high notes, and I hope you find a career path that allows you to use all of your talents.  Best of luck!

Drew- You really are the Golden Boy.  I enjoyed hanging out with you all summer and playing lots of frisbee, volleyball, and soccer (despite Chris's soccer accident).  Thanks for being my partner in planning and organizing so many activities.  We're both sort of in the same boat as we enter our senior years and start the whole grad school audition process, so I hope it's as clear cut and stress free for you as possible.  I really look forward to seeing you at JEN- expect a big hug!

Kai- Everything you do breathes individuality, whether it's your trumpet soloing, your intellectual conversations, or your thrift store sweater choices.  I truly enjoyed listening to you play every day of the summer.  You definitely have your own voice, so stick to it because you've really got something special.  Best of luck "cultivating your hedge" and deciding what direction to take in life- I know you'll be successful no matter what you choose!

Ben Ford- I think you definitely win the award for wittiest one liners in the band.  I was always laughing when I was around you.  Besides being a naturally hilarious comic, you're the most powerful lead trombone player I've ever heard.  You're also a wonderful friend, and I admire your incredible patience with and encouragement to everyone in the band.  You've got great things ahead of you, so stay positive and stay focused!  I'll see you playing in one of the premiere military bands someday :)

Kyle- You truly are the real deal, sir.  I was so blown away by your soloing from day one, and you never ceased to impress me.  You're still really young, and I know you'll practice your butt off to get where you want to be.  Make sure you take the time to make connections with people and have fun too!  It was great to see you come out of your shell some this summer, and I only hope that process continues.

Sean- CHAMP!  You are a killer trombone player, an amazing friend, and a true southern gentleman.  I'm so glad we got to share an American summer of barbeques, beach trips, arnold palmers, and hilarious sound effects provided by you.  You really have a heart for helping others, and I know that will take you far.  Please visit Alabama like you said you would!

Jon- I think you had one of the most amazing transformations in the band this summer, both physically and mentally.  I was so happy to see you become a confident, positive, encouraging force in the band.  I love your sincerity and your terrific hugs :)  Hopefully this summer has taught you that you can do anything you want- I really look forward to seeing where you'll go next.

Danny- My other Puerto Rican half!  Throughout the summer you were consistently polite, upbeat, and a pleasure to work and hang out with.  You're also an incredible dancer, as I found out with our three little pigs choreography!  I know you have way more up your sleeve than just playing tuba, and I look forward to following your musical adventures.

Eric- It's all gravy, dawg.  I can't remember a single day all summer when you didn't seem happy to be playing percussion toys.  You did it so well that I almost forgot what a great piano player you were too!  You have an incredibly unique sense of humor, and I was always laughing when I was around you.  Best of luck with your comedy and piano enterprises.  I can dig it!

Adam- I think you win the award for the most chill person in the band.  From the beginning, you were always an easy and fun person to talk to and hang out with.  As much as we joked on you for it, the band really was a great group of guys- and you were absolutely one of them!  Keep playing that bass, and I really look forward to seeing you (and everyone else!) at JEN in a few months!

Tommy- Everything you say and do is really genuine and heartfelt, and that's something I appreciate.  It was really fun to see you accomplish your lifelong dream of working at Disney.  You certainly brought a high level of enthusiasm to work with you every day.  Your dedication to your wife and your family is something we all respect and admire.  I hope you continue to pursue all of your dreams!

Mitch- I know being the youngest member of the band may have been a challenge, but you certainly made yourself a vital part of everything we did.  We couldn't have made it through the summer without your enthusiasm, positive energy, and steady "bus driving" on all our jazz sets.  You have such a bright future ahead of you, and I know you're going to accomplish a lot before you even finish your undergrad.  Stay motivated, stay focused, and please stay in touch!

Chris- As our T.A., it's only fair that I saved your shout out for last.  Thank you so much for everything this summer- you did a fantastic job and I can't imagine how we would have all made it without you.  I had a blast hanging out with you both on and off the job, and I learned a lot about all of your strange and varied talents: trombone playing, beatboxing, dancing, whistling, nerf gun shooting, etc.  I hope you figure out exactly what you want to do in life and go for it!  I'm absolutely confident you can do anything you want.

I'll miss you all dearly, and I can't wait to see you around "on the other side."  I'm already thrilled about going to JEN in January and reuniting with several of you.

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone else who was involved in making this summer incredible.  I can't say enough wonderful things about Ron, Patti, Lori, Patty, Ben, Ernie, and the whole Disneyland team.  You guys were more than just our bosses, employers, and managers- you were family to us, and from my first day on the job I always felt welcome.  Thank you to the countless Disney employees- costuming, kitchen staff, parade dancers, security, show support, other entertainment acts, sound crew, etc etc etc- who made us feel loved and at home.  Also, thank you to my wonderful boyfriend Joel who cheered me on all summer even though it meant we'd be apart for months.  And thanks to all my family and friends back home who have encouraged me the whole way through.

So what's next?  Well, hopefully a multitude of great things.  I plan to keep this blog going as a journal about all my musical and non-musical journeys.  There are a lot of plans I have in the works, and I'm very excited to hit the ground running for my last year at the University of Alabama.  Hopefully you'll follow me and see what happens!  Like I said before, it's only onward and upward from here.

Bless you all, and go in peace.  Love to everyone.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Holy smokes!  The past couple weeks have been so chock full of adventures that it's hard to even know where to begin.  Hold on to your seats!

To catch you guys up from a while ago, I need to tell you all about my encounters with some studio magic.  A couple weekends ago, the band was invited to an ASCAP young composers scoring session at FOX studios.  The event was held at FOX's huge scoring stage where they record for films.  Several composers had won a spot in this program, and at the culmination of their classes, they got to conduct and record a film cue they had written.  The coolest part about the whole experience is that they had a full orchestra of some of Los Angeles's best studio musicians sitting in front of them.  We got to sit in the room and be flies on the wall for the session, which was pretty mind blowing.  I was most impressed with the musicality that all the players brought to the compositions on the first read through.  It's one thing to sight read everything technically perfect; it's a whole other level of professionalism to actually make music on your first time through a piece.

The studio guys were welcoming enough to let us hang out next to their sections and even glance at their parts over their shoulders.  Alex Iles, Jim Thatcher, and John Lewis deserve big shout outs for letting us hang with the brass section during the session!

I tried to take a lot of pictures while at FOX, so hopefully you can get a sense of how impressive this room was.  Check it out:

That's the scoring screen behind the orchestra.  Watching how the music lined up with the film was pretty cool!

This is a cimbasso, which is a trombone/tuba hybrid instrument.  Apparently it is the loudest instrument ever.  Think of the soundtrack to Inception, and it will all make sense.

The band got in on a little studio magic of our own when we went to our recording session for out CD.  Every summer the AACB records a selection of some of our jazz material and street tunes.  The CD isn't produced for retail- it's simply a way for all of us in the band to take home a recorded memory of how our band sounded this summer.  Our recording session was at Warner Brothers studios on their gigantic scoring stage.  It was probably the nicest studio I've ever visited (sorry, FOX!).  We were picked up from the dorms at 7:00 AM that Tuesday, then we traveled to WB, recorded for 4 hours, traveled back to Disney, and played 3 sets that evening.  It was an exhausting day, to put it lightly, but everything went about as smoothly as possible.  We were able to record about 5 or 6 jazz tunes and most of our street set material.  If anyone wants to check out the recording after I get it, I'll be happy to share it with you!

Our recording room from the sax section's point of view.  Check out all the rich mahogany!

The board to end all boards.  Gear nerds, feels free to geek out.

We've had an "embarrassment of riches" in our guest artist department over the past two weeks.  Saxophonist and woodwind doubler Sal Lozano was with us for a concert of July 30th.  Sal has a terrifically dry sense of humor and is a wonderfully generous musician.  He's also played with everything and everyone in town from Disney to Gordon Goodwin's band to Dancing With the Stars.  Sal was kind enough to meet with the saxophone section previously in the summer for a group masterclass, so it was great to see him again.  As a special bonus, he brought the whole saxophone section goody bags of reeds from Vandoren!  You can never have too many of those around.

Singer Sunny Wilkinson performed with us this past Thursday.  Sunny has had a long career as both a musician and music educator.  She's a really brilliant and talented jazz vocalist who certainly has her own musical voice.  Now, to be honest, I'm always a bit wary of charts that singers bring in for the band to read.  However, all of Sunny's charts were excellently written and really fun to play.  I was impressed with how knowledgeable she was in all aspects of jazz- the history, the theory, and the music business.  The concert was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot about musical phrasing just by listening to Sunny sing melodies.

Following that, trombonist Jiggs Whigham performed with us in a concert on Saturday.  Jiggs has an unbelievably impressive resume, and he's played with just about everyone from Dexter Gordon to Mel Lewis to Cannonball Adderley.  He's also recently been appointed artistic director of the German Youth Jazz Orchestra BuJazzO.  BuJazzO is made up of German students from the ages of about 17-25, and it's a very prestigious jazz ensemble that finds the best students from all over Germany.  Since they're currently on a U.S. tour, they actually got a chance to come hang out with us a Disneyland for a morning.  We played for each other, and then did a couple charts together.  Our band was incredibly impressed by their playing, and it was a really fun hang when we mixed up the ensembles and played together.  It was a great international moment, and I realized that the students in BuJazzO are much more similar to all of us than they are different.  It's pretty amazing that even though they're from the other side of the world, we can all share our love of jazz music and perform it well.  Even though jazz was made in America, it's become an international music, and to me that's really encouraging.

Our concert with Jiggs went really well.  He still sounds incredible, and it was a blast to share the stage with him.  Jiggs was our last guest artist concert scheduled for this summer, and I think it was a pretty good choice to close that portion of the summer with him.  

We officially have one week left performing in the park before we leave- to be specific, 4 days.  I'm pretty blown away that the summer has zipped by so quickly.  Everyone in the band is starting to get really sappy, and I'm sure we'll all be a mess after our last set next Friday.  Right now I'm just trying to spend as much time as possible with the 20 other people in the band I've come to know as family this summer.  I'm having a very strange conflict of feelings as the summer heads towards a close.  On one hand, I'm incredibly sad to say goodbye to everyone and to leave California.  On the other hand, it's starting to feel like it's the right time to wrap things up.  Even great things must come to an end at some point- it's just a fact of life.  I know I'm incredibly excited to stay in touch with everyone after the summer and see what incredible paths everyone will take.  The College Band program wouldn't be nearly as meaningful if it didn't have some sort of long-reaching impact past August 14th.  I know my friends will go on to do great things, and I can't wait to brag about all of them as they go on to conquer the world.

I'll leave you all with a story about one of my most meaningful experiences of the summer.  Ironically it taught me much more about people than music, but I think it's one of the most important things that's happened to me in the past two months.  One of our band super fans is a guy named J.J.  We see him just about every week and sometimes two or three times a week at our shows.  Now, J.J. has Down syndrome and possibly some other conditions I'm not completely aware of.  Before you feel sorry for him though, you should know that he probably enjoys what we do more than any other audience member.  He stands up and cheers for the entire show, and he even knows some of our dance moves that he'll do along with us.  It's incredible to watch his sister's face light up (she's the one who brings him to the park all the time) as she watches him watch us.

One day last week after our train station set (the last set of the day), after we had already walked backstage, Patti our stage manager rushed us back onstage to take a picture with J.J.  This was definitely a special situation because we don't usually go out of our way to take group pictures with guests.  J.J. was thrilled to see the band and ran up to us.  We all gathered around him and the whole time pictures were being taken, he was smiling and laughing and yelling in happiness.  I was so overwhelmed by his joy that I literally started tearing up and almost outright crying.  (For those of you who know me well, you have to understand that this is a pretty big deal, as I don't get choked up too often.)  

What that simple picture with J.J. taught me is that we have the power to change lives in this band.  Every day, with every encounter we have with guests, we have the chance to make their day a little better.  The band obviously means a lot to J.J., but what he may not know is that he means a lot to us.  It's guests like that who make this job worth every long rehearsal day, every cramped van ride to the park, every sweaty and hot set, and every sore muscle.  If you've ever been blessed enough to make a career out of being a musician, I hope you never take your job lightly.  Though it sounds cheesy, I think it's really true- we have the power to change the world, one life at a time.  Never take that for granted.

I'm sure there is going to be a sappy and emotional post about my last days here in the near future, so be on the lookout for that!  Have a great week, and I'll be back with you soon :)