Quality Time With My Car (And Friends Too)

So far, 2012 has provided some pretty exciting and insanely busy times.  It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that I've spent about half of the new year driving from gig to gig and place to place.  While this has mostly been fun (I'll get to the non-fun part in a minute), I'm pretty psyched to spend the next week or two in the same town.  My car is thrilled too, considering it's caked in about 1500 miles worth of road filth.

In the first week of January, Joel and I traveled to the great American city of Louisville, Kentucky, for the JEN conference.  I've actually been to all of the previous ones, but this was Joel's first conference, so it was fun to go with him.  For all of my non-jazz readers out there, JEN stands for the Jazz Education Network, and the conference is probably the largest annual gathering of jazz musicians, jazz educators, and jazz nerds.  (Consequently, about 85% of the conference attendees wore glasses and were balding, the choice look of jazz professors everywhere.)  I really enjoyed being saturated in music for the 4 days of the conference.  Some of my favorite groups and artists I saw were Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey, the Miami Saxophone Quartet, Donny McCaslin, the Danny Gottlieb Collective, and the Alan Baylock Orchestra.

One really fun part of the conference for me was a reunion with some of my friends from the Disney band- Drew, Chris, Dan, Ben Ford, Brett, Adam, and Tyler.  It was great to hear Drew and Ben play again with University of Illinois's Concert Jazz Band, and to check out original compositions by Tyler and Brett in the student composition showcase.  I also talked to tons of other musicians and educators who I've encountered over the past several years.  One advantage to the jazz community being small is that it feels like a family- everybody ends up knowing everybody.  And the vast majority of professional musicians are always willing to chat with students and colleagues, no matter how successful or famous they become.  Like John Clayton said last summer, "The musical community is different because when we see each other, we don't shake hands- we hug!"

I'm definitely planning on attending the conference next year.  It's in Atlanta, so it will be super convenient to travel from Alabama over the holidays.  For all my friends in the Southeast, don't miss this!  Students, conference registration is super inexpensive for you, so you have no excuse!

Shortly after classes started, I had the pleasure of traveling to Huntsville to work with students at Grissom High School for their mini jazz camp.  Grissom's A Jazz Band is preparing to record an entry to the Essentially Ellington competition, so the rest of the faculty and I were there to whip the band into shape over a quick two days!  It was really fun to work with such talented, respectful students who are excited about jazz.  My saxophone section was a bit shy, but they opened up and really improved between the beginning and end of camp.  I also really enjoyed meeting and playing with the other faculty members.  They were all terrific players and fun people, which just proves my point that there are talented musicians EVERYWHERE (even in my hometown!).

Here's a video of the faculty performing for the students at camp:

Finally, my last travel adventure of January was both horrendous and rewarding.  Last weekend I drove to Champaign, IL for my first graduate audition.  I left from Huntsville expecting about an 8 hour drive.  What I got instead was one of the worst travel experiences of my life.  About two hours away from Champaign, it started raining.  Apparently it was the perfect temperature for chaos, because the rain began freezing.  Soon the roads were covered in ice, and things were getting really scary.  Part of the interstate was closed and I was routed on a detour.  I happened to stop and get gas and food, which was probably a good decision.  Once I got back on the road, I encountered completely stopped traffic on the interstate.  What I thought might be a short delay turned into me sitting in the exact same spot on the road for 5 HOURS.  Apparently the ice had caused so many accidents in such a short time that the interstate was basically a cluttered skating rink.  I just so happened to be stuck in traffic next to a guardrail where I could not travel forward or backward.  Saying that it was miserable is an understatement.  I had planned to run through my audition material that evening, but instead I was listening to to traffic reports on the radio and biting my nails.  I started to worry that I wouldn't even make it to my audition by the next morning.

FINALLY, we started moving again.  Instead of spending any more time on the road, I immediately got of the highway and found the closest hotel.  I basically napped for about 3 hours, woke up and got dressed in a suit, and then drove to Champaign at 7 in the morning.  Fortunately, I made it, and my auditions went well, which made the nightmare of a drive worth it.  Surely the rest of my auditions won't be that stressful!

After my audition, I finally got to relax and have some fun.  I hung out with Ben Ford from the Disney band, who was kind enough to be my host in Illinois.  The next morning, we woke up and drove to Chicago for the Disney auditions.  It's tradition for AACB alumni to return to the auditions the next year to say hello to Ron and the crew.  We had a pretty large group of alumni show up- me, Ben, Drew, Chris and Dan.  Ron actually had us sit in the audition room and listen to the applicants, which was probably more intimidating to them than we ever meant it to be.

As I looked at my friends from the band in that room, and as we chatted and reminisced with Ron, I realized we were sharing a beautiful full circle moment.  Just a year ago, all of us had been on the other side of that audition- unsure of whether we would  make the band, unsure of exactly what we were getting into, and strangers to the people who would become our best friends.  After spending a summer in California, all of us have become stronger musicians, more confident people, and we've gained a new family.  I'm so excited for the musicians who will make up next summer's band, because their lives will most definitely change.  I sincerely hope they surpass everything we were able to do as a band and keep raising the bar.

Thankfully my drive back to Bama was much less eventful than my drive north.  Last Monday, I FINALLY had my last procedure for my teeth implant process, and I got my shiny new crowns!  For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, all you need to know is that I wasn't born with enough permanent teeth, so I basically had to have some fake ones put in.  To anyone that ever has to get teeth implants, just know up front that it's a pretty long and annoying process.  But it's not the end of the world, even if you play a wind instrument.

That's pretty much all for now!  I have three more graduate auditions coming up in February, so I'm sure you'll be hearing about that soon.  Until then, I'll be in the practice room :)

By the way, if you haven't checked out my new website yet, please do so!  I just updated it with a kaboodle of recordings and some new gig dates.  Here's your chance:

http://www.brianacarrasquillo.com/index.html

Hope everyone is doing well.  How are your resolutions going so far?

2011 In Review

We made it to 2012!

Congrats to all my readers for plowing through the holiday season, finishing out 2011 strong, and making it to the other side that is the year 2012.  Huge changes are in store for me this coming year, but we'll get to that in a minute...in order to catch you all up from my lack of posts this fall, I'll revisit some of the highlights of 2011.

January: I went to the JEN conference in New Orleans right after the start of the new year.  I had a fantastic time and got to hear some great music both in and out of the conference.  Some of my favorites were Jeff Coffin's Mu'tet and the Airmen of Note.  I bumped shoulders with some pretty notable folks in the jazz world.

February: I took an audition for the Disneyland All-American College Band in Atlanta the day after my 21st birthday.  I met Ron McCurdy for the first time there, and left the audition feeling pretty good.  I celebrated my birthday in Tuscaloosa with some great friends.  I performed with Joe Alessi in the Alabama Wind Ensemble.

March: I got the phone call of a lifetime when Ron told me I had made the Disney band.  Everyone was very excited for me, and I was excited for myself!  I remember playing a lot of gigs during March and also having a lot of schoolwork, which was not always the best combo. 

April: My boyfriend Joel left for his second cruise ship contract, and I was a little bummed knowing that I wouldn't see him until after the summer.  Tornadoes tore through Tuscaloosa on April 27th as I weathered the storm in the music building basement with many of my peers and professors.  It was a scary time, but I'm grateful that none of my friends were seriously hurt.  I was humbled in the days that followed by the way our community joined together.  I helped where I could, but wish I could have done more, and I left Tuscaloosa at the beginning of May feeling like the spring semester was very unresolved.

May: The 2011 Jazz Standards Combo took a trip to Bates Brothers Studios.  We were able to record 5 really quality tracks, and the session was a great learning experience.  For the rest of the month, I spent far too long trying to memorize my music for the Disney gig and struggling with my clarinet parts. I left for California on the 27th.

June: We spent a brutal 2 weeks learning the choreography for all of our street sets at Disney, and I learned that I actually can sort of dance.  Opening our shows in the park in mid June was magical.  I got to know the 20 other brilliant, hilarious, quirky, crazy, generous, beautiful musicians that I lived with, and I knew it was going to be an incredible summer.

July: We began to hit our stride with our shows in the park.  The band performed with Arturo Sandoval, which was every bit as dramatic as you'd guess.  My mom and brother visited me in California, and we drove up the Pacific Coast to see a lot of L.A.

August: I spent my two final weeks in California and made my rounds of very sad goodbyes to everyone I had worked with all summer.  I immediately flew to Colorado to see Joel at his new home in Greeley, where he's attending graduate school.  It was wonderful seeing him again and catching each other up on our summer travels.  After that visit, I flew home to Alabama and saw Steeley Dan perform in Tuscaloosa the night I got back.  School started back a couple days later, and I could hardly wrap my head around how drastically my life had changed again in a matter of weeks.

September: Football season started, and Alabama did better that I even expected.  I started the long and grueling task of planning graduate school visits, and I made a mini roadtrip to University of Illinois and Cincinnati Conservatory at the end of the month.  This meant I got to reunite with my Disney College Band friends Drew, Ben Ford, and Chris!  I also played a TON of gigs in September, which was great for my bank account but bad for my practice schedule.

October: I made more grad school visits to Rutgers and the University of Miami, making it a total of 3 weeks in a row that I was traveling out of state that month.  I did get to see my College Band buds Brett and Ben Katz up in the Jersey/NYC area, so that made the trip fun.  Jeff Coffin and the Mu'tet visited UA and performed with the jazz ensemble, and the experience inspired all of us.  Finally, I had oral surgery to start a teeth implant process during fall break.  Whew!

November: I played with the Black Jacket Symphony's production of The Dark Side of the Moon and had an absolute blast pretending to be a rock star.  I recorded some audition materials and completed all of my graduate applications well before Thanksgiving, which was a relief.  I flew to Colorado for my last grad school visit at the University of Northern Colorado, where Joel is currently attending.  We spent the rest of the week together and had our first "grown-up" Thanksgiving on our own.  It was a welcome reprieve from my insane semester.

December: I finished out the semester strong, and I ended up playing a lot of gigs for B.F. Goodrich.  We made it through yet another chaotic year of Hilaritas, our annual Christmas production at UA, and I performed in footie pajamas.  Joel visited Tuscaloosa once his classes were done, and we both traveled to Dothan, AL to see our friend Stacy Morris get married.  I chaotically shopped for Christmas presents at the last minute, but managed to pull everything off.   I rang in the new year at the Alcove in Tuscaloosa with some friends and strangers, and I found in hard to believe that I had blinked and 2011 had passed.

So here I am in 2012!  In the coming months, I will audition at 4 grad schools, play a senior recital, choose a grad school, graduate from UA, move (somewhere) across the country, and start an almost brand-new life in my new home.  With all this on my plate, the coming Mayan apocalypse is the least of my worries.  I'm excited, I'm scared, and most days I'm a little overwhelmed.  But I am definitely optimistic, and I can't wait to share my journeys with you!

I have just a couple resolutions for this year.  (Side note: aren't new year's resolutions odd?  Do we not realize that we have the capability to change our behavior on any day of the year?)  Here they are:

• Update this site more often!  I am also launching a new web page, that will have my bio, gig schedule, recordings, booking information and more.  There will be a link to this blog on my page as well.  Please check it out!  Here is the site.
• Get accepted to graduate school.  This is more of a continuing goal than a resolution, but I'm putting it up here to keep me motivated to practice for my auditions.
• Start a regular exercise routine.  Between gigs, class, and traveling, last semester was a nightmare for keeping a healthy schedule.  On paper, I should have more time this semester to go to the gym.  It's not really a weight loss goal, but rather a total mind/body/soul health resolution.  I find I'm more focused, less stressed, and more energized when I'm on a regular exercise pattern.  We'll see how it works out!
• Write more music.  I'm determined to include at least one or two original compositions on my recital in April.  I've been itching to write more for a while now, but haven't had the time, so now's my chance!
• Stop biting my nails.  Those of you who know me know that I've made this resolution for probably 6 or 7 years in a row now.  It's a silly habit that I can't kick for whatever reason.  Could this year be the year?

What are your resolutions this year?  Whatever they are, I wish you luck and encourage you to stay motivated and positive beyond January.  I'm very hopeful for 2012, but then again, I'm pretty hopeful anyways.  Thanks for reading, and please check back soon!