Yesterday I had one of those – this is why I play music/jazz moments…

I had a Saturday morning gig to provide music for a church’s first
anniversary. The building we performed in had a really nice sound system and we
were able to do a sound check prior to performing. That was a first for me.
We’re talking monitors, individual mics for each instrument – a real nice setup.
In the past I’ve had problems hearing myself and I could tell from the sound check
that I would not have this problem.

The performance was great. The instrumental line up was keys, drums, bass,
two tenors and two trumpets/flugelhorns. Since the other trumpet player was
strong I played more flugelhorn. The musicians around me were really, really
good and I felt that I had to bring my ‘A’ game to contribute. The tunes we
played were an unnamed jam (more on that later), Footprints, Chameleon and
Little Sunflower. All of the music turned good but Little Sunflower was really
nice. Very funky. We were playing music during a breakfast buffet but the people
were listening and digging what we laid out. My chops were solid and felt good
for the entire performance.

Everyone seemed so plugged in to each other (including the audience). The
unnamed jam was a testament to that. Right before we started the set the
keyboard player started playing a slow little groove which the drum and bass
players locked into. The horns started noodling around and it just took off. It
was unrehearsed and completely magical to me. We carried on for 12+ minutes…

I made some mistakes. I think I made the change from E minor to F for Little
Sunflower early. The rhythm section quickly changed to cover for me but I went
back to E minor. There was about two measures of – "uh oh… what’s going
on" but I recovered and finished strong. Later when listening to the
recording of the performance the drummer setup the change every single time. If
I had just listened to him I would have known it was coming. I still get pretty
nervous when soloing and I think it effects my tone. The other trumpet player
commented that I sounded great when playing with the other musicians over the
heads but seemed to concentrate too much and tighten up when soloing. I need to
let go and just play.

That being said I did a lot of stuff well and learned a ton just by listening
to the other musicians. It was a very positive experience for me. I’m still
floating from the feeling it left me with and practicing like a mad man to
address some of the things that I noticed in the performance.

I’m so glad I decided to do this.

P.S. – Happy Birthday Clifford