I had a busy week starting last Friday playing 5 gigs in 6 days. What amazed me as I look back on it, is how fickle I am. Good performances are so persuasive, I find that when I'm in the middle of an experience, I can't imagine putting effort toward another style of music. But as soon as the next good gig comes, the previous gig is out of my mind.
Friday and Saturday I played with a brass quintet accompanying the Gonzaga choirs for their Christmas concert. We did some great music, like the In Dulci Jubilo by Praetorius, and some hymns with the audience like this arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful. (these clips are not from the concert, but can give you a taste of what we played). This version of O Come All Ye Faithful is so moving! I love getting to play it, and on our second concert it brought the conductor to tears. Playing in a brass group like this fuels my desire to start my own.
Sunday afternoon I grabbed my piccolo trumpet and headed down to First Presbyterian church. They host a sing-a-long of Handel's Messiah. There's lots of sitting to do during the Messiah (we only play about 5 of the 53 songs), but it includes some really fun stuff like The Trumpet Shall Sound. I love getting to play piccolo for the Messiah, and I do it really well. I'm comfortable sitting in the orchestra, and would love to do it more often.
Childcare required amazing feats of agility and acrobatics all week long. Monday night my dad came right as I was finishing up giving a bath to one of our kids. I grabbed my mutes, music and 2 horns and was off to play with the Bob Curnow big band. One of my favorite tunes that Bob's band does is his arrangement of Heat of the Day, a Pat Metheny tune. Here's a video of Metheny doing it his way, and you can hear how driving, rhythmic and intense it is. Imagine that with screaming trumpets! Bob's band is so rockin' and powerful; at one point I remembered playing the Messiah and wondered to myself, why would I ever want to play music different than driving, modern jazz?
By the time Wednesday rolled around I did want to play a different style of music. I got to play with the Hot Club of Spokane doing vintage swing at a really cool new restaurant called The Vault. The Vault is setup to look like a speakeasy from the 20's. All the servers are dressed in costume, and downstairs you can dine in the actual vault. It's totally different kind of playing too. Very little written out, lots of improvising solos and backgrounds, lots of dixieland style playing and soloing together. I brought all my mutes and I'm looking for ways to sound unique and fit the style - lots of cup mute and plunger.
The nature of being a professional musician is that you have to wear lots of different hats, and be able to play lots of different styles. I struggle with that a little, and I long to be part of a group and grow into that role, but I'm so thankful for the chance to play this past week. Gigs have been kind of light this fall. It's a treat to get to make good music.
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