As I mentioned last entry, other forces were moving in my musical life. I enjoyed my final year of secondary education so much that I decided to do it again, at the invitation of the community Board of Education. My parents, however, had already arranged to relocate to another part of the country, one quite a bit less metropolitan than my current surroundings. One where the teaching of the arts was not a priority.
I found myself going from being a big fish in a big pond, to being a shark in a puddle, for the most part. One would think that this would make things worse in the matter of complacency. But there were a few factors that changed all that. One was the absolute dearth of brass instrument players. The entire brass section of the school band was 5 players out of the 60-piece band. I found myself challenged, not to be heard, but to bring the rest of the section up to a higher level. It was my first experience with thinking outside of my own abilities and working with a team to accomplish a goal. Within a few months, we were a coherent group, and could drown out the rest of the band if we weren?t careful.
Additionally, during the concert season, there were instruments that were required that had no players. This gave me the opportunity to broaden my horizons
Another factor was the local Orchestra Master. The school had an orchestra, for string players. With the support of the community Arts Appreciation organization, she and a few members of the local community Symphony had a Gifted and Talented program after school once a week, in which they would teach more complex issues, such as music history, theory and composition, appreciation, and small performance groups. I soaked up everything I could, and even received, and accepted, an invitation to join the community Symphony, which gave me my first real experience in playing with trained Classical musicians. I loved performing with that group, composed of fine amateur musicians of all ages from around the area. They played for nothing more than the love of performance, and the opportunity to expand the cultural experience of the community. Should I ever actually finish composing a work for orchestra, they will be the ones to debut it.
But still, The Blues called to me. It was a call I couldn?t ignore. When the Gifted and Talented program started planning their annual concert and lecture, I placed myself in the list with ?an arrangement?. The show was dominated by cellos, violas, and the occasional woodwind. Knowing little about what I had up my sleeve, the Director put me at the end of the programme.
I had gathered a drummer from a local garage band, and a gifted young pianist, who had never played anything more raucous than ?Heart and Soul?. Added to them were the school Bandmaster, who was a fairly good Bass player, and myself on a flugelhorn, which is like a trumpet, only a bit larger, and infinitely more mellow and laid back. We had worked on the song for a week. I had to transcribe a solo for the pianist, who had never really improvised, especially with a chord structure like this. By the end, though, he was fairly hooked on the genre.
We played a little number called ?All About the Blues?. It was really more of an East-Coast Jazz kind of arrangement, but it got the point across. We all took turns soloing, though mine was the only one improvised. I wasn?t paying much attention to the audience, but I am told that the parents in attendance were delighted, and a bassoon player nearly had a stroke. I was able to speak a bit after about some of the standard conventions we used in the tune; trading fours, blues calls, the structure and choice of key signature, and a few other things that make blues different than ragtime, or bebop, or swing, or any number of other genre.
We were a hit, except with that bassoon player. More than that, I got my first taste of being the ?front man? for an audience. It was a milestone for me, as it gave me tremendous confidence from that point on. I decided that, if I could get up in front of an audience to play music, and not even know what I was going to play until it came out, then there wasn?t much else that I couldn?t do.
That, my friends, is how I got started in the music business. Why I left it, and how I got into the business of saving the world, are stories that I will get into one day. Imshala, as the locals say, which is literally translated as ?God willing,? but is more like the Spanish ?Ma?ana?. One day, down the road.