Self-promotion? Is that sarcasm? Because using our comments as a venue for self-promotion is against the rulz!

enjoy your beer and weekend! convince your woman to pick up her axe again!!!

good talkin’ with ya, pal.

almost quitting time here thankfully, though spent all afternoon reading jazz blogs and the Banter..it’s nice to have a low-pressure job have a good one, only one month to go till real baseball again!

it’ll have to happen, once everything’s released, i suppose… i’m a musician, man, i SUCK at self-promotion and business and stuff…

i’m listening to sonny & elvin. but yeah, the trane/elvin stuff at the V.V. is awesome. we play Impressions, pretty regularly in our trio. i would’ve killed to have seen Dolphy in that setting. i’ve been to the vanguard a bunch, as my old teacher plays there regularly…

Trane and Elvin pushing each other on “Impressions” is one of my all time favorite tunes..I almost can’t believe they played live like that at the Village Vanguard. Can you IMAGINE seeing that in such a small space??

i’m trying soooo hard to get this damn cd done, you have NO idea. it’ll happen. it has to… hell, i’m already working on the next one!

That Sonny album is sick, though I’m more a Coltrane fanatic (more “emotional” playing for lack of a better word), Sonny improvising was mystical..the musical equivalent of a chess master seeing 20 moves ahead, of that makes sense..

np – sonny rollins live at the village vanguard. he’s brilliant!

Art Pepper..check out his auto-biography..yikes..

[54] Manny walks his own path, that’s for sure.

of course, i know art pepper, but don’t know about his, um, off the field shenanigans. did he happen to have a cousin?! ; )

yes, 1st chair violin is NO joke. practice schedule should read about 25 hrs/day, 8 days/wk…minimum.

well, not, all percussion, but certainly not just traps-set. i don’t do much in the way of hand drumming, at all, or steel drums. everything else, for the most part, is in play. privately, it’s mostly drumset, snare drum, music theory and a little piano. college, is styles, performing, chart reading and life lessons/experiences. high school classical stuff, includes some of the above, but is mostly symphonic: all mallets (marimba, xylophone, etc.), timpani, snare, and all auxiliary percussion (from temple blocks and castanets to tambourines and suspended cymbal and tons of other “toys”!). lots of theory and technique, as well; including snare rudiments and scales/arpeggios…

yeah, first violin was appraently no joke. the practice schedule sounded brutal..but oh, the glory!

you teach trap-kit or all percussion instruments?

[49] didn’t know that about Frank Foster..though convicted felon jazzmen are not unique. remember Art Pepper?

oh, and this Frank Foster record is *awesome*! i remember playing his Basie chart “Shiny Stockings” in Big Band when i was in college. you know anything about him being a convicted felon (thief)? i can’t remember. i know i heard about it when he played at Penn State, when i was in school. i didn’t go. i missed Ensemble Modern, also. college kid w/ no funds who lived in a windowless practice room for a dozen hours a day, and all…

man, i couldn’t imagine “retiring”. that word is NOT in my vocabulary. neither is “quitting.” when i’m my grandpa’s age, i’ll be listening – and hopefully, playing! – music. 1st chair violin in the symphony is some serious serious business. some serious cheddar, too! before i moved to atlanta, one of my main jobs and sources of income, was playing in a symphony orchestra. i love it and am glad my elders “forced” me to go to Classical school.

but, yeah man, teachin’ ain’t for everyone. and i’m not really down w/ my friends that do it just for “money.” that’s why i don’t even advertise for students – i’m pretty particular about the students i take on, privately. when i’m in the school system, nothing i can do, but teach the hand i’m dealt. right now, i’ve got some really great students, including a coupla special ones!

That’s interesting what you say about teaching. Your students are lucky to have you as you have passion for them music and concern for them. I think my lady never had that same passion even while playing so retiring was easy. As a non-playing fanatic it was hard for me listen to..”so you has the talent to play first violin in an orcehstra in front of thousands of people..and you QUIT?!?!”

i’m not playing a ton of gigs right now. i’m not sure that too many people are, actually. i’m probably kinda lucky that my jazz trio has a steady weekly gig in town. they’ve extended our hours, which is total bollocks (as the pay is still the same peanuts), but how the hell can i complain about getting paid to play jazz 3 miles from my home?! ooh, i have to play MORE music for a living, what a terrible thing! ; )

i am teaching 5 days a week, and i must say, i absolutely adore it! that said, i totally understand where your wife is coming from. my music friends are probably split: some love it, some abhor it, some do it ‘coz they have to. i don’t think the latter is fair to the kids, but everybody’s gotta do what they have to do…

my teaching is varied, so it keeps my on my toes – 2 days private lessons, 2 days high school percussion, 1 day college. i conducted percussion ensemble all day today in high school and it was awesome! one of the pieces i chose, is a medley of Bizet’s “Carmen”. it’s short, exciting and not too difficult. the kids did a beautiful job sightreading and i was proud of them. even the ones that are generally walking zombies were enthused and enthralled. does my heart good.

i’ll try and use the HTML (yay, caps!) more often, but would like to still pepper my posts with caps here and there. i do LOVE typing – it makes a really wonderful rhythm! : ) the caps allow me to keep my flow and not interrupt with the brackets and backslashes and such. i’m glad you gave us those rules though; i’ll feel like a total badass if/when i ever use that ‘blockquote’ type thing-a-ma-jig.