| The gig today with the kids was really terrific, a corporate thing at a law firm on the 23rd floor of the Wrigley building looking over Michigan Avenue and the river emptying out into the lake. It was a smaller version of the band, just the rhythm section and alto player and me. Even though no one seemed to be paying the least bit of attention (I tell the kids "We've been ignored by the finest audiences in Chicago") the kids just dug in and played terrifically. One reason I practice is to be able to stay on top of them, and it gets hard to do sometimes. I like to tell them that if they don't get better than me then I've failed as a teacher. But I'm like my dad was with me playing checkers, I don't let them win so if they do they've really earned it.
Here's an up-and-coming trumpeter that I feel confident you'll be hearing from soon: Marquis Hill who is now a freshman at NIU (Northern Illinois University, where Art Davis and Mark Ponzo teach trumpet). When Fadddis heard Marquis last year he said he had nothing to tell him, just keep doing what you're doing. Victor Garcia is another former student who has done well but he's screwed up his personal life so much I don't know if he'll recover, but he was in the same league as Amir El Saffar.
Michael McLaughlin
"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good." Samuel Johnson |