| Re: At Sea
hey all- thanks for the kind words. Just a quick note for all of you making the trek to the Chicago gig. We are only playing one tune for the gig, maybe two.
It's kind of strange (and wasteful as far as travel expenses and pollution go) I know, but we are only playing Buleria's (which will feature the fantastic playing of Donny Mcaslin and Greg Gisbert) - aside from that, there will be no other solos or stretching going on.
In the school discussion zone-had a great talk with a young player who has been over for some lessons recently and was very excited by her choice to take a year abroad on a Rotary exchange once done with high school. All of the schools you are mentioning are fine places to study, but honestly, if I hadn't taken the two years I took to goof off, work and play (a lot) after high school, I'm pretty sure I would have burnt out from information overload. I did go to the local college for two years, but it was such a light load and cost almost nothing, that I could live fairly freely, gig (GIG!),listen to a lot of music and really enjoy life 'after high school'. My biggest concern these days, as I visit many great jazz programs around the country (as a guest artist), is that the students are not able to really lead the music when they play. The teachers have become, in many ways, too good at giving them the right information (because things are SO accessible), and the students, who are great students and fine people, are not really made aware of what it means to take responsibility for the elements of the music that are the unspoken elements that really make 'jazz' a community event. In other words, they expect to be led and taught. Not all programs are this way, and yes-some people need structure to grow-BUT, imagine how much more able to deal (AND contribute) the students would be if they all took time to get a feel for the world and their voice in it, by playing and leading, studying on their own and creating a niche for themselves via 'the street' before investing their folks big bucks in 'jazz school'. My 'struggle and search' years were the BEST! Don't really want to do them again,but WOW for lessons that you don't get in school.
peace!
ingrid |