AZ_Brad

The Coolest Gig , Ever

I was just pondering the exceptional combined experiences of this group. So I’ll ask the qesustion…What has been your coolest playing experience ever! Was it jammin’ with some really cool cat? Marching at the Macy’s Day Parade? Playing for a VIP?

I’ll share mine. About a year ago, I was staying at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN. The entertainment for our convention group was a Dixie Band that was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The group had a Piano, Drummer, Bone, Trumpet, a Clarinet. They were performing in the open air up on the roof (where the Ducks have their Penthouse) It was a beautiful night, the drinks were flowing, and the band was hot. One of the guys in my Company is an old Trumpet Pro, and I ended up on the riser with him and a horn. Keep in mind that I had not been playing for YEARS. Well, the band got us in to a "call and answer" jam session that went on for what seemed like an hour! In reality, it was a good 20 minutes. People were all gathered around, and cheering us on. Thank God, I don't think anyone got a sound recording of it! Anyway, it was an awesome experience that will probably be never repeated. It is actually what got me thinking of getting a horn and playing again. I know there are better stories out there…what’s yours??

Schwab

Playing for sold out crowds at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece with the GMO (the Ellington Band played the other set). The theater is really steep, when you look out from the stage all you see all the way up to the sky is a wall of people. Very cool experience.

__________________
Dylan Schwab
Stage 1 New York

note360

Well, I wouldnt call it a gig or the coolest, but so far this is the thing that really speeds me on.

In the summer of 7th grade (I am in 9th now) I just got my braces on. Simultaneously I was in the "Summer" Band for 6th - 7th Grade. I was the ONLY trumpet player the band was small but still the only one. 2 others signed up but never showed up. Any way a few days before the concert I got my braces on, I freaked. Any way I go to the concert they give me 3 student teachers and HS kids to play behind me, though I am still the only on 1st. I had a few solos on a Gershwin Mashup, the biggest being the opening passage to Summertime. I took my plunger and nailed that solo (not amazingly hard, but still). Nearly every one in the band was surprised and thought it was the student teacher who just graduated college (good player to).

__________________
"I'll play it and tell you what it is later." - Miles Davis
"Do not fear mistakes. There are none." - Miles Davis

Trumpets:
TR300 Bach [marching horn]
Big Apple Bach Strad (ML)

Cornets:
1952 Olds Ambassador L.A

Mouthpiece: Curry 5c, Olds 3 (for the cornet atm)

ALLCHOPS

The first group, The Blues Other Brothers was a blast! 4-5 trumpets and everything was arranged with Chase in mind!

The second, The Burners UK was a highly successful party band that does mainly local stuff w/some high end corporate travel as well.... 2 Inagural Balls and The Replublican National Convention in Philly...


Tony G

__________________
Curry 600 Series Mouthpieces
Curry Authorized Dealer
SD Systems-Endorsing Artist
www.SDSYSTEMS.com
http://www.myspace.com/tonygambaro

beartrumpet74

Playing a high school graduation in Ulithi while in the Navy Band brass quartet

Note: Ulithi is in the Pacific near the island of Yap. I know that clears it up or you!....look it up and you'll see where I'm talking about. Anyway.... turns out the islanders don't wear much ...uh .... just bottoms really.
so as the graduating class marches up to recieve dipolmas from the Admiral who was the commander naval forces Guam, he sees 18 very tan, very pretty island girls march up topless for their diplomas.... I kid you not!
It was the hardest time I have ever had keeping the horn on my face in my life. We played pomp and circumstance or whatever and I think I only made it through 4 bars before I started staring and not playing!
I was 19 ......had just graduated myself... makes me wish I had stayed back a year and transferred to Ulithi!!!!!!!!!

Good God that was a day!
Peace
Matt

Brekelefuw

Two years ago I played in a big band with Dave Holland. During the show the band was on fire. We played our asses off. After the show it took like an hour for the adrenaline to wear off.

bas

Tony....I was in the orginal BOB band that began in 1984....coast to coast and overseas for a year before I left to go to NYC. Spent many nights in the hotal room with Larry writing horn parts. See the Bros. lately? Play the reunion in Cleveland a few years ago?

(Trumpet)(2009)

It sounds like you guys have really had some great times with the horn. My experience is quite minimal as I have been playing for just two years. I am a sophomore in High School and last year I was last chair in the symphonic band. I landed a solo in one of the songs we were performing at the concert, and the second chair got the other (the first chair was a real doofus). The song had two almost identical solos for Trumpet. One to start the song and one to finish it. I was the one to finish it, and finish it I did. The first guy didn't play it so well, but man, that was the best I had ever sounded up until that point.

A more significant one (for me, but my experiences are still on a smaller sclae than most of yours) was making Wind Ensemble. Like I said I was last chair in Symphonic band, so no one really expected me to make it (there was only 1 spot). But I got it! It was the song that I played for the audition that I really sold. There's nothing like seeing your name on the list (where you want it), especially when you don't anticipate it.

It is very cool to hear all these awesome stories!

beartrumpet74

VERY COOL!
Keep at it and more great experiences will come your way!
Sounds like you are doing just fine already though....
Glad to hear someone young having such a blast playing the horn!
Good for you
Peace
Matt

trpt2345

It's hard to pick just one. Playing Alan Hovannes's Meditations On Orpheus with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall when I was in college. (I got paid around $20 per note played and there were nearly naked dancers onstage in the most beautifuul sounding hall I've ever been in). A six-hour-till-dawn jam session at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock NY with Stu Martin and karl Berger and anyone else who showed up one New Years' Eve. Playing with Barrett Deems at the Chicago Jazz Fest in 1994 in front of 50,000 people. Playing with Aretha Franklin at Ravinia. Every so often on a random gig things just suddenly ignite and you play like your hair's on fire, and the audience is going crazy.

Michael McLaughlin

A girl phoned me the other day and said... Come on over, there's nobody home. I went over. Nobody was home.
Rodney Dangerfield

__________________
Chicago MM