trpt2345

For anyone who takes a passing interest in downbeat magazine, in the June issue there are a couple of articles I'm involved with. One of the groups I lead at the Merit School of Music in Chicago won the small group jazz award for arts high schools in their annual student competition. Then they did a 3/4 page article about Merit's new building (page 84 IIRC) with a few more quotes from me. It's brought a tremendous response from various groups, including the Thelonious Monk Institute and the Commission Project in Rochester. Members of the band are going to Juilliard, Manhattan, NIU, NYU, Roosevelt and DePaul in Chicago. Lots of nachis, I'm kvelling. I have a gig with them tomorrow, then Sunday the 11th and the 13th and 30th of June. I like my kids.

Michael McLaughlin

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits." Mark Twain

camelbrass

Michael,

You should be very proud of them and they should be very proud of you.

They sound like a great bunch..undoubtedly we shall hear of some of them in the future.

Well done to all.

Regards,


Trevor

Manny Laureano

Hey, Michael, if you can't toot your horn on TM, where can you?

Congratulations... every time we teachers can claim success, it's another nail in the coffin of the pessimistic reviewers that claim kids aren't interested in music, classical, jazz, or otherwise.

Keep fighting the good fight.

ML

Eclipsehornplayer

Imagine that a Trumpet player tooting his/her own horn...

Nah never happen...

Congrats...

trpt2345

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