The Mother of All Jazz Concerts?

Last night was the spring jazz concert at the college, and I believe it clocked in as the longest on record at two-and-a-half hours. Thankfully, most of the audience stuck with us for the whole thing and seemed to really enjoy it.

It was a really long day for me, despite its chill beginning, as I ended up teaching two lessons before I got to the college and then ran the Supersax soli part with Collin before soundchecks (figuring that if the lead part and the bari part were totally in sync, the whole thing would sound right whether it was or not). I was involved with three of the four soundchecks, but there was no rest for the weary even during Jaztet's time, as I had to help with the setup for my two combos out in front of the big band. The only true break I had was the half-hour before the concert, when I got to chill with Halfling for a bit and do a general meet-and-greet out in the atrium.

I was happy with how my two combos did. Just like in the last post, Combo Too had its occasional ADD moments in soundcheck, but the performance came off fine. Combo PM was fun; I was on stage for most of it, since I was a harmony horn on Infra-Rae and quite involved in Supersax and the secret surprise closer.

OK, obviously I can discuss the closer now. A few weeks ago in rehearsal, Gordon kicked off The Chicken with this sort of reggae-ish bass line...and we liked it so much that it stuck. We gave it the nickname of "Grilled Chicken Rasta" and decided to don our shades (at least those who remembered them) during the performance. The audience dug it, and Kris was heckling me from the crowd in good-natured fashion for playing something not on the program.

But yeah, I was happy...Supersax had a few glitches, but it held together and ended at the same time (always a positive thing). Halfling played really well and was even happy with his own performance (if you're not a musician, you might think this was a normal occurrence...but Pat Metheny said it best--nearly every musician who is worth anything is a card-carrying member of the "I Suck" Club most of the time). Dingus also played well, and Kris agreed with that observation...which certainly bodes well for him for the fall.

I chilled backstage/outside during most of the Jaztet set, and then big band finally hit at around 10:00. I was fairly happy with my solos; Misty was a little different than my usual stuff, but in a good way, unlike Boulder. I did throw in the Four quote to continue the running joke, especially because Barry the piano player also referenced it earlier in his solo on Fun Time. The soprano feature on Nadalin was fine; at least the horn worked, unlike Tuesday when it totally went south on me for no apparent reason. My solo on Buffalo Roam could have been better, but we'd only really done the tune a few weeks, and I guess I didn't have a chance to "bond" with it...something to work on for later.

Afterwards, we had the traditional Chili's hang with four or five tables pushed together; even Kris and Yvette came this time. Kris and I agreed that all the combos ran too long and that three tunes would be our absolute limit in the future.

So that just about puts the wraps on combo for the semester. Combo PM may play for the heckuvit on Thursday, especially if we can solidify the coffeehouse gig, but otherwise, all that's left is the burritos (yay).

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day, Mom...though I doubt she's actually reading this (*crosses fingers*?).