The Professor Wore Flip-Flops

I taught my first summer class ever this evening--a jazz combo. Its nucleus consists of people from my evening combo during the year, but there are also several talented high school students and another older adult. I have two full rhythm sections but not enough room to split the combo in half (which would also require cloning myself or running back and forth between rooms in a frenzy all night). This means that almost every tune gets played twice, so that everyone gets a chance to participate.

I enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of the summer (the fashion statement reflected in this post's title is true). There is no scheduled performance (though we could possibly book one somewhere), so we're devoting the time to learning lots of tunes. We have three guitars and not too many horns (three saxes if I play, and that's it), so the guitar players get to take their turn at playing melodies. (You know the old joke, right--How do you get a guitar player to play softly? Put a piece of music in front of him!) The people in the evening combo during the year wanted to go year-round anyway, so now they get a chance to do just that. It's going to be a good time.

Even worse than cat scratch fever: A disease borne by cats may cause humans to exhibit cat-like behavior. (via Althouse.)