Music:
Member Since: 31/03/2008
Influences: I've been playing sax for about 35 years, and I'm going to be real honest about my influences. Also, I'm mostly writing this for my own benefit - to find out who I really am. Read on if you wish. When I was a little kid my Dad loved Boots Randolph and would play his record all the time. As I got a older I was very enamored of the Lawrence Welk Show because I could see live musicians playing their instruments. In 6th grade the Duke Ellington Orchestra (the absolute final version) came to my town and I got to hear them play in our high school gym. That changed everything for me, but I'm not sure why. Many of the musicians were very old and I just put myself as close to the bandstand, and watched and listened in fascination.
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The next chapter of my musical life begins with junior high band and I remember nothing of the music, but plenty of the sax section antics perpetrated by the male members. Sigh... [Just an aside, last fall I taught junior high band for the first time in many years. The school has an all girls/all boys format so I had separate bands for each sex. It was very interesting!) Jr. High was my first time playing in "Stage Band" and I was on Bari - because I was 5'11" and because it looked like fun. I remember my cool and hip band director standing in his office smoking lemon twist cigarettes with a cigarette holder between periods. Those were the days. Also during this time the Stan Kenton Band came to our town. I was mesmerized, to say the least.
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Between junior and senior high school I started marching band on alto. This was good for me for 2 important reasons - I started practicing standing up and I had to memorize all the music. I haven't always been this diligent through the years, but I think I've come full circle. In HS I continued to play in Stage Band, but also any other musical group that would allow me - sax quartet, pep band, dixieland band, choir, City Band, symphonic band, etc. In the big ensembles I was really listening to the way my bari lines fit into the music. I was never very fond of the parts that had me playing low all the time - the bari can do so much more! My favorite part was the City Band version of "America the Beautiful" ala Charles Ives meets Broadway. I also especially loved getting ready for solo/ensemble contest when I was a junior. I played a few movements from Paule Maurice's "Tableaux de Provence" and was enchanted by it. The fact that the first movement was in the key of E didn't hurt my chops either!
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For college I went away to Moorhead State University. I was completely unready to be a college student, but I played in the Stage Band under the direction of Al Noice for 6-7 years, every chair in the section (enrolled or not!) That was my first "professional" gig - we rehearsed every weekday from 4-6, the entire trumpet section was made up of ringers at that time, and Doc was the man. I learned a lot of things in that band, but most importantly, that was the beginning of my life as a jazz musician. Also, I took Doc's famous jazz history class and learned a ton! He truly is my first and greatest mentor. I would hang out in his office everyday and listen to his stories about his band, education, philosophy, and life. He also got me reading a lot of very cool books about history. Thanks Doc, for everything! If you're still out there - I love you.
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Fast Forward through a lot of emotional shit that I suppose makes me who I am today. I moved to Minneapolis in 1984. Living in apartments with room-mates made me realize I needed to arrange my life so that I could practice. I still think almost daily about my months practicing Coltrane transcriptions in a closet...with a window! During the 80's I found a sax quartet that rehearsed upstairs at the old Chester Groth store, a jam band that played at a gay club in St. Paul, and IMP ORK (more about that in the next chapter). I guess I could've continued playing this way for some time, but I felt like I needed to get my degree so I went back to MSU for 2 years.
Sounds Like: I'm working on sounding like myself.
Record Label: Unsigned
Type of Label: Indie