Improvisation and recapituation

When I was a freshman in high school, I was second chair trumpet in the concert band, but the really good kids, they were in the jazz band.  The jazz band was the elite, cool band who met before school even started.  I remember that year when the jazz band came back from the UAF jazz festival where Ingrid Jensen (professional trumpet player) had been the featured artist.  I remember them trying to imitate how she played, and talking about all the things they had learned, and all the fun they had on the trip.  I though to myself, "I am NOT missing out on that next year!  I'm joining the jazz band!"  Aaaand I did.
From my sophomore year on I got to play lead in the concert and jazz band.  I found myself spending extra hours before and after school in the band room practicing, taking lessons, playing around with different instruments, and getting to know music.  I never went anywhere without my trumpet, just in case I found a spare moment to play.  The admonitions of my trumpet teacher/band director ran through my head, "If you stop playing for a week, you lose 2 weeks of practice!"  I took this very seriously.  I remember calculating if I took 3 days off, that would mean I was back to where I was 6 days ago which was last Saturday!  I couldn't stand the idea, so I practiced relentlessly.  I loved it.

Jazz band my senior year (I'm second from the left on the top row.  I am pretty sure I was wearing some black flip flops.  Classy indeed.)

Playing at UAF in some...band...honor band?  I can't remember, just felt like I had to post these pictures as proof that I DID play once, and I was kinda good, for a high school kid anyway.

WARNING!  RANDOM TANGENT AHEAD!

Also, when I was looking for those pictures, I also found these!  I couldn't resist sharing them. All of these pictures were taken in French class, one of the best classes I have ever had (and I have been going to school for about 20 years, so that's a lot of classes to compare to)

As you can clearly see, we learned a lot of French.

Back to the music story...

I had a wonderful teacher and mentor, Mr. Lee.  He was fresh out of college, and spent endless amounts of time helping me make my all-state tapes, practice my solos, understand the changes in the jazz tunes, and giving me priceless nuggets of advice I still think of quite often.  This is a picture of me with Mr. Lee's mentor who we simply called "Harbaugh" (and two of his other students). 

 Through Mr. Lee, Harbaugh cast a long shadow over my trumpet playing.  Mr. Lee did what Harbaugh said, and I did was Mr. Lee said, which worked wonderfully for me in high school.

 However, I hadn't really figured out who I was and who I wanted to be as a musician yet.  I had a hard time connecting with the pieces I played, and the worst was my improvisation.  It was pathetic, at best.  I really couldn't do it at all, despite practicing for hours a day, and understanding the basic theory behind it, it just never clicked for me.

I went to college, played in a band for one semester, put my trumpet away and basically never took it back out again.  I didn't have a mentor, and I didn't have enough internal drive and direction to keep going.

:(

THEN, last weekend, I went up to Rexburg to hear my brother, Herbert (A-MAZING drummer), play in the top jazz band at BYU-I.  It was incredible, and guess who the featured artist was...Ingrid Jensen.  Are you seeing the recapitulation here?  Their concert was inspring.  Ingrid was everything my friends had told me about twelve years ago, when I very first decided to start playing jazz!  

Herbert invited me to attend a class Ingrid was teaching on improvisation with him.  After lightly scolding me for being a 'former trumpet player', she talked about the importance of hours of practice, and learning from the greats, but also never trying to sound like anyone but yourself.  That resonated with me.  If I played now, I would love it because I know who I am in a much deeper way than I did in high school.  I feel like the piece that was always missing for me is finally in place.  Listening to her talk and play, and seeing how much Herbert loves to play sparked my old passion for music.  

This passion has been slowly regrowing though.  This last year I started to draw and paint occasionally.  Lately I have been going 'blues dancing', and I think I love it for the same reason I love jazz; it's about connection, creativity, trying to complement the other person by what you do, and most of all, about using what you feel to create something beautiful.  Improvisation.  

Today I sat down at a piano and started to plunk out some melodies and chords...before I knew it I had written a song!  It was simple, but it flowed, and I liked it.  It was totally mine, not trying to sound like anyone or anything else.  That was the first time in a looonnngggg time that I created music that meant something to me!  Nothing has been able to replace music in my life.  Not dance, not art, not writing, certainly not science.  I finally realized that.

I'd love to say that I'm going to pick my trumpet back up and become AWESOME...but I think the most I can promise myself is that I'm going to learn to make music that is really mine.  Finally.

It feels good to reconnect with something that originally came naturally for me...but just got too hard to do for a little while.  Recapitulation.  I highly recommend it. 

Oh, and the best part about the trip to Rexburg....behold!

The footie pajamas!  Annie and Herbert are the BEST!

And if you ever have a chance to see Herbert play in a band, GO!  So worth it :)