Some time after midnight last night I returned from the rehearsal of the big band where I have played baritone saxophone for the past ten years or more, and, as usual, I was too keyed up to go to sleep. I ate some cheese and crackers and read the newspaper till about a quarter to one. And even then I didn't fall asleep right away. When you play with a big band, you absorb energy.
I have to concentrate hard on the music to play it even close to right. I still find it challenging to master the parts and play them tight with the other musicians. My early musical training was in classical clarinet, and the rhythms of classical music, as they are written out, still are easier for me to play than jazz or Latin rhythms, as they are written out. You have to hear them and imitate them. (I believe that's because standard Western musical notation evolved with Western music, the way the Roman alphabet we use was invented by the Romans to write Latin, and it doesn't work all that well even with English, though we're so used to the anomalies we don't notice them.)
Our conductor, Eli Benacot is a fine musician, and playing in his band has been like taking a group music lesson every week. The baritone saxophone part in big bands is challenging, though they're not always technically difficult. Sometimes the baritone plays in rhythmical unison with the other four saxes, sometimes it plays with the trombones, usually the bass trombone, sometimes it plays with the string bass, and sometimes it plays on its own. So I have to know whom to listen to in every part of every piece, so I can play together with them.
Incidentally, when we perform, we often sit in an arrangement different from the one we rehearse in, and the band sounds different. Suddenly I can't hear the bass trombone very well. That's another challenge.
The music is exhilarating because the sound of the band is so intense, and the rhythms have so much drive. Last night we were practicing with our vocalist, Noa Anava, which calls for more sensitivity than we show when we're blasting out an arrangement by Gordon Goodwin. But even when we're playing behind a vocalist, where are moments when we have to roar. When it works, when the band plays tight and swings, there's nothing like it!
I have to concentrate hard on the music to play it even close to right. I still find it challenging to master the parts and play them tight with the other musicians. My early musical training was in classical clarinet, and the rhythms of classical music, as they are written out, still are easier for me to play than jazz or Latin rhythms, as they are written out. You have to hear them and imitate them. (I believe that's because standard Western musical notation evolved with Western music, the way the Roman alphabet we use was invented by the Romans to write Latin, and it doesn't work all that well even with English, though we're so used to the anomalies we don't notice them.)
Our conductor, Eli Benacot is a fine musician, and playing in his band has been like taking a group music lesson every week. The baritone saxophone part in big bands is challenging, though they're not always technically difficult. Sometimes the baritone plays in rhythmical unison with the other four saxes, sometimes it plays with the trombones, usually the bass trombone, sometimes it plays with the string bass, and sometimes it plays on its own. So I have to know whom to listen to in every part of every piece, so I can play together with them.
Incidentally, when we perform, we often sit in an arrangement different from the one we rehearse in, and the band sounds different. Suddenly I can't hear the bass trombone very well. That's another challenge.
The music is exhilarating because the sound of the band is so intense, and the rhythms have so much drive. Last night we were practicing with our vocalist, Noa Anava, which calls for more sensitivity than we show when we're blasting out an arrangement by Gordon Goodwin. But even when we're playing behind a vocalist, where are moments when we have to roar. When it works, when the band plays tight and swings, there's nothing like it!
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