This past weekend I played yet another last-minute pickup gig with a band I never played with before. It was a great example of why you need to use every avenue of communication available to you. It started with a Facebook message from someone I had never met but who is related to one of my Facebook friends. In the message the band leader asked me whether I was available for the date which was about ten days away. He wanted a horn section and asked me to get a trumpet player for him as well. From FB we went to text messaging back and forth for a couple of days. We then moved to phone calls before finally meeting face-to-face about 90 minutes before the gig. I’m pretty sure if i didn’t have the Facebook account I probably wouldn’t have gotten this gig…it pays to network.
During this time I was busy emailing some trumpet player buddies of mine but the first couple guys I tried were unavailable. One of the guys told me to try a guy from the Airmen of Note in DC and that worked out really well. I played with a guy named Rich Sigler and we got along great and the gig went smooth as silk. It was another one of those gigs with no charts but I knew a bunch of the songs and the keyboard player usually plays the horn parts so we were easily able to pick up things we didn’t know. We did a few dinner songs like This Masquerade and Moon Glow before moving on to the meat of the dance music. There was a wedge monitor for us but we really weren’t in it so hearing was a little rough and we also had to share one microphone because they only carry a small mixer. Still, things went really well and I’m pretty sure they will call us back if they are in the area and need horns again.
Oddly, I didn’t even know the name of the band until I got the check at the end of the night. The band is called Leggz and they are out of Roanoke, VA. It’s a great group and they put on a great show. The party was a blast – it had a Kentucky Derby theme and they even had the ceremony in time for everyone to go watch the race as well as real Kentucky blue grass on the tables. Martin O’Malley, the governor of MD, was even in attendance although he didn’t stay for the whole thing.
I used the Jazzlab SaxHolder again and it felt pretty comfortable although I wish I had taken more time to adjust the parts that came into contact with my shoulder blades…it was a little painful by the end of the night and that didn’t happen when I used it with my bari. I want to play a couple more gigs with it before I write a full review. My back felt great at the end of the night but I need to figure out why it aggravated my shoulders especially since the tenor is much lighter than the bari.
