In my Fur Elise blog of a couple of weeks ago, in a reply to Antonella I mentioned I would tell a funny story about me taking up an instrument. When my siblings and I were children, my mother tried to get us into activities. She had my sister take painting lessons, and my brother play in a sports league, and for some reason thought I should learn a musical instrument. I'm not sure how she could afford it, but my mother was a great scrimper and saver. I must have been around ten years old when she took me to a musical instructor who asked me what I wanted to learn. I had loved saxophone music as a kid for some reason, and I thought this was my chance to be a jazz player. I think I had dreams of being a great one. Well after the first lesson, the instructor went to my mother (he must have noticed that this was a financial challenge for her) and told her to save her money because i didn't have any talent that could be drawn out. LOL!
Nonetheless I have always loved saxophone jazz. Here's a great piece by one of my all time favorites, Stan Getz. There's not much I could find on this work on the Internet, but there is a Wikipedia entry on the album it first came out on, Focus. There's a line in there about this song.
Notice the wonderful interplay, a real dialogue, between the sax and the rest of the band. Who is late, the band voice or the sax voice? Not sure who is urging who.
Stan Getz-- definitely one of the all time greats! I do play sax, so I have a litany, well, a short list, of favorite players. But I was introduced to Stan Getz by my high school band director. Not personally....anyway...I actually play more classical on sax, which is why I took up bassoon for college. but I have done big band playing, which I enjoyed. I am not sure one lesson was quite enough to tell if someone has the ability to play an instrument, I find that strange. I did have a student once who really couldn't, but it took many lessons to see that.
I think the music instructor was turned off by my know-it-all attitude, my overbearing snottiness, and my stubborness...LOL. I'm not sure it was a musical aptitude decision. :)
Stan Getz-- definitely one of the all time greats! I do play sax, so I have a litany, well, a short list, of favorite players. But I was introduced to Stan Getz by my high school band director. Not personally....anyway...I actually play more classical on sax, which is why I took up bassoon for college. but I have done big band playing, which I enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure one lesson was quite enough to tell if someone has the ability to play an instrument, I find that strange. I did have a student once who really couldn't, but it took many lessons to see that.
I think the music instructor was turned off by my know-it-all attitude, my overbearing snottiness, and my stubborness...LOL. I'm not sure it was a musical aptitude decision. :)
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