| DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!!!!!!!!!
Berklee (sp?) was wickigaw!!!!!!!!!!! We had 2 great run throughs on Friday (second one better than the first). Napped a little on the way to Dick's Last Resort (which was ok, we had a bad waiter, sat at teh end of a table, and the girls accross from us kept leaving), and then Shear Madness. If you ever get the chance, see it. I won't give it away, except to say that you should pay attention, even though it isn't really important that you do (you'll just feel better if you do), so go see it. It's like...half improv, half scripted, lots of satire. Then, we went to BERKLEEEEE. Watched CCY first ("Huntin' Wabbits", yay!) Then Vocal Jazz. "Chili Concarnate" was pretty good, but it was either the number of times I've heard that or something missing that made it feel...less than superb. Then...i forget the name, but some slow ballad about love, which was good, and then "Trickle Trickle". With Josh's solo (that earned him the judges choice award for that group) and Lisa's sax solo (A high A?!?) it was fun. And then the best one: a cool arrangement of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it A'int Got that Swing)" With Liz featured (winner of the judge's choice award last year, and the Superior Musician of the class). It has given me chills EVERY time I've heard it, it's so awesome.
Then...combo. Luke and Lisa can solo pretty well. In their last song "Straight, No Chaser" Lisa and Luke were "trading fours" (playing 4-measure-long solos) and for one of Luke's, he just played a really high note for the whole four measures. Lisa should've whipped out her HIGH A, but she said after that she was too afraid. Alex Auger (bass) won the judge's choice award, which is really nice for him. He really can be a decent guy sometimes, making me wish we had more in common. (i'm gonna take my tie off now).
Then lunch, and watchin Stamford (I think), and then another band. by then I really wanted to play, and I was gettin nervous/hyper, cuz the second band was in our room, right before us. They finished, and I got to play and warm up. and then we played our set, and we were awesome. Then stuff happened, and now I'm home.
So, the biggest news: I can improvise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was practicin the roots a whole lot, and then in our first run through of Friday, I played my solo (not the written one) and it felt ok to me, but I didn't really know (I had been "improvising" all week (aka playing random notes, and every solo was a little worse than the last one)), and then the song ended, and the piano player, Dana said "That was awesome, Nate!" It freakin made my day. I told her so today and gave her a hug. Cuz then, after that, in the second run-thru, I played the solo again, but with confidence, and it was even better! And then at Berkley, apparently I was amazing again!!!! I'm gonna watch the video my mom made of us tomorrow and find out what I played. I can't say definitively, but I think improvising is like drugs. i've found out that improv is my creative outlet. it's like WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. If I'm ever down, I can remember what it felt like and be hyper! I can't even express it in words, so I'll just have to improv again to show what I feel.
ok, now it's time for me to pass out. I'll be regaining consciousness in time to go to pit orchestra at 12:30, woot |
