Music-Related News - 10/4/2006 in 2005 - 2007: High School

Here's how the jazz band is looking:

Flute: Bonnie, Ally, Emily, and a marching band freshman who I like becasuse she is already hardcore and because she listened to Joanna Newsom for more than five seconds when I showed it to her. (Listening to Joanna Newsom for more than five seconds requires an open mind.) We'll call her Nicole. Bonnie is also willing to play clarinet or (!) piccolo.

Clarinet: Some kid who I don't know but who is reputed to be very good.

Saxophone: Speedy, Mike, and a freshman bari. Speedy continues to be very enthusiastic. At one point when I thought there might be a scheduling conflict, he told me that his schedule could always be rearranged.

Trumpet: Craig, the new tuba kid, and Julian. Yeah, Julian plays the trumpet. I forget whether or not I've mentioned it before. He took it up about the same time I started trombone, and told us a month later in a very confidential, "you guys, I have something to tell you" type way. ("the trumpet confession" is on my list of most adorable things ever.)* He refused to play it in anything until he considered himself to be good enough, but I guess he is now, because when I suggested to him that he could play it in my band, he seemed pretty excited.

Low Brass: T.K, Dave, and Laura Euphonium. Laura is really excited about it and is arranging something for the group. I definitely trust her to make it good. She is a good musician, and she is also a heavy-into-theory musician.

Violin: A girl in my AP French class who is friends with Eric. She did Tri-M for a while back when it was Music in the Community, which is how I primarily know her, and how I know that she is an amazing musician. She quit because she has some sort of arch-nemesis thing going with Paul. We'll call her Zoe.

Viola: Molly, and a kid named Jack who is already the most hardcore alternative jazz bandie besides me. Besides viola, he also plays jazz piano and sings. He can scat. Well. He has offered to arrange stuff regularly and has even mentioned taking the group over once I graduate. He is pretty outgoing, and also gives the impression that he is slightly detatched from reality, so conversations with him are always kind of surreal. But I am wicked excited that he is in the group.

Guitar/Bass: Malcolm. And he's really enthusiastic about it. This was a surprise, since he is A) a better musician than I am, and B) a lot cooler than I am. But he's really going to do it. After he told me he was going to do it, he gave me some handshake/high five type thing which I was not cool enough to quite understand.

Drums: Noah, and a silent Indian kid with a beard who is in the pit in marching band and wears hooded sweatshirts in eighty degree weather. I really have no idea how good this kid is, which why I asked Noah to be a second percussionist. He said, "yeah, sure, I guess."

So... It's looking pretty good. I am still wicked excited. Practices are going to be awkward though - it turns out the only time the band room was free was Wednesday afternoons until three fifteen. At three fifteen, we have to be out of there because of elementary school all town band. So rehearsals will be short. I guess that just means I have to use my independant study to set up instead of to do my calc homework, which is what I use my independant study for every day.

Pit's started up. Four of us are quadrupling on flute though, which I think might suck. Any normal person would have just held an audition, but Mr. Thomas said he didn't want to kick any of us out. Which is good in a way. If he'd held an autition, Bonnie would have won it, and I wouldn't be in pit. And I love pit. I'm writing my college essay about how much I love pit. (It is loosely based off of a paragraph in this entry, actually.) But I'm still disappointed. I wish there were a guitar part. Playing guitar in pit was awesome.

Battle of the bands is this Friday. We had a practice for it over the weekend, and I think we're actually going to be okay. The weirdest thing about the practice was that Noah is also playing with Captain Mojo's band (who, if this is indeed a "battle," are going to kick our asses hands down) and they were hanging around playing video games while we were practicing. Occasionally they would say things like, "hey I dug that, what was that?" or "yeah, you guys should do that" or just make conversation which I was too uptight and not cool enough to go along with. (Is Julian cooler than me? I think he actually might be. Maybe he is just less self conscious.) At the end, we all jammed to the chicken. Or... everyone except me jammed, because Captain Mojo is so good that he was playing chords and soloing at the same time.

We are playing a slow ska version of "Don't Let Me Down." I think this should be cool. I'm a little nervous about singing though. I don't do that too often. We are also playing that song that we wrote. We are also playing "Night in Tunisia," which Julian is wicked excited about, and which I am a little concerned about.

"Night in Tunisia? Do you think that'll go over well?"

"No. Do you care?"

"mumble."

I think that is about it. There is really no non music-related news to speak of. Except that I have officially wasted five hours this afternoon instead of doing my AP French homework.