Currently, I have been attending jam sessions each week for about 3 weeks now in efforts to break into the Minneapolis Jazz scene. I have been playing on my Selmer Series III Soprano Saxophone pretty regularly now, in hopes of learning the instrument more and that I can meet some players. I can honestly say that I definitely enjoy meeting the players and interacting with them, whether it would be through conversation or through the jam sessions we play. My desire in this is that I would be able to be a contributor to the Jazz scene in providing music for players to play and get gigs. To do this, the vision ahead of me is to have a jazz orchestra of my own and to be able to have enough music to do at least 2 sets for a gig. Its definitely not an easy task, as I come from an orchestral background. However, nothing is impossible.
So far, I am nearing the completion of my first big band tune that I actually started back in 2016 called "Free as the Wind." This piece was written to express the parallel between the wind and people. The wind moves about in many different ways, which it can be calm, like a light breeze, or can be pretty violent, like a hurricane. The thing is, how wind behaves is never the same. People are the same way - no two people are the same(even identical twins are not the same because each twins personality is not the same). Each person has their own desires, dreams, hopes, and behaviors. Wind is a good metaphor about our lives in that, while none of us are the same, we all have a direction in life that we want to go in and that as people, we are unique. This piece will be a celebration to the uniqueness of who we are as people.
I also have started 2 other charts as of last week as well and look to complete those charts this year. I will keep you all posted on how my progress is with this goal. Stay tuned! A = 440Hz.