June 29: Alto Solo

I was asked by the conductor of the Ipswich Summer Band to play a solo for one of the concert pieces, an arrangement of "Strangers of the Night" by Frank Sinatra. I said yes, especially because the song is slow and the solo is a familiar tune and contains no sixteenth notes or anything crazy. Tuesday was our first group practice, and we ended with playing my solo song. I messed up one note at the beginning (stupid F natural) but otherwise, I think I played fairly well. I realized this was the first time I have ever played a solo for an entire song accompanied by an entire concert band. It really was a delightful experience, and I am thankful that I was asked and trusted to do this. I will definitely be practicing this like crazy so I am super comfortable and familiar with the song before the concert, but I have high hopes (and surprisingly a good amount of confidence) that I will do just fine. And of course, for the rest of the concert I am playing Alto Sax 1, just like in the Rockport Legion Band. While I very much miss playing Bari Sax in these groups, it is a fun new experience to be playing such technically challenging melodies (bari sax parts, admittedly, are super easy). It's also different to be listening for the clarinets to match their part (as a bari sax player, I am used to listening for the trombones and tubas). All of these volunteer community bands are finding difficulty in building themselves back up after the pandemic, and I am happy to help out with instrumentation to play Alto Sax (I was the sole sax player in the Ipswich band last night, and supposedly one more will be joining me for the concert). It is just delightful to be playing any kind of music right now, in any group, playing any instrument I can!

For the record, the Ipswich concert is Saturday July 24 at 4pm at the Ipswich common. 🎵

With delight,

♥Jamie