River Cities Jazz on 3-12

What a great day and nite!  It started off with opening the cottage for the year.  This is always a sure signal of spring, and better days ahead.  Then, after settling in, there was a sectional for the sax section of RCJ, followed by one the better Friday nite dances I have ever played with this group.  The section work was much better, across the entire band. 

BUT the most pleasant suprise of the night was our "guest" drummer - the band leaders 16 year old son, Carl.  He was FABULOUS!  Time was right on, the fills and hits were exactly were they needed to be.  He did a fabulous job reading the charts, and holding the band together.  I told our leader that this is the set up....  I'm pretty sure Carl will be our drummer on the Europe tour.  Which is good, he earned it last night.

I have pretty much shaken the playing demons of yesteryear, and have finally gotten it through my head that one has to play from the heart when improvising.  I will continue to keep parts clean, but my focus has to be on using more scales and tone colors in solos - I feel much more at peace with my playing.