Doesn’t the sign say it all? It appears that I have been reduced to busking. 😆
No worries… I haven’t. 
Photography by M. Margison © 2010
Last night was an opportunity for me to play it forward—as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my tribute to him—like my friend Hans Martini always did. Deception played its first show back at the Gourmet Gallery since its reincarnation into a brand new band. Art & I are the same old, same old, but our drummer Randy, bass player Charles, and Hammond player Bob, are the new players on the team.
The house was packed as we played a pretty much non-stop 2 hour show. We stopped just long enough for Art to deal with a broken string on one of his guitars.
During our short 10 minute break, I had a chance to speak to a couple of high school students in the audience. They were sax players from one of the local schools who played in their school jazz band. One is a tenor player, while the other plays alto. They also brought a friend of theirs along who is a drummer.
Even before someone introduced me to them, I kinda’ figured they were sax players, because they took seats directly in front of the band, and were watching everything I did, and listened to every note—especially the altissimo ones—phrase, riff, and effect I was playing.
It turns out that the young woman who plays tenor had seen Deception last year when we played our last show there. When she saw our poster up again, she decided that she wanted to come and bring a couple of her friends.
These 3 students were exactly like I was when I was in high school. I wanted to go see live bands, and if the chance presented itself to talk to a sax player, I would try to do so.
I learned a lot from those few minutes of talking to pros during or after shows. That’s why when I play, I make myself accessible to players, especially young players. I would gladly give up my set break to talk to someone just starting out.
I’m obviously not going to be teaching them any saxophone techniques during my set break, but I am hopefully inspiring them to continue on with their musical studies. Yes, there is music after high school. There is a world of music out there. You just have to tap into it, and perhaps create your own opportunities. (Something bass sax players are very familiar with!)
Something I talked with them about is how I personally have never stopped learning, and how we as players continue to learn and evolve. I gave the example of a new technique of rocking between B and Bb using the bis key, that my friend Ray Myers taught me this week. It is a really great effect when done correctly.
Ray, who has been playing many years more than I have, just figured out this technique himself. I’m not sure where he got it from, but the point is, it’s something new to his repertoire of effects. For those of us who spend our lives playing solo after solo, effects like this are good because they add a new colour to our sound palette.
Our continuing education as players however, is not limited just to effects. We as players are on a continuum of learning. That is what I tried to instill in these young musicians in the few minutes that I had to talk with them. I don’t know if I was successful, but I tried.
