Drummers and Trumpets ARRRGGGG!!!!!!!!!!

[JPrince]

Most of you guys already probably know what I mean by my subject, but I am going to tell a little story of a HS Jazz band gig we did last night (May 8). The little kiddie bands opened up first, and then the High School Jazz Band closed it off. We (Jazz Band) did 8 songs: Heatseeker, Route 66, Caravan, A Nightengale Sang in Berkeley Square, Soul Bossa Nova, Ain't Misbehavin', Georgia on My Mind, and In the Mood. The first three went off without a hitch, and then they struck. The scurge of the Jazz ensemble: The Early trumpet and the lost drummer [insert tympany music here]. We kicked off Soul (which by the way is theme from Austin Powers) and the trumpet came in early, throwing the band off by a beat. Then when we got back together, the drummer got lost. Arrg. We pulled it off though pretty well, but the drummer for the next one was still in la-la land.

After that. we kicked off Ain't Misbehavin (using a Paul Lavender arrangement) and halfway through the song, the drummer kicked off his solo. For two bars it was great, and then he BIFFED it, and I mean Biffed it. And then the trumpet section was listening for him, and botched their entrance too. About 8 bars later, the piano and the drummer kicked off the accompaning line while I did my solo on Bari sax (A bari solo. In high school! Weeeeeeee lol). And halfway through my solo, he got lost and just stopped playing for like a measure, and....arrg. I kept my solo (the latter half improved due to my glasses fogging up :) ) on the beat, and the band got back together. Still sounds pretty great.

Then we did In the Mood. After the saxes kick off the melody (the part that the words are "Who's the livin' dolly with the beautiful eyes?") The drummer got ahead one beat. Arrg. It sounded good to the audience, but those of us in the band could tell he was off. After the Alto Lead, Tenor Lead solos, he got back in sync, and we finished it out well.

So, has anyone had problems with these two little.... um....pests of the Jazz Band world?

[Mike Ruhl]

Only all of us. What did your band director do? When I was in the high school jazz band (back in the day, mid-1970s), our director would have replaced that drummer on the spot.

[JPrince]

At the time our director was playing trombone with us, and no one else new the drum part, so there was nothing that could be done. But, to my knowledge, the drummer has since been, shall we say, fired.

[Mike Ruhl]

I'm hearing of a lot of that going on - directors sitting in with the band for performances. When I was in school, we never saw that, and I attended in several districts across the country. For jazz band, the director would count off to get us started, then walk off to the side. The years when we had particulary strong lead altos, he didn't even do that. We never had anyone directing us for marching band either, other than the drum majors. I see more and more marching bands being directed, too. What's up with that? Don't the directors teach the kids how to listen and pay attention out there any more?

But back to the point...the best story I have similar to yours is about one of our "percussionists". The symphonic band was rehearsing on a piece that had a lot of percussion. Ralph was playing a suspended cymbal, and missed his cue in a very obvious place. The band director, who was wrapped pretty tight, stopped the band, and hollered, "Ralph, what are you doing? It's on "1", for crying out loud!".

To which Ralph meekly replies, "I missed."

Broke us all up. From then on, "I missed" became the common answer whenever someone screwed up.

[Frank D]

JPrince, you seem to have had a lot of kick offs in that concert, are you sure you weren't at a football game? :wink:

[JPrince]

Well, our director did say have more fun than the audience :)

[phathorn]

Remember the old addage....


Q: "What do trumpet players use for birth control?"


A: "Personality"

[JPrince]

Amen to that!

[IanJ]

I've had similar experiences with drummers in Marching band but the guy we use in our Jazz Band is strictly professional and I don't think I have ever seen him mess up anything. I think other then my band director who also plays the drums he's probably the only percussionist that I have respect for.(Note there is a difference between a drummer and a percussionist.)

Trumpets however are something else. We got this new guy this year. To say the least I hate this guy. He has that little ego thing going where he's a trumpet player and therefore he is god. This guys sucks though and were not exactly shy about telling him either. He messes up alot so we've just gotten used to throwing stuff at him when he does. We go to gigs and when we are about to play the song he comes in about 4 counts before the song actually starts. Then he can't play his parts unless someone plays it for him and he just tags along. He then trys to play parts that are to advanced for him parts where every note he can't hit so it sounds like someones being strangled back there. I remember once this year we gave him a solo in one of our songs to just let him go(He had been harassing the band instructor for about 4 months and he just caved). He played the Bb scale straight through. But the thing was he really wasn't supposed to be playing anyway when he did it so we kicked the volume up on the keyboard and let them drown him out until realized what was happening :lol: . It was horrible :cry: ...The solo I mean...

[tledjazz]

It's no coincidence that the most most grating personalities in the band are usually trumpet players and drummers. Each instrument has its own personality and attracts a certain personality personality type. Trumpets are usually arrogant and drummers are usually aggressive. Think Miles and Buddy Rich and you get the idea.

[Saxophrass1968]

When i was in high scholl, we woukld know if we screwed up. We would get that look from out band director, then after, the yelling would start. he was a great director, but he did demand 100% each performance. His philosophy was he would rather go out with a small band of players that were focused than a large band with players all over the place.

John

[Russty1]

Remember the old addage....


Q: "What do trumpet players use for birth control?"


A: "Personality" Haha Niiice...


Q: "Why can't Alto Sax players stay married?"


A: "Blaming it on the reed doesn't work"

[Joe Linux]

The worst situation I have saw was a college symphony orchestra being directed by Andor Toth.

http://www.cmsj.org/Musicians/musicians_toth_violin.htm

As far as I'm concerned he was one of the most pedantic individuals I have ever come across - completely lacking in a sense of humor. He was the director of the orchestra at my college. I was playing percussion, and had to do the tambourine part on Ravel's Bolero. There were about 167 measures of rest before I had to come in and there were no cue notes in the percussion part, and I would get lost counting all the measures of rest. After rehearsal, I went up to Conductor Toth and asked him if he would give me a cue. He got angry, said no, and insulted my musicianship. Well the night of the performance a big name opera star was doing the vocals, and I managed to come in a bar early. Well Toth manage to give me a cue that time. But that was not the worst of it.

Later in the year, a wonderful pianist, Lois Salgado, had won the piano concerto competition and was performing the Brahms 2nd piano concerto and as the orchestra started the 2nd movement. Everything go so screwed up that Toth actually had to stop the orchestra and start the movement over again from the beginning. It's the only time I have ever seen something like this happen in an actual performance situation.

A conductor should instill confidence in the orchestra, but this guy was about the worst I have ever seen. He had so much anxiety and distemperment that he made everyone in the orchestra extremely nervous and their playing was never particularly good as a result. Nevertheless, you can see that he has had at least a personally distinguishing career.