1saxman
07-22-2003, 02:00 AM
Been playing gigs for over 40 years, and just thought I'd relate my weekend.
Friday night; Off, so went to see the Ray Charles Show. He had his big band there, and they were alright. Every sax on stage was new. The 1st tenor man had a matte Series III, but I couldn't make any of the others. They were all good except the leader, the 2nd alto man - he had a nasty, thin tone and his intonation was all over the place. Thankfully, he only took one ride. Both tenors had fat tones and took some pretty cool breaks. Ray was Ray. Must be 70 now and still swings.
Saturday; Left home at 2 pm and arrived at the big outdoor gig at 4:00. Started at 8 with my regular band, a nine-piece R&B show. I play tenor, alto and soprano there. No charts - we have them, but we refuse to have stands on stage. I mean, either you know 'Pick Up The Pieces' or you don't. About 2000 people down by the river throwing down. Got home at 3:30 am Sunday.
Sunday; Left at 12 noon for a special practice for a side job in October. Practice was in a club that I thought would have been closed for business, but turned out to have about 25 yokels hanging out. The good news was, I get to play all my horns because I'm the only horn on the gig! That means I can do some dual saxes and bari in addition to tenor, alto and soprano. Practice goes great, considering interruptions for requests, and I get a handful of instrumentals - 'Georgia' (speaking of Ray) in 'F' on bari, 'Summertime' in Am on sop, 'Honky Tonk', etc. Finally end my weekend at 6 pm.
Monday; In the office at 8:30.
Friday night; Off, so went to see the Ray Charles Show. He had his big band there, and they were alright. Every sax on stage was new. The 1st tenor man had a matte Series III, but I couldn't make any of the others. They were all good except the leader, the 2nd alto man - he had a nasty, thin tone and his intonation was all over the place. Thankfully, he only took one ride. Both tenors had fat tones and took some pretty cool breaks. Ray was Ray. Must be 70 now and still swings.
Saturday; Left home at 2 pm and arrived at the big outdoor gig at 4:00. Started at 8 with my regular band, a nine-piece R&B show. I play tenor, alto and soprano there. No charts - we have them, but we refuse to have stands on stage. I mean, either you know 'Pick Up The Pieces' or you don't. About 2000 people down by the river throwing down. Got home at 3:30 am Sunday.
Sunday; Left at 12 noon for a special practice for a side job in October. Practice was in a club that I thought would have been closed for business, but turned out to have about 25 yokels hanging out. The good news was, I get to play all my horns because I'm the only horn on the gig! That means I can do some dual saxes and bari in addition to tenor, alto and soprano. Practice goes great, considering interruptions for requests, and I get a handful of instrumentals - 'Georgia' (speaking of Ray) in 'F' on bari, 'Summertime' in Am on sop, 'Honky Tonk', etc. Finally end my weekend at 6 pm.
Monday; In the office at 8:30.