I go way back with the trombone, all the way back to sixth grade, through a top-notch high school band program and on through college, playing at a pretty high level in small groups, a Big 10 orchestra, jazz band, and subbing in a nearby professional symphony. I took one audition after college and crashed and burned big time. It was kind of traumatic. Also, I needed a job and an apartment, and help with a serious depression.
That was thirty years ago and I haven't played much since. Played a gig with Eugene's great hardcore band The Pass Out Kings, and quite a few one-off gigs with my pal Dave's indie band, Testface. I've added horn to a few of my songs in the studio, too.
My main opportunity to play in KC has been with Drop A Grand, and that's pretty rare because you have to get in shape pretty good to play a half hour of blistering art punk. Your lips will die after one song. So I usually wuss out and that is LAME!
So for this show tonight with DAG, I started practicing every day about two weeks ago, just playing along with my Favorite Jams playlist on Spotify. Minor Threat, Ali Farka Toure, Michael Rother--whatever comes up. I could hold up for five minutes at first, then ten. Now I can play without splatting out and total loss of embouchure for thirty or forty minutes.
It's actually kind of hard to play along with Minor Threat on the trombone, so you just tumble along like a busted lawn chair in a flash flood. Figure out the key, hit the bass notes. But so much of the music I studied years ago was really remote. Tchaikovsky--what can you do with the trombone part for a Tchaikovsky symphony in your home, or with your friends?
It's like having a fragment of a watch or hard drive or engine assembly. You really have to put in extra logistical effort to keep that skill set alive, joining a community symphony or band. I am a firm believer in education teaching us how to learn, how to get along in a team environment with discipline and give and take--so no regrets. Music should be part of education. Classical music and it's coarse-haired bratwurst-chomping nephew, symphonic band music, are fantastic labs for learning. I'm grateful.
Anyway, yesterday, I played along with some Bunny Lee dubs and, even more fun, The Best of Muddy Waters. The other day I played along with an Afro-Calypso album by the Andre Tanker Five. Great fun. Something about practicing a wind instrument is really physical and grounding. You are the source of the vibration. It's like chanting or meditating if you let it be. And for all the music I've made and played, I can't say that I play along with records that much. I've started doing that--it's fun.
