Jammin' with the CR Jazz Band

Last night I had the awesome privilege of playing with the CR Jazz Band at Kirkwood College with guest artist Christian McBride. I was so pleased to see several of my friends, a co-worker and some fellow musicians from New Covenant Bible Church come out for an evening of big band jazz. You can click on the pic for a slideshow courtesy of John Maurice.

The concert went great and Christian McBride was absolutely phenomenal! He did things with an upright bass that I had never heard before. It was so awesome getting to jam with such a monster player like Christian. And he was a cool guy too! He played with the student band during the first half of the concert and afterwards he was debriefing with the rhythm section on how they did - an educator to boot!

I really enjoyed getting to take some solos (improv) on three of the tunes. I felt like a fish in water. We did this cool thing on Tunisia where I traded fours with Rene Ybarra on trumpet. I kinda screwed up the timing on the solo break, but it all came out ok. Broadbottom was a cool kinda ii-V7 chord structure that was a lot of fun to solo over. I wound up playing some real bluesy licks on that one. Finally, I played an alto solo on Sister Sadie an that one almost got away from me! I got so wound up I almost overplayed it. (Click here to see a clip of the GRP All Star big band performing this one. The alto player is a monster!)

Thanks to Todd & Amy, Scott & Andi, Joe & Delene, Tom & Gina, and Dave & Beth for coming out to hear the band. Special thanks to John Maurice for taking pictures! It was great to look out into the crowd and see some familiar faces! Thank you so much!!!