superpapaben
Senior Member
- Messages
- 53
So, this weekend my family I went to a restaurant with two other families. We went to the restaurant early so that our children could make some noise without disturbing anyone else. In fact, we were the only table there at the time.
Just as we were getting ready to leave a jazz band started setting up. Even though it wasn't a 'proper' jazz club, these young jazz-uns were sharply dressed. Good on them, I thought. Too many jazz players these days are so casual in their presentation. I really appreciated their presentation effort.
My two year old immediately got interested in their music. My son is really interested in music and immediately stopped playing with the other kids to focus on their music. They hadn't even started their set yet. They were just setting up and noodling around a bit. So I went up to them with my son to ask if they could play him a tune. My son wanted Wheels on the Bus, but it didn't matter what they played, he was just wanting something.
So the drummer just laughed us off and said they didn't know it and the other two just turned away and didn't even acknowledge us. They didn't suggest another tune that they could do instead; they just weren't interested. So we walked away and then left.
I just don't get it. I guess these guys are just so far away from having kids that they had no interest whatsoever in mine, which is fine. But it got me thinking. Did they not know any nursery rhymes? Or where they just too cool to play them? Its not like they were in the middle of their set. I wasn't being that guy who interrupts their performance with an oddball request.
So it struck me after they left that they would be laughing afterwards about that mid-aged guy who had the nerve to ask them to play a nursery rhyme. And what they will never know is that I've been gigging jazz for about as long as they've been alive (hopefully slight exaggeration here) and will now cross them off my list of hire-able players. Now that's not that big of a deal - I'm no heavy or anything. I'm sure they'll go on and have great careers without ever crossing paths with me again. But I did leave thinking that they hadn't learned the lesson that each gig you play is an audition for your next.
I hope they enjoyed playing to their empty room.
Super
Just as we were getting ready to leave a jazz band started setting up. Even though it wasn't a 'proper' jazz club, these young jazz-uns were sharply dressed. Good on them, I thought. Too many jazz players these days are so casual in their presentation. I really appreciated their presentation effort.
My two year old immediately got interested in their music. My son is really interested in music and immediately stopped playing with the other kids to focus on their music. They hadn't even started their set yet. They were just setting up and noodling around a bit. So I went up to them with my son to ask if they could play him a tune. My son wanted Wheels on the Bus, but it didn't matter what they played, he was just wanting something.
So the drummer just laughed us off and said they didn't know it and the other two just turned away and didn't even acknowledge us. They didn't suggest another tune that they could do instead; they just weren't interested. So we walked away and then left.
I just don't get it. I guess these guys are just so far away from having kids that they had no interest whatsoever in mine, which is fine. But it got me thinking. Did they not know any nursery rhymes? Or where they just too cool to play them? Its not like they were in the middle of their set. I wasn't being that guy who interrupts their performance with an oddball request.
So it struck me after they left that they would be laughing afterwards about that mid-aged guy who had the nerve to ask them to play a nursery rhyme. And what they will never know is that I've been gigging jazz for about as long as they've been alive (hopefully slight exaggeration here) and will now cross them off my list of hire-able players. Now that's not that big of a deal - I'm no heavy or anything. I'm sure they'll go on and have great careers without ever crossing paths with me again. But I did leave thinking that they hadn't learned the lesson that each gig you play is an audition for your next.
I hope they enjoyed playing to their empty room.
Super