Where Have You Been?

April 29, 2010

I know it’s somewhat of a huge problem when even my jazz band director asks me why I haven’t been posting lately. You see, there’s this lovely thing that many of us do at the end of the school year: AP (Advanced Placement) Testing, a series of separate four-hour tests that help me earn credits [...]

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Newbury Park High School & Project Improv Part I

March 28, 2010

It’s thirty minutes before we leave for Newbury Park: thirty-six of us are packed into our small jazz rehearsal room, staring at the unbelievable amount of  equipment in disbelief. Three amps. Forty music folders. Two keyboards. A drum set. Two basses. Some of us take a slightly extended trip to the restroom. Some of us [...]

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Launching Project Improv

March 17, 2010

Time is a common problem in jazz band. Before competitions, we constantly fret over time — is the music too long? do we have enough of it? are we speeding up? are we slowing down? But yesterday, my jazz director made an interesting remark: “If I catch anyone playing hacky-sack in the courtyard while we’re [...]

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Working With Antoinette Perry & Don Menza

February 28, 2010

Being a teenage musician in a place like Los Angeles has got its perks. I’ve got access to the Hollywood Bowl, the Baked Potato, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the California Institute of the Arts — not to mention access to thousands of musicians associated with LA-based music organizations. Nevertheless, it’s still exciting to meet [...]

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Why Did It Take Me So Long to Meet Jazz?

February 10, 2010

A friend recently gave me Jazz Profiles: The Spirit of the Nineties, a book consisting of interviews with some big names from the nineties — people like Wynton & Bradford Marsalis, Cynthia Blackman, and Joshua Redman. While the book did leave me inspired to check out a few albums (like Oscar and Benny from the [...]

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On Conspicuous Judges and Unsuccessful Auditions

January 17, 2010

I was just finishing a post about my experience so far with the combo that I’m currently in, but I’m going to be telling you about my day instead. You see, I had an audition this morning with the SCSBOA honor jazz band program. I’ve done auditions before, but only classical ones — auditions with [...]

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Resolutions!

January 9, 2010

Now that winter break’s on its last legs, it’s time to look forward to a fresh new semester and a fresh new year. Here are some of my resolutions for 2010: 1. Read. After setting down The Great Gatsby today, I realized that I haven’t picked up many jazz biographies since I started getting involved [...]

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Why This Weekend Was Crazy Enough to Write About It:

December 6, 2009

Being involved in many music programs as a high school student has its perks, but sometimes I find myself diving head first into weekends like these: 1. Saturday, 7:30 am: The SAT. There’s nothing much to say about this one except for the fact that it pretty much rendered me useless for the rest of [...]

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What Is This Thing Called Love? (It’s definitely not recording a CD.)

December 3, 2009

I recently sent in a self-recording for an All-California Jazz Band audition (check it out at CBDA.org) — it was the first time I’d ever done a recording for anything to do with jazz. Like any good musician, I waited until the weekend before the audition tapes were due to begin recording — because recording [...]

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Hanging out with Gordon Goodwin

November 9, 2009

For Gordon Goodwin, it was probably just another solo. But for me, I couldn’t fully grasp it — I was sitting on the same bench as him, watching him improvise on the keys of the old upright Yamaha that I play every morning. I was balancing myself on the edge of the bench so I [...]

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