Your most mind blowing experience playing trombone

[Kingfan]

My thread on strangest gigs took off and I love reading the other stories, so I'll start another thread on outstanding moments playing trombone.

Me, I've been playing for over 50 years, but one gig way back stands out. A local community college was getting off the ground. The band director recruited some high school students to fill in on the jazz band until they got a critical mass of registered college students. I was playing my King 4B/5G combo on second or third. Two weeks before the concert the bass bone player leaves and I get moved to bass. At the concert, we just clicked and played better than we had any right to. Having a young John Fechock, then a high school student, on lead bone didn't hurt. We ended with the Stan Kenton version of MacArthur Park arranged by Dee Barton. The fast part at the end, the bass tbone is in unison with the bass guitar. No rests, no place to breath, lots of pedal tones at double forte. I was grooving on the magic of the moment and putting so much air through the horn I almost passed out from lack of oxygen. Seriously - I had tunnel vision, everything was black except a very narrow band in front of my face. Best high I ever had in my life. Better than sex, drugs, or alcohol.

What's your story?

[bigbandbone]

Trading 8's, 4's, 2's with Bill Watrous at Sally's Bananas in Vegas. He could of cut me up bad, but instead we just had fun!

[GBP]

I was playing with a brass band for an Easter church service. The church has a large, like 40 voice, choir that was seated behind the band. At a point in the service, band was to play an arrangement ofThe Hallelujah chorus. The band began it’s performance, then spontaneously, the choir stood up and began to sing with us. It was amazing.

[hyperbolica]

I was playing as a ringer brought in to a local college music program and they decided to cut a brass, organ and choir album of Bruckner. We played brass choir stuff with organ and voice.

But the greatest highlight was recording some trombone trio stuff with two Eastman students standing in the middle of a big catholic cathedral with a massive pipe organ roaring and a 60 voice chorus. It was the only time I've ever heard a conductor say "More trombones, you're getting buried!" It gave me chills.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Nam ... er/21747-2

[BurckhardtS]

I'm fortunate to have made a ton of great recordings playing in CWU's Jazz Band 1. 90% of them are on YouTube. Some of them are better than others, because they're all live.

One gig that stands out to me was playing for the regional music educators conference. Having over a thousand band directors is a great audience to make great music for, and we received multiple standing ovations in the same set.

We played Brookmeyer's "Celebration Jig", Ray Brown's "My Man Willie Suite" and Darcy James Argue's "Flux in a Box". This was in early 2016.

For reference, most of that band is who makes up the "Cottage Vanguard" Jazz Orchestra.

I have a ton of others, but that one is really far up there.

[Driswood]

In 1989, Dave Steinmeyer directed the faculty big band during the Frederick County MD Jazz Festival. Another trombonist and I got to trade 4's with Dave on a tune. That was a kick!!!

[krahnbone]

I got to play a sold out House of Blues Boston this Halloween. Not a band I play with, just being a hired gun on the jam band scene. The crowd of costumes were a riot; I saw not one but TWO full grown Winnie the Pooh's. That was cool enough, but it got even better...

Come time for the bone solo (which I figured they'd try to breeze through, 16-32 bars and out type thing) the band brought the dynamics down and built back up with me. I actually got to tell a story!!! and then, when I was done, it felt like the place erupted. Like, people were actually paying attention. A large cap room listened to me improvise and approved enthusiastically - mind blowing.

[FullPedalTrombonist]

Playing Caravan with Andy Martin

[LeoInFL]

Members of the community symphony were selected to play an original score for 'Beauty & the Beast'. Lead dancer of the Orlando Ballet Arcadian Broad directed, choreographed and composed the whole thing. We had 3 performances, all sold out at the fancy/shmancy Dr Phillips Center in downtown Orlando. A few months later we were brought back to record the ballet music because Arcadian wanted to distribute it to other ballet houses. If you ever get a chance to maybe be part of that particular production, on the recording that's me on bass.

[Blenky]

Many years ago when I was only 15 I played the Bolero Trombone solo in the Albert Hall at a youth concert.

Had been crapping myself over it for weeks but it was note perfect with a great gliss!

Unfortunately not done anything near as exhilarating since.

[Bloo]

Got paid $100 a head to play at a local hockey arena a couple of years ago. Drums, Keyboard, and trombone.
One of my closest and best friends was on drumset, and my current boyfriend at the time was on keyboard. We played for 4 hours straight and it's the best and most intimate chemistry I've ever experienced in music. There wasn't a time where we weren't together. The dynamics, rhythm and style changes, it was all on point. Our eyes were locked the whole damn time.

I think about that performance all the time.

The other contender would be freshmen year marching competition. I was a feature soloist on "empire state of mind." I got to start my solo on a rising platform that looked like the empire state building, and with no mic. The energy was insane. I won best soloist for our class, and our band won the competition. It was an exhilarating experience, seeing less than 200 band kids scream loud enough to drown out a stadium.

[deanmccarty]

I’ve had the opportunity to play with a lot of great artists over the years like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, any many, many more... but... the gig that got me were a couple of concerts with Bill Reichenbach and Michael Davis... what a gas!

[dukesboneman]

I`ve had quite a few.
Playing a 2 Trombone set with Fred Wesley
Playing with Gino Vannelli and being asked to solo.
Playing with my Brass Quintet back in 1980 and playing the Canadian Brass version of the Canon by Pachebel in atrium of City Hall. The sound was Glorious

I was at the IAJE conference in Toronto, everyone had gone to lunch and I went into the Vendor area to try some horns without the College kids BLASTING their favorite Excerpts. At the Bach booth, I tried the LT16M (I had never seem one before). I`m playing the horn softly , getting a feel for the horn. Suddenly I hear behind me "You know, They pay me to be the star at this booth. If you keep playing like that, I`m going have to worry about my job." I turn around (thinking I`m in trouble) and there standing behind me was Bill Watrous !! We talked for a while . He was a really nice guy.

[SGlong]

Back in High School in my senior year, we played in and won the Reno Jazz Festival in our division. The trumpet player/student leader/arranger of the band was Greg Adams, also a senior, later becoming known as Mr.Tower of Power. Funny thing was the director at the beginning of the year said we weren't good enough to go to Reno. We got better. In college, I got to meet and talk with Urbie Green, Frank Rosolino and even backed up Bill Watrous once.

[tbonepar]

My most mind-blowing moment was not something to brag about. I never studied music, but I've played a lot. A whole lot. As my teacher (a retired alumnus of the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras) tells me, I'm a good semi-professional amateur. He described my recent pre-pandemic performance of the Morceau Symphonique with a local community band as objectively good - emphasizing that he didn't mean "good for an amateur." When I followed with: "but not quite to the exacting standards you hold for the term "professional", he nodded affirmatively and added, "but still good trombone playing by any standard." I agree with his assessment. That was about as good as I can play. It's who I am behind a mouthpiece, and I'm cool with that.

Such a detailed and precise description of my playing level is key to understanding my story. I was the hotshot bone player in my high school band. The bus ride to elementary school took me past the local farmer's market in the middle of the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid. Whigham's Farm was a local fixture known for its corn. It wasn't until my senior year that I learned about the prodigy of the same name who toured with the Miller Band while walking the same halls and rehearsing in the same band room as I was.

Fast forward 10 or so years. I'm fully engaged in my career during the day and blowing second in a good local Society Dance Big Band. I get a call from a tenor man who had subbed a couple times in the band. His jazz quintet had booked a gig for a Brush High School class reunion and needed a trombone sub to honor the alumnus coming all the way from Germany for his reunion. I told him that I read well (I did), and I can improvise some, but how well depends on the position of the sun, moon and stars when my turn comes. In short - I'm a big band reader who can improvise a couple times a night (mostly by ear) without embarrassing myself or the band too much. Sometimes I can even sound inspired. But the more I'm called upon, the more my weaknesses are going to be exposed. He re-assured me, pointing out that all his charts were written and I wouldn't have to improvise the whole night. Then he said, no rehearsal - just show up.

I did, and it was the longest night of my playing career. I was constantly called upon to blow extended solos in pieces I never played before. I struggled to "hear" and anticipate the chord changes going on behind me . It always seemed like the bass and piano were doing some improvising of their own behind me. I tried everything, using my plunger to conceal what any other musician could hear: I was searching for the right notes as if I were playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey. I can't remember how many times I broke out in a cold sweat - now that's something I could have handled. All I could think of was how badly I was embarrassing myself in front of Jiggs.

Jiggs came out of the crowed and approached me at the start of our last break, which we spent in conversation on the bandstand. Those of you who know him personally or by reputation already know what I'm going to say next: What an incredibly nice man! Especially for someone of his stature. He and Doc Severinson (I have a couple stories about him too) were made out of the same mold. I couldn't wait to explain what kind of player I was and why I felt like a fish out of water. Jiggs put me at ease, reassuring me that I was doing just fine. He got it. We talked about Brush High School, the band directors we had (mine was also my bone teacher), and his journey to Germany. He really put me at ease. God Bless him!

We exchanged contact information (pre-internet) and kept in touch for a while. Whigham's Farm is long gone, but I'll never forget that encounter. I'll never forget that behind all that virtuosity is a fundamentally decent human being. The world is a much better place with Jiggs in it - even if he never picked up a trombone in his life.

[RustBeltBass]

Very hard to say which one was the most mind blowing one I ever did but there are a few that are definitely top contenders and that I will never forget:

Mahler 2 with Schleswig Holstein Music Festival Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach conducting.

“Faust’s Damnation” by Berlioz with Cleveland Orchestra and Charles Dutoit conducting.

[BrianJohnston]

I got to play with the Chicago Symphony for the first time on Meistersinger and Tannhauser with Janowski. I was the assistant, and could barley keep up with the dynamics of Jay, Mick, Vernon. An experience i'll never forget. Also a runner-up was performing Mahler 8 with Chicago Symphony in Ravinia with Marin Alsop.

[ParLawGod]

A few years ago I got to sit in with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra trombone section for a rehearsal/concert. Wow, what a blast! I studied with Megumi Kanda in grad. school (she's an amazing teacher, obviously), but to sit and perform next to her was the most rewarding musical experience I have ever had.