"Alone" on trombone? Are you trying to be stupid?

[tbdana]

How do you adapt an African hip-hop tune for a jazz trombone player? I dunno either, but this is my attempt.

When I first mentioned wanting to record some tunes, my amazing spouse Theresa was instantly on board, but insisted that "Alone" by Burna Boy, from Wakanda Forever, be one of them. Um, okay, I guess? Never would I dream of defying my spouse's wishes no matter how square peg/round hole they are. So here it is. What's here doesn't showcase my trombone playing, or jazz, or anything at all. It is merely a loving tribute to my incredible spouse.

The monotone melody was impossible to make sound good on trombone, so this is a mashup of "Alone" and my own "Reflection."

I have no idea if anyone but her will like it, and frankly it doesn't matter so long as she likes it. And she does.





Huge thanks to the following wonderful musicians:

Jacam Manricks - Alto Flute
Steve Homan - Acoustic Guitar
Joe Gilman - Keyboards
Ben Kopf - Electric Bass
Tim Metz - Drums
Kamau Mensah - Percussion
Dave Rollins - Bass Trombone
Emma McCallister - Violin
Jina Chen - Violin
Theresa Douglas - Co-producer/Inspiration/Muse
Peter de Leon - Enginner

Recorded at The Track Shack in Sacramento, California

[harrisonreed]

Wow that venue looks awesome to record in. What a great group of musicians, and I love this concept! Your sound on the solo trombone is fantastic, and the lines move really well. I love the scoops. The flute solo also sounds awesome.

I'm not sure if you're looking for serious critiques here or just sharing, but I would say keep on recording interesting stuff like this.

[tbdana]

Wow that venue looks awesome to record in. What a great group of musicians, and I love this concept! Your sound on the solo trombone is fantastic, and the lines move really well. I love the scoops. The flute solo also sounds awesome.

Thank you! It's a nice recording space, for sure. And the musicians are fantastic. They are the A-List in this region, for sure.

I'm not sure if you're looking for serious critiques here or just sharing, but I would say keep on recording interesting stuff like this.

I'm just sharing. Not interested in critiques. It is what it is, and it was my best effort to convert an African hip-hop tune to something that didn't sound completely stupid on trombone. It's done. There is nothing to be gained at this point by giving me notes. I would love to hear whether people like it or not, whether they think my attempt to dive into this genre worked or not, but I'm not into critiques. Besides, I barely play anything in this. There's not much to critique.

OTOH, I'd love to hear nice comments if wonderful music-loving people like it. But criticisms you can keep to your ugly know-nothing self! LOL!

[harrisonreed]

Looool!!! Not enough people are putting themselves out there, but you are. I love the mixed ensemble. You have a "voice" (like, what you mentioned people might be trying to find for themselves in that one thread) on the ol' trombone, and it rocks.

[tbdana]

Looool!!! Not enough people are putting themselves out there, but you are.

See, I don't get this. Why isn't everyone "putting themselves out there?" I mean, if you don't want to be heard then the trombone is a pretty stupid instrument to take up. Let's all share with each other what we love to do so much!

I've played for literally millions of people over my life. They've all heard me play. Doesn't make much sense at this point to worry about what people might think. Besides, their negative opinions of me are none of my business.

But thank you for the kind words. They do mean a lot. <3

[imsevimse]

I like your recordings. If interested I have a link in my profile to a recording I did during Corona. This at least proves I'm not shy and that you are not "Alone" to have posted recordings . Keep posting your great recordings

/Tom

[tbdana]

I like your recordings. If interested I have a link in my profile to a recording I did during Corona. This at least proves. I'm not shy and that you are not "Alone" to have posted recordings . Keep posting your great recordings

/Tom

Tom that was a wonderful recording! I'll forgive you for playing it on an instrument even stupider than that trombone. LOL! But you have a nice sound, you're incredibly musical (which I think is the hardest thing to do, very impressive), you play very nice jazz, and you have good chops. What's not to love? Thank you for sharing that and keep putting yourself out there!

[TomWest]

That’s really great, nicely done! Now I have a song worm that won’t leave me alone.

[hyperbolica]

See, I don't get this. Why isn't everyone "putting themselves out there?"

Well, the recording stuff is both a technical and an expense barrier.

Second, not everybody has a built-in band.

Also most of us have more enthusiasm than talent, and the criticism is sometimes discouraging, or at least the fear of criticism, or maybe its just the self-criticism.

I'd love to put out more stuff, but the planets have to align to get the right players playing the right arrangement on a good recording setup.

[Nomsis]

Looool!!! Not enough people are putting themselves out there, but you are.

See, I don't get this. Why isn't everyone "putting themselves out there?" I mean, if you don't want to be heard then the trombone is a pretty stupid instrument to take up. Let's all share with each other what we love to do so much!

I've played for literally millions of people over my life. They've all heard me play. Doesn't make much sense at this point to worry about what people might think. Besides, their negative opinions of me are none of my business.

But thank you for the kind words. They do mean a lot. <3

I think I can add much more musical value to the world when playing live for other people. I sometimes record myself during practice but often times I don't even listen to it by myself (except when I want to find out something specific about my playing) and it is just polluting my phone storage. Making a good recording is a lot of effort and needs some extra skills and equipment, I rather spend my limited time on practicing and my money on buying new instruments (questionable tactics, I know
I think there is so much great music recorded and so many musicians much more talented than me are recording music everyday. All the music recorded needs someone to listen to it otherwise it's completely meaningless. I leave it to the more amazing players to put out some recordings to the general public.
Don't get me wrong, I like my playing in general and don't think I sound terrible or something and I indeed think I can add musical value to situations and to peoples life but that is when playing live for them. The momentariness of the music is what gives the value to it.
I also sometimes value good recordings of concerts I play with a nice group, but that is only personal value because it helps keeping alive the memory of the good time I had playing and preparing with these people. But this shouldn't be to much either, otherwise it gets lost again in the meaninglessness of the masses on my storage.

Sorry for going a little off topic answering this question. Great playing of course!

[tbdana]

Nomsis, I get where you're coming from. I just wish more folks would share their playing here. I, for one, would love to hear people. I enjoy each and every recording people share here, even if its on an iPhone, and even if it's music I don't care for. I like hearing my fellow trombonists playing what they like to play. Genre doesn't matter, equipment doesn't matter, playing level doesn't matter. I wish people were as free with sharing their playing as they are their love of equipment.

One thing you wrote struck me:

I think there is so much great music recorded and so many musicians much more talented than me are recording music everyday. All the music recorded needs someone to listen to it otherwise it's completely meaningless. I leave it to the more amazing players to put out some recordings to the general public.

If everyone felt that way, we'd never have anything recorded, ever.

For me, there is only one criterion to recording: Do you have something to say? If you do, record it and put it out there in the universe, because I guarantee there are others who want to hear what you have to say.

[Kbiggs]

A very nice tribute to a loving spouse.

[WilliamLang]

Plenty of people here are recording and sharing, just not on this site, as it doesn't often give a ton of feedback. Maybe that will change though!

A lot of people do have their own youtube pages or other media pages for sharing though. As for making professional recordings, it is a money pit for classical and jazz music, and kind of hard to justify 5-6k on an album that will never make that back. For freelancers also, sometimes it's not good to have a project, or outside interests, as it makes you seem busier than you might be.

[tbdana]

For freelancers also, sometimes it's not good to have a project, or outside interests, as it makes you seem busier than you might be.

Interesting. It has always been my experience that the busier players are most in demand.

[WilliamLang]

I remember reading Dave Taylor's article Risk in the ITF magazine, about how he kept the various parts of his career at arms length from each other for professional reasons. Could be more of a NYC thing, but I also remember how it took me more than a few years in the city to even learn who some of the main freelancers were, because they had such low profiles. Could also be that once you get established highly enough, you're afforded more opportunities to step out.

[tbdana]

Plenty of people here are recording and sharing, just not on this site, as it doesn't often give a ton of feedback. Maybe that will change though!

A lot of people do have their own youtube pages or other media pages for sharing though. As for making professional recordings, it is a money pit for classical and jazz music, and kind of hard to justify 5-6k on an album that will never make that back.

Here you seem to be arguing that people share recordings a lot.

For freelancers also, sometimes it's not good to have a project, or outside interests, as it makes you seem busier than you might be.

Here you seem to be arguing that sharing recordings could be harmful to one's career. (I actually think it's the opposite, in that sharing recordings is a form of self-promotion and raises awareness.)

I remember reading Dave Taylor's article Risk in the ITF magazine, about how he kept the various parts of his career at arms length from each other for professional reasons. Could be more of a NYC thing, but I also remember how it took me more than a few years in the city to even learn who some of the main freelancers were, because they had such low profiles.

Here you seem to not be making any argument at all about sharing recordings, but are saying freelancers in NYC keep their gigs close to their vest. That may be true and is probably a good thing for them if that's how they feel, but I don't see how this relates to posting recordings in this forum. Maybe you're saying you can't hide if you're posting recordings? And I don't see a lot of NYC freelancers here (maybe they're just hiding so I don't fly to NYC and steal their gigs).

Anyway, it all seems to sound like an anti-sharing opinion, to the extent I understand it. And I have to say, I'm having a bit of trouble distilling all this down to a simple point or argument that I can understand. Care to help a girl out with that? Dumb it down for me like I only have two brain cells, and one is on holiday. What are you saying about me wanting people to share more of their playing here? Especially since your arguments seem to all be focused on professionals, and the vast majority of folks here are not professional players.

Look, to distill: my opinion is that we're all trombonists here, and I would love to see recordings/performances posted by more people. I think this is a safe space for that, and it's about sharing what we all love to do. What we all do together in real life. I want to encourage people who may be afraid, or who might lack confidence in their playing. It's safe here, no one trashes anyone who posts, and I for one am interested in hearing what people are doing, no matter their level or interests. Your posts seem to be arguing against that somehow, but I guess I'm just not smart enough to understand exactly what you're saying. I'm probably the only one, but I'm not afraid to admit when I don't understand something, and I'm not afraid to ask for clarification.

[harrisonreed]

I think he means that having a non-paying project or interests outside gigs will make the freelancer feel like they are actually busy, when they actually are not.

[WilliamLang]

I'm sorry, I was not trying to argue here, was just attempting to share an experience I've seen. I've found that back and forth conversations here tend to go south and get personal too quickly, and both text and forum speak aren't my best mediums for communication.

[tbdana]

I'm sorry, I was not trying to argue here, was just attempting to share an experience I've seen. I've found that back and forth conversations here tend to go south and get personal too quickly, and both text and forum speak aren't my best mediums for communication.

I’m not trying to argue either, just saying understand. All good.

[Savio]

That was beautiful playing Dana!! And a very good band around you! Even a nice bass trombone there and flute together with trombone is always beautiful. Nelson Riddle used that a lot in his music and arrangements. About sharing recordings I think it's great. I started an youtube channel long time ago because my mother wanted to listen me play when she was sick in hospital. Took it away when she died but then there was some people asking to get them back. So there they are. But they are on an amateur level in every aspect. Not like yours Dana which in my ear sounds very professional.

I used to post some of my playing here some time ago and liked the good respons but also the criticism. There are some good teachers/players here and in fact I liked to hear some tips on what to work on and what is bad. Or not bad but how to maybe improve. In fact I got ideas from all kind and level of players that helps.

I think it must be up to each individual to share recordings, and I understand very well pro people decide not to do it. I think we all understand that. They are already playing for the public and are payed to do so.

Anyway, in the end we play for others to listen, so put it up here, youtube or play for everyone. Mothers, father's, aunts.....

Nice to listen your good sound Dana!

Leif

[Savio]

You sound young and you look young.

Leif

[tbdana]

You sound young and you look young.

Leif

You are now my favorite person!

I'm 68 and feel every minute of it.

[Savio]

You sound young and you look young.

Leif

I'm 68 and feel every minute of it.

Oh no, you are 25 and a fresh breath in to this forum!
Honest, and not afraid to tell what you think. It's like a fresh wind inside here! Enjoy every minute.

Leif

[Doug Elliott]

Nice job, but honestly that tune does nothing for me.

[tbdana]

Nice job, but honestly that tune does nothing for me.

This is the kind of reaction I expected.