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Saturday May 4, 2002
We (the Airmen of Note) played this great gig last night at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage with Dave Steinmeyer. What a freaking great player and great guy.
In the days rehearsal for the gig, he had brought in this chart on Zip City that Watrous used to do which is a really super fast 24-bar blues, and he wanted to play it with me, you know, trade fours and do a capella choruses with the other playing a bass line. Of course he was ridiculous - sounded really great - but the really wonderful thing was that I think that the reason he wanted to do the tune with me was not so he could cut me or anything, but that I got this distinct feeling that he really wanted to me play great.
And so I started thinking, what a wonderful gift. I mean, here's this guy who played a huge part in making the reputation of the Airmen of Note, an honest-to-goodness celebrity, and he comes back and the first thing he wants to do is to show everyone how great I am and the rest of the band. The typical thing some celebrity trombone guy would do is come in and try to sabotage Ben, Jeff and I; but Steinmeyer is truly a fabulous guy. What an honor it is to know him and to gotten to have played with him...
Speaking of great guys, Shawn's dad, Randy Purcell, was at the gig. Randy is one of the best lead bone players of all time (probably Maynard Ferguson's most well-known trombonist), and also one of the stand-up dudes of all time. If you were going to have lunch with someone, Randy would have to be in the top ten of the most interesting & fun people on the planet. Great guy.
He always tells me I sound great, but I've heard the guy play and he's the master.
So what a day yesterday; I got to hang out with, in all reality, two of the best lead trombone players on the planet. Which is weird, because almost the identical thing happened to me in January at the International Association for Jazz Education convention in Long Beach, CA. My buddy Timmy plays Vintage One trumpets designed by Fred Powell, and he was going to dinner with some of the United Musical Instrument folks. He asked me along, and I'm thinking, great I get to listen to trumpet lugheads talk about leadpipes and bell flares and stuff. Then we're in the lobby waiting for the UMI folks, and up walks John Fedchock and Ed Neumeister (gulp).
So another situation where I'm having dinner with a couple of the best jazz trombonists around. How lucky can I be.
Slater, Joe
©2003, Joe Jackson. All rights reserved.