I have two gigs coming up in the next two weeks.

Vanessa said the other day "That means the concert is next Saturday!" We can excuse her for being surprised with the passage of time as she just gave birth to Lance, a red-haired sweetie and her first child. So although she won’t be in the sax section for the Woodinville Community Band concert at the Seattle Center next week or the Pacific Cascade Big Band at Crossroads of Bellevue the week after, she might be in the audience cheering us on.

I’ve be concentrating on the hardest parts of the song list and my solos. I will be playing a bass sax feature piece called "You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", trying to be heard over a sixty-piece concert band. I reluctantly have been playing with amplification and it sure makes it easier for me to concentrate on the music without trying to blow my brains out to be louder than the band. The concert itself will present some surprises too that shouldn’t be missed.

The Pacific Cascade Big Band is a new venture for the WCB. In it’s inaugural debut, we will be featuring sweet Sarah Funk on vocals and a number of new soloists on the Eastside. Part of the work I’ve been doing is to get my parts as the lead tenor sax player. There’s no Neil Proff to back me up this time and I owe it to the band to do a bang-up job.

In this vein I’ve been playing against recordings that are available on YouTube and on CDs that I have. Some of the songs are very challenging like Basie’s Hayburner and Two O’clock jump. And the solos are not written out, they just have the changes marked. So being able to play with the pro’s to get my voicing and timing down help. Suzy helps me to by sitting in with me on clarinet or sax and giving me very candid feedback.

I’m very excited about this Christmas season and will report back when it is competed. Hopefully I’ll have videos to post on YouTube and pictures to share.