It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Got that Swing

.... so doo-whop down ... to the Middle School Band and Jazz Band concert.

My son has impressed me with his self motivated interest in playing the saxophone. I figured it would be a fleeting fancy, to be replaced by some other "hobby du jour". After all, musical instruments require practice, patience and you don't sound good just because you score a 100% on the Guitar Hero video game. You have to seriously work at it.

And of course, there is that "band geek" persona that seems to come to life when the kids enter Middle School. Not that I care about this sort of labeling - I played in the Orchestra all through school, perhaps one of the lowest form of musical geek there is. I know I loved (and still love) creating music and that's why I stuck with it all those years.

To open up the evening, the symphonic band played:

The band "uniform" - tuxedo shirts, black pants and black shoes. The shirts were specially ordered at the beginning of the year, but since the boy lives in blue jeans and white t shirts, we had to make a special trip to find black pants. Let me tell you, shopping at Kohls' on a Saturday night during the Christmas shopping season was not fun. And I don't even want to talk about what we went through to find black dress shoes in a size 7. Suffice it to say, we bought up a half size and I hope the shoes still fit him in the Spring....

Much to his chagrin, Scott and I happened to nab front row seats in the audience. And the girl next him - her parents just happened to be sitting next to us. I think their expressions say it all.


The 6th Grade Symphonic band played three pieces. I video taped a couple of snippets of their performance, but I'll spare you the details....


In addition to symphonic band, he's playing in the Lower Jazz Band (aka, the Lab Jazz Band), kind of the "starter" jazz band. At the start of school, he didn't want to play in the jazz band, but somewhere along the way he changed his mind. As the jazz bands meet at 7am before school for practice, there must be real desire to be a part of this ensemble.

I love the informality, the "coolness" of jazz....


Truthfully, I love jazz band. I've kept my opinions to myself, because I didn't want to influence my son's decision to participate. Secretly, I was thrilled to have him involved. So cue the extra proud Mom smile when he stood up for a solo:


I think he was pleased too.