New York, New York

Hear the Shorewood High Jazz Band's recordings from Essentially Ellington!

Check out some pix from the trip, since I won't be posting any!

Finally, the big trip!!! We got up at like 4 on Wednesday (the 14th of May) to get to the airport by 5:20. Once we were there, Mr. Harshman told us to go to the terminal and stay there, but Chris and I decided to ride the tram back to see if we could find some better food than they had at the terminal. The first door that opened, in walked Mr. Harshman! Busted! So we had to eat Burger King after all. The plane ride was okay; I got some Tactics Ogre played. Once we landed in New Jersey we had to drive to the hotel which took forever--luckily Brad had some hella tight rap that we could listen to on the way there. We got to the hotel, then went to dinner and John's Pizzeria, an awesome place that gives us as much pizza as we want. They are really good to us and we get to sit on the top floor so it's really cool. Around 10:30, we met up to take the subway to Greenwich Village to go to the Village Vanguard jazz club, where we saw trumpeter Tom Harrell, who no one has heard of (not even die-hard jazz fans). He was really good, and schizophrenic. He was strange and would go catatonic (not moving) for long periods on the stage while the others were soloing, and his voice was really weird. Cool. We got back very late that night, which was actually technically not so late considering the additional 3 hours that we gained upon our arrival in New York.

Thursday: Got up crazy late, like 11 or 12, since we had to be in the lobby by 1. We got lunch from th3 Hello Deli, the most awesome deli in all of New York because of its cheap prices, awesome owner, and delicious food. After lunch, we got all dressed up and headed over to the Lincoln Center. First we got to ask Wynton [Marsalis] some questions, and then we had sectionals (mine was a rhythm sectional, of course). The dudes were very cool, even when we got up and played and completely messed up (DIMITER!!!) on a simple blues form. After that we had some time for lunch and then later it was back again for a sweet banquet and jam session. They seat you by instrument so I got to meet some other piano players, most of whom were not incredibly weird. I sat next to Dan Nimmer, the pianist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (!!!!) and got to talk to him the whole time. He is kind of quiet and wears thick-rimmed glasses, kind of like a cross between Bill Evans and Woody Herman. He is a hardcore gamer!!!!!11! He is also such a badass piano player that his skill cannot be described with words. You guys should have heard him. He is amazing.
Anyway, after the banquet I got my name called to jam on the first tune, C Jam (ha!) Blues. It was super fun and I had a really good solo so it was a great time. We stayed late watching the rest of our entrants jam. Then we went back, stayed up too late, and finally went back to bed.

Friday: Today was the first day of the actual competition. We got up, had a good breakfast (and a fast one, at that) and dressed in our nice clothes to head over to the Lincoln Center. The first bands that we heard...were frankly not so great, but it was really fun to see how excited everyone was. Every band got a standing ovation, both to show respect for them making it that far and also (and, I suspect, to a greater degree) to kiss up to Wynton and the other judges. Now, at this point I'm not exactly sure of what we did so I might have to edit it later, but that night we went to go and see Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater. Some people thought that it was gay or that it sucked balls...but all I have to say is WOW!!!! It was an awesome performance: breathtaking music, delicious visual scenery and chillingly good acting. If you ever get the chance to see it, don't hesitate. Although as Brad put it, "it would have been nice if we could have been close enough to see THE FACE!!! [of the Phantom after taking off his mask].

Saturday: TEH BIG DAY!!11!! We got up early and got all dressed up in our suits and headed over to the Center. Everyone was super nervous. My grandma came but Charlie wouldn't let her near the band until after we played our performance (and I later learned that for every band after ours she commented that 'that piano player wasn't very good!!' even though most of them were uber pr0 and could have been real pr0s). We had to wait around all hot and nervous for a while and then we were let into a room where we had a little sectional with Ted Nash, uber-badass saxophone player and composter (lo @ typo--he's a writer of music, not a person who breaks down waste).
Finally it was our time to go. We were excited and kind of messed up the first song. The second song started with my solo, which was all right...but not so great looking back on it since Mr. Harshman kind of browbeat me on it all the time and never let it develop into me. But whatevs. The third song was uber-killin'!!! After that we heard Garfield play. And they kicked ass of course, but what do you expect? Finally, after all the bands, the judges gave their ruling...Sun Prairie from Wisconsin in third, Garfield in second, and Roosevelt in first. GOD DAMMIT!!!, we all said. It's true that Roosevelt sat down and swung harder than we did, but we actually played a lot of stuff better than Garfield...we couldn't help but think that the reason we lost might have been political (i.e. can't have three schools from Washington in top three). We got "honorary mention", which equals fourth place, but we still can't help but feel like we've been robbed somehow. Eh...sux.
That night was the huge mega last concert of the three bands and also the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. All the bands were good and the JALC was uber killing!!! Dan Nimmer's skill is incredibly prodigious, by which I mean good. He is like Boxer on a piano (!!!!!!). After that it was a late night so we went to bed (by whcih I mean that we went to our beds and then ten minutes later opened our eyes to a vision of Sam's glowing Kanye glasses, and then I would swear at Sam and turn on the light and fight him until we were both tired and then we would all be able to go to bed. This happened every single night that we were there).

Sunday: OMFG SITESEEING!!!!!! We got a bus tour thing that Harshman had bought for us and rode the double-decker bus all over New York while a tour guide yelled a lot and said some things that were actually pretty funny. He got really pissed at people who didn't immediately duck or sit down since there were signs that were actually at decapitation level. It rained but Chris and I weathered it. Actually I think it was Dan. Or...someone. Meh. After that we had to dick around by ourselves (Times Square, TV, assorted other stuff) until we left for Birdland around 8 to see the CHICO O'FARRILL AFRO-CUBAN ORCHESTRA, led by Arturo O'Farrill, the cool pianist who we played with in New York last year (looks kind of like Venusaur now that I think about it). They were awesome and he could really pound that piano into the ground. About half the band stayed for the free second set, until like 12. We all walked back to the hotel and on the way back Mr. Harshman wanted to get pizza so we did. I didn't pay for it but he said "Davis, you're a senior, have some" so I did. Wow now I'm actually super hungry even though it's 11 at night. Blah. We finally got to crawl into our beds and sleep at like 2 o'clock (no actual sleeping until probably 3 because of the fight with Sam. Near the end of our last midnight battle, Sam threw me on top of my bed, where he had unknowingly left the glowing glasses that had started the whole thing. I landed with a crack and revealed the shattered glasses to a very disappointed Sam (it's called karma, bitch))>:

Monday: Woke up early ish and got all packed and loaded on our bus to go to South Seaport, a really boring mall and food court where we had to kill 2 or 3 hours before going to the airport. While we were eating there, a super nerdy glasses-wearing eighth grader opened a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and exclaimed to his friend, "these are POWERFUL cards!!!" Of course, we all started laughing, Brad especially. The kid said, "what are you laughing at?" to which Brad replied, "what, you want to GO??" and stood up. The kid said nothing more and left quickly. Other than that, it was uneventful except for the the fact that everyone made fun of my sister a lot, especially Dimiter.
Finally we got to the airport and bid goodbye to New York. All I did the whole freaking time was play Tactics Ogre, which is an awesome game. It was a magnificent trip with a good ending.