What is it that makes playing music so exciting? I know have tried to put this feeling into words several times in past Cadenzas, but as I continue to work and play with those colleagues whom I choose as musical companions, the question keeps arising in my mind. While feelings like love, passion, and excitement are so familiar, it is still a mystery why things like music provoke these feelings so strongly within us. Is it important to find an answer to this question? No. It is just something that I find thought-provoking. And while having no answer to this question, I can tell you about a few things that have recently led me to experience these feelings.

I began a long touring season the beginning of March when Bill Mays and I flew to San Diego to start a ten-day tour of California. We were joined for three dates by drummer Joe LaBarbera and bassist Tom Warrington, two of our favorite west coast colleagues. We opened our excursion with a quartet concert at the San Diego Museum of Art to a packed auditorium of enthusiastic Jazz fans. It was obvious from the first notes that this concert and this tour were going to be wonderful. The audience was delighted with our offering a mixture of standards and original pieces. Also special for Bill and me was being able to visit with some of our family living in San Diego and having them attend the museum concert. Among the members of my family were my Aunt Dora, age 94, and Bill’s dad, age 87, and his wife.

Joe and Tom often work together in various groups, and their playing exhibits marvelous cohesion, great sensitivity, and tremendous excitement. They are so attuned to what everyone in the group is doing musically, and they respond accordingly. Fantastic musicians and marvelous soloists, they swing their butts off and are great fun to work with!

After the concert, a friend from my North Texas days, photographer Birdie Carter, took us all to a wonderful little place in Ocean Beach for a bite of dinner and a glass or two of great California wines. We were also joined by another friend from North Texas, Joe Lowe, one of the most avid Jazz fans I know – anywhere! As musicians do, we talked at length about many things, relating our experiences with the greats like Bill Evans, Woody Herman, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and many others. Seeing and being with my two old and dear friends from Texas made my night in San Diego with this group even more special.

The second concert with this quartet took place the next night at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) Crowne Plaza Hotel. Again, there was a packed house, and it seemed that the quartet took up right where it left off the night before. When we opened the concert, we were already on fire, and it just got hotter from that point on. The feelings were so palpable, so strong, that we were all exhausted when the concert ended. But what a beautiful exhaustion it was!

Trombonist/ composer Garnett Brown came to hear us this evening. Also a former Memphian, Garnett was my band-mate in the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, wherein we, our wives included, all became close friends. I had seen Garnett in London last year when we were visiting our daughters and their families, both of whom reside in England. Garnett plays in Gerald Wilson’s band among others. He is a very dear friend, and it is always a special moment when I have an opportunity to spend time with him.

The next day, our only day off of this tour, Bill and his wife, Judy, and I drove to San Francisco where we were to perform a duo concert the following day. The concert was to take place in the home of John Sullivan, a friend of the Mays’ and also a patron of Jazz, who presents several concerts a year at his place to an invited group of guests. John was also kind enough to let us stay in his home, which made everything so much easier in dealing with a big city like San Francisco.

Bill and I played and talked for approximately two and one-half hours – one of those creative endeavors that really sticks in our minds because we were both so “on.” The audience loved the fact that as we introduced the pieces we played. We talked about the composer, related an experience to the composer or the tune, or maybe spoke of a prior performance tied to that particular piece. Our concerts always consist of contrasting materials that we carefully program to keep the audience anticipating what may come next. Otherwise - as my wife many times tells me - Jazz concerts become boring because tempos and styles of piece after piece may be too similar and the order of soloists most times seems to be the same. Keeping this in mind, Bill and I always mix things up, even going so far as to make sure we never follow a piece with another in the same key.

Trumpeter Dave Scott attended the concert and it was nice to meet and talk with a fellow traveler. I also had the opportunity to get together for dinner with my dear friend Mario Guarneri. Mario presented us with his new CD, Guarneri Jazz Quartet, which is really excellent. I recommend it highly. Mario formerly played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a number of years, but moved to San Francisco maybe eight or ten years ago. He teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory and works with his Jazz group. Mario also travels to give clinics and demonstrate a device many of today’s trumpeters use in their practice routines – the BERP. (I won’t go into the acronym; let that be a mystery to non-trumpeters!)

Bill and I drove the next day to Cambria, rejoining Tom and Joe for our final quartet concert at The Hamlet, a restaurant where vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake has presented a concert series for many years. Every concert is well attended and has, over the years, become a cultural fixture on the Central Coast of California. The concert again took off from where we left off three evenings before and the last set just burned the roof off the place! Everyone – the quartet, Charlie, and his wife, Sandi, who also sang with us - left the bandstand grinning. What a great feeling – one of complete joy!

Leaving Tom and Joe was a sad affair because in five short days we had played so much marvelous music and the spirit and camaraderie we all felt was so great. Besides the music, we all share many common interests, among them music, food, and wine, as well as similar views on life, the Arts, education, and more.

Bill and I also presented three educational events on this tour - two concerts and several workshops over the next four days. These took place at three schools – DeAnza College and Stanford University in the Bay area and San Diego State University in San Diego. At DeAnza, we performed with the two “Daddio” bands at an event initiated many years ago by an old and dear friend Herb Patnoe. Herb passed away a good while ago, but the tradition has been kept alive, and through the event, money is raised for scholarships and other benefits for the De Anza students. Steve Tyler, an excellent trombonist, now heads up the program at DeAnza. Bill and I rehearsed with two bands the night before the concert, and the next day gave a workshop and listened to four high school bands, offering them suggestions for improvement. That evening we performed in concert with the two college groups.

This was an enjoyable time. The four high school bands played well, and working with Steve and the “Daddios” was great fun, too. The top band is of professional quality, very musical. The second band, open to students and others in the community who want to play in a Jazz band, was also fun to work with. And it was especially rewarding to see the light in their eyes after they gave a really nice performance.

Later, we “hung out” with some of the guys and some dear friends - John Worley, a very fine Bay area Jazz trumpeter, who was actually responsible for bringing Bill and me together with Steve Tyler for this concert - and French horn player Steve Schaughency, with the Air Force Band at Travis AFB, and his fiancé Franziska, an opera singer well known throughout Europe. Also with us were my “almost-adopted son” Issac Roth and his wife Angela – both very special people to me. Part of the fun of touring is seeing people with whom we have established friendships over the years. Sometimes this is the only way we are able to visit with one another, so being able to meet at these times makes all the inconveniences and annoyances of touring worth it all.

The next afternoon, Bill and I played and talked with the Jazz ensemble at Stanford, a program led by trumpeter and good friend Fred Berry, another busy Bay area musician. He and his lovely wife Quereda are mainstays on the Bay area Jazz scene. I have been to Stanford, I believe, four times now, and each visit becomes a delightful opportunity to work with the talented young musicians there. These are people studying to be physicists, mathematicians, doctors, lawyers, and such, and music is a recreation for them. They do it because it is fun. And they can play! Fred does a great job there, though he says that standing in front of all these youngsters having an IQ above 135 can sometimes be intimidating! Fred is an excellent musician, a fine teacher, and he has nothing to worry about where Jazz is concerned!

Bill and I left the Stanford workshop and hurried to the San Jose airport so we might catch the last flight to San Diego for our last gig of the tour the next day. At San Diego State University (SDSU), we presented a lecture/recital, rehearsed with the band, and presented a concert that evening. Working with Bill Yeager and his SDSU Jazz Ensemble was a great experience. Bill has had an excellent program and very fine band at SDSU for a number of years. He and other faculty members also have a wonderful brass quintet that presents more than a hundred concerts a year. They are all fine musicians!

Bill and I flew home to New York following this concert and had two weeks off before assembling again with our usual group – with drummer Ed Soph and bassist Rufus Reid.  During our “in-between time,” Bill performed for five days, recording the score of a new film on the life of photographer Diane Arbus, starring Nicole Kidman. The piano was the featured instrument throughout the film. I flew to Washington, DC, one of the weekends between to perform at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club with the Joyce DiCamillo Trio, featuring bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Thierry Arpino. What a wonderful place to perform and a very nice group with which to play in concert. An enjoyable weekend in DC!

On March 26, the quartet flew from various places to Utah for a three-day residency at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Director of Jazz Studies Jon Gudmonson had heard our concert at Brigham Young University/Idaho when the quartet was in residency there in 2004. Having been favorably impressed, he worked for two years to secure a foundation grant to bring us to Utah State. I often hear university people speak of never being able to get funding to bring artists to perform at their schools. But there are those, like Jon Gudmonson and Ron Modell (now retired from Northern Illinois University) who work very hard to find sources of funding to present high quality residencies and performances for their students. I know it is not easy, but there are those who refuse to let the status quo be their benchmark. They want something better for their students, and they work tirelessly trying to satisfy that need. Bravo!

We arrived at Utah State on a Sunday, and on Monday we rehearsed in the afternoon with their two bands with which we were to perform the following day. That Monday evening we presented our own quartet concert in their new 400-seat concert hall. The sound in the hall was gorgeous, perfect for our almost-all acoustic setting, with just a little amplification for the bass. Even the drums sounded great in that hall – not the usual roar of sound most halls produce.

It was a wonderful concert! The rapport among Bill, Ed, Rufus, and me has become so instinctive that it sometimes amazes us! I believe we have become so attuned to one another that it has become second nature for us to listen deeply and respond, sometimes even anticipating where one or the other might take the music. All this is done with total lack of ego and a complete spirit of selflessness. There is no dominant member of the group, we just “give it up” for the music, as Bill says. The audience, made up of students and many other members of the community in this smaller Utah city reacted accordingly - with great enthusiasm.

The next day was easy for us, just a noon workshop with one of the combos in the program, so we had time to relax before the upcoming concert. That evening we performed with the two Utah State Jazz Ensembles, Ed and me with one and Bill and Rufus with the other. We reassembled the quartet with Jon Gudmonson’s group to finish the concert with Jack Cortner’s arrangement of “Caravan.” We had a ball working with these two because they made it fun for everybody.

The final day of this residency was spent teaching and working with another combo. That evening Jon took us to one of the fine restaurants in Logan, The Painted Table. The food and the company were delightful! This was a nice finish to an excellent residency.

Rufus returned to New York. Ed, Bill, and I flew to Texas: Bill’s trio – with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson – to perform at the University of Texas at Dallas; Ed and I to participate in the North Texas Jazz Festival at Addison. I do not usually adjudicate bands, but my friend Bob Morgan, who organizes the Addison festival, assured me that I would enjoy the high quality of these bands. The first day eight high school bands and two middle school bands were featured – all very good, one or two were excellent! The second day featured college bands and all were very good, four of them extraordinarily so. I did enjoy listening to these groups, so Bob’s reputation of honesty remains on the highest plane in my book!

On the Sunday evening following the festival Ed, Bill and I, this time with bassist John Adams joining the group, performed at a small venue at the University of North Texas. John has performed with us many times, and he is always fun to work with. This occasion provided a no less wonderful experience, the group performing with a wonderful cohesiveness –as if we had been playing together for weeks. It is so wonderful to be able to choose and work with only those musicians you prefer. It is a privilege, one I do not take for granted. One of the reasons this carefully hand-picked grouping works so well is Bill Mays. All of us – no matter who plays in the group – will readily admit that Bill is the catalyst for much of what takes place. Yes, we all contribute on an equal basis, but Bill is the initiator.

Monday saw us driving to Houston with Bob Morgan for our annual visit to the High School for Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) the next day. HSPVA is one of the finest magnet schools in the country, and our annual visits there are sponsored by my friends, Bill and Connie Habern. They have been doing this now for a number of years. Bill and Connie appreciate the work Bill and I do and they also appreciate the contributions schools like HSPVA make in the lives of so many talented youngsters interested in the performing arts.

 Warren Sneed, who took over as director of the HSPVA Jazz program about six or seven years ago when Bob Morgan retired, has carried on the fine tradition of great Jazz at HSPVA. Warren is a excellent tenor saxophonist and deserves a lot of credit for the work he does with these talented young people. Bill and I presented a recital/lecture at the school, and then worked with the big band and one of the combos. The students displayed a great deal of talent, and they were like sponges as we played and talked with them, soaking up whatever they could. The HSPVA big band was the group selected the prior Friday night at the festival in Addison to perform in concert with the great North Texas Lab Band. This is one of the best HSPVA groups I have heard in my many visits there.

We spent a second day in Houston, this time playing and teaching at Klein-Forest High School. This was arranged by another North Texas graduate, Bob Blanton. Bob is the Director of Fine Arts in the Klein Independent School District of Houston. Imagine that! I didn’t even know that school districts might have a Directors of Fine Arts! What a brilliant idea! Maybe that is why the Klein district is known for its excellent Fine Arts program. When Bill and I walked into the school, we saw young people in dance costumes and others dressed for rehearsal in a play. Young people and the Arts! What a wonderful combination! Imagine what could be accomplished if more school districts had people like Bob Blanton as a Director of Fine Arts in their educational hierarchy. Maybe we would see a renaissance of all the Arts, thereby raising the level AND the interest in culture in our country. But I digress. . . .

At Klein-Forest we again did a recital/lecture, then worked with the big band at the school. Bart Roberts, the director at Klein-Forest, has an excellent Jazz ensemble, and it is obvious that he puts a lot of time and effort into his program there. Band directors from other schools in the district brought their students to Klein-Forest to attend our presentation there, and they all displayed a lot of interest in both the music and what we were doing. Musicians who spend time working with young people in an educational environment know how frustrating it is to deal with complacent students led by even more complacent educators. So, when we have the opportunity to work with interested students and VERY interested band directors, it makes our educational endeavors highly enjoyable and leaves us with the feeling that what we are doing has meaning and relevance. It also produces a wonderful feeling of satisfaction.

I flew early Thursday to Boise, Idaho, to perform at the Gene Harris Jazz Festival. I arrived and went to rehearsal with a trio with which I would perform that evening in the Egyptian Theater. It was a nice performance and I enjoyed working with the musicians in the trio. On Friday, I presented a clinic in the morning to a group of young trumpeters that included some enthusiastic, hungry, young players who asked some interesting questions of me. This kind of experience makes doing a clinic fun for me.

Friday afternoon I rehearsed with the Boise State University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Brad Peters, who also produces the festival. Brad is also a very fine trumpet player who is principal trumpet with the Boise Symphony. He also shares an avid interest in Jazz and has the university Jazz ensemble playing beautifully. At Brad’s request, I sent him some of my most musically challenging music, and the group just ate it up! We opened the concert and the band roared! What a fine group! They certainly inspired me, and we just romped through all the music. A most appreciative audience let the band and me know that they heartily approved of the musical menu we presented to them.

I continued my cross-country heading to Elgin, Illinois, for the Elgin Community College Jazz Festival hosted by trombonist/composer/singer Mark Bettcher. I have known Mark and his wife Lisa since they were students at Northern Illinois University (NIU). Mark, a former member of the NIU Jazz Ensemble under Ron Modell’s tutelage, is an excellent musician and one of the finest teachers I know – and I do mean TEACHER! A very special person! We rehearsed a big band of community musicians on Sunday afternoon.  This band has been together for about eighteen years though, of course, there have been personnel changes since its inception. The ensemble was well rehearsed and sounded very good. On Monday I listened to several bands and presented a short concert with Mark and a trio of fine musicians from the Chicago area – pianist Larry Harris, bassist Larry Gray, and drummer Dana Hall. Dana who also teaches at the University of Illinois, filled the drum chair of the community band for the evening concert. I have performed with and for Mark several times in the past and have yet to have a disappointing moment. He always has a great band, well prepared and eager to play. I’ll work with Mark anytime! He’s long been one of my favorites.

My final gig for this tour was on Tuesday, a midday workshop with two groups from one of the premiere high schools in the Chicago area - Highland Park H. S. My friend Mary Jo Papich (a candidate for IAJE president this year) arranged this workshop, and I looked forward to my visit there because I had heard many good things about this school. The Director of Bands at Highland Park is Jim Hile, a wonderful musician and highly-respected conductor. The groups were excellent as expected, and I enjoyed working with them. It was a fitting closer to a long, but rewarding tour. By the way, Mary Jo’s title at Highland Park H. S. is Director of Fine Arts! Is this an idea that is catching on? If only this were a real trend in education, where a requirement for the position of Director of Fine Arts could be filled only by truly qualified musician/educators – like Bob Blanton and Mary Jo Papich. What a concept!

After my short visit home, Bill Mays and I traveled to Evanston, Illinois, to perform the premiere of Bill’s “Fantasy for Cello, Trumpet and Piano” on the Master’s Recital of cellist Alisa Horn. As I mentioned in the previous Cadenzas, we recorded the “Fantasy” plus two other pieces with Alisa in New York this past December as the centerpiece of a CD we hope will be released soon. This premiere performance was to take place at the Music Institute of Chicago, a beautiful hall that was at one time a church. We were all quite excited about performing this first public presentation of the “Fantasy.” We spent the day preceding the concert rehearsing at the Music Institute and were well prepared for the following evening’s concert.

Alisa opened the concert performing the Rachmaninoff “Sonata for Cello,” accompanied by pianist Kay Kim. Rachmaninoff’s music is so emotional, and he presents the most beautiful thematic material. And his harmonies! Just marvelous! Alisa and Kay played with such passion that all of the audience, Bill and me included, were transported to another place. It was an extraordinary first half of the recital.

After a short intermission, we entered the stage to begin the second half of the concert. Presenting this kind of “cross-over” music on a Master’s Recital at a conservatory-style  school such as Northwestern University is not usual fare. That Alisa’s teacher, Hans Jensen, did not hesitate to allow this performance is a testament to his open-mindedness and the broad scope of his musical palette. From opening cello notes of the piece to the final quiet chord of the third movement, the music flowed effortlessly. We were really “on” and were carried away by the musical communication shared among the three of us.  It was obvious to the audience that we loved playing this music and were having a marvelous time playing together. The audience loved the piece and was hesitant to end their applause and their appreciation of Bill’s composition. We followed this with a trio arrangement of Debussy’s “Girl with the Flaxen Hair,” a duo version of “Baubles, Bangles, and Beads” (Borodin’s Second String Quartet), and again a trio rendition of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.” Bill had arranged all of these pieces for us. The three of us then closed the concert with Bill’s “Peace Waltz.” What an evening! We were exhausted but very happy with the performance. The people loved what they heard and that, of course, completed our joy. Alisa played as I knew she would, with her whole heart! We were thrilled.

Bill and I remained in Chicago another three days. Bill was the guest at the Friday Jazz Forum at Northwestern and we also played Friday and Saturday nights at Pete Miller’s Steak House in Evanston with drummer Joel Spencer and bassist Kelly Sill. Kelly and Joel are excellent musicians and the two evenings at Pete Miller’s were great fun! We were “loose” and just let the music fly! We played a mixture of standards and originals and delved deeply into the music. It was a fun two evenings of just relaxing and letting the chips fall where they may. Working with Kelly and Joel was terrific fun and beautifully topped off our Evanston sojourn.

Upon our return to New York, Bill and I will be in the studio for two days of recording with composer/arranger Jack Cortner, finishing up his big band CD. Jack has written some really great stuff, and I have been a featured soloist throughout. I am quite excited about this recording and hope Jack will present this to several companies and that someone in the business will appreciate the work of this fabulous musician.

Following Jack’s recording session, I will be flying to England to spend four days with my daughter and her husband and my new granddaughter. I then fly to Zurich to begin an eight-day tour of Switzerland and Germany with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band. For this tour, we will perform the music we recorded in New York last March. I return home May 8 and actually have a week off before beginning rehearsals for the May 20 concert of Beatles music with the Westchester Jazz Orchestra. Early June once again brings a time for touring.

My “March Madness” had given me a great deal of pleasure and much musical and personal fulfillment working with people whom I love and respect. And after all this, I again ask myself the question: Can I put into words what makes playing this music so exciting? All I can really say is that creating this music with such outstanding players, all of whom are such wonderful human beings, is the most dynamic and motivating aspect. Working with dedicated teachers and excellent students also offers tremendous fulfillment. But can I put it all into words? Probably not. As with many things, I guess “you just have to be there!”

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In the past, I have not allowed myself to write politically-motivated articles for Cadenzas unless they pertained to music, education, or the Arts. This is not what Cadenzas is all about, nor is it what I want it to become. But I am so disturbed by what I see going on in our country that I can no longer remain completely mute about these issues. If you read what follows in this short article, I want you to know that my thoughts are not based upon any political affiliations, but rather on my role as a human being and an American citizen. So, for a moment, I ask that you too read what I write as one belonging only to the group, mankind. I ask that you forget any political affiliations and also the faces and personalities in our government whom we see and from whom we hear every day. Try to look only at the acts they have committed.

I have the good fortune to have been born at a time that has allowed me to experience some of the really good years in music and also some really good years in the history of the United States. I love my country and have such great respect for our history and for our Constitution that I am deeply worried and saddened by what I see as an American. What disturbs me even more is the fact that so many American seem unable to look around and clearly recognize the happenings that are against all the principles upon which our society is based and by which we live.

The event that changed all our lives took place on September 11, 2001. It was horrific, clearly pointing up the fact that we are vulnerable to those who wish us harm. We were given sufficiently clear warning by our intelligence services that these acts were in the offing and were likely to be perpetrated upon us soon. Intelligence reports were not taken seriously by the top elected officials in our government, and, despite many efforts to convince them of these potential dangers, these officials ignored them. So the events of 9/11 took place. Since then, this disaster has been used by this government as a tool to frighten and control us, the American populace. At the same time, this infamous day began a prolonged period of governmental lies and deceit that we continue to be bombarded with to this day.

I will not detail all the misguided events since then – the infringement of our civil liberties, the multitude of mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Katrina disaster, the secret spying upon our citizens, political scandals, and more. But just take the examples of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. As an American, are you proud of this? As an American, does torture sit well with you? Is this the America we believe in?

Even though psychiatrists and psychologists - not to speak of the intelligence officers who themselves have used torture – assertively testify that the information garnered by torture is unreliable, this government has vowed that torture is allowable, and it will be used.  Even after signing Senator John McCain’s anti-torture bill into law, our current president proclaimed in writing the he would not be bound by this law. Did you ever think that torture would be sanctioned by the President of the United States – a man who claims he is a Christian? Even putting aside the Geneva Conventions, what of the words of Jesus – the words that these conservative self-proclaimed Christians continually declare they believe in and live by?

Enough from me! I will stop here, but ask that you read the words of Carl Bernstein who, along with reporter Bob Woodward, was instrumental in breaking the story and exposing the sins of the Nixon Watergate scandal. He says it all much better than I ever could. His is a most compelling argument for the Senate's bringing to light what this president and his administration have done. Bernstein speaks not for political reasons, but because he recognizes the flaunting of our laws and the rights of American citizens and protests on moral and legal grounds. The link to Bernstein’s article is:

                          http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041806Z.shtml

Regardless of whether or not you choose to read Mr. Bernstein’s article, certainly, it is your choice. And some of you may think I am just another liberal “bashing” Mr. Bush and his administration. Before you reach a conclusion such as this, let me ask you to consider this issue in a different light: If all these controversial acts, all committed since 9/11, were done under the leadership of Bill Clinton, would you feel differently? Think about that for a moment. Would I feel differently, you ask? My answer is - unequivocally NO!