Chuck

Yesterday I went to see Chuck McAlexander at The Brass Lab. The Brass Lab is the premiere brass shop in New York City. It's also rather pricey, but I find it's always worth it. On Tuesdays he does walk-ins. So I took the time to see if I could get that mystery brace fixed.

Chuck is an institution. He's a very nice guy, but he's not someone you'd want to go toe-to-toe with, if you know what I mean. He's non-judgmental but calls it like it is, which is an odd mix.

We had a nice discussion about personality traits of different instrument players -- trumpeters and trombonists and hornists and such. He also spoke of people's attitude; how some people feel you need to be an asshole to get people to do things for you, when in many cases (particularly his) it has an adverse effect.

I admitted that I don't really have the traditional hornist personality any more. I know that at this point in my life I could focus on playing any instrument I wanted to. Back in college I was a mean percussionist. I also always wanted to play tuba, especially since tubaists are hard to come by. But I've lived so long as a hornist that it's from that standpoint where I hear all music. He admitted the same as a bass trombonist. It was an interesting point of view to ponder.

As for the bad brace, it was a bit of a hunt and in truth we never really found it. He reinforced a brace or two which changed the vibration of the horn slightly enough to mute the buzz somewhat, but I think the problem still persists. Just not sure where it is. Thirty minutes and $54 later I was ready to take my chances.

Tuesday night at band was pretty good. We finally worked on my solo a little, though we still haven't gone from start to finish, which is concerning as there's only one rehearsal and the dress rehearsal left to go.

One of my main concerns about the Smith is that it's not the most difficult of pieces, and that the band would look down upon it as being "lightweight." We finally worked the first two movements and, though it's technically not that difficult, we found the piece to be more challenging than expected.

I really like the work of Claude T. Smith. He has a definite style that shows up in everything he's written, and this is no exception. He likes multiple meters, lush minor 9th chords and at times some good ol' pointillism. Parts of this piece are very rhythmic -- not impossible but exposed and tricky. It's easy for it to sound bad.

By the end of the rehearsal, I think Jeff and the band had a new appreciation for it (I hope). Some meter changes in the 3rd movement stopped the work on it for this week. Next week hopefully we'll see it to its end.