Well yesterday was very productive again. Spent the morning practicing and getting ready to head out for the afternoon for Montana State University. MSU has a great opportunity right now with some fresh faces in the music program and some truly enthusiastic and dedicated professors working to take the music program to the next level. Alan Klaus, the new professor of trumpet was very accommodating in setting me up in his studio to meet with students for the afternoon. I also had a chance to talk with Dr. Stark, the director of bands, as he rushed off to Freshman convocation to lead the marching band for the opening of the festivities.
Last night I dropped into downtown Bozeman to sit in with a local band, “Florescent Brown”. They have built a really nice young following, which is very exciting since their music is entirely made up on the spot and has a strong jazz and R&B base. Very exciting to see and play with groups that have this much energy, passion and talent that have also cultivated a strong following.
Once we finished a great first set, we were all mingling and enjoying the crowd when we were told, quite hastily, that we had to exit the building due to a possible gas leak. Luckily the place cleared out with no incidences. The fire department showed up, cleared the rest of the building and determined that there was indeed a gas leak and we could not get back in. Well there goes the crowd:) Most people rushed off to the bar across the street. The band mostly hung around just hoping our instruments would not go up in flames. Good end to the evening was accomplished as they got the leak shut off and we were able to get in after only about a half hour or so. Bad news was, that since the crowd had all shuffled off by this point, they shut down early, so no second set.
Overall this has been a very fun trip. I have learned a lot and look forward to working on planning future visits to the area as well as other locations.
Today I will be off to a local music store to meet with the store manager (briefly) and then relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I hit the road with only one short visit scheduled at a Tacoma music store but no public workshops set up from here on out. This weekend, I get two big band performances in Portland and next week I help to premier a new chamber piece as part of the TBA (Time Based Art) festival.
