It seems like the year has gone by a lot faster than my years in grade school. Maybe it’s because this is better? My first year at the California Jazz Conservatory ended very well. Of course, there were the “dreaded” finals that everyone talks about, but I think that I did pretty well in all of them, and in addition to that, I had one excellent end of the year concert with my trumpet teacher’s arranging ensemble (in which I was asked to sit in and play within short-notice). I couldn’t have been happier with the fact that I accepted this opportunity to play with this ensemble, as it turned out to be the closest thing to a Jazz Big Band that we can get at the time (which is what I want). I was very impressed with the arrangements that these students were able to compose, as before, I was a bit questionable about their experience in a big band versus their experience in a small ensemble/combo. These arrangements clearly showed that these students had a clear understanding of Jazz big band music and arrangements, and gave me confirmation that if we started an adult big band, we would NOT have to start from the bottom of the Jazz repetoire pot -also known as the terrible “Real Book” big band arrangements of simple/boring Jazz standards that we played so much of in middle school, and high school. The other concert, sadly, did not go too well in my opinion, but what can you do? Finals were “finals” -nothing much to say about them. The toughest one for me this time was Jazz Theory -a final that was a breeze last semester. The reason is because I just simply did not review ALL of the material beforehand. But because all of the knowledge I soaked in when it was being taught, and the notes I took, I was able to “wing it”.
