Got a last-minute call from a long-time friend and leader of the last working big band in the area. The piano player just got sick on the job and he wanted me to come over after my job ended (10:00 PM-last night).

I used to play upright with this group and it was fun! Stepping in with full charts on piano is a different story.

If you're in the business of being a "gun for hire", keeping up the "chops" is critical.

Nice diversity, though...challenging and fun!

You should have seen the "old man" scramble!


Russ

Congrats!

Good on ya! I know that can be quite scary but I'm sure you had fun and the big band was quite grateful! Miss them big band days!


Randy

Way To Go Russ that's some kind of playing for sure.

Your story reminded me back 45 years ago or so when I studied piano. My teacher the late Salvatore Fransosi was called last minute to play one of the Ice Capades show that was in town. One of the pieces he had to play live and sight read was the "Warsaw Concerto"
Warsaw Concerto Sample Page 1

Staying on top of those reading chops is a bear... it's getting harder and harder to find a band that even uses number charts, let alone jazz charts with full lines written out. But get the call and go in rusty, you can miss out on a good opportunity (especially as these gigs tend to be with the better players).

Wow, that is a real memory jerker for me!
I used to play this ....when it was first published!!!!!(you will see that it was first published in 1942) I can still hear the full impact of this war-time music....

LATER: I tried to get the music for this (digitally) but my Win7 64-bit O/S won't allow it...any ideas anyone?

cheers Eddie Johnson

A great little tool for this is an app on my Droid phone called "Music Sheet Workout" which does Sheet Music Drills on all the staff's and ledger lines. I keep fresh using the quizz function and help reduce my read and response times which the app measures.

It's amazing being in the 21st Century.