Farewell Jazz Combo
For over seven years, I’ve played in a combo. My combo’s personnel had shifted from year to year, but each year I have participated in a small jazz combo of some kind. (The only person who has also been in my combo since the beginning was Andy Poppen, since we went to high school together.)
My combo started in sixth or seventh grade; we learned Jazz as we went and played through high school. When I arrived at college, I continued in a jazz combo and even began playing a regular weekly gig for a while. As part of an actual “Jazz Combo” class, we also played once each month during the school year at a “jazz combo forum” — which gave us an opportunity to play and be critiqued by our jazz directors.
Tonight marked the last “combo night” that I’ll be participating in for the foreseeable future.
As I have shifted my focus from Music to Computer Science, I have found myself gradually drifting away from some of the musical activities which have been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember. My change of majors has given me an enlightened perspective on how I view the activities which take precedence in my life. By switching to Computer Science — and piano — away from Music Education and a Horn focus, I now spend my time a lot differently.
To be quite honest, I don’t miss playing horn at all; I enjoy playing piano from time to time, whereas horn had become a chore. But the change inside of me has gone farther: I don’t even have any desire to play in Wind Symphony, primarily because of the large time commitment (though playing piano in a large ensemble itself tends to be rather boring). That’s just because I enjoy working efficiently and at a quick pace — ensemble rehearsals require a lot of patience and compromise at the high school and college level (professional ensembles tend to “lay things down” efficiently, if Prof. Meunier’s descriptions of those ensembles are accurate). If music were my main interest, I think I would enjoy the process more — but I’ve discovered that my true passion, at least at this point in my life, lies within the technology industry.
Dr. Romain has placed a strong emphasis on shaping the combo program here into a more academic exercise, advocating that next semester each combo will be required to practice two hours a week, with regular reports from the group regarding attendance. As my priorities and class load have shifted, Jazz Combo will not fit into the puzzle that is my academic priorities and projects next semester. Thus I have decided to discontinue that part of my musical life, until such a time as I can dedicate more to that medium.
Perhaps I will play on occasion in a small group — I did enjoy the experience and atmosphere. Ah well… this is all just a reflection of my own priorities settling into place as I continue through life.
