Day 5

If you EVER have the chance to hear the Boston Brass, do it.  period.  These guys are just absolutely a-maz-ing performers.  The show they put on for us last night was amongst the best I've heard.  Honestly.

Jim Self was in town yesterday, giving several presentations, all of which were inspiring--he is such a wonderful person.  He shared a recital in the late afternoon with Tom McCaslin (my in-state colleague over at ECU--who, by the way played his @$$ off--he perpetually inspires me to be a better player) and the portion of the recital which was Jim's was plain and simply, the embodiment of the word sublime.  It was jazz stuff, nothing really fancy, but it was all acoustic (piano, bass, drums + Jim) no mic's at all and just sent me to a different realm of seeing honesty in performance.  There was nothing for Jim to hide behind--just him playing.  whew.

As we continue through the conference the rest of the performances are continuing to be well received, all the normal kinds of accolades there--let's face it--no one here sucks.........

Attendees seem excited, inspired, etc., but we're all getting a bit fatigued as the week goes on.  The late night stuff at Gentle Ben's www.gentlebens.com are, well, badass.  Last night featured our conference host, Kelly, with his dixieland group www.wildcatjass.com and guest tuba pickers Tom Holtz (USMC) and Gil Corella (USAF).  
While we can't officially announce the site for ITEC 2012 just yet, as some details are being worked out, the likely place will not be in the US, and will be in a country we've never had a conference in before (intrigued?  stay tuned!)  it everything works out, it will be absolutely amazing.
I have had one rehearsal for my performance tomorrow and another today--working with pianist Susan Wass (TTU tuba/euph prof Kevin Wass' wife) on presenting a recital of music by James Grant.  Predominantly in the style of the 1940's-50's torch songs, the works I'm doing are a bit different from the standard fare and even different from the non-standard fare we're hearing this week.  Jazz influenced, but art-song in orient, these are wonderful melodic displays.  Just hopin' I can do them justice live!
more to follow......