Last night at "Bierhaus Urban" the fun continued. This time, a large group of musicians welcomed me into their group for another evening packed with creativity and contrasts. On stage: a drummer, two bassists, a pianist, a trumpet player, a violin player, a tenor sax player, an alto sax player, two different guitar players, two singers and me, playing the tenor as well. Known nationalities: German, Russian, Spanish and Chilean for sure, others yet to be discovered.
As Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said have been pointing out for years now, music is a vehicle for freedom and peace in many ways. The only relevant aspect on stage is to make music, everybody contributes, nobody overdoes it, and each musician enjoys the music from their bandmates and embraces the differences, which makes the event a learning experience as well as a joy.
My focus last night was on having fun and get better at listening to the other musicians as I played. The results were already better, but the challenge ahead is to make my playing second nature, such as to be able to pay more attention to the band as to whatever I am playing. Only then the creative exchange will fully take off, developing on each other's material, imitating, alluding, etc.
I am grateful to every single musician I had a chance to play with yesterday. They were all very welcoming and encouraging and took the time to continue giving me all kinds of advice regarding my playing as well as other venues for me to try out.
Last but not least I want to thank my friend and incredible comedian James Rankin, as well as his girlfriend Andreina and their mutual friend Claudia for coming out, listen and encourage me at all moments. Also a big thank you to James for providing the pictures taken at this performance and offering them to me, thanks, man!
My next challenge is yet to be decided and will be mentioned after this post when it is. The fun continues.