| WED
August 5, 1998
practice makes perfect
I made sure I practiced today. I had taken a couple of days off from this and I needed to get back at really practicing. Ideally, I should be practicing 5-6 hours a day. We have a big show this Sunday, performing at The Palace along with The Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra and 8 1/2 Souveneirs. It should be a jampacked, swing crowd and should be a blast. One of our windows was fixed today. I don't know how it happened. It looked as though someone had thrown a rock or shot a BB or pellet through it, but we couldn't find what had caused the window to shatter.
I was just thinking about the Miss Saigon musical we saw last night. The stage production was superb. They had 12 computers in this show controlling things like lighting, sound effects, music, etc. The helicopter descending from above the stage was awesome, along with the appearance of the Cadillac coming out of nowhere. I got to thinking of the performance of the cast, and how demanding that show really is. The lead part of Kim was performed by a newcomer who got the part in an audition in Los Angeles where 300+ had also tried for the part. It's scary that performers and entertainers are expected to be flawless on stage. Well, I heard one mistake in the orchestra. Funny thing is, I don't know if everyone picked up on it, but I did and I'm sure any other musician or music educator probably heard the mistake too, I mean it wasn't totally hidden. But it made me think of my own performance on stage and how we are expected to be flawless AND have the emotional energy and drive in the performance as well. I saw Wynton Marsalis perform here in San Diego on a cold October night by the bay. He made one mistake that night and I never forgot it. The rest of the time he was flawless, absolutely perfect except for the one mistake. I mean you didn't have to be a musician with perfect pitch or anything like that, he flat out made a mistake, a bad note and I probably wasn't the only one who knew either. But that is the point I was thinking about, that we as performers have to be perfect for our audience. If not, then the audience won't be your audience any longer. God, life is tough for the performer, but it's like dog eat dog out there and you better be good or else someone else will come in and take over. From the words of the great jazz drummer Billy Cobham, "you either play, or you get played out".
CDs Played Today:
Dinah Shore - Great Ladies of Song Series John Coltrane - Blue Trane
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