Mid Performance Emergency Sub
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When you go to see the symphony, you never expect to join the performance impromptu.
But that’s exactly what happened to one man who stepped in from the audience.WRTV’s Megan Shinn spoke to Scott Deal, who had the once in a lifetime opportunity.
Watch the video below for Deal’s story.
I know that Barliman had a similar experience with a Big Band Performance., that he has relayed in a post in the past. Has anyone else been called to perform from the audience mid performance?
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My wife and I went to see an outdoor performance of a big band I had been a member of in years past. The band leader saw me in the audience, and after a few more charts, he told the crowd I was there and had me stand up. After some applause, he said to come on up and play a song with them. More applause, so I couldn’t refuse. I went up on stage, a friend handed me his trumpet, and on an unfamiliar trumpet and mouthpiece, with no warm up, we kicked off String of Pearls the fastest I’d ever tried to play it. Of course, I ended up with the solo, and I luckily made it through pretty well, even at breakneck speed. More applause, and I returned to my seat…lol
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Here’s another…
About a week before Christmas one year, I got a frantic phone call from a large church in town to see if I could take a trumpet player’s spot in a big Christmas show (with 100 member choir and a full orchestra) that had just completed its 3rd performance out of six. The person on 2nd trumpet had become miffed about something and walked out, the next performance was in a couple hours, and it was slated to be recorded for TV.
I said yes, showed up and sight read the performance pretty well, because the music wasn’t as difficult as I had feared. I was hired for the rest of the performances and received the full stipend. I assume the awol trumpet player received nothing.
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I was walking by a brown stone in New York and heard jazz streaming from a window. Door was open so I went in to find a band playing in an open loft. Asked if I could listen to which a band member replied sure then asked if I played. Said yes, was a trumpet player. They asked if I had my horn with me and told them in the building down the block. They asked me to get it and sit in as their second trumpet would not be there. I did. Turned out it was the 9 lives jazz ensemble, Mingus's band just after he passed. Wound up being bands sub and this launched my music career in NYC.
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At this point, I think I just have to chip in with the story of how I got hooked into big bands... 1993... I was a fairly competent amateur player with lots of experience in brass bands and wind bands, some orchestral stuff and already a vast repertoire of church stuff. No jazz experience whatsoever. Then, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call... a very Bavarian, very bearded voice at the other end...
"I've heard you're a trumpet player." -
"Yes?" -
"We are a big band." -
"Yes?" -
" You have a red shirt?" -
"Yeees??" -
"Free this afternoon?" -
"Yyeees?" -
"Be at the Saint Florian Restaurant at three." CLICK.Spoof or truth? Well, the place was not too far away, so I collected everything I thought I might need... rotary Bb, rotary C and picc, black jacket and bow tie... (my usual church gig outfit) and went there.
In my innocence, I thought it might be just a short gig, with probably a third or fourth trumpet awol, possibly an hour's sight-reading of easy stuff, cash in and get out... "otherwise you don't hire a guy you don't know anything about four hours before a gig"...
What I found...
an Austrian wedding, and the band scheduled to play for the afternoon coffee break, then provide dinner music and continue to play for the dancing until dawn... the guy who had gone awol was the 1st trumpet, and they expected me to fully replace him for a whopping 16 hours or so... with a repertoire I had never seen or played before... I had to come clean about my big band experience so far, so trumpet #3 stepped up and I filled his place and managed to muddle through somehow... interestingly enough, they did not throw me out afterwards with catcalls and rotten eggs, but invited me in as full replacement for the now promoted #3. I stayed with that outfit for a full eleven years, playing another 196 weddings with them, 40-50 balls, and smaller gigs, numerous... have never been without a big band ever since.
