Posts made by SSmith1226

@SSmith1226 said in A little humour:

@barliman2001 said in A little humour:

@SSmith1226 Steve, you forgot one: My wife says I've only got two faults - My forgetfulness and something else.

GoJericho8, that could fall under 10 or 11.....wait, what did you say? Could you repeat that again? Also, what does your wife think about that?

Bucket List Now That I'm Older:

1. My goal for 2019 was to lose 10 pounds. Only have 14 to go.

2. Ate salad for dinner. Mostly croutons & tomatoes. Really just one big round crouton covered with tomato sauce. And cheese. FINE, it was a pizza.... OK, I ate a pizza; are you happy now?

3. How to prepare Tofu:
   a. Throw it in the trash
   b. Grill some meat, chicken or fish

4. I just did a week's worth of cardio after walking into a spider web.

5. I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet food supply in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

6. A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it.

7. Kids today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the TV channel.

8. Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

9. Remember back when we were kids and every time it was below zero outside they closed school? Yeah, me neither.

10. I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going with this.

11. I love being 80 (or almost), I learn something new every day and forget 5 others.

12. A thief broke into my house last night. He started searching for money so I woke up and searched with him.

13. I think I'll just put an "Out of Order" sticker on my forehead and call it a day.

14. November 3, 2019 marked the end of Daylight Saving Time. Hope you didn't forget to set your bathroom scale back 10 pounds on Saturday night.

15. Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

16. I think I'll adopt the new "Cardiologist's Diet" my doctor said was necessary to my health: "If it tastes good, spit it out."

17. Mixing a little coconut oil into your kale makes it easier to scrape into the garbage can.

@J-Jericho
Same principle as the joke I posted on the previous page that I Posted also in August.
You sure know how to hurt a guy J. Jericho!!!

Mea Culpa!!! I did post a variation of that joke Five months ago. For my penance, since this is a music site, I give you “Mea Culpa “ by Enigma.

I have seen this one before but I can’t remember whether it was here, or even worse whether I posted it. I apologize in advance if either of these are affirmative.

A young man saw an elderly couple sitting down to lunch. He noticed that they had ordered one meal and an extra drink cup. As he watched, the gentleman carefully divided the hamburger in half, then counted out the fries, one for him, one for her, until each had half of them.
Then he poured half of the soft drink into the extra cup and set that in front of his wife. The old man then began to eat, and his wife sat watching, with her hands folded in her lap. The young man decided to ask if they would allow him to purchase another meal for them so that they didn’t have to split theirs.
The old gentleman said: “Oh no. We’ve been married 50 years, and everything has always and will always be shared, 50/50.”
Touched by the beautiful display of love, the young man then asked the wife if she was going to eat. She shook her head kindly and replied: “It’s his turn with the teeth.”

@flugelgirl said in NAMM 2020:

Getting ready for day two and a meeting with Yamaha this morning! For those of you at the show, how are you enjoying it?

Did you test play any of the Yamaha 9335 series? I was curious about the Vizzutti model as well as the Generation III Chicago and New York Bb models.
Thanks.

[

@Dr-GO said in WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?:

@Kehaulani said in WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?:

Yeah. It's like walking in the desert and stubbing your toe on a little pyramid shaped stone pile. You decide to dig it up and, to your amazement, it widens. You do this the rest of your life, discovering that you have been uncovering the Pyramid of Cheops. That's what mastery work looks like.

So your are saying, that is what it takes to develop great Cheops!

Check out at 2:43. Is that what you mean?

Now get serious!

@administrator said in John Daversa:

Cool how that happens. Smaller world than we often realize. I would imagine there are tons of great jazz musicians in South Florida!

I’m sure that you are correct! Living in the Keys, we are relatively close to the mainland but it is at minimum a two hour drive for me, so for the most part, we a culturally separated.

I just saw this article from NPR about another talented musician / trumpet player, who I never before encountered, and lives in my own back yard in South Florida. It seems to me that I must have my head buried in the sand, or up somewhere else even worse!

Grammy-Winning Trumpet Master John Daversa To Bring His Small Band To South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts
By MIKE HAMERSLY / ARTBURSTMIAMI.COM • JAN 14, 2020
Grammy-winning trumpet master, composer and bandleader John Daversa brings his Small Band to the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on Jan. 18.

When you hear John Daversa perform with his band, the first thing that strikes you is the impeccable musicianship of all the performers.

Then, the playfulness and eclectic influences shine through.

Grammy-winning trumpet master, composer and bandleader Daversa — who is chair of Studio Music and Jazz at UM’s Frost School of Music, and who has worked with a diverse list of artists including Herbie Hancock, Burt Bacharach, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Joe Cocker and Andy Williams — will bring his Small Band to the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on Jan. 18.

The virtuosic group — also featuring saxophonist Melvin Butler, steel pan artist Leon Foster Thomas, guitarist Zach Larmer, keyboardist Tal Cohen, bassist Koa Ho and drummer David Chiverton — will perform tracks from Daversa’s acclaimed jazz albums “Junk Wagon,” “Artful Joy” and “Wobbly Dance Flower.”

“It’s a collection of really special, high-level musicians from the Miami area who I’ve known for the past seven years since moving to Miami,” says Daversa, a West Coast guy who has degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California and taught at California State University, Northridge before being offered the UM gig. “I really had no intention of leaving California, but I came down and visited the school, just to see what was going on, and it just seemed like an incredible opportunity to be in an institution with so much support and such a collegial faculty.

“And the students were playing at such a high level. I could see the infinite possibilities of being in this environment. So I decided to go for it, and I’m so glad I did.”

Daversa is a trumpet player first and foremost, but he’ll break out another, much scarcer, instrument at the show: the odd-looking Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI), which audience members may not recognize.

“It’s a MIDI controller, a synthesizer, basically, that’s controlled like a trumpet,” Daversa says. “A gentleman named Nyle Steiner invented it in the late ’60s, and a company called Akai picked it up in the ’80s, and I’ve been using one from the ’80s for many, many years, and now I’m endorsing this new model that’s made by Nyle’s nephew, Mark Steiner. So Mark has finished modifying it for me, and it’s in the mail now, and I’ll get it before we play on the 18th.”

What was it about the EVI that attracted Daversa?

“I saw Michael Brecker play one in the ’80s,” he says. “And I really identified [with] being able to play like a keyboard or guitar player, being able to play all different kinds of sounds, but controlling it like a horn, with breath control and dynamics and a range of eight octaves. So it just seemed like such a limitless voice, and since then it’s become a voice of mine.”

Daversa’s latest album, 2018’s “American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom” — which utilized more than 50 musicians and singers who entered the United States as children — won three Grammy Awards, including one for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.”

The record is a great source of pride for Daversa, as it was meant as a message to politicians to protect immigrants.

“The project is a very special one,” he says. “Of course, I was a part of it, but it was really about a lot of people who were involved, and it’s really helped a lot of people immensely, and put a spotlight on the issue of the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] act.”

All tracks on “American Dreamers” were arranged for and performed by Daversa’s Progressive Big Band, so it’s up in the air whether the Small Band will tackle any of it.

“We may play one or two from that, but it’s difficult,” he says. “Those arrangements are all for a very large ensemble with basically a 40-piece orchestra, so re-orchestrating it down is difficult. But we may find a way to do one or two.”

Since his parents are musicians — his mother is a classical piano player and his father a trumpeter — Daversa was exposed to a wide variety of sounds growing up.

“My mother was always playing Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff on the piano — Debussy, Ravel,” he says. “But she also brought in that Motown thing, and country music — Willie Nelson, Hank Williams — because she’s from Oklahoma.

“And my dad’s influence was more of the jazz thing, with Miles Davis and Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan — all of those sounds. I probably listened to more pop than rock — a lot of Earth, Wind & Fire, a lot of Motown, a lot of Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin. Kind of R&B, and then pop as a kid in the ’80s. I listened to Top 40 all the time, so I was listening to Dire Straits and Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. All of the mainstream artists. I loved it.”

There was another huge influence, however. One that has colored Daversa’s experimental side.

“My dad played with Frank Zappa,” Daversa says. “We were friends with his family when I was a kid, when we lived in Los Angeles. Frank Zappa was a creative force, that’s for sure.”

Daversa has performed all over the world, but he says the South Florida music scene compares favorably with other jazz hotspots across the country.

“Miami is a special place,” he says. “You have a lot of elite, high-level quality musicians in the area, like Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Sammy Figueroa — these amazing musicians who are out touring all the time but make their home here in Miami. And the music scene from my perspective seems to have a lot of Frost students and [Florida International University] students involved, so it’s an active and creative scene. And what makes it special is it’s such a melting pot of different cultures coming together, because you have all the islands’ influence here, you have all the South American influence, you have Cuban influence, plus the American influence of jazz, and quite a bit of European influence. So it’s like a miniature New Orleans in that regard – this big melting pot of cultures and ideas coming together.”

An employee went to speak to his boss. “Excuse me sir, may I talk to you?”
“Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?” the boss said.
“Well sir, as you know, I have been an employee of this firm for over ten years.”
“Yes.”
“I won’t beat around the bush,” the employee said. “Sir, I would like a raise. I currently have four companies after me and so I decided to talk to you first. I understand your position, and I know that the current economic downturn has had a negative impact on sales, but you must also take into consideration my hard work, pro-activeness and loyalty to this company for over a decade.”
The boss answered: “Taking into account these factors, and considering I don’t want to start a brain drain, I’m willing to offer you a ten percent raise and an extra five days of vacation time. How does that sound?”

“Great! It’s a deal! Thank you, sir!”
“Before you go, just out of curiosity, what companies were after you?” the boss asked.
“Oh, the electric company, gas company, water company and the mortgage company!”

The following as an excerpt from a medical news letter that reports highlights from the medical literature. The article discusses what it takes to become an expert surgeon and how to streamline the learning that is involved. We have all heard and even previously discussed the 10,000 hour rule and some of us have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”. The beginning of this article applies to musicians and athletes. I thought that you might find it interesting.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?

The question on expertise has fascinated K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, for decades. Dr. Ericsson began studying how professional musicians and high-performance athletes train to become masters of their craft—how much time they dedicate, how they practice, and how they maintain and develop new skills.

In an early study, Dr. Ericsson found that it took, on average, more than 10,000 hours of practice to become the most promising violin students at a music academy by age 20 years (Psychol Rev1993;100[3]:363-406). To achieve mastery, he found that internationally recognized pianists put in closer to 20,000, even 30,000, hours of deliberate practice.

“The key to achieving expertise is not only how long you practice; it’s also about what you practice and how you practice,” said Dr. Ericsson, the Conradi Eminent Scholar and a professor of psychology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, who presented his research at the 2019 Canadian Surgery Forum.

Deliberate practice, Dr. Ericsson explained, means pinpointing specific problem areas and working on them until they become second nature. To achieve this, a teacher must first analyze a student’s skills and focus on particular features that can be improved. The teacher then needs to delineate what type of practice can help achieve those goals, and the student then spends hours working to reach them. Practice time, however, will vary by the profession and the individual person.

Although you can’t rush expertise, you can make that process more efficient,” Dr. Ericsson said......

THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE APPLIES TO SURGERY.
I will open this up to discussion.

Sent from my iPhone

A man lay sprawled across three entire seats in a theatre. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the man: “Sorry, sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.” The man groaned but didn’t budge. The usher became impatient.
“Sir,” the usher said. “If you don’t get up from there I’m going to have to call the manager.”
Again, the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager. A few moments later, both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man. Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him, but with no success. Finally, they summoned the police.
The cop surveyed the situation briefly then asked: “All right buddy, what’s your name?”
“ Sam,” the man moaned.
“Where ya from, Sam?” the cop asked.
And with pain in his voice, Sam replied: “The balcony.”

Here is more for the mix:

Two great resources about Jack Sheldon’s career, one a video and the other, a link to great 2011 article in “Jazz Times”.

https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/jack-sheldon-keeping-his-chops-up/

John Faddis and Jack Sheldon battle it out on the Merv Griffin show:

A group of friends went to a new restaurant and noticed that the waiter who took the order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange.

When another waiter brought the water and cutlery, one of the men noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then he looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.

When the waiter came back to serve the soup the customer asked: “Why the spoon?”
“Well,” he explained. “The restaurant’s owners revamped all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped piece of cutlery. It represents a drop frequency of approximately three spoons per table per hour. If our staff are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift.”

As luck would have it, the customer then dropped his spoon and the waiter was able to replace it with his spare.
“I’ll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now.”

The customer also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter’s zipper on his trousers. Looking around, he noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, the customer asked the waiter: “Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?”
“Oh, certainly!” Then he lowered his voice. “Not everyone is so observant. The owners also found out that we can save time in the bathroom. By tying this string to the tip of you know what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the bathroom by 76.39 per cent.”

The customer asked: “After you get it out, how do you put it back?”
“Well,” he whispered. “I don’t know about the others, but I use the spoon.”