Jayuzzzzz.

Well hey there, everyone!

As some of you know, I just got done camp counseling for the UNL High School Jazz Band Camp on Thursday.

Camp started Sunday, the 17th, on Father's day. I was able to make it home for the weekend to see my parents and some of my friends to celebrate father's day and my birthday, and was at Harper residence hall at 8am sharp, ready to move in and work with the campers. The first day was a lot of auditions for combo placement, followed by a jazz movie called Jazz on a Summer's Day later that night. If you're a jazzer and haven't seen it, I suggest you do. It has a lot of outstanding performances from a lot of the greats, and I'm sure all you cats would appreciate it. (:

Monday-Wednesday was a lot more of the same, shepherding students from place to place, making sure everyone was where they needed to be. There was jazz listening, jazz theory/arranging, combo practice, improvisation class, and a lot more for the kids to do. We got great seats at Jazz in June on Tuesday of camp, and my birthday passed on Wednesday with a lot of the campers singing me happy birthday and whatnot. My job was pretty easy, out of the 29 students, only 3 were female, and since I stayed on the same floor as the girls, all I had to do was knock on doors at 10:30 to make sure they were in bed, which was a much easier time than the men had. My friends took me out on Thursday night to celebrate my birthday a little late, so the celebration of me turning 19 wasn't a wash or anything. All in all, last week was a great week, full of great music, and a lot of great strengthening and starting of new friendships among my colleagues and fellow musicians in Westbrook Music Building. The greatest part about this camp was definitely the privilege of working with some amazing faculty and my 3 awesome fellow counselors. (:

BY THE WAY, look out for this new group I'm going to be in around the Omaha and Lincoln area, folks! We're called Wind Armada, and were formed by my fellow counselor Andrew Janak, who is a killer saxophonist. It's going to be great, we're doing jazz/indie-ish music, and it'll be really freaking sweet.

As for how classes and things have been going, it's all fine, I just can't wait for July and a lighter workload, and Middle School Band Camp! I know that camp is exhausting and a lot of work, but it's really great seeing young kids so excited about music, and watching talent develop. (:

Song of the day: Tea for Two, the Anita O'day version. This is from that Jazz Video I was watching, and I want to do a transcription of it. Her version is seriously SICK. You don't have to like jazz to love this. Promise. It's also on Spotify!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTk0pk6cFhE

Cheers,
Gilmore