Musical Mishaps:
Trying Out for Jazz by Rex Djere
by Shannon Kennedy
I started playing the saxophone in 1989, having finally decided to take the
plunge and play the instrument whose sound I had loved since my youth. I
was 17 years old at the time. In my first year of playing, I was a
"practiceaholic", putting in 6 to 7 hour daily practice while neflecting the
rest of my studies. In the fall of 1990, a few months after my high school
graduation, I started classes at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I
immediately knew that I wanted to try out for the jazz band. Dr. Robert
Allison was the director of the jazz band, so I went to see him and I
inquired about joining. I knew very little about jazz theory, was a poor
sight-reader, and at this time, I was heavily influenced by the style of
David Sanborn.
I came in to play with the jazz band and Dr. Allison threw a chart in front of
me. I had no idea how to read it, so I just made a bunch of stuff up. Dr.
Allison pointed at me to take a solo.l I took a solo in the classic style of
David Sanborn funk over a straight ahead jazz piece.
When I think about this event that happened over 15 years ago, I just have
to laugh about it. This was by far, my biggest musical disaster.
-- Rex Djere, Saxtalk.com
This article was submitted by Rex Djere from Sax Talk. He has a wide
variety of other articles on his site, and a sax auction as well.
