David Freeman Music

I lucked into playing with the Atlanta Latin Jazz Orchestra Thursday night at Venkman's, sitting in the lead tenor chair. The first half hour was pretty uncomfortable, feeling like maybe I didn't belong there, but eventually I got used to how I sounded within the saxophone section, and I was able to relax. And it was fun! The music is really challenging to me, and required a ton of shedding the book for the few days leading up to the gig. Some of the guys (maybe most of the guys?) are sight-reading the book and keeping up just fine. I'm not sure that I could've done that.

Here we go - a weekend in the the Northeast, playing gigs, sleeping, and running. Thursday: Montclair, NJ. We flew into Newark, hopped in the van, and rolled over to The Wellmont Theatre for a show. This is our second (?) time playing this room, which is an enormous cave of a place. It looks cool, but it's really boomy.  We had a good size crowd (800-850, I think?) but there were lots of tickets given away, so maybe a third of the people there had no idea about us. Still, not too bad for a Thursday. Friday: We slept late, and I went for a run through East Rutherford, NJ. This woodchuck no longer chucks wood Then, off to Long Island! We were back at The Paramount in Huntington. I remember that the first time we played here, this place looked to be the size of a hockey arena. Now, it just looks like the same size room we play everywhere else. That being said, this is an incredible venue. this, on the stage of the Paramount, never gets old The firs...

Scott Glazer was nice enough to invite me back to Blind Willie's to play his monthly residency in a band that included John Sandfort (tenor), Nick Johnson (guitar), Dan Lawrence (keyboard), and Adam Goodhue (drums).  a selfie of Scott, John, and me  Unfortunately, we vastly outnumbered the audience. Eight people in attendance over the course of the night, including Kevin Scott, who sat in on bass for several songs. In spite of the empty room, we had a fabulously silly time, and for the most part, we all played well. It was also not quite as loud as last month, which made a huge difference in my playing. In other words, I could hear myself, didn't overblow, and Sandfort didn't kick my ass quite as much! Good hang!

That's Arizona, Atlanta, and Austin--a crazy weekend of travel and gigs. Thursday: Head west! We flew to Tucson, a three hour and forty-five minute ride. Long enough that I could sleep for a few hours and still wake up and watch a movie. On this trip, I watched Darkest Hour , chronicling Winston Churchill's rise to prime minister at the dawn of the second World War. We landed, grabbed our bags, and boarded a spacious limo bus to Marana, AZ, on the north side of Tucson. Unfortunately, that wasn't our bus! We had to get off, grab our bags, and walk to our much smaller van parked in the next ring of parking. First thing first, we checked into our rooms...at the frickin' Ritz Carlton! Sweeeeeeeeet. With a few hours to kill before soundcheck, I went for a run on the nearby Wild Burro Trail, which ran through a canyon directly behind the hotel! (not part of the trail--the cart path behind the hotel!) T...