Even Though I Didn't Run, I Did Get to Play Jazz and Dance

What I got to experience would be the last jazz gig that my Loy Norrix Jazz Band would have a gig this school year, unless we have more. The total amount of gigs that we performed was five:

• WMU Jazz Invitational- Western University (Dalton Hall)
•  Chenery Auditorium- "All City Concert"
•  Thornapple Arts Jazz Festival- Hastings, MI
• Loy Norrix Concert (at our high school)
•  KPS Jazz Night w/ Guest Artist Jeremy Siskind- The Union Cabaret & Grille  

This is our set up at the Union Cabaret & Grille today from 4-6pm

Today was a special day however, we had a special guest named Jeremy Siskind who plays the piano around the world. Such a nice guy to be with and to play music, just like he did with our band, with Kalamazoo Central Band, and with our jazz teachers. If I had a recording of the gig, you would tell how we felt playing with him.

What our band  performed is what we performed for our other gigs. For this gig, we played the following with the soloists who played: 

1. Just Squeeze Me by Duke Ellington, arranged by Jim Martin- Allegra Kistler (Trombone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone), Michael Deaton (Trumpet), Lamya Tipton (Bass)
2. I Can't Get Started by Vernon Duke, arranged by Jim Martin- Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone)
3. Doxy by Sonny Rollins, arranged by Mark Taylor - Me (Tenor Saxophone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto Saxophone)
4. Joy Spring by Clifford Brown, arranged by Jack Montrose- Jeremy Siskind (Piano)
5. Now's the Time by Charlie Parker- Me (Tenor Saxophone), Sam Ratliffe (Alto and Bari Saxophone), Allegra Kistler (Trombone), Michael Deaton (Trumpet), Madison Preston (Piano), Lamya Tipton (Bass), Noah Machin (Drums), and Jeremy Siskind (Piano)

After our time with the audience, it was KC time, which they have a bigger band than ours. They performed about the same amount of songs as we did, also with Jeremy. What enjoyment we gained from that performance. What was the real surprise was that our jazz teachers got to play with Jeremy and with a junior drummer in WMU a song that I don't know what it is called. My group were screaming crazy for their performance.

Jeremy gave a everyone a special treat in the last performance by playing a love song that he made not too long ago. What feeling I had from the song that I wonder, but I did not worry about that.

What a day it was with a start by watching runners from the Kalamazoo Marathon run by our house. All the way to a peaceful night just adding a post to my blog. Tomorrow is going to be fresh for me in school and I can't wait.  

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody out there. It is the time to reborn and fresh yourself with a new mind. A bright sunny day that is great to sit and enjoy the fresh air. Or work outside, maybe to cut down some trees to make the back yard cleaner. There are many things that you could do right now while the sun is out.
No one is stopping any of us to do something fun with friends, family, businessmen, chiefs, any people. Enjoy yourself.

Happy Easter!

The Color Run

At 10 am, the Color Run started with people excited about getting colorful and energetic. My family and I were not focusing about running/walking fast, we just took our time and enjoy the race. The race was a 5k and there are four stations where people would spray color onto you. The colors for the race were: Red, Yellow, Blue, and Purple. It was great to get the colors onto us. There were about 4,000 people that participated in the race, from young children to adults (I was glad that a lot of people took the time to run/walk in the race to enjoy the beginning spring weather). After the race, there was a dance off and colors were spreading every where onto people. Every where you look, people were in style from having shades to a colorful Afro.
It has been a while since I have last ran a race, so this race brought me back in running races again. Here is a picture after the race.

A great race it was, I am going to do it again next year. :-)

Teeth Check Up and First Time Self Drive

At 7:30 am was my dentist appointment today. It has been a while since I had a dentist appointment, since 2009 or when my family and I were in Kentucky. I got good results, good teeth, and now I got a homework to do with brushing and mouth washing my teeth, it is flossing. For me, it is hard to do with just your hand, but my dentist gave me one that has a handle that will make it easier for me to reach certain spots. Now I am hungry from not eating anything this morning, yet.

 When I drove back home, I was driving by myself. Driving by myself is something that I can do and go to places without having to worry about getting a ride from my parents or from others. I passed my drivers test and now I am waiting until my licence comes in the mail. With this new opportunity, I could now drive in my own transportation and even customize it (which I am really wanting to do). 

So yeah, nothing big for all of us (maybe to most people), since we could relate the feeling of getting our own transportation. (laugh out loud) I am glad that people support me throughout my life to reach new goals and situations that makes me a better person and to become a young man. 

Spring Coming Soon

           Snow is slowly melting away from the face of the Earth. The sun is staying up longer in the sky than before. Spring is coming very soon. Finally warmth and sunlight would reach us and I could finally play some golf and run with my dad. I am pretty much done with the cold and snow, almost people want the warmth now as much I want it too. We all want the sunlight and the warmth, but we have to wait a little bit longer.
           When spring is here, track and golf programs would be activated for the season. I am thinking about doing both sports, since I want to run and golf at the same time. I have never done track before, though it is similar to cross country, and I played a little bit of golf with my dad and I am still learning how to play golf in a pro's way. Golf is a little different from most major sports, it takes focus and a lot of practicing to get as good as most golf players. My dad is into golf ever since he was a kid, I believed that he started playing golf when he was a teenager. Play nines holes everyday and eighteen holes on the weekends. I am trying to play golf with my dad and some uncles/aunts in a tournament.
            Right now, the snow here has hardened to the point where it could be ice or good snow for a snow ball fight. Trying to removing it is not that easy to do, you will need the sun (the heat) to be able to break a huge chunk of compacted snow. I really want to be able to break and shovel this huge chunk of snow off the side of the driveway. I wonder if people are trying to handle the cold as much I am. I can't wait until spring is here. Stay tight everyone, the sun is coming soon.

Oh Let It Snow, Until We Are Covered Up

    The weather here in Michigan has been cold, gloomy, sometimes sunny, and windy. Right now, I see white snow and brown trees right in front of my winter in my bedroom. All the leafs are off the trees, ever since winter started in December. I was hoping that when mid-February comes, winter would stop, but I guess I was wrong. There were times when the sun comes up and melt some snow, which cleared the neighborhood and main roads. It made it easier for transportation to travel smoothly and safely, though there were some black ice, which I don't like when I walk or drive. 

    The lake effect snow is how we are having snow a bunch of times (if you don't what is a lake effect snow, here is a Wikipedia page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake-effect_snow). You could even see that Michigan is one of the states that are getting hit by these effects every so often, which causes KPS to close every so often, like we have a snow day right now :-( If you are a person who loves snow, come visit and you would get a taste of our snow. 

     I have been inside mainly during winter, since I am beginning to get use to the snow that we are having in the winter. It reminds me of the snow in Colorado when I was 6 to 9 years old. In our backyard was about 5 feet and our dog would just like a rabbit and just run around in it. Now I am experiencing the snow again here in Michigan. 

     I hope the warmth comes soon, so that the ice could melt and I could shovel the ice from the drive way. The sun if up and I see blue skies. I love seeing the sun. I hope that warmth is coming soon for all of us. 

What a fantastic day in being musical

Today was a great day for me. I did a solo and an ensemble in the Michigan Solo and Ensemble Festival. My solo piece was Sonata for alto saxophone (by Henri Eccles) and my group's quartet piece was Finale (F. J. Haydn)  for saxophones, a bari, a tenor, and two altos were played in the piece. Both of those pieces, I got a #1 (excellent rating) for both of them. I did better in my solo this year then I did last year (I got a #2 rating, the second best) and this is my second #1 medal in an ensemble. In my eight grade year, I did a trio with three alto saxophones and we got a #1 rating. This year is different for me, I was the leader in my quartet group, I was nervous that we would not do good, but we did it. I was very proud of my group and I don't know if we are going to state or not (I don't know the Michigan solo and ensemble system very well). One thing for sure, our group will perform the piece again in our high school concert coming in the third trimester of the school year. Also, I am going to play the solo piece again in the concert.

My little sister got to play her songs on the piano in a concert at a resident home. She did a very good job. She played three songs by memorization, which she practiced very little on once in a while.

Today was very musical for us. The music performances very saxophones and a piano. Music runs in the family. I am the second generation (from my parents) to play music. My little sister came next in the music family. I play five instruments right now and I am going to play more songs in the future. My first goal is to play all the saxophones in the world. If I finish that, I am going to play all the instruments all around the world. It may look to much, but no one is stopping me from achieving the goal that I want to finish before I die.

So yeah, that is my musical day.