Tonight, I went into the music store I love to see what's on the racks, and ended up falling in love with an alto. I took it down and started to play.
I was playing one of the world's most obnoxious songs, but one that got lodged in my head: "Dancing in your head" by Ornette Coleman. The guy working there, a REALLY TALENTED sax player, pulled out a bari and started to just blow some awesome licks.
Some guy wanting to buy a guitar stopped and walked over.and started discussing the sax. As in, his intention to buy the guitar was forgotten, his intention to play the horn now completely replacing his original plans.
He looked at a starter model and hemmed and hawed about the price... and the fact that he didn't know much about the sax. The baritone-playing professional handed me the starter model sax and requested I play it.
I clipped it on and started with some lively Coleman-style stuff, segueing into slow, langorous, 9 Lazy 9 or Paul Desmond-esque passages (though I'll never be as awesome as Desmond). Pulled every bit of tone and cleverness that my limited sax skills could muster.
But I think my playing got to him - he bought the sax on the spot, convinced.
This is the first time anyone's ever heard me play the sax, and it was technically an audition of sorts. And I managed to move someone enough to say, "I wanna do what that guy just did".
I'm buzzing.
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