I’m playing a couple gigs over the next week with Matt Brubeck and John Schott. They’re not super duper famous or anything, but they’re people that I and almost everyone else who lives here knows, so I’ve gotten the occasional very satisfying really?! out of people over the past day or two. It certainly is cool to get calls to play with people whose music I already know; it makes me feel like I’m arriving musically. They’re great players too, of course, which is the ultimate.
Everyone here is so nice to me. By and large, I only ever hear nice things about my playing. The critique that I get is always well thought-out, never mean, and usually on target. It’s pretty astounding, as I came to realize recently.
When I was in college, I played a decent amount, and people seemed to enjoy playing with me, but I definitely had a lot of insecurities. I didn’t feel like I got the respect that I get here. Certainly there were many people who were and are wonderful to me from there, but my experiences been overwhelmingly positive here.
It’s a combination of many things, I’m sure. I’m practicing and improving much more now because I’m spending more time and energy on music. I have a long way to go, certainly, but I’m much more satisfied with the time I spend. As a result, I’m a better player than I ever have been.
In addition, I’m in a much bigger area, with vastly more musicians to work with. In Pittsburgh, I wanted more than anything to be the first person people would call to play. When you have a few people who are all pretty good, though, it just boils down to who your closest buddies are, which in many cases wasn’t me. Even if I wasn’t playing on the gigs, the scene was small enough that I knew where everyone was playing, and knew when it wasn’t me they called, that I wouldn’t be playing. Out here, even if I’m not the first call, it doesn’t matter because there are so many cool people to play with, and almost everyone wants a good drummer. As long as I’m playing good music, it doesn’t matter if I’m the first or 27th drummer on someone’s list.
Of course, if I’m the first call on the lists of great players, so much the better.
And when did I become so long-winded, anyway?