(Psssst.Not baseball, but lead alto!)
One of my favorite playing situations is to play lead alto in a big band. In September I had that opportunity with the Montclair Women's Big Band and it was great fun. What made it even more special was the fact that the gig I had been contracted to do with them was with Vicki Randall.

Vicki Randall, as most know, is a regular in the Jay Leno Tonight Show band. Her skills as a percussionist have always been in demand, but her skills as a vocalist ought to have her in even more demand. After hearing her live that night, she definitely reminded me of some listening I had done a long time ago.

My mother, having come of age during WW II, had a large collection of big band records. Despite the Beatles and Al Hirt being the rage when I came along, she remained faithful to her collection. Being exposed to those sides made a deep impression on my musical psyche. Hearing those bands punch and swing their way through arrangements always enthralled me.

Marshall Royal, lead alto for the Basie band, quickly became my role model: he could put so much attitude and love in every note he played, it would just kill me. The vocalists on those records were just as memorable. They added another equally important and complex dimension to the music and the story that was being told.

Ms.Randall brought back some of those memories I had long stored from listening to my mother's collection all those years ago. Her phrases swung with great vitality and easily meshed with the roaring 18 piece ensemble that sat just to her left. Her ballad singing was equally impressive with creative melodic shaping that had an overall honesty that, I think, some vocalists are not able to impart.

Playing lead in such a situation is both challenging and tremendously rewarding. How you approach the stylization of phrases for a Basie arrangement is going to be very different from how you approach a Glenn Miller chart. Vibrato can say so much about an era and so can articulation. Using both appropriately really tests a player's knowledge of the music. And , if I haven't already said so, it is very fun to wear those different hats, so to speak.

The only disappointment was the audience. The gig was basically a fund raiser and the band, as is most often the case at such events, background music. As far as I was concerned, I had the best seat in the house and witnessed a fantastic performance! Unfortunately, the audience didn't know what it had missed.