Do you ever feel like the stage is your only home?

B

blade123

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I just came back from playing at a jazz festival and I just realized that. Offstage, when I talk, people may or may not listen to what I have to say, but when I am behind that set I make damn sure that they listen to me. I have complete control over my entire world; I control the tempo, feel, style, and run the show. I can rush, I can drag, I can change styles, I can do whatever I damn well please and the entire band has to listen to me. I feel powerful and when the band is really swinging, I feel something that can't be replaced by anything else.

There's something so satisfying when you're "in it" off of your own blood, sweat and tears. *I* am making it happen. If I wasn't there, the band wouldn't be there either. I have complete control and I'm making myself, the rest of the band, and the audience feel something irreplaceable.
When I stepped off that stage, I felt scared: I had no power. No matter what I said or did, no one would listen. When I was watching the other bands I was envious of them, enjoying that when I could be. When I went back on the stage to grab something, that sense of power came back. I wanted to jump behind the set and swing all night. I wanted to let others know what I had to say.







Holy crap it's late. I know this thread is a mistake but I'm too tired to realize it nor care.
 
i feel that way all the time...expically when i'm not the leader of practice and i can change what the band does or feels or even plays.

-george
 
I know what you mean. . .sometimes I struggle to find the words to verbally express myself, but playing music is the only thing--the only language--that feels truly natural and comfortable to me. It's the only work I do that never feels like work. There's such a great incomprehensible power to be found with music, and when I'm having a one of those transcendant moments onstage with a great band, I feel, if only for a tiny instant, that I my possibilites are limitless.
 
blade123 said:
I just came back from playing at a jazz festival and I just realized that. Offstage, when I talk, people may or may not listen to what I have to say, but when I am behind that set I make damn sure that they listen to me. I have complete control over my entire world; I control the tempo, feel, style, and run the show. I can rush, I can drag, I can change styles, I can do whatever I damn well please and the entire band has to listen to me. I feel powerful and when the band is really swinging, I feel something that can't be replaced by anything else.

There's something so satisfying when you're "in it" off of your own blood, sweat and tears. *I* am making it happen. If I wasn't there, the band wouldn't be there either. I have complete control and I'm making myself, the rest of the band, and the audience feel something irreplaceable.
When I stepped off that stage, I felt scared: I had no power. No matter what I said or did, no one would listen. When I was watching the other bands I was envious of them, enjoying that when I could be. When I went back on the stage to grab something, that sense of power came back. I wanted to jump behind the set and swing all night. I wanted to let others know what I had to say.







Holy crap it's late. I know this thread is a mistake but I'm too tired to realize it nor care.
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I had a similar experience with my group this week. I had to ask, musically, do you know how much work it takes to sit back here and keep the time so you guys could indulge in your solos? So I kept messing with the time, and taking control or it. At some points going into total free jazz explorations, and at one point breaking out into The Drum Also Waltzes, against their four four. They loved it.
 
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