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Mark Leccese
Regular Member
Joined: 13 Jun 2005
Posts: 27
Location: Boston, Massachusetts USA
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 Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2024 11:39 am Post subject: |
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Like many folks here I played in high school and college and then went work and had no time to practice or play. By my mid-30s I realized that I missed playing the trumpet. A friend gave me a trumpet he had in his attic and I found a place in Boston that gave lessons to adult beginners and I was off and ... not running, that's for sure, but limping. The place where I took lessons had an adult student jazz combo, and they invited me to join.
I was a daily newspaper reporter covering politics and my whole waking life was reading, interviewing people. and writing and writing and writing some more. Music was none of those things. It was such a welcome change. It was so engaging.
I changed careers at 50 and became a journalism professor. I got more serious about the horn, found a teacher from Berklee, kept playing in amateur jazz combos.
And I learned to play the electric bass. I have a very good teacher.
A year and a half ago I retired and enrolled as an adult education student at the New England Conservatory (excellent program). I study trumpet with a teacher at NEC, play trumpet in a jazz quarter, play bass in another jazz quartet, and take courses in classical and jazz theory. I am as happy as a clam at high tide, as we say in New England.
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-- Mark L. from Boston
Schilke B1
Manchester Brass Custom RL-GB
Yamaha YFH-8310Z Flugelhorn |
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rwalkerph1
New Member
Joined: 23 Jun 2020
Posts: 10
Location: Burien, WA
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| Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2025 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| MarkD wrote: | | rwalkerph1 wrote: | I quit playing when I moved to the US from the UK, back in 1998. When I arrived here, I was traveling 45+ weeks a year for work, and I couldn't commit to a band, or proactive as I was in a hotel. Then kids came along too. I tried a few times, and took lessons with some amazing teachers (Rich Szabo, Bill Pusey) when I lived in NJ. Then, in 2008, I had a an accident and lost half my right index finger. I thought that I would never come back after that.
Fast forward to 2018, I moved to Seattle, and stopped traveling for work. I started to think about trumpet again, but I didn't have an instrument (I did keep one, but my ex wife decided to destroy it when I filed for divorce). I picked up an instrument and started to play again at the end of the pandemic. I had some bad habits when I quit, and this was an opportunity to start over. I started lessons with Randy Ruback - that was a revelation to start. I've been playing around 3 years or so now. I played in a British Brass Band for a while on Cornet (I grew up up in the genre back in England when I was a kid), and progressed to playing trumpet again, and I now play in a street band and a Mexican Banda.
Why did I come back? My life wasn't the same without music I found. Not only playing, but the sense of community in playing together. I have met amazing people, and had (and continue to have) the best times playing gigs. |
That sense of community is a powerful thing- welcome back!
Is that Mexican Banda anything like the Mariachi bands we have here in the desert SW? |
@MarkD It doesn't have violins. It's more closely aligned to a military wind band.
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CB 5060RSM(D) SL
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Olds Ambassador
Schilke B5L (for sale)
Bach Strad 180S37 (for sale)
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HN White Silversonic Cornet
Reynolds Contempora Cornet (for sale) |
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