[Live] On The Trail (Comp. Grofe) (2021)

This performance was recorded live at the Frost School of Music on April 2, 2021.
This composition was featured in my master's recital, "Gratitude," a program designed as a musical ‘thank you’ letter to the musicians who have been my most important mentors and inspirations for studying music.
Personnel:
Trumpet: Ryan Kerwin
Trombone: Kenton Luck
Saxophone: Alex Mann
Piano: Connor Rohrer
Guitar: Josh Bermudez
Bass: Max Schwartz
Drum Set: Travis Hunter
Program notes:
This arrangement of “On the Trail” is based on Donald Byrd’s arrangement of the song that was recorded in 1966 and released on his album “Mustang!” (Blue Note). I was first introduced to this music when I was 17 by Neil King.
Neil King was my jazz band director in high school. He gave me some of my first opportunities to play in big bands and small groups. During that time, we would have a class period to rehearse big band once a day and once a week Mr. King would dedicate his time after school to rehearse jazz combos for students who wanted to play more. In my first few weeks in one of the after-school groups, Mr. King was having us checking out this tune and trying to play.
At the time I struggled a lot with this. I didn’t have a lot of improvisation experience and it didn’t come very easily to me (it still doesn’t). I wanted to sound like Donald Byrd but I didn’t know how, and worse I had limited control over my playing and was struggling with a different musical mentor who was discouraging me from spending time trying to figure out how to play changes.
Despite this, Mr. King kept investing in me and kept giving his time to nurture the interest in jazz that has become my passion. As a future teacher, I frequently reflect on Mr. King as a role model for what a music teacher should be. A teacher should be someone who can play. A teacher should be someone who encourages students to improve for their own sake, rather than in service to the teacher’s ego. A teacher should be someone who gives their time to share their love with students by listening to music with them and giving them chances to play consequential repertoire. Mr. King, was all of these things. Within a week of meeting Mr. King as a high school freshman I knew who Freddie Hubbard was, and I had some Lee Morgan records to check out.
This performance is dedicated to Neil King.