Tuesday night klezmer band picked up again, after not meeting three of the four previous Tuesdays because of Jewish holidays.
We have a new woman in the band, I think her name is Barbara, playing saxophone. The first time she showed up she had an alto sax. The time before this she had a bigger horn, an older silver one. It looked like a tenor to me, and I said, “a second tenor sax in the group!” She said, “No, this one is in C, not B-flat.” Is that a C Melody sax? I had never seen one before, though I had heard that they used to be very popular. In the ’20s or ’30s a lot of people played them, and because it was pitched in C you could just look on over a piano player’s shoulder at the music in C instead of either to transpose or to have a separate part in your key.
Jaime was back this Tuesday after a long absence. He’s from Argentina originally, and knows about music traditions that the rest of us don’t. Alan had bought a melodica which added a lot in the alto section.
My lip held out on trumpet for about the first hour of class. That was pretty good for me.