That Time I Got to be a Beatle on the Ed Sullivan Show...

Something happened on a gig one time that was so outrageous and so shocking that it’s hard to believe it really happened. Looking back six years later, I’ve never had another experience like this. It ended up being a small taste of stardom...

I played in jazz band in college. We played a lot of standards, but we would also learn more challenging, "North Texas" kinds of tunes as well. Occasionally, we'd take our show on the road to a local school or corporate event. This particular spring morning we found ourselves playing a concert at a local middle school. We were actually playing two middle schools that day. The first was an 8:30am show, and the second was a 2pm show just down the road.

We loaded in our gear and set up in the center of the first school's gym, while the kids began filling the bleachers. This early morning hour felt way too early for playing music, but we sound checked anyway and were ready to go.

The "opening act" for the morning was actually a men's a cappella group from another local college. They were fine. They sang well, but it was obvious the 800 or so 6th-8th-graders were sleepy and bored. I hope they’re into jazz... I thought to myself. This will be a long morning if they’re not.

Our turn came to play after about 20 minutes of semi-low-energy a cappella music. Our director counted off, and we launched into a fast swing tune. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere of the room changed. The entire population of seated middle schoolers erupted from their seats in the bleachers. These kids were on their feet yelling, cheering, and clapping. I was shocked.

Evidently they DO like jazz.

By now, the middle school gymnasium was a full on rock show arena. The band director introduced our second tune, which was a high energy jazz-Latin piece. "Our next tune’s going to feature some soloists that I’d like for you guys to listen for. We're going to have a saxophone solo from Michael —"

He was interrupted by a deafening roar from the bleachers. Clearly these kids were into saxophone. He continued, "followed by a drum solo from Stephen —" At this point we might as well have been the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. It was surreal.

As Michael’s saxophone solo began, the kids started chanting "MI-CHAEL, MI-CHAEL, MI-CHAEL...." Those of us in the rhythm section could hardly keep it together. Not only could we barely hear anything because of the roar of the crowd, but this whole ordeal was so hilarious that we had no idea how to handle it. One thing I could hear over all the noise was the infectious laugh of one of the trumpet players, who couldn’t even play at this point because he was laughing so hard. This only added to the incredible magic of this moment.

When we reached the drum solo, all I had to do was play a bunch of crazy fast stuff. The kids loved it! It was as if they’d never seen a live band before - let alone a live drummer. Who knows what I played or whether it sounded decent. We were all having so much fun at this point it didn’t matter. We were now rock stars. This was a great feeling, but we still had one more show to do in a few hours...

The 2pm show was at a similar sized middle school just 5 minutes away. Our hopes were high as we set up on an actual stage this go around. Hundreds of kids filed in, their principal introduced us, and we were off to the races with the same show order from the morning.

The kids’ response to the music? Nothing.

Well, maybe a golf clap when we finished the first tune. But no cheering. And there was certainly no "MICHAEL - MICHAEL - MICHAEL." Everything went fine on our end. We played just as well as we did a few hours before (probably better, actually), and we all played great solos. But the kids were seemingly uninterested.

To this day I wonder what in the world the teachers and the staff at the first school told those kids. They must have had them watch the Beatles on that Ed Sullivan episode, telling them "do this!" Or they told them that our saxophone player was Justin Bieber and our trumpet player was Harry Styles. Who knows. Either way, this bizarre day reminded me that we musicians need to give every show our all...whether or not the crowd’s going insane. This experience was also very humbling, because it reminded all of us that there’s nothing we can do to really control or elicit the crowd’s response. All we could do was play our very best and give it all our energy. That’s what being a professional is all about. We carried this experience with us for the rest of the few years we played together, and we NEVER forgot that surreal day at the middle school.

As the saying goes, "Play every show like it’s a middle school gymnasium!" (or "like it’s Madison Square Garden," if you prefer that version.)

Take Care, Guys, and God Bless,

Stephen