His Solos are Like Fingerprints. Never the Same.

Over the past few days, The City of Rochester has held its annual International Jazz Fest in the heart of downtown. The last time I attended this was the first year it was held about ten years ago and I don't remember much other than Aretha Franklin being the headliner. I hadn't planned on attending this until I saw a commercial for it and heard the background music was a song by a jazz artist that I happen to enjoy a lot. So I then became curious and jumped online and sure enough Trombone Shorty, the artist of that background song was playing at the Jazz Fest. I've enjoyed listening to his CD since getting it a few months back. That's when I made the plan to go out and see him. It was well worth fishing through the crowds let me tell you. 

I went with one of my best buddies who happens to enjoy jazz music as well. We began pretty far from the stage at the beginning, but we put his lack of size (no offense) to use and slowly made our way closer to the stage throughout Shorty's performance. It was also nice to see some familiar faces from high school that I had not seen in what has been at least a year. The atmosphere was great! It was outside which is an automatic plus, along with 65 degree temps and a slight breeze out of the east, you couldn't possibly ask for a better night for a concert. 

Shorty came out and did his thing. He was absolutely incredible on his trumpet and trademark trombone. His solos are incredible and he is truly a gifted musician in that every single solo he does is different from one another. He has a set key and sticks with the notes that are in it. He doesn't think either, he just plays and lets his instrument do the work, which I find incredible. Also, have you ever seen someone hold a note on a wind instrument for 4 minutes? Yeah, that happened tonight. Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has trained himself to breath in and out simultaneously so he can keep himself full of oxygen and then play his trumpet. After about 30 seconds people were amazed by his lung capacity but they hadn't realized that was the tip of the iceberg. An absolutely amazing talent that I wish I was able to grasp when I played throughout high school. 

But it wasn't just him who was the star of the show, every single artist of "Orleans Avenue" played incredibly and had their own time to show off their skills. The bass guitarist and both saxophonists (tenor and baritone) were absolutely amazing as well. Not to forget the drummer and guitarist, they played incredible as well! I loved when they all switched positions on stage, for example Shorty switched to the drumset and the drummer went to the guitar and so on. That was definitely a treat! But don't take my word for it, go see these guys live!!! If they are within 100 miles of where you live, go see him! It is a show well worth seeing! 

But really....GO GET HIS CD!!!! It's called Backatown. :)