I am not normally a professional musician, but sometimes I am. A few times a year I will sit in with the Myron Summerfeld ballroom dance band when they need a substitute trumpet player. It's actually pretty fun. Don't tell Myron, but I would probably do it for free.
Tonight I sat in with the band at the All Academy Holiday Ball at the Pointe South Mountain Resort in Phoenix. Turns out it was military academy (mostly college) people from all branches of the armed forces. It was a formal dinner, presentations and dance. The ballroom was packed. Some high-ranking people were there -- there was at least one colonel, from Luke Air Force Base. They were all in their dress uniforms and looked impressive.
Before we went on to play, they had Jesse McGuire play the Star Spangled Banner and also God Bless America. If you don't know who Jesse is, he played the Star Spangled Banner, on the trumpet, all by himself, at the world series a couple of years ago, when the Arizona Diamondbacks won. He was quite a sensation. He did a great job tonite -- he definitely is the real deal. That was the treat -- he had my spine tingling!
We played a while during dinner, then took a break while they had some featured speakers. Then we played dance music. They really liked it -- almost everybody was up and dancing to mostly swing, foxtrot and some latin tunes. We played an extra set, finally stopping sometime after 11:00 PM.
It was a lot of fun. The band sounded great (as usual). They paid us twice as much as we would get for a regular gig at the retirement community centers. But again, it was worth it just to be there -- the money is just icing on the cake.