Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Officers at work

The pianist has pounded out a Bb for tuning, the drummer is adjusting his cymbals, the bass player is plugging in to his amplifier and the saxes are shuffling through the music on their stands. It’s the first rehearsal of an NMA reunion.


You may wonder: how does all this equipment get here? Elves, probably. Maybe magic elephants haul this stuff from Virginia Beach on their backs. When they reach the hotel, the Amazing Kreskin closes his eyes, puts his fingers on his temples, and bass drums and string basses levitate off the elephants’ backs and float into the hotel.


Well, not exactly. The job of getting musical gear from Virginia Beach, halfway across the country and into a hotel is done by the NMA’s officers. These are not white-shoe, wardroom officers; these are amplifier-toting, piano-carrying, bass drum-schlepping officers. They do a lot of dirty work we never see.


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