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Bob Kerwin

Saxophonist, Composer

A Backup Brain?

January 23, 2016 by Bob Leave a Comment

“What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”
– Former Vice President Dan Quayle

***

It’s been an up and down ride for me recently. The music is going great but I hope I’m not losing my mind.

Last night I pulled up to Delaney’s and had to park on the street, the parking lot was packed. I unloaded, started setting up, and dang, my laptop wouldn’t open. It wouldn’t recognize my password! It was standing room only and I had fakebooks in the car, but decided to use it as a test – how many tunes could I remember? Over the past year I’ve prioritized memorizing tunes and it paid off; I played the entire 3 hour gig from memory. Can you tell I feel good about that?

So, it seems my mind is working well ….. or maybe not. As I’m telling this story to my wife after the gig I suddenly realize why the password failed: I was using a password from one of my other computers. Hmmm, you’d think I would’ve figured that out.

A potentially much worse situation occurred a few weeks ago when Doug and I played at Fairhaven Senior Living in Whitewater, Wi. After a beautiful hour long drive on a sunny afternoon we starting setting up. I opened my case and oh my god, no reeds. I forgot my reeds! This has never happened before, hmmm, how’s this going to work? No reed, no sound, can it get any worse?

Fortunately, Brian, the activities director is a calm, quick thinking fellow. He made several calls and after talking with Liz, a band director at a nearby grade school, a reed was found. A short ride later I had the reed in hand and it worked quite well. After that I knew it could only get better. Doug and I played well, the audience liked us, and we’ve been invited back. Thanks, Brian and Liz!

Of course, now I have a stash of backup reeds in my gig bag just in case. They are joined by a backup mouthpiece, neckstrap, and a whole host of goodies to temporarily fix a broken sax. Only one thing is missing – a backup brain.

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