Two Posts in One Day?!

So much has happened in the one week I have been here and I felt it was too much to place into one and so here is another post! (This one I think has the more fun stories)

Picking up where I left off, it was Sunday at the Unterfahrt Jazz Club. I was able to go up and jam a bit with the musicians whom I learned are graduate students here at the jazz school in Munich. We played "Lullaby of Birdland" and, Ricardo's favorite, "There Will Never be Another You." Everyone sounded fantastic. In my opinion, these cats can definitely hang and I was honored to share the stage with them.

I am getting ahead of myself somewhat. Upon deciding to go to this jam, I had thought I would have had to pay a 5 euro cover to get in, but it turns out if you're playing, you get in for free. As I often do at the jazz club, I ordered a beer, but when I was first on stage the waitress took away my finished beer and never came back! I was confused so I walked up and asked where to pay and found out that musicians also get two free drinks!

I sat and listened for the rest of the jam after playing those two songs. Everyone else had left and all that remained were me and the musicians (and the bartenders, but they were also musicians!). We decided to hang out. As we were talking and laughing, I asked some of them how they had gotten into jazz, as none of them had ever been to the United States. Most of their replies were the same; their parents were professional musicians, and they started young and on a classical route. Half said that they departed from classical music by discovering jazz records that either their grandparents had or that they had found, or by enrolling in a youth jazz ensemble. Needless to say, these musicians were comfortable in any genre with a breadth of repertoire at their fingertips.

Being that the bar needed to close (the bartenders wanted to go home), we went back to their apartment to continue the hang. We shared our favorite songs with each other, plus a few drinks, yet apparently the highlight of the night was when we played "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters and I played the harmonica rifts while they sang along. (THANK YOU CAST OF PEARLS <3 )

My second musical experience was on Monday night. I had heard from some musicians playing at a brunch place that there was a jazz bar called "Vogler" and that they had a jam on Monday nights at 9pm. I headed over at 8:30pm only to find out their hours had changed and they weren't even open on Mondays anymore. Already out and about, I decided to walk around and see what was happening in the main downtown area, Marienplatz. Immediately upon arriving, I heard a violin being played on an amplifier. I walked closer and there was easily a crowd of 100 or so people watching. He was so animated and lively! (and needless to say VERY good). I decided to wait until he finished so I could talk to him. Immediately when he finished, he was rushed by the crowd, so I sat and waited until they dispersed. I introduced myself and after briefly chatting we agreed to get drinks and talk the following night. I was lucky because it was his last night in Munich! More on this later in the blog.

After securing my plans for Tuesday night, I decided to keep walking around and ran into an interesting group. Three guitars, 1 cajón, 1 melodica, and a tambourine. They were just playing American pop and alt. I decided to continue walking by, but after seeing nothing really else was going on, I decided to turn around and go home. On my way back, I found that they were on a break. I said to myself "Welp, Ricardo you are here to pursue individualism and music for your Watson Year" so I went over and introduced myself. I told them I was a trumpet player from Chicago and they said "Oh, you HAVE to join us." I said I didn't want to ruin their vibe and besides jazz is more my thing anyway, to which they responded "We're just having fun man, come on and play." So I said "F it" and took out my horn. I jammed on two songs and just listened and sang along for about two more. They offered me a beer and I asked how long they have been musicians. They said they were school teachers. I asked, so you gig at night? and they said, "no we just do this for fun, we love music, we like to have a good time and we are going to play 'till the cops tell us to go home." We laughed, I wish them good luck with the cops, and I went home.

Back to the story of the violinist I meet on Monday night, I found out he was from Ukraine and his name was Marki, at least that's what his friends call him. We agreed to meet at 9pm back in Marienplatz for a drink. After talking for a bit, I found out he started playing violin at the age of 5 and was in music school pretty much his whole life. In Ukraine, at least where he grew up, he explained that they have music school for elementary to high schoolers, then music college (but not actually college?) from 15-19, and then conservatory. He told me he is trying to go to America to finish his bachelor's degree in classical music as soon as his visa gets approved. I ask him how he had gotten into street performing; he told me that he started by making playlists, finding backing tracks, and playing along. He had backing tracks for clubs, weddings, street performances, and even funerals! He told me that this is what he had been doing full-time for the past year; just getting on a train with his amp and violin and performing anywhere and everywhere he could! He shared with me wild stories of experiences street performing had led him to, whether it was getting an Omega watch for free, a woman buying him his dream electronic violin and mailing it to his house, or getting a VIP invitation to one of Berlins most exclusive clubs! Talk about music being able to open doors! I was just happy to have made a new friend and shared with him his first beer in Germany. (Also give him a follow on insta @markiyoung)

P.S. I promise photos/videos will be coming soon! They need to download and upload to the site so I can share them and I take a lot of pictures so please bear with me! I'll edit my blogs to have pictures once I am able to upload them. Sorry!