[Alain Londes]

Thanks for stopping by Becky and for your interest and support. It’s nice to read a human voice and I appreciate it (just yesterday I asked the copilot AI app for suggestions on a new laptop 🙁 Beam me up! :D)
Yes, the day job and other life responsibilities like assisting my elderly parents etc.
Music is everpresent. Most of the photocopies that I do at work are music sheets (eg: SKU materials 🙂 I always have music material to think about in the subway when away from my horn. Next week is reading week at my college so besides marking stuff, I hope to be acountable and post something! I did play Cold Duck Time a few years ago when playing in the Latin band but my understanding of improvisation has skyrocketed since then……….I just need to practice, practice, practice in the good sense of the word and be patient.
Next week, I might head out to a small open mic event…..even if I’m the only one on stage playing and improvising over a 12 bar blues. Wish me luck.
One last note related to music, and maybe that is something that we can post into a forum: I love being obsessed over a tune for a number of days straight. On Friday, I was checking out the awesome Roy Hargrove big band at Dizzy’s (it would have been Hargrove’s bday this week) through jazzlive livestreams. Luckily I had the cd with one of my favorite tunes played. Sometimes, it’s just a few notes that strike a chord (pun intended) in me.
Anyway, let’s all support each other out there and celebrate our progress no matter what level.
Keep swingin’
Alain

[Alain Londes]

Thanks for asking Carmen. My name is pronounced the French way. I was scrambling to find some phonetic clip but came up with this (not endorsing the site or anything): https://www.deepl.com/translator#fr/en/Alain
The tool is okay for the French pronunciation (from France!)

[Alain Londes]

Thanks for the guidance and support @SaxophoneSteve Wish I also had super headphones where I could listen to tunes, repeated patterns and solos while I sleep to internalize everything! Buhh!

[Alain Londes]

Yes there a more resources than ever before. Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve been practicing more than ever and feel bad when other parts of life get in the way. I like analyzing things and have been guilty of paralysis by analysis. Scaling (pun intended) things down as to what to work on is still a work in progress. Fortunately, I am okay with playing even if I’m the only audience member 🙂

Keep swingin’