Musicians Union in Hollywood!

Musicians Union in Hollywood! 🤗

As always, I rocked out the studio and danced whole way through. Oh I had a blast! The band members changes all the time in this band and today the trumpet player who used to live in Japan for 25 years came in! He was sitting in front of me, turned around and said "hey, where are you from in Tokyo?" in Japanese! My jaw was right on the ground.

I'm hoping to collaborate in the near future; him on trumpet and me on shamisen or sanshin!

It's spring! 🤣👍

Spring is here! 😆

How are you, friends? The spring equinox had passed a couple of days ago and the Northern hemisphere is officially in spring now! Well, I am really surprised that it was actually winter all this time. For the first time in my life, I almost got heat stroke in the middle of winter.🤣

I just made the first noise in spring at the Musicians Union in Hollywood! Ah yes, I felt so good to play loud in a big band! I was just too happy playing and dancing and doing both at the same time!

Aaaaa, I so wanna play more….. I need more of the good stuff…. I’m like suffering from withdrawal…..

Musicians Union in Hollywood!!

Hello,

The weather is great as always! LA has been almost 90F lately! Well, I’ve heard the weather in Boston and New York haven't been so bad either so there is no point of being sarcastic about it. Sigh. Not fun. I have to find other topics that I can be sarcastic.

I had fun at the Musicians Union in Hollywood yesterday! The time working with professional musicians putting our heart and soul is priceless!

Back in Musicians Union in Hollywood!

This is the first time to come to the musicians union in Hollywood after the tour. Well, I felt totally different tension in there from the stage because I need a different skill. Our job on the stage is to entertain our audiences for whatever it takes. Our job in the studio is to read the charts precisely and play as the composer imagined or even better. I have been almost only playing on stages and I am now trying to change my career to be a studio musician.

I was thinking I had to choose one or the other, but that's not true. I’m going to do both. I can do it. It just takes more time. That's all.

The first performance of the year!

First job this year at musicians union in Hollywood!

I don't think I am a loud bass player but I have been told to play quietly all the time. 🤐and, to be honest, I've been a bit stressed out about that. This band, however, is critically different from any other bands I've been a member of; this is a jazz big band! The bass needs to be louder! I tell ya, with the requests from the fellow band members, I went quite loud. Behemoth loud. And they liked it. And I liked it.

Aaaww, I felt so good and I was dancing all the way to home.

The last performance of the year 2016!

Hello, how are you, friends~~😄😄😄

It’s winter. It’s the season for knit caps, scarfs, gloves and hot cocoa. Well, here in Los Angeles is in winter as well but the temperature went up to 80F (26C) yesterday! 🤣 Sun is shining and lots of trees are still lively with full of green leaves🌴🌴🌴 What a winter. Now I’m a bit worried about what the summer looks like in here.

Anyway, I played at the musicians union in Hollywood as usual. I don’t have a count-down gig this year, so that was it for the performing side the year 2016 for me. That was a fun!

Only three days left this year! To tell the truth, without seeing snow or icicles outside of the window, I cannot quite bring myself to believe that this IS the end of the year, but I’ll go with the flow. Ha-ha. I’ll just keep practicing and keep reading books.

Making promotion materials at the Musicians Union in Hollywood! (Day 2)

I come to the musicians union in Hollywood every Wednesday. Yesterday was the second day that we recorded a promo. Well, I was handed the charts that I have almost never seen or never seen, then the bandleader said "let's do a take" without rehearsing. Wow 😳 I think this is the real Hollywood style. I've heard that, especially in the old days, musicians had to do overwhelming amount of recordings, so composers, arrangers, orchestrators and copyists were writing furiously round the clock till half an hour before the recording, toss the music to the players, then the players just did the takes one after another because they didn’t have a time to rehearse. Well, the one we did last night was just for promo and wasn’t so dramatic or full-on but I certainly had a taste of it, the taste of the real world, the taste of the real La La Land which is not so happy dreamy place as everyone thinks.

I feel like I got a lot of homework. This place is kicking my butt which is a good thing! 😆👍

Musicians Union in Hollywood!!

Hello, I got fat.

I ate like no tomorrow a few days ago on my birthday and now all the abs are gone. Six pack became one pack. It's amazing that human bodies can transform like this just in one day.

Anyway I went to the Musicians Union in Hollywood again. Today we were taking some stills while we were playing. Now everyone can see our pretty faces. We are hoping to get more gigs with this. Crossing fingers.

Video shoot at Musicians Union in Hollywood! (1st attempt)

I'm at Musicians Union in Hollywood, again.

We were going to shoot a promo video today but we postponed it for now and just did a regular rehearsal. Well, it didn't matter if it were a video shoot or a rehearsal. A fun session was a fun session!

Hoping to shoot a video next week!

Rehearsal at Musicians Union in Hollywood!

Los Angeles, the place of everlasting summer, but it’s been a bit cold lately.

I came back to the Musicians Union in Hollywood after two weeks of absence because of Thanksgiving break. That was a fun rehearsal. As always, I sightread tons of big band charts!

Good thing about the musicians in here is that everyone is sooooo nice! Everybody compliments each other and this is a great encouragement! 😄👍

Came to Musicians Union in Hollywood!

I'm at Musicians Union in Hollywood again. I just put my name on another musicians list in there. Now I'm going to make a website, do a recording, make a promotional video then pray.

Okey, time to play fun music! I'm gonna rock out!

Big Band Rehearsal at Musicians Union in Hollywood

I came to the musicians union for a rehearsal after one week, and now it's finished.

All who dwell in the US had quite a night last night, and I've been recovering from the shell shock since this morning.

I came to the rehearsal, played good music together and saying dirty jokes, then, before I knew it, somehow all those musician things put my mind back to normal state.

Fellow musicians, thank you! Whatever will be will be!

Musicians Union in Hollywood!

My first gig at the musicians union in Hollywood! 😆

I'll kill it! 😁