Marine Band audition

A Concord Jazz Christmas; various artists from the Concord Jazz label

The first of my two auditions with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band occurred on December 6, 1990. Fourteen other pianists joined me in taking a whack at trying out for the nation’s oldest professional music organization. Over the course of the morning, they heard enough of all of us to narrow it down to three finalists: Bob, who eventually got the job, a fellow named Stef Scaggiari and me.

Many years later, after my second, and more successful, audition with the US Marine Band, members of the audition committee who remembered me from the first audition confided in me that I really didn’t have much of a chance that first time around. It seems that they felt that I didn’t have enough commercial music experience. Well, why did you choose me as a finalist. “You were the best classical player all day. You played so nice, we just wanted to hear some more.” Isn’t that sweet?

I bought “Concord Jazz Christmas” in November of 1995 in Aberdeen, South Dakota, when I took my quartets at Brookings High School to All-State Chorus. Concord Jazz started in 1972 as an offshoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California. Festival founder Carl Jefferson, a used car salesman and jazz fan, sold his Lincoln Mercury dealership to found, as he says, “the jazz label I can never find in record stores.”

During its almost forty years in existence, giants in the jazz world have recorded for this music group. Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, George Shearing, Tito Puente, Barry Manilow, Marian McPartland, George Benson, Woody Herman, Dave Brubeck, Charlie Byrd, Paula Abdul and Tony Bennett are just a few of those who have brought musical excellence to the Concord label.

“Concord Jazz Christmas” was sort of a compilation CD, featuring one track by each of the featured musicians; a quondam version of today’s iPod playlist. I saw Rosemary Clooney’s name on there, and Gene Harris’, Dave McKenna’s, and Ken Peplowski’s. It was then that I decided that it would take a long time to find something better than this.

I listened to it on my ghetto blaster after I got home from Aberdeen. It was nice to hear the variety, every track featuring a different jazz style. When it got to track five, “Angels We Have Heard On High”, I thought, Well, now, who’s this? This has got a nice little groove. Lo, and behold, here was the Stef Scaggiari Trio, the pianist who had made it to the finals at the Marine Band audition with Bob and me.

In the summer of 2001, I played keyboard in a band that backed up a vocal jazz quartet at a weekend jazz festival in Chestertown, Maryland. After the performance, as I was putting my keyboard away, I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around, here was one of the hands that belonged to Mr. Stef Scaggiari. “Hi, Erik. I don’t know if you remember me, but you and I met …” He didn’t really have to say much more than that. I was flattered that he remembered who I was at all.

Credits: To Carl Jefferson, for surrendering the security of a used car business in order to embrace the vision of a recording label, taking on the responsibility of an archivist, chronicling, for generations, the canon of the purveyors of America’s music.

Only six months before Christmas. Stores are open ‘til nine.