The Doug Largent Trio

With Brad Maiani on guitar and Tyler Leak on drums.

We had Brad Maiani on guitar, Dan Davis on drums, and John Palowitch on sax. Too bad my phone stopped recording after the first few songs!

I had fun playing with John Palowitch on alto sax and Tyler Leak on drums. What a challenge and an inspiration!

Today I had a whole day to myself to work on music. My usual routine is about 3.5 hours of practicing. After finishing it, I was on YouTube and stumbled upon the following video:

After hearing Keith Jarrett’s award acceptance speach, I was fired up and ready to practice again! The trouble was, I had already run myself into the ground with my intense practicing.

I sat there thinking about Keith Jarrett spending 12 hours a day sequestered with his piano, kicking butt since age 2, and I started to feel woefully inadequate.

Then it hit me: I can only give what I can give. After a certain point, it’s impossible to do any productive practicing. For me, that point is around 4 hours of intense, focused drilling. And then I’m totally useless.

Some musicians do a lot more. Stories of Coltrane practicing are legendary. I read an interview with Christian McBride where he talked about coming home from a gig and practicing all night long. At this point in my life, 4 hours is about the best I can do, and I’m happy and thankful to have that time.

We had a nice gig last night with Michael Ode sitting in on drums for the first time. David Quick singing a couple of songs in the second set as well. What a fine crowd!

Brad and I both got Apogee MiC 96K to record with. In general, I will record our gigs with the mic close to the organ, and he will record with his mic close to the guitar amp. We discovered that we could mix them together as a stereo track and get a nice recording of our gigs.

Still experimenting with mic placement, but check this out: (Tyler Leak on drums)

We are looking forward to playing at the Sharp Nine Gallery on 12/6- it’s gonna be super cool. You can still catch us every Tuesday at Looking Glass in Carrboro, and we still manage to have our foot in the door for a monthly show at The Station.

See you all soon!

As a daily exercise, I like to list things that I’m thankful for so I won’t take them for granted. The primary joy in my life is that my family is super healthy! My wife, daughter, doggy and me are in tip-top health. It’s such an amazing thing, and I’m grateful.