The MSM Trip

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We left for Manhattan on a cold Saturday in late January. We walked down to Penn Station and hopped on a few trains to get to NYC. We got off near Columbia University and a small tour of the campus and stood at the overlook where Harlem is. The Manhattan School of Music was just a few blocks away.

The inside of the Manhattan School of Music is strange to describe. At the main lobby, the place was very modern in design with scarlet red and black seats and couches for waiting where musicians can sit (or play) on. However, other parts of the building looked antiquated. In fact, even the insides of the claustrophobic elevator we rode on had a pale beige color. The hallway we walked through looked like something from an old apartment building. However, these descriptions pale in comparison to the excellent playing by the MSM band.

A few minutes after we came in the rehearsal room, the MSM students went straight to playing; there were no warm-ups. They played ‘Fables of Faubus’, ‘Goodbye Porkpie Hat’ and ‘Better Get Hit In Your Soul’, all by the famous Jazz musician Charles Mingus. All of the songs had this deep, “nasty” style to it. In fact, their conductor emphasized that they needed to play ‘Faubus’ in “a messy” way, but “a clean messy”. After we left, I learned that most of the high-schoolers there (if not all) have been playing music for a majority of their lives and have years and years worth of experience. Overall, I was absolutely blown away by the MSM band and I wish them good luck in their upcoming competition!