I'm a little hesitant to begin writing about my experience in Port Townsend, because I'm afraid that once I start, I may never stop. The following will be completely free wrting; whatever pops into my head at the time is what is written.

I'll begin by saying that I have never had such a wonderful week. I was constantly surrounded by beautiful, loving people, who also happened to be AMAZING musicians. Even the first night was beyond special. There was a faculty concert which included (in alphabetical order): Clarence Acox, Geroge Cables, Steve Christofferson, Jeff Clayton, John Clayton, Pete Christlieb, Dan Balmer, Dee Daniels, Chuck Deardorf, Chuck Easton, Dawn Clement, Kurt Elling, Bob Florence, Bruce Forman, Gary Gibson, Benny Green, Jeff Hamilton, Tamir Hendelman, Gary Hobbs, Ingrid Jensen, Nancy King, Christoph Luty, Bill Mays, Randy Porter, Bill Ramsay, Kim Richmond, Marc Seales, Gary Smulyan, Terell Stafford, Jay Thomas, Jiggs Whigham, and Steve Wilson! That first concert was worth the price of the camp. WOW!
Afterwards I went backstage to find Benny & say hello. It was wonderful to see him & get one of his great hugs. We found some other people who were wanting to jam & we played pretty late. I even sang! Boy, was I nervous to sing in front of him, but I got over it. People began to trickle out, until it was just Benny and I at the piano singing Stevie Wonder tunes. How beautiful. He walked me back to my room at 2 in the morning. Needless to say, returning home in the middle of the night became the norm.

Monday was the first day of classes. I was placed into Vocal Group 1, which was comprised of beginning singers, more or less. I'm so glad I was in group 1; everyone was so sweet & genuinely happy for everyone else. After staff introductions and whatnot, we all went up to the front of the room & sang a chorus of F blues. It was cool to see how unique everyone was & to get a taste of their personality. Of course, when I stepped up, I said "I'm Heather Sessler. I play trombone." It's been hard for me to shake the trombone part of me. Now I can say "I'm Heather Sessler. I sing and play trombone." Well, anyway, I got to give Nancy King a hug after that. Nancy has become such a loving support for me. I now think of her as a surrogate mother of sorts. Now onto the best part of Monday. . .the Faculty Presents concert. The first group to play was: Ingrid Jensen, Gary Smylyan, Kim Richmond, Bruce Forman, Tamir Hendelman, John Clayton, and Jon Wikan. AMAZING!! I don't even have to go into it more than that. Absolutely amazing! Next was George Cables solo. Wow! If you haven't seen George Cables play solo before, do it. He's incredible. For his last number, he invited John Clayton up to play a duet. It was a tune he had written and was beautiful. My good friend Dave Speranza and I had to keep our chins from hitting the floor. Gorgeous! The last group was Steve Wilson, Jeff Clayton, Terell Stafford, Jiggs Whigham, Dan Balmer, Benny Green, Christoph Luty, and Jeff Hamilton. Talk about a killer band!! They played a free, kind of etheral arrangement of "Someday my Prince Will Come." It was beautiful & the whole building was wanting more, so Benny just played the opening to "Moanin'." Holy shit! The band kicked in and swung their asses off! Each solo just got better than the last & I was wondering how they were going to keep the energy going through 7 soloist. I didn't have to worry though, 'cause when Jiggs Whigham came in on his trombone solo, the band nearly dropped out, only to crescendo & blow the roof of of the place. After hearing that, there was no doubt in my mind why Benny played with the Messengers. The music moved me so much, that I actually felt my stomach cramp up. This continued to be a trend & I spent most of the week "sick" from all of the music. It was all positive though.

I'm going to take a break. Just looking at everything that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm going to have to pace myself.

More later

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Petite FleursBy Pablo Picasso

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You Are a Chimera

You are very outgoing and well connected to many people.Incredibly devoted to your family and friends, you find purpose in nurturing others.You are rarely alone, and you do best in the company of others.You are incredibly expressive, and people are sometimes overwhelmed by your strong emotions.

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