Boise Trip

I just returned from a visit to Boise, Idaho this morning! My good friend from drum corps, Ricky Martinez, was nice enough to put me up for the weekend and it was an awesome time. I went there primarily to visit with friends but also managed to do some networking in the process.

On Saturday night, we went to a cool place called “The Blue Door Cafe” and saw some live jazz with Aaron Miller on Bass, Brent Jensen on Sax, Justin Nielsen on Piano and Scott Jones on drums. All in all, it was a great show and it was great to see that good jazz is alive and well in Boise.

After that, we headed over to see one of Ricky’s former drumset teachers play in downtown Boise. The group consisted of Ben Burdick on guitar, Bill Liles on Bass, vocalist Amy Weber, and Scott Reusser on drums. The group sounded great on their own but midway through the set, Scott let me sit in! All in all, I ended up playing about 3 tunes with them and they even let me solo a few times. Everyone was digging it and I finally got to play for my friends in Boise. Shortly after I handed it back over to Scott, Portland Boise Saxophonist Pete Petersen stopped by and played a few tunes with the group to close out the set.

Afterward, we hung out and exchanged stories, contacts, etc. It was great! Definitely made the trip all the more worthwhile.

The rest of the time I hung out with friends and had an amazing time. I’ll never forget it. Special thanks to Jose Rodriguez, Jeff Paradis, Ashley Liggett, Scott Reusser and especially Ricky for making the trip great!

-N