As a professional percussionist for over 35 years I’ve been asked to play some really strange items. At one performance of a Lukas Foss piece I was assigned the task of breaking glass beer bottles into a metal garbage can! Not only was it loud, but, I must have look strange wearing safety goggles on stage.
On another occasion, during the recording of the film “Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom” I was asked (by composer John Williams) to whirl hoses in a circle above my head to create the sound of reeds in the wind.
Most recently, during Monday’s live CBS broadcast of the “Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular”, I was asked to play Boomwackers while backing up pop superstar Nick Jonas.
As percussionists we play whatever it takes to get the job done – you just have to learn to ignore the comments and snears from the violin section…
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