{"id":4225,"date":"2020-04-10T17:49:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/?p=4225"},"modified":"2022-01-09T12:54:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T18:54:53","slug":"arnold-montgomery-improvisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/arnold-montgomery-improvisation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Song from Arnold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wC8TJoyiPoE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The string of events that led to meeting Arnold Montgomery serve as a reminder to welcome and flow with life\u2019s surprises.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We will start at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We had just left New Market School, where we <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/mural-for-school\/\" target=\"_blank\">painted a mural<\/a> and gave <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/art-music-workshops\/\" target=\"_blank\">art and songwriting workshops<\/a>.&nbsp; We were driving to Birmingham via the scenic route (we avoid highways because the bus can\u2019t go over 65mph anyway). &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we were driving through Guntersville, Alabama, the town caught our eye.&nbsp; It looked quaint and beautiful &#8211; nestled right up against a lake &#8211; and we decided to stay the night.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story of our stay in Guntersville is a tale in and of itself, and one for another post.&nbsp; Long story short, we stayed for five days, met amazing souls, did a concert, became the talk of the town for a bit.&nbsp; One of our social media posts went viral locally, reaching over 45,000 people in the area in just a few short hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The post reached a school administrator at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/tes.gcs.k12.al.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ray Thompson Elementary<\/a>, a Title 1 school in nearby Gadsden, Alabama.&nbsp; She contacted us to see if we had time for a school visit.&nbsp; In truth, we had planned to work solely on post production for the rest of the year.&nbsp; But we try to live by the mantra of being \u2018yes people\u2019.  So we made it work and went to Gadsden for a full day of music and art workshops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now it\u2019s time to back up a bit.&nbsp; At our concert in Guntersville, we met a man who raved about a pizzeria and brewery in Gadsden.&nbsp; We hadn\u2019t planned to go because Gadsden was out of our way, and we also rarely eat out. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, when we arrived in Gadsden, we found that the city had free parking just behind that brewery (parking can be tricky with the bus sometimes).&nbsp; As mentioned, we very rarely eat out, but we decided just this once to treat ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we were looking over the menu, we noticed a section of the menu about the brewery\u2019s live music schedule.&nbsp; Tuesday jazz night.&nbsp; So after our day at Ray Thompson, we returned to the brewery for jazz night.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We almost didn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Arnold Montgomery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arnold Montgomery is a world-class jazz saxophonist, who also crafts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammouthpieces.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">handmade saxophone mouthpieces<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also plays jazz on Tuesday nights at a small brewery in Gadsden.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During intermission, I introduced myself to Arnold and floated the idea of him jumping in on my collaborative album project.&nbsp; He was absolutely game, and he even proposed we come see and document his workshop where he makes mouthpieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So the next day, we drove the bus to Arnold\u2019s home for a day of <em>creation<\/em>!&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rtrpGDU7ofc\" target=\"_blank\">filmed the entire process of making a mouthpiece<\/a> and put it into a video for Arnold to use for his business.&nbsp; <\/li><li>For that video, we recorded Arnold improvising, which was so good I had to make a post for it here on AWTY.<\/li><li>Arnold recorded a track on \u201cRoamer\u201d, the first song on my collaborative album.&nbsp; <\/li><li>And finally, he posed for Jos\u00e9\u2019s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/portraits\/\" target=\"_blank\">portrait series<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We all came away from the day &#8211; not only with valuable material, but also with a new friendship we can tell will last through the years. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of this would have happened had we not decided to stay the night in Guntersville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Staying Open<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Art We There Yet journey has been filled with stories like these.&nbsp; One thing leading to another, one person leading to another, opportunities and experiences blossoming out of simply saying \u2018yes\u2019. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is a reminder to stay open to the opportunities, surprises, and even tragedies that show up unexpectedly along our paths.&nbsp; You never know where it may lead.&nbsp; And besides\u2026there is an excitement and beauty in not knowing what lies just around the bend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The string of events that led to meeting Arnold Montgomery serve as a reminder to welcome and flow with life\u2019s surprises.&nbsp; We will start at the beginning. We had just left New&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5067,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions\/5067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artwethereyet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}