This evening, headed to a special joint concert between the New York Philharmonic and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The two played, respectively, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, and Duke Ellington’s arrangements of the same music, switching back and forth to allow the audience to compare the original classical and more newly jazzified versions of each movement.

As the concert also included Copland’s El Salon Mexico, it gave me the chance to hear featured playing from two of my favorite trumpet players in the entire world: the NY Philharmonic’s Phil Smith, and the JLCO’s Wynton Marsalis.

As ever, I headed home not sure whether to start practicing, or give up playing the trumpet completely.