A special edition of Making Tracks that does not take place uptown!
I had resigned myself to the sidelines.
Living so far uptown from the center of the protests, with an aversion towards the subway due to Covid, and posessing extremely questionable cycling abilities, I didn’t think I would get to experience in person any of the marches going on for my freedom. I allocated my energy towards reading the news, donating, informing. This is the responsible thing to do, I told myself. This is fine.
But then I got an e-mail from musician Jon Batiste’s manager asking me to join them in a massive brass band playing a protest march, and I realized that I’d been living on a hair trigger, and all that was needed for it to spring was just one ask.
Some of my motivation was for selfish reasons, of course- I hadn’t played my horn in public since February- but much of it came from a supreme elation to finally be able to contribute my skills to the greater good. To use my 22 years of classical French horn training to disturb the peace and make a joyful noise.
My French horn’s name is Otto. It’s a confusing name for other horn players, because Otto is also a brand of horn, and she is very obviously not that brand. She didn’t have a name for a long time- nothing ever seemed to fit her enigmatic…