Chas, excellent subject!
I'm 68 and here's my take:
-everyone takes me for 8-12 years younger but still that becomes a negative in the marketplace.
of course very young and very old sell best, so in a few years, especially if i start to look my age, i'll be more in demand. yeah, right.
-can't cut those 4/5 hour late night gigs anymore. but that fits in with the trend today for shorter earlier gigs. but the morning after any gig I'm wiped. owwwww!
-have increasing impatience for shlepping, setup, breakdown, lifting, etc. don't want to put anything in/out of cases, don't want to set up speaker stands, don't want a lot of components, don't want to lift anything over 30 lbs except amp on/off suv and then roll it, keep all cables
bungeed to amp and plugged in to amp for easy setup.
-not a pianist and never gigged on a real piano but still I hate that i had to sell my Steinway A and even my digital Technics 88 because after playing a weighted action for just 10 minutes my hands start to really hurt me and i gotta stop. arthritis? tendinitis? age? whatever, sucks!

-now for the good part:
- i NEVER practice. on saxes i never take them out until i get to a jam , sit-in , or gig (and i don't hustle sax gigs these days). what is weird, really really weird, is that my
playing just keeps getting better and better. go figure.
-i rarely practice my singing. the price i pay for that is
that it can now take a few tunes on a gig before i can
get a good vocal groove going-when i do get the groove going, i sing better than ever. go figure that, too.
-i spend a lot of time on my arranger, but not to practice.
i just play, play, play, fool with styles, tweak sounds, try
different setups, etc. keeps my mind and chops sharp. it makes sense i'd get better at this since i've only been at
it 7 years. but still my age has not impeded me.

I'm something of an aficionado of jazz and standards singers, and i've noticed that some get better with age
while others hit a peak in early middle age and then fall
sharply off. I have no idea why this is so, but here are
examples of those that just kept getting better:
Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, Eartha Kitt. here are some that fell off: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como. there are many more in the falling off with age category than the better
and better category. I think it' s possibly just a matter
of luck and so I feel blessed to be in the age-improved
category (at least up to now) ONE NEVER KNOWS, DO ONE?
- I saw 85-yr-old drummer Roy Haynes recently kickin butt of his young phenom band. Hank Jones is pushing
90 and still playing his ass off. so there's hope.
-MUSIC KEEPS YOU YOUNG! ( we hope) later...



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Miami Mo