I had to use a harmon (stem in) on a Maria Schneider chart one time; it was a sort of special effect in a pretty sparsely orchestrated section.

Go through some of your favorite recordings and spend some quality time listening with a focus on the rhythm section.  Listen especially for how the different players interact with each other, how the bass line is influenced by and in turn influences the soloist, etc.  When you play a capella, try to get a bass line going in your head, and play a solo over that.  Leave plenty of space in the solo, and during some of that space, play the bass line, and then keep it going in your head when you go back to the solo again.  In addition to making for a more interesting solo, this will deepen your understanding of what rhythm section players do, which will lead to your connecting and interacting with them on a much deeper level when you play with other people again.

Sorry to hear that.  I played a number of gigs with his band when I lived in Rochester.  He would often give me a ride to the gig and talk about his experiences with people like Emory Remington, John Swallow, Urbie Green and others.  He was a wealth of stories and a thoroughly good guy.  Rest in peace, Dick.

Tomorrow night!  There are still tickets available.

Update: I've just been informed that if you buy two tickets online tonight, you'll get two free tickets at the door.  That's a special deal for tonight only (May 6)!

I don't play in any orchestras on a regular basis right now.  In big bands, the guys I work with most often play an Edwards .508 and (if I recall correctly) a 30s 6H.  I play a Rath R1.

I know there are some Chicago fans around on this site.  The New England-based Chicago tribute band, Introduction - the Chicago Experience, is playing a show this Saturday, May 11 at 7:30 at the Adams Memorial Opera house in Derry, NH.  It's a split bill with Beatles tribute band Beatlejuice.  Highlights of our set include a pretty hefty chunk of the "Chicago Transit Authority" album, Saturday in the Park, 25 or 6 to 4, Free, and the complete Ballet for Girl in Buchannon, among other Chicago classics.

Tickets are available at the door, but slightly cheaper if you buy in advance here: http://beatlejuiceandintroduction.ticketleap.com/beatlejuice-and-introduction/dates/May-11-2013_at_0730PM

Hope some folks can make it!  It should be a fun night, and the band is sounding great!

I really like Ko-ichiro Yamamoto's recording.

I wouldn't necessarily call the Tomasi too hard; I played it for my undergrad auditions, and won the concerto competition at Interlochen with it when I was 18.  For a good high school player with the right kind of musical personality it's doable.  The De Frumerie on the other hand is not one I would recommend for any high schooler, much as I like the piece.

A few thoughts:

1. It sounds like maybe you're intimidated by the amount of freedom you have in improvising, the number of choices you can make?  If that's the case, you can create limits for yourself.  Give yourself a specific range to play in, or a specific length for each phrase, or a specific interval to use, or a specific set of rhythms you can use.  I've often found, especially in working on improvisation, that if I focus on one aspect of playing (especially time) that a whole host of other issues disappear, probably just because I'm not obsessing over them.

2. Make your classical background an asset, not something that's holding you back.  By this point you've probably done a fair amount of theory, and analyzed melodies by Mozart, Beethoven, etc.  Use all that knowledge about antecedent and consequent phrases, sentences and periods, sequences, etc.

3. Listen.  I don't mean listen to great recordings; of course that's important as well, but you're already doing that.  I mean listen while you're playing.  Great improvisations don't exist in a vacuum - everything is in some kind of context.  Listen intently to what you're playing and what everyone else in the group is playing, and try to make everything you play relate somehow to what has come before.  If you're playing by yourself, then you have to create the whole context yourself.  If you're playing with a rhythm section, pay attention to everything they're doing.  You can get ideas for what to play from rhythms the drummer plays, or voicings the pianist plays, or intervals the bassist plays.  Anything you can hear can become a jumping-off point.

I posted in the other thread as well, but my Rath R1 has a great high D in 1st.

My Rath R1 has a really good high D in 1st.

The Cronkhite double gig bag is great.

I did my undergrad at Eastman, from 2005-2009.  Shoot me a PM if you'd like to talk about it.

New England Conservatory.

The primary "jazz composition" teachers are Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg.  You can study with either or both of them, or with pretty much anyone else on the faculty.  It's pretty common for the jazz comp students to spend some time with the classical composition faculty or with guys like Anthony Coleman or Ted Reichman.  If you want to focus on playing as well, you can study with Luis Bonilla, Laurie Frink, John McNeil, Jerry Bergonzi, Jason Moran, Donny McCaslin, Dominique Eade, and more.  Or Norman Bolter, or one of the BSO players if you want to go that direction.  There's a huge amount of freedom to pursue really whatever artistic path you want to pursue.

There's also a big band and a smaller group (usually 8-9 players) dedicated to workshopping and performing student works, as well as a monthly student work concert series organized by the composition department, which you'd be welcome to participate in, and there's a very active new and improvised music scene both in and out of school.

Whereabouts in Massachusetts are you?

I use a Bam Softpak for mine, and sometimes a Cronkhite double gig bag if the need arises.

Some people I've been into lately:

Classical tenor: Nitzan Haroz, Norman Bolter
Classical bass: Jim Markey, Denson Paul Pollard
Jazz tenor: Mike Fahie, Ryan Keberle, Jacob Garchik, Nils Wogram
Jazz bass: Max Siegel

Yep.  And when you're comfortable with this, you can have the click signify any other beat in the measure, i.e. each time the metronome clicks, that's beat 2, or the and of 4.  Or each click is 3 beats in 4/4.  There are many ways to practice with a metronome.

This is basically what I did.  I started with D and E in 7th - the partials are close together, but it's low enough that it's not too tiring.