Some of the musicians in a jazz band I’m in are trying to modernize the book.  We play a lot of dances and concerts, but the majority of the audience hails from the far side of 60.  They often show up in busses and vans with XYZ Retirement Home on the side.  Well, it's Florida, after all.  During the intermission at a concert last week, one lady told me she just loved the kind of music we play.  Yeah, but she was 91 years old!  I’m about to turn 71 and I’ve had it with music from the ‘40s.  I thought it was hokey in the '50.

So, I hired a friend to write an arrangement of Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”, featuring me on bass trombone.  Actually, the whole piece features the ‘bone section.
Turns out, he’s about the only human on Earth who doesn’t know the song.  
The chart is good, except that the articulation is wrong in some places and the sax solo – everyone’s gonna expect a sax solo – is missing.  

I sent him an email this morning telling him what I want changed and a link to Joel’s YouTube video of the original.  Should be a really good chart.

Saw some live music last week.  Nice little jazz combo and a singer.  She was singing this really vampy number that I had never heard before.

I turned to my date, and said, "Damn, that was good."

She replied, "You know that was a Justin Bieber song, right?"

Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails, and Sheryl Crow covered Cat Stevens, and . . . my point being, look outside of your usual musical genre for inspiration.