The Trombone is definitely in Strasser’s Bailey-wick!
By CP Christopher Peppas
A good chunk of the duties that befall Bailey Strasser in his roles as Equipment Manager for MYSO (Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra) and as newly-minted Vice President of Jazz Unlimited of Greater Milwaukee, is promotion.
In the case of MYSO, it’s their concerts and other performances and for JU, it’s the monthly jams, fall concert and scholarship auditions.
You might say that he’s quite a mouthpiece for the two organizations. And it is a mouthpiece that played a huge role in why the spotlight is shining so brightly on Bailey these days.
Bailey is making quite a name for himself as a go-to trombone player at jazz jams and musicians’ gigs of late.
But it almost didn’t happen.
“The truth is, I really wanted to play the trumpet,” Bailey said in a recent interview. “It was in the fourth grade and we trying out instruments. I blew into the (trumpet) mouthpiece and I had trouble making a sound.
“The band director gave me a larger one to try. It turned out it was for a trombone and he suggested that I “give it (trombone) a shot,’” Bailey said. “So, I started playing the trombone and it turned out to be the right decision.”
It was at that early stage in life that Strasser made a decision to make music for his vocation, not simply an avocation pro tempore. “It was the only thing I had an interest in.
“I didn’t know if I would be good enough to be a professional musician but I knew I wanted to,” Strasser said.
He was aided and abetted in attaining his goal by a very supportive Mom and Dad, who come and watch him perform to this day and who help in recording his sit-ins.
Bailey was getting a ton of feedback in those early years which has spurned him to continue to get better and better.
“They said that I had a lot of energy,” Bailey said. “The talk of unlimited potential when I was at MYSO in Middle School and through High School provided a lot of gig opportunities to play out.”
When the likes of vocalists like Texas Bufkin call him up sit in, the honor is not lost on an educated audience. Texas will call for “Baby Boy” which stems from when before she knew his name.
At twenty-six, he still has his boyish good looks, but at his height, especially when extended with his slide trombone, one thinks small forward in basketball than anything in swaddling clothes.
As far as influences go, “I consider him (JJ Johnson) to be the greatest trombone player of jazz, ever.” But Bailey was quick to add Kai Winding and Slide Hampton, who does a killer cover of Monk’s ‘Round Midnight.
“And I met Trombone Shorty a few years ago at Summerfest,” Bailey said. “We just talked about life and making music.”
But it was a trumpet player, well perhaps THE trumpet player, Miles Davis, that garners a lot of Bailey’s attention.
“It’s the way he approaches his solos,” Bailey stressed. “He doesn’t go all out, like (John) Coltrane will go all out, playing all these sixteenth notes. Miles plays a simplified melody and then plays that all out.”
Local guitarist and teacher Neil Davis gave Bailey some sage advice, too. “Just focus on your sound…don’t think of anything else.”
Strasser was a proud member of the UW-Eau Claire Marching Band during his college years. With four hundred-plus members, it’s the largest in the Midwest. “I didn’t make their music program, but really enjoyed travelling all over and playing with them.”
His helping promote JU, and the core mission of providing scholarships, is a way for Bailey to give back. And at the most recent auditions on St. Paddy’s Day at Classic Lanes, he jumped in and contributed to the impromptu jam session that followed while the judges deliberated.
It was a mere ten years ago that Bailey himself tried to land one of the coveted prizes. It wasn’t meant to be then. But it is definitely the time for Bailey Strasser to shine now!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CP Christopher Peppas is a Journalist, Jazz Vocalist and Conga Player in the Greater Milwaukee Area and Correspondent at Large for the Jazz Unlimited Newsletter and Content Manager/Chief Contributor to CreativProse, Ltd. (sic), Social Media, Brand Management.