10 Years After 9/11 - Erick Storkman

Taken from an article in the Allegro. (September 2011 Vol. III, No. 8) - NY Musicians Union Local 802's publication.

I mostly remember the two days after 9/11. I played in a couple of local clubs in New Jersey on those nights, and they were overflowing with people. People needed to be with one another. They needed music. They needed reasurrance that life would go on. People were grieving and loving and affirming life. There was anger, there was defiance, but there was no fear. On one of the nights, I played with the Dalton Gang at Trumpets in Montclair (filling in for my pal Conrad Zulaf). The great alto player Mark Friedman played a beuatiful version of "New York State of Mind" with the band. Some of the guys in the band were crying while we played. It was incredibly moving. I knew people who died and one who had a miraculous escape. It was all so horrible, but they way the people of the city and suburbs reacted to it all made me very proud to call myself a New Yorker.

- - Erick Storkman - -