conductors playing
It is a matter of 'horses for courses' A band plays for an audience, not for itself, so an element of surprise and variety is entertaining. My own personal contributions mentioned previously have a purpose. 1. playing the improvisation in the "Huggins" piece was because I can improvise, and it looked good when the conductor put down his baton, picked up a trombone, and started playing, (my first trombone player also had a solo in those concerts, no 'upstaging', it was a different style, the slow movement of the Rimsky Korsakov trom concerto). 2. When I played a duet with my son, it was pure entertainment, the 'Father & Son' thing, he was a 12 year old trumpet player at the time, the band was conducted by our assistant MD, which was nice for him also. 3. When I 'fronted' on drums, it was because we were temporarily without a drummer, and you can't really play things like Glen Miller or Big Band Classics without drums.