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Monthly Archives: October 2007

Buckeye Nation

30-Oct-07

Last week’s visit to The Ohio State University was chock-full of reasons to be pleased… terrific performance, great people, fun seminars with the students… But giving the Wind Symphony‘s absolutely beautiful and sensitively-performed performance of my piece a run for it’s money was Maestro Mikkelson‘s personal tour of the OSU stadium and state-of-the-art marching band [...]

Huge.

21-Oct-07

Today I fly to Columbus and Ohio State University, for a short residency, working with Russ Mikkelson and Rick Blatty’s ensembles on As the scent of spring rain… and Avenue X. The rehearsals and seminars and such culminate in a Wind Symphony performance Tuesday evening, where my piece is nicely sandwiched between Mackey & Bryant. [...]

21-Oct-07

This week I’ll be at Ohio State University for a short residency, working with Russ Mikkelson and Rick Blatty’s ensembles on As the scent of spring rain… and Avenue X, culminating in a performance Tuesday evening.

14th St.

17-Oct-07

The cross-street as living/breathing NYC arts scene… in the form of a couple of blurry cellphone snapshots, so nifty I thought they warranted another exception to the no-photo rule: And a craftsman plies his trade — Will Write Art (for monetary contributions, of course). In a stroke of genius, he is set up outside Trader [...]

Addendum

12-Oct-07

The breathing jazz-encyclopedia that is Jim Kull, of St. Charles, Illinois almost immediately weighed in on the Lush Life essay, pointing out: 1) That Strayhorn was 17 or something like that when he wrote it. I think I ignored that fact for obvious depression-inducing reasons. 2) That solo Strayhorn performance where he talk-sings like a [...]

Lush Life

11-Oct-07

In my recent dive into everything American mid-century, I’ve become obsessed with Billy Strayhorn’s masterwork. After playing it myself pretty much daily for months, I’m convinced that Lush Life is not a song. It’s a through-composed composition disguised as a song. Strayhorn tries to fool you, but I’m not buying. The sheet music itself is [...]

Jazz and cocktails

11-Oct-07

A short essay on the Billy Strayhorn standard, Lush Life, with as many audio links as I could gather.

jiyonasan niyuman

02-Oct-07

In March of 2008, I will travel to Japan for the Japan Wind Ensemble Conductor’s Conference, for the premiere of a new work they’ve commissioned. The announcement of my residency is up on the JWECC website, and a little poking around with the help of the internet translation engine makes for some giddy reading. Someday [...]

Up-dates

01-Oct-07

Happy Birthday wishes today to composer John Mackey! Time marches on. I remember when… And because they are great kids and great players, I’ll come through on a plug for the sax quartet who most recently kicked-b*tt on the Lullaby … Ready to play your gig in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, out of Stephenville TX, [...]