Its the time

Well first off, Merry Thanksgiving to you, my loyal readers. I do know its been awhile since my recent publishing but you must understand holidays, family stress and videos games have taken a toll on the time I can dedicate to this blog. Never mind the endless preparation for Christmas gigs.

So this entry will be scattered as usual as it will cover a couple issues these past few weeks have brought up. First off, the UMBC Symphony concert last Sunday went incredibly well. The group pulled off almost professional level performances of Stravinsky, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and Mozart. I must say this concert left me quite winded due to the recent dietary changes I have made. Less calories = Less fuel for a performing. I cracked a few notes but overall I felt good about my playing. The quintet also played before the concert in the lobby, and as usual people enjoyed my arrangements. They especially liked the arrangement of the Godfather theme for tuba, and Good King Wenceslas. So lets say it was a success.

In the mail today, I received my copy of Jekyl and Hyde Concert Tour. This is PDQ Bach's newest CD. It was recorded live at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills, MD. I was lucky enough to attend this concert for a bargain of $11. It was quite interest to witness how these sessions work. The string quartet that was there was able to pick up in the middle of phrases, and actually sound like they had played all the notes before it. Almost like a live "drop the needle". At this concert I was also blessed to meet THE PDQ Bach himself, Professor Peter Schickele.


With that photo I must say good night and take care, and may your turkey left overs be tender and moist.

Explorations

Hello friend(s). I write to you with fond greetings and a grasp at being entertained.

In my quest to find myself entertained, I took a journey to the local Super Walmart which just opened its doors to my Baltimore suburb. It is a bittersweet thing. As much as I despise walmart for censoring song lyrics on albums, thus making me go to a local record store to get my new copy of the Avenged Sevenfold CD. But they did happen to have, set up in demo mode, "Rock Band".

"Rock Band" is a new game coming out from the original designers of Guitar Hero, that not only allows you to play guitar, but drums, bass, and even be a vocalist! I played this demo for an hour, mot of it with a complete stranger on guitar. We became an amazing band. It will be coming out for PS2 on December 11, so I have started saving my pennies already. I may even...trade in....Guitar Hero III to help pay for it.

As I mentioned above about having to go to a local record store to pick up a CD. Thanks to the Walmart policy of censoring, it helped me rediscover the coolness of the "Record and Tape Traders" store in Catonsville. A whole section dedicated to metal. I'm in heaven. While picking up Avenged Sevenfold's new CD, which is incredible, as they continue what they did last album with amazing arrangements, and great vocals, with wonderful lyrics. Its a must buy. Back on topic though, I was able to also pick up another Dream Theater album, and an actual album by Dragonforce. This store not only had the albums I wanted and uncensored, but the CDs were a dollar cheaper. I spent 45 minutes in this little store just browsing. I was never bothered nor did I get odd looks for browsing metal, or buying the groups I was buying. It was a great shopping experience. Not to mention that the CDs I bought, all three of them, stellar.

Well my friends, I hope you find your drum heads tuned and your fills even and intriguing.

The Modern Legacy

With the recent passing of Robert Goulet and Lucianno Pavarotti, my brain has been working overtime on a single question to which I am at a loss to come up with an answer and hope my loyal readers can assist me with. The Question is this:

Who will be the legendary performers, that when they die, will truly be missed and be the defining voice and music of this generation, my generation?

Before we can approach this question, we must ask how an artist would reach that level. The obvious answers are they must sustain their popularity, they must be prolific, and of course, a smart agent and label that knows how to get them to the masses quickly.

The 1950's obviously gave us the "Rat Pack", led by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Frankie Blue Eyes made it in the 40's but was able to keep performing and recording into the 1980's carrying that generation from adolescence pretty much all the way to death. The same with Dean Martin, but the days then required them to be more than music personalities but stagemen and movie stars. They were also supported by a cast of lesser known musicians. Paul Anka and other songwriters, along with the bands of Al hirt, Tommy Dorsey, and others helped these talented vocalists obtain superstar status.

The 1960's changed this whole thing. Singer/songwriters took over as the folk movement pulled musc out of the nightclubs and theaters and put it in any long haired hippie with enough money to buy a guitar and get to San Francisco. The Beatles, holy moses were they big. John and Pauls songwriting charmed just about every ear in America, as Rock n Roll was being brought to forefront on the variety shows popping up on TV as the appliance was found in almost every living room. The birth of multimedia meant that you not only had to sound good, you had to look good. This idea was HUGE in the 1980's with the birth of MTV and later, VH1. A whole channel dedicated to music, and the art of the music video.

MTV started the overflow of bands. This overflow really led to the groups getting wilder and wilder, with the long hair, bright costumes, and really the virtuosity on electric guitar. If the Beatles were around in the 1980's they would have hair to their butt, wore leopard print pants and make up to make you kind of think they were girls so they could survive this era of you have 4 minutes of air time to hook teenagers with your crappy song to sell a million albums. GO! This really continued through 90's. If you ask someone to name a great band from the 1980's everyone will disagree. Everyone liked Sinatra, Deano and Sammy Davis Jr in their hayday.

The new millinium really brought this market saturation to a new level, with broadband music sharing. Everybody with a synthesizer and a microphone has a myspace music account, every band has a separate release date for iTunes and stores for hard copies of their music. They put demos on the net. Someone actually showe dme a band that was really good, bu they don't even have an album out yet! Just 4 tracks on myspace.

So with age of oversaturation (notice I'm not saying mediocrity, because there is some really great stuff going on) how is our generation to recognize an icon of their time when we no longer have them? The segregation of genres as well these days can cause a loss of focus. There is no Rock, Rap, Folk, Jazz, Classical anymore. Its not that simple. There are atleast 4 different types of metal these days. I can't tell someone I like Heavy Metal, I have to say Progressive/Symphonic metal. To which they say, "What the hell is that?" And I say, "Groups like Dream Theater, Symphony X." "Who the hell are they?". "They have a great guitarist, drummer, and synth players." "Oh, thats cool." We can't discuss music anymore without leaving one person completely clueless within two sentences. My grandfather though could talk for hours comparing Nat King Cole to Frank Sinatra to my great uncle, Ralph Sigwald, who was a famous singer for awhile in the 1950's. He was known as "The Caruso of the South."

So really this brings up the backside of the question of, does our generation care enough? The only artist I can imagine my generation and people a few years older and younger than me really caring about when his time comes is Michael Jackson. But I hope its for his amazing dancing and his partnership with Quincy Jones that made him bigger than Elvis. Elvis, I always like to think that if he was still alive, he'd have one of those every night shows in Vegas in his own theater. He would atleast make Celine Dion shut up. Maybe she wouldn't even have her own show.

On an unrelated topic, i bought tickets yesterday to go see Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie. ALLLL ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

The Ebb and Flow

I have always found it to be true that as the bad happens, the good also counters in some form. This is especially true in my musical life. As some may know, the vocal icon of Robert Goulet left this world Tuesday while waiting for a lung transplant. Goulet was a fabulous singer who got his lucky break from a very tragic happening in this country. Goulet was becoming a vocal sensation on Broadway in the musical "Camelot" in the early 1960's. When President Kennedy was assassinated, Jackie Kennedy was quoted saying how much Mr Kennedy was a fan of the score and the famous line, "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot." At that point Kennedy's administration was associated with Camelot, which was associated with Goulet's voice, and copies of "If Ever I Should Leave You" flew off the shelves.

I was a fan of his role in "Man of La Mancha" singing "The Impossible Dream". For some reason that song always gets to me. Its not just the words of Dream the Impossible dream, but the optimism and the flow of the melody just suck me right in. Quick side note, Maynard Ferguson made a wicked good recording of this song as well. Goulet's smooth voice though always charmed my ear and listening to the Standards station on Sirius radio, without looking I could pick his voice out with just one word. I will truly miss Robert Goulet.

And on this theme, with the loss of Robert Goulet and the quintet frustrations, I have found myself another band to that of which I will be a "fanboi". This band is called "Dragonforce" They have a modern progressive metal sound, but very classic, mythical, triumphant lyrical pattern, with that great open 4 part vocal sound that "Queen" used to great fame with "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Princes of the Universe". Their lyrics remind me very much of "Princes of the Universe", and "Who Wants to Live Forever", the later "Queen" hits. The "Dragonforce" hit "Fury of the Storm" has been made popular on youtube via "Guitar Hero" custom songs. "Through the Fire and Flames" is also featured in the recently released "Guitar Hero 3" (another positive).

This band uses a someone rare set up, of two lead guitarists, both of them solo, and both of them are pretty cool. Heres their music video for "Through the Fire and Flames".

One of their guitarist has a cool little trademark of his solos: he mimics 8-bit video game sounds.

Well my friends, may your hammer-ons and pull-offs be even, and your strings strong. I wish you peace, and another fond farewell to Robert Goulet.

An Oasis amongst the sand

As some of my loyal readers know, I took a little vacation a week or so ago to get my head back together, collect my thoughts and come back swinging. Due to poor preparation, I found myself musically isolated for a week. I was trapped in Ocean City, MD with nothing of quality on the radio, no CDs and my iPod left comfortably on my computer desk. There wasn't even VH1 on the hotel tv system, and the hotel restaurant during breakfast played nothing but canned jazz. I struggled to find any source of rewarding sound, not even expecting music. I cruised every ad I could for hopes of a local bar having a band, an outdoor festival, anything. I found none of these, for i was in a resort city off season.

The sound of the ocean, calming, rewarding, at night with a slight wind almost sang like a soprano to me and charmed me. It relaxed me to the point of my insomnia almost was cured. Coming home and back into the stressful environment of my life, dragging me away from the cliched siren song of the sea, sent my sleep back into peril. It threatened the existance of this blog even. But I am back to writing and I apologize for the delay.

This has been an interesting weekend. I went to a house warming party and was re-united with one Nate Knauer. He was a someone who I kind of looked to for inspiration early in my college music career. He was one of the first people that made actually feel like I belonged with the musicians and that I had ability. One of my first recitals was actually performing a piece of his on his junior composition recital. I had not seen this guy in about 5 years. He immediately remembered that he still had two CDs of mine and the demo recording of my old brass quintet. We talked for a good hour getting caught up on each others musical activities. It was refreshing to know I still had a connection there and someone was genuinely glad to know I was still involved in music.

My quintet has me a bit nervous and concerned. They seem to not be paying attention to the calendar. Acting kind of lax about a gig being in 2 weeks and we have no set list, and a gig in 6 weeks, 4 actual rehearsals before it, that we haven't read any of the music for yet. Today we did read through the new Christmas carols and they really liked them, but again, we were short a member and rehearsal started 2 hours late. It was incredibly frustrating. I tried to delivery my worry and urgency without being a jerk. I don't want to cause the group to break up, which it felt like it could be close to doing.

This past week, the moment I got home, I banged out two new arrangements, when idea of doing Beatles songs came to me. So Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and When I'm 64 will be added to our catalog.

Peace and even triplets to you all.

Pumped

Good evening and thanks for tuning back into my little page where my word goes. Theres been a couple things that I have been wrapping my mind around. Now I think its a general consensus that attending live performances are key to developing musicianship. My question is though, does it matter what type of concert? Does the performer need to be further along in their path of musicianhood? (I made that word up) I ask because as you readers have read, I have been mainly exploring the world of rock, mainly acid rock and metal. I have found this has changed my approach to performance. I wanted to be a front man for today's concert for our quintet. They let me, and I tried to be charismatic and really bring out the uniqueness of our group. I think the gig went well. I was excited to take the stage and I energized. I psyched up and ready to go. The feeling of exhaustion didn't hit until I got home, when the adrenaline wore off. I haven't had that much of an adrenaline charge to perform ever.

Anyways, I have never been to an opera. I have caught a decent amount of flak over that because being a classical musician, I've been to a metal concert before an opera. Just operas are expensive, and really, I love opera, and appreciate the art, I fear my attention span causing an issue, and the opera house here is very uncomfortable if you're taller than 5 ft tall. I am not sure if I'm supposed to be upset about this, if it makes me a crap musician, a phony even. As always. I don't think it does, but thats my own ego, and I'm sure other musicians around me don't like me because of some reason, but is it because I've never been to an opera, or is it because I like Dreamtheater and been listening to a Best of album of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy?

On that note, I strike a chord with you and must settle into the coda of this entry. Good night, peace, and I will write again when I return from my trip. Peace to you, and you.

Shining On

I apologize for not having blogged in a few days. The music has been hectic and is dictating my time these days. A quick synopsis of what is going on though. I have began work on a third polka for my quintet, "The Chicken Dance". No matter your opinion, every band must have a version of it to play. Kids love it, and I love it, so yeah, I'm a kid. I also have began work on "I Saw Three Ships". This is yet another challenging christmas carol due to its lack of substance. It was hard to come up with 4 part harmony, yet we're a 5 part ensemble. So I need to put the nose to the keyboard and come up with some interesting counter melody, maybe a descant of another christmas carol.

The problem of "I Saw Three Ships" was solved thanks to a little Jack n Coke. There is a British dance from about the same time period as this folk song called the Dargason. The Dargason is in 6/8 time and has identical chord progression to "I Saw Three Ships". Fellow band geeks would recognize the melody as the 6/8 melody from the Fantasia on Dargason, which is the final movement of both "Second Suite in F for Military Band" and "St Paul's Suite" by Gustav Holst. Holst loved to spread English folk melodies through his pieces, and since Holst was pivotal to the acceptance of Brass instruments in a classical setting, why not pay homage to his style by offsetting the traditional Christmas song with the Dargason melody.

So the subject line of this entry is referring to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. I have come into possession of "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here". Both albums are amazing. I've always liked "The Wall" with its storytelling of rebellion to English Society. The improvisational and composition skills of this group truly is mind blowing.

I have come into a rut with the brass quintet. We are all so busy and we have a gig coming up this weekend, that I am nervous about. I think we're all nervous about it, and its straining the group some I think. Its time for another group get together probably, to just try and chill. After this gig we need to immediately start work on the Christmas gig. I have a ton of new carols for the group to read through. It should be exciting. I think we all need to take a deep breath and realize this concert on the 14th isn't the best situation for us. We were hired only three weeks ago and asked to prepare a 45 minute set. Thats a good challenge! We'll hit it though and we'll have fun and that will reflect on the audience. Hopefully we'll get a good review.

Peace to my readers, and may your chords be major. I leave you with these words of wisdom: "We're starting at D, as in Don't Screw Up" - Dr E. Michael Richards