It's Hard

Hello friends, I'm sorry I have not written lately. This blog entry though is just going to be some observations and an update of musical events going on.

First off, the UMBC Symphony concert is this weekend, which will again feature my brass quintet in the lobby playing for guests waiting for the doors to open. We decided that it would be fun to add a drummer to the mix since we decided to do an all rock set this time. I'm very excited to debut the arrangement of the Overture from "Tommy". We are also doing "Under Pressure" by Queen, and "More Than a Feeling" by Boston.

The Symphony concert itself is only utilizing me for the Triumphant March from Aida, which is a lot of fun and a whole lot of playing. I'm going to miss having my Tuesday nights occupied by music. This problem is exaggerated by the fact that my summer musical has been canceled. I really won't HAVE to touch my trumpet again until September, but you know that won't happen.

On the arranging front, I have been on a Who kick with "Happy Jack" and "Behind Blue Eyes" now under my belt and in the quintet binder. While on this exploration of The Who, I learned that they really enjoy the key of D, and really how important Keith Moon was to the group. His complicated, and stream of conscious style of drumming really highlighted the rhythmic pulses of the group and is evident as the back bone of the compositional style of the group. This is easiest heard when listening to the album, "Its Hard" which featured Kenney Jones on drums since Keith had died. This was their second album without Moon. The sound of the band is still pretty good, but its missing a dynamic and the group sounds much more conservative. After listening to this album, I decided to put on "The Who by Numbers", which was the next to last album Keith Moon played on before his death. The entire album just has this pure energy that is generated by his rumbling toms and a budding anticipation of a massive fill happening at any time. I discuss this because I also learned today Mike Myers (of Shrek fame) will be playing Keith Moon in an upcoming biopic. I fear this could be terrible and not work at all. He kind of resembles him but I am in no mood to hear Mike Myers' terrible english accent for 2 hours in a serious manner. I can't even stand the Austin Powers stuff. I don't think he has the acting chops to portray the deep and complex battles Keith Moon had with chemical addictions. What would be next here? Casting Seth Rogan to play Roger Daltrey because of his curly hair? This smells of a terrible idea, but you know I will go see it to pay my respect to one of the best bands ever and the best rock drummer ever.

Good day my friends. I leave you with a video of Eminence Front with a much better drummer, Zak Starkey. He's the son of Ringo Starr, and former student of Keith Moon