Waking up to an NPR Article on Frank Sinatra is like waking up to a love affair I forgot I had. James Kaplan has written the first installment of a new Sinatra biography in which Kaplan discusses the slightly darker aspects of Frank's life and career. Frank had three possibly four suicide attempts throughout his life usually surrounding low points in his career or women. He also used the best publicist in New York City to help launch his solo career after he left Tommy Dorsey's band.
These are some of my favorite Frank Songs.
Witchcraft
I Get a Kick Out of You
The Lady is a Tramp
I remember a lesson with Dr. Brad Edwards in which he was trying to get me to play a relaxed lyrical melody. The melody was the second theme from the Spillman Concerto. Doc, put on I Get a Kick Out of You and immediately started singing along. When the cheesy electric guitar enters Doc almost fell on the floor laughing and when the verse about cocaine started with Frank holding out the fffffffffffffffffff in sniff and terriffffffffffffffically, Doc just lost it. After he was done with that goofy smile he transposed the melody from the Spillman into the same key as I Get a Kick Out of You and played along. The chord progression is not the same but I got the point. I can thank that melody for some of the reason why I got into grad school.
Tommy Dorsey, I Am Getting Sentimental Over You
Some people are not aware of the fact that Frank got his start in the Dorsey Brother's Band. Frank actually produced an album dedicated to Tommy in which he featured the trombone section rather heavily. In the CD jacket, Frank actually thanks Tommy for helping develop his since of phrasing and style. Tommy was fabled to play outrageously long phrases in one breath. His chest would expand over four inches when he took one of those large breaths. There is an article in the ITA journal about how Tommy pulled off these phrases. He employed several techniques. I would recommend the article to anyone who wants to know who to pull off ultra long phrases.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Old Friends and Faded Memories
My life and my musical activities were in curious alignment yesterday. I have began work on two pieces that I have previously performed, First Song and A Quick Trip with Lots of Baggage. And I had drinks with several friends from back east, two friends from high school and a family of friends I knew in middle school. Just like my friends these two piece are from vastly different periods in my life/trombone playing.
Getting to know old friends is a tricky and bizarre feeling. People change over the years, but only a little bit. I think the core of someones personality stays mostly the same. The first meeting is always a little nerve racking and most people approach the meeting with a little apprehension. The first friend I met up with was Ariel; we just greeted each other on the street corner and after a huge hug we went for a short walk before dinner. The period of polite talk about each others family and about our work was very short before we dived into our lives from high school. Ariel and I were really good friends, both of our parents did not mind hosting large parties of weird teenagers. Ariel's mom also drove us several hours to go to amusement parks instead of school and she helped us all get ready for our first viewing of Rocky Horror. We simply had a blast in high school.
We slipped right into our old ways. This is like what is happening with Inez's AQTWLOB, I have performed the piece twice and it was written for me. I had a little apprehension when I re-approached the piece, some tuning issues and some slide technique things, but I am getting the hang of the San Fransisco street scene rather fast. I love the groove and the minimalist structure. Although the written cadenza I have never played, so this will be the part of the personality that changed. Not very much but just a little.
The second group of friends I met up with were the Tamsens. Jim, now Jeremy, and I were best friends in 5th and 6th grade. His family moved from Colorado to Virginia at the beginning of 5th grade and went back to bigger mountains at the end of 6th. Jim was responsible for turning me on to the radio, although this musical introduction was largely to pop music at least I started listening. Needless to say I was very nervous about this meeting because I had not spoken to him in over 14 years.
Jeremy is now very busy, juggling life between an internship, grad school, a part-time job and political activism. His sisters are all grown up, Courtney has two children! Although circumstances have changed their personalities are still largely intact. Jeremy still is a pseudo intellectual with a huge vocabulary. And Courtney is still the mediator between the three siblings. There was a lot of talk about our small town in Virginia and about the people that had kept up with the Tamsens. But mostly the talk was about our present lives, political, children, and music. We are going to go see the Colorado Opera play La Boheme this week.
This is a lot like how First Song is coming back to me. I performed the piece at the beginning of grad school. The notes still seem a little foreign; I am sure I did not learn the right rhythms, and the tempo changes seem incredibly capricious to me. My approach to re-learning the piece is vastly different than the first time. I am taking things much slower and making sure everything is correct first. I am focusing more on the details like the difference in articulation. And I am trying to find the music; the piece changes character rather fast and I need to prepare each shift.
I am looking forward to getting to know my friends and these two pieces of music again. There is something familiar and comforting about seeing old friends and something exciting about learning about the new aspects of their lives. I hope I can bring new aspects to the music as well.
Getting to know old friends is a tricky and bizarre feeling. People change over the years, but only a little bit. I think the core of someones personality stays mostly the same. The first meeting is always a little nerve racking and most people approach the meeting with a little apprehension. The first friend I met up with was Ariel; we just greeted each other on the street corner and after a huge hug we went for a short walk before dinner. The period of polite talk about each others family and about our work was very short before we dived into our lives from high school. Ariel and I were really good friends, both of our parents did not mind hosting large parties of weird teenagers. Ariel's mom also drove us several hours to go to amusement parks instead of school and she helped us all get ready for our first viewing of Rocky Horror. We simply had a blast in high school.
We slipped right into our old ways. This is like what is happening with Inez's AQTWLOB, I have performed the piece twice and it was written for me. I had a little apprehension when I re-approached the piece, some tuning issues and some slide technique things, but I am getting the hang of the San Fransisco street scene rather fast. I love the groove and the minimalist structure. Although the written cadenza I have never played, so this will be the part of the personality that changed. Not very much but just a little.
The second group of friends I met up with were the Tamsens. Jim, now Jeremy, and I were best friends in 5th and 6th grade. His family moved from Colorado to Virginia at the beginning of 5th grade and went back to bigger mountains at the end of 6th. Jim was responsible for turning me on to the radio, although this musical introduction was largely to pop music at least I started listening. Needless to say I was very nervous about this meeting because I had not spoken to him in over 14 years.
Jeremy is now very busy, juggling life between an internship, grad school, a part-time job and political activism. His sisters are all grown up, Courtney has two children! Although circumstances have changed their personalities are still largely intact. Jeremy still is a pseudo intellectual with a huge vocabulary. And Courtney is still the mediator between the three siblings. There was a lot of talk about our small town in Virginia and about the people that had kept up with the Tamsens. But mostly the talk was about our present lives, political, children, and music. We are going to go see the Colorado Opera play La Boheme this week.
This is a lot like how First Song is coming back to me. I performed the piece at the beginning of grad school. The notes still seem a little foreign; I am sure I did not learn the right rhythms, and the tempo changes seem incredibly capricious to me. My approach to re-learning the piece is vastly different than the first time. I am taking things much slower and making sure everything is correct first. I am focusing more on the details like the difference in articulation. And I am trying to find the music; the piece changes character rather fast and I need to prepare each shift.
I am looking forward to getting to know my friends and these two pieces of music again. There is something familiar and comforting about seeing old friends and something exciting about learning about the new aspects of their lives. I hope I can bring new aspects to the music as well.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Another Brick Wall
I am faced with the same problem this photographer solved. How do you make something boring and normal into art? I really like how Michael Sanders turned this brick wall into an awesome picture. In music we are faced more often then we would like at admit with turning boring music into something awesome. I have had teachers say, "This sounds like you hate the piece." Well it simply cannot sound that way.
So in music we use everything we can. Find where the harmony is pointing and help the direction along. Over phrasing might be necessary to produce motion if the composer forgot to write it in. Several different musical ideas might help, adding articulations, or rubato are easy fixes as well. The challenge then becomes how do you do this for a competition or a recording?
If I am making a tape for a competition where is the line as far as changing the piece? Can I take different tempos than are printed if the piece sounds better faster? Slower? In a performance I would certainly change the piece to make it more exciting for the audience. And I think I can change it a little for a competition if the tape would sound better. I guess the point is to be as musical as you can all the time. And if you are given a brick wall, well, play it musically.
Classical Cooking
Last night I was invited to attend a party with some friends from back east. A friend from high school decided to move out here with friends from the restaurant he was working at. Several of these girls are studying to become chefs. I was delighted, I could share with them the new cook books I have. When I mentioned I just received Le Escoffier and Jacques Pepen's La Methode one of the girls was delighted. We spoke shortly about stocks and sauces and about how in modern times most people buy stock instead of making their own.
This was the first comment that struck me as odd coming from a cooking students. Escoffier takes a great deal of time exampling the importance of a quality stock. The introduction to the book actually is devoted almost entirely the to process of developing quality stocks. She did tell me they spent a great deal of time at school practicing different types of stocks but in the end it was mostly a waste of time. I wonder what would happen if I did not focus on the fundamentals of trombone, what if I just skipped right to playing concertos? I don't think it would sound very good. However last time I checked I could not buy scales and lip slurs someone else had prepared. Of course, I was also glad to hear I could buy stocks at the store. The thought of spending hours and using lots of quality ingredients just to have the base of a sauce was intimidating.
Upon starting the same conversation with another Chef to be, I received a very short, "Oh I am not really interested in classical cooking." Wow, what a slap in the face. I did not probe any farther, but what does she cook? How does she understand her place in the history of her craft? I guess cooking does not have to be part of a high art and she can just discount the entire history of her craft. But why? Playing the bass trombone I can relate. There is almost zero classical music with the bass trombone. In fact the instrument was not used in the symphonic literature until the very end of the classical period. Sometimes I find it very easy to discount Mozart and most of Beethoven. But if I discounted these wonderful musicians I would be wasting several years of work and study. The classical period is very important to my craft. I guess preparing elegant food everyday can be pretty tiresome.
To me classical music is about elegance. If there is a single blemish on a piece of music then the entire performance is ruined. The level of technique required to play the little literature from the classical period for my instrument is simply astounding. If I chip even one note or play just a little too heavy, then it sounds more like a bull in a china shop instead of Haydn. Sometimes I feel like a bull in a china shop playing my huge American bass trombone.
I guess the music I truly like to play and to listen too reflects my favorite food as well. I really enjoy steak and potatoes. Or even just a greasy hamburger with a fried egg. These foods however are easily destroyed by over cooking or adding the wrong seasoning. By working on the classic and the elegant better technique can be achieved and better recipes can be developed. The same for my instrument, if I only played Strauss or Vaughn Williams my technique and elegance would be very lacking. I would turn into that obnoxious American speaking very loudly at a concert in the Concertgebouw. Even steak can be over powering at times.
Yum....
This was the first comment that struck me as odd coming from a cooking students. Escoffier takes a great deal of time exampling the importance of a quality stock. The introduction to the book actually is devoted almost entirely the to process of developing quality stocks. She did tell me they spent a great deal of time at school practicing different types of stocks but in the end it was mostly a waste of time. I wonder what would happen if I did not focus on the fundamentals of trombone, what if I just skipped right to playing concertos? I don't think it would sound very good. However last time I checked I could not buy scales and lip slurs someone else had prepared. Of course, I was also glad to hear I could buy stocks at the store. The thought of spending hours and using lots of quality ingredients just to have the base of a sauce was intimidating.
Upon starting the same conversation with another Chef to be, I received a very short, "Oh I am not really interested in classical cooking." Wow, what a slap in the face. I did not probe any farther, but what does she cook? How does she understand her place in the history of her craft? I guess cooking does not have to be part of a high art and she can just discount the entire history of her craft. But why? Playing the bass trombone I can relate. There is almost zero classical music with the bass trombone. In fact the instrument was not used in the symphonic literature until the very end of the classical period. Sometimes I find it very easy to discount Mozart and most of Beethoven. But if I discounted these wonderful musicians I would be wasting several years of work and study. The classical period is very important to my craft. I guess preparing elegant food everyday can be pretty tiresome.
To me classical music is about elegance. If there is a single blemish on a piece of music then the entire performance is ruined. The level of technique required to play the little literature from the classical period for my instrument is simply astounding. If I chip even one note or play just a little too heavy, then it sounds more like a bull in a china shop instead of Haydn. Sometimes I feel like a bull in a china shop playing my huge American bass trombone.
Yum....
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Things Coming Up.
This month will be a little less busy than October. I need to make a few tapes this month.
Inez deDeugd-McComas Wrote a piece for me. I will be recording it this month.
Ed Kleinhammer ITA competition
And of course a tape for Aspen Music Festival and School.
I will also be teaching heavily. Hopefully next month I can add a few live performances.
Inez deDeugd-McComas Wrote a piece for me. I will be recording it this month.
Ed Kleinhammer ITA competition
And of course a tape for Aspen Music Festival and School.
I will also be teaching heavily. Hopefully next month I can add a few live performances.
Travel Part 3: Homeward Bound
Normally I would not feel the need to tell everyone about my last two days in LA and the airplane ride home, however, I believe those last two days and the people I met will make a lasting impression on my life. I had the pleasure of meeting Ronald Cook, the older gentleman who's luxury condo I was staying in. My friend Marc is a permanent house sitter of sorts while Ron is usually busy with business travel. Ron is a 77 year old who is an executive for a prominent American family and who has worked very hard his entire life. He is one of the most genuine, kind, and intelligent people I have ever met.
Ron returned to LA from two weeks in New York while Marc and I were in San Diego. Monday when we returned home, Ron was already back at work in the LA office. That night Marc gave me a walking tour of downtown before I met Ron. Ron then wanted to take us to dinner and hear everything about me and what Marc was working on. We went to a wine bar where, while I was acquiring an education, we spoke heavily about politics. Marc was helping run the Democratic campaign in California. Intermittently, Marc would attempt to ask about Ron, turns out Ron has seen three Mahler cycles in the last three years one of which was while he was in New York last week. He had heard more live Mahler in one week than I have in my life time.
The next morning I woke early and caught a ride with Marc to Santa Monica. I spent Tuesday on the beach while Marc spent his time in the Boiler Room for the campaign. This was my second trip to Santa Monica and I actually enjoyed the weather more in the "fall" than in the summer. Although the smog cloud was clearly visible over the Pacific Ocean. I caught a ride back downtown on the big blue bus. Marc would be spending several more hours defending the west coast against some pretty crazy would-be politicians.
I was home to greet Ron when he returned home. He wanted to take me to a sushi bar for dinner and who am I to refuse some delicious free food? Over dinner the topics drifted far and wide, politics, music, art, and food were the highlights. Ron was a chef in a former life and we talked about the deconstructionist movements and how they were reflected in music, art and food. I was excited to try squid and albacore tuna among the more usual sushi fare.
That night talk continued until midnight. Although when we returned home I began asking more directed questions about life. Ron's personality has the wisdom of an old man, the vigor of youth, and the carefreeness of childhood. I wanted to know how to be an energetic old man that traveled the world and by all accounts had a ton of fun. His advice was something out of eastern philosophy. "The ability to see everything and see nothing, to see nothing and to see everything." How does one stay focused on work and yet unfocused enough to be carefree? The best thing he could tell me was don't get stuck in a routine and don't get stuck around people without the capacity to continue growing.
I think this goes along with the Young at Heart post from yesterday. If life is approached from the view of a child and the work of a man hopefully we will turn out this way. I am incredible thankful to have met Ron and to Marc for showing me around southern California. Ron even gave me some wonderful cookbooks that will introduce me to the french style. Hopefully I will get to see these two wonderful people very soon.
Ron returned to LA from two weeks in New York while Marc and I were in San Diego. Monday when we returned home, Ron was already back at work in the LA office. That night Marc gave me a walking tour of downtown before I met Ron. Ron then wanted to take us to dinner and hear everything about me and what Marc was working on. We went to a wine bar where, while I was acquiring an education, we spoke heavily about politics. Marc was helping run the Democratic campaign in California. Intermittently, Marc would attempt to ask about Ron, turns out Ron has seen three Mahler cycles in the last three years one of which was while he was in New York last week. He had heard more live Mahler in one week than I have in my life time.
The next morning I woke early and caught a ride with Marc to Santa Monica. I spent Tuesday on the beach while Marc spent his time in the Boiler Room for the campaign. This was my second trip to Santa Monica and I actually enjoyed the weather more in the "fall" than in the summer. Although the smog cloud was clearly visible over the Pacific Ocean. I caught a ride back downtown on the big blue bus. Marc would be spending several more hours defending the west coast against some pretty crazy would-be politicians.
I was home to greet Ron when he returned home. He wanted to take me to a sushi bar for dinner and who am I to refuse some delicious free food? Over dinner the topics drifted far and wide, politics, music, art, and food were the highlights. Ron was a chef in a former life and we talked about the deconstructionist movements and how they were reflected in music, art and food. I was excited to try squid and albacore tuna among the more usual sushi fare.
That night talk continued until midnight. Although when we returned home I began asking more directed questions about life. Ron's personality has the wisdom of an old man, the vigor of youth, and the carefreeness of childhood. I wanted to know how to be an energetic old man that traveled the world and by all accounts had a ton of fun. His advice was something out of eastern philosophy. "The ability to see everything and see nothing, to see nothing and to see everything." How does one stay focused on work and yet unfocused enough to be carefree? The best thing he could tell me was don't get stuck in a routine and don't get stuck around people without the capacity to continue growing.
I think this goes along with the Young at Heart post from yesterday. If life is approached from the view of a child and the work of a man hopefully we will turn out this way. I am incredible thankful to have met Ron and to Marc for showing me around southern California. Ron even gave me some wonderful cookbooks that will introduce me to the french style. Hopefully I will get to see these two wonderful people very soon.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Young at Heart
"Once I could paint like Raphael,
but I have spent a life time learning to paint like a child."
~ Picasso
I have a incredible amount of stories to tell about this little quote I saw in the window of an art store as I walked to an early afternoon happy hour. Most old people I know would agree; everyone from my Grandmothers, former teachers, and friends seem to be healthier when they are "Young at Heart." Young at Heart happens to be one of my favorite songs sung by Frank Sinatra. This story, however, is from the end of the European tour I participated in, in 2007.
Unfortunately, the director of the Long Island Youth Orchestra had medical problems just before the tour began and the assistant conductor had to conduct the tour. This is the short story of how I met Scott Dunn. The summer I spent on tour with a bunch of kids from Long Island was one of the most memorable events in my life, not because of the music we made but because of the people and because of the places I shared with those people. That summer I took most of my meals with Scott and Trish Dunn, David Schnables, Lee Duke, and Sean Ritenauer. Later in life I jokingly told Scott he had only known me for a month, he responded, "Yea, but I had every meal with you for that month and for you that means a lot." We happened to be eating breakfast in a diner in Queens.
I could type for hours about the three weeks leading up to the tour and the four we spent around the black sea. However, I think I will just get to the point. Scott had a masters in trombone from CCM, where he went to school with George Curran IV. They actually won the first ITA trombone quartet competition in 2002. At this point I had only one lesson with George, a lesson that lasted four hours. That was also the first lesson I ever had with another bass trombonist. After Scott and Trish realized I knew George, they never left my side. And they never let me play less than my best.
The tour ended that summer in Istanbul, Turkey. The last day the orchestra spent on a river boat cruise on the Bosporus, the strait that divides Europe from Asia. That day was simple amazing. After dinner the orchestra was full of nostalgia. I had the opportunity to ask Scott a few questions about grad school and the music industry. We mostly talked about graduate school and the best options to be successful as a trombonist. So I asked, "What made George so special? Why did he get a job?" Scott's answer, "George approached the instrument with a child-like curiosity. He never let the instrument get him down and he always experimented like a child. Sure he had bad days, but after a beer he was enthusiastic as ever."
After getting to know George, Scott and Trish more I realized how important and true this was. George is a very energetic and kind man. Although he is also very intelligent. I do my best always to approach my trombone with energy and curiosity, sometimes too much.
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