A Funny Way of Talking

I'm told, quite often, that I have a way with words. I speak differently. The amount of different, I have no clue, but I guess it can be amusing at times. Of course, it can also be quite depressing.

For the truth of the matter is, I see and hear the world differently. Different stimuli provides different response, but I think the majority of it is attributed to my memory. I have quite a good one, and it can catch people quite off guard. Most of those conversations go a bit like "How was ___?" "Good.. how did you know I ____?" "You told me..".

I fear I've had this conversation altogether too much in my life.

Several Shows Later... November 4th, 2011 LIVE @ Boothe Brothers

 I've been very neglectful of my blog lately, but seeing as we've played our third live show at Boothe Brothers, I probably need to tell you guys how these have gone. I'll start with our first show, back on November 4th.

Here we are on Stage

We had some friends come out, and it was only our first show, so it was a pretty small crowd, but it wasn't deserted, there was around 45 people there. I started off the night on the stage alone, and then I brought the rest of the group, Centuric Jive Evidence, up on stage and we finished off the opening set.

Here's a highlight from our setlist:

You can check out the rest of the videos here.

Next, Herod the Fink took the stage, playing their rock/original Christmas music. They calmed down the crowd a bit, and then Chasing Angels took to the stage. They played a pretty nice setlist, swapping between covers and originals.

Concert LIVE at Boothe Brothers Performing Arts Center

Two weeks from today, I'll be opening for a couple of pretty awesome groups. I'll play some of my solo stuff, and then play a bit of Jazz and Latin Jazz as well. It's been a while, so if you'd like to listen to that old demo I did ages ago, I wouldn't be opposed to it. I'll also be featuring one of the first songs going on my album (which I'm recording on Saturday), an odd-metered arrangement of one of everyone's favorite Jaco Pastorious recordings, The Chicken. Here's a video of his version, stay tuned for mine.

As for the other groups playing? Well, Herod The Fink is coming up right after me, a wonderful group who plays some original Christmas Music they wrote. Here's a video of them live and acoustic, they're great fun!

After that, and headlining the show, is Chasing Angels. They don't have any videos yet, or any recordings available, but they're a great group of people, and will end the night out with a bang.

Creedence McNabb, Herod The Fink, and Chasing Angels on November 4th, in Spanish Fork, Utah, starting at 8pm. $5 at the door, at Boothe Brothers Performing Arts Center. It'll be a party, so come out and enjoy!

A Few Jazztacular Visits

Now, I've gone to two pretty interesting places in the past month. One of them was a visit to Snow College for a Jazz Camp put on by Juilliard's Staff. The other one was a visit to Telluride, Colorado for the Jazz Festival. Both were amazing experiences.

This is the Combo I was in, The Feel Goods, directed by Ben Wolfe

Let's start off with the Juilliard Jazz Camp. There people there from all over the country, and some international cats as well. Three from Costa Rica, one from London, several from New Jersey, and a few from Pennsylvania, and probably quite a few other places. The staff there knew exactly what they were talking about, though they were purely teaching Straight Ahead Jazz, and not much of anything else. Each of them had played with several greats, which I suppose would technically mean they were all greats themselves, but that's not near as important as how much they cared about us learning and us becoming the right kind of person for people to want to play gigs with. It was more than a Jazz Camp, they cared about who were just as much as everything else.

If you're curious, the staff included Carl Allen(Drums, Juilliard), Rich Dixon(Guitar, Snow College), Brandon Lee(Trumpet, Juilliard), Ron Blake(Saxophone, Juilliard), Rodney Jones(Guitar, Juilliard), Ben Wolfe(Bass, Juilliard), James Burton III(Trombone, Snow College), and Benny Green(Piano, Juilliard). In another post I'll share with you some of the stuff they taught, along with their listening lists.

The Voodoo Orchestra on the Main Stage at Telluride (I'm back there on Bass)

Now, I said I went to Telluride Colorado for the Jazz Festival, I forgot to mention the only reason I got to go there, is because The Voodoo Orchestra was lucky enough to get to play on the Main Stage, and I was lucky enough to have a backstage pass for the entire festival. The first day there, Tower of Power played, I didn't talk to them after they played, but I did watch them from backstage for a bit, and partied in the audience earlier.

The next day was Paquito D'Rivera, and Andy Narell. Andy Narell plays the Steel Pan, and he played some shows with the Flecktones. You know what that means? I met my second Flecktone! Even if he's an honorary one, it was nice to talk to him after their amazing concert, I talked to him about the Flecktones, and it was a grand old time.

That night, and the next day, it was the Clayton Brothers. John Clayton being one of the great bass players in the world today, playing with his brother, his son, and a few "adopted" brothers. Terrell Stafford, I must admit, is one of the best Trumpet players I've heard in ages, and it was an amazing couple of concerts!

Now, that day, a few of us also decided to go out and play in the streets, and we actually made a whole $14 as a group. It was for fun, so we just thought it was cool that other people enjoyed listening to us while we played.

And that wraps it up for my recent trips, keep diggin' it!

DCI: Corps Encore in Utah

Do you remember seeing your Marching Band during a halftime show at a Football game back in High School, or in your College days? DCI, or otherwise known as Drum Corps International, is that to the extreme. People spend thousands of dollars to go to camps and become a part of these Corps to put on an amazing show for people, and for competition. Recently, they held one such show here in Utah, and I happened to go see it. It was amazing, as expected. These guys are literally spending 24 hours a day working on this stuff for their entire Summer Vacation, and once you hit age 21, you're no longer allowed to be a part of it. Here's a few pictures of the Corps that came out (and my personal favorites of the evening).

Phantom Regiment

The Cadets

So what's so special about this, besides them spending their entire life doing this stuff for the Summer? Well, they're memorizing Music, playing it to very large stadiums at very high volumes, and moving across a field in memorized lines and spots and circles, all whilst adjusting to every bit of human error, of which is almost completely eliminated by the end of the season. Yes, they practice to the point where human error stops occurring.

It's really an amazing feat, and the amazing Music can make for a great show, such as Phantom Regiment's very beautiful show called "Juliet" and the very creative show of The Cadets(who won that night) "Between Angels and Demons".

Keep Drummin.

Sick, but still Practicing

Now, here's a little trick if you're ever trying to play fast. It may seem like your fingers can't actually move that fast, no matter how hard you try, but in general, it's actually not a muscle problem. It's actually a muscle memory problem. Recently I've been working on Donna Lee:

A rather quick bebop tune, as well played by Jaco Pastorious, originally written by Charlie Parker, it's great stuff, and a great song to learn how to play fast. The key to doing so, though, is to start slow. Maybe as slow as 80 bpm, or even 60bpm, I personally started at 100bpm since I've worked on a few other fast songs. It gets easier as you learn more fast tunes, but you have got to start slow and speed up slowly. Play it at one tempo perfectly for 3 or 4 times in a row, and then move it up two clicks.

Anyways, that's my spiel on playing fast. I mostly learned this because, in my sickness, I was forced by my weakened body to play slowly, and it definitely helped overall.

Keep jazzin

Oh, and I'm in a Symphony

So, Monday night (That's June 20th, 2011) was an amazing concert put on by Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra.

It was packed!

Sure, it's a "Community Orchestra", but honestly.. the talent that came together was amazing, and John Pew is probably one of the best conductors and one of the best guys you'll meet. We started with American Salute, played some Star Wars excerpts, moved on to William Tell Overture (with guest conductor, the 95 year old Glad Jorgenson), and continued on with a piece from Rodeo. We then brought out our guest artist, Jenny Oaks Baker, and even gave a short teaser of her Disney album, including our World Premier performance of her Colors of the Wind.

It was an amazing concert, and we're raising enough money to keep it going (hence Community Orchestra, we're funded by donations).

So sure.. I play in a nationally acclaimed big band (The Voodoo Orchestra), a brand new Symphony that's given some of the best performances I've ever heard in their first two concerts, and then at the High School.. Marching Band(Drumline), Jazz Band.. Concert Band, the school's Summer Jazz/Rock group, Percussion Ensemble, and I still find time to work on a Solo Album, and with one of my favorite composers.

Music.. I love it.