Well, We're going to do another CD. I'm really happy with the way the bands are sounding and I really want to archive it for the future. Legacy Productions is going to record us and we have to sell 120 CDs to break even. The CD will feature Feels So Good, In Her Family, All That Jazz, La Suerte De Los Tontos, and much much more! It will have the Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Lab Band, and Funky Premier-jazz combo on it and will sell for $20. We just want to break even-making a CD is an expensive proposition.
Interested in getting one-contact me!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
New Orleans 2009
If I was a really big time blogger, I'd be going to town this week. So many cool things are happening on our Jazz Bands trip to New Orleans. Today we dropped off donated instruments to the Tipitina's foundation that will be used to help supply some needy kids here in NOLA. We also did an exchange concert with the band kids at Cohen High School.
We showed up around 2:00 and went into the band room to set up-their band kids were already there sitting around for our performance. As in any new environment, there was an air of uncertainty, but as we began to play everyone began to settle down and start to have fun. When we finally got to The Jody Grind, the Cohen students began to clap along a little bit and you could tell some of them were starting to enjoy it. At that point, we convinced some of their percussionists to join us on a Second Line groove tune. They like playing loud.. but they were having fun and enjoying it-breaking down more of those walls. Then they got up to play for us. The band is much more marching band influenced and they began to play with the biggest sound that I have ever heard 30-35 students put out, especially considering most of them have been playing less than 2 years. After 3 sitting down tunes, they begged their director, Mr. Brimmer to stand up and show some of their moves. There was great pride in what they were doing. This was the first year since Katrina that the band from Cohen was able to participate in the Mardi Gras Parades. Afterward, we had pizza and drinks for all the kids and while there was still some uncertainty, they were able to talk to each other and have some fun together. A couple of the Cohen students did some step dancing for us. Then they thanked us for coming and one of their students said "We can't end this until we pray." So we all circled up and he thanked God for our visit and for safety for us. What an emotional time-with all these people in New Orleans have gone through over the past 4 years, faith has played a huge part in helping these people through these times. We hear all the stories, but it's the pictures of the kids from after the storm that make it so real. How do you make it through this horribly tragic situation when you are 3 or 6 or 8? How has it affected them? What kind of nightmares must they have had for years afterward? Now all these students are in school, some in high school, so days like today help pull them out of the for just a little while.
After we left, the emotion of the exchange took over. I can't think of a time when I've been more proud of my students. It took me to tears. I knew I had great kids, I just didn't know how great. Yeah we have great musicians and a great music program, but there is nothing less valuable about what they are doing in their program. It's all music and it's all making the lives of these kids richer. Today it brought two groups of very different students together in a common way. And all of them walked away knowing a little more about where the others are coming from. It was an awesome day and we haven't even started building yet!
We showed up around 2:00 and went into the band room to set up-their band kids were already there sitting around for our performance. As in any new environment, there was an air of uncertainty, but as we began to play everyone began to settle down and start to have fun. When we finally got to The Jody Grind, the Cohen students began to clap along a little bit and you could tell some of them were starting to enjoy it. At that point, we convinced some of their percussionists to join us on a Second Line groove tune. They like playing loud.. but they were having fun and enjoying it-breaking down more of those walls. Then they got up to play for us. The band is much more marching band influenced and they began to play with the biggest sound that I have ever heard 30-35 students put out, especially considering most of them have been playing less than 2 years. After 3 sitting down tunes, they begged their director, Mr. Brimmer to stand up and show some of their moves. There was great pride in what they were doing. This was the first year since Katrina that the band from Cohen was able to participate in the Mardi Gras Parades. Afterward, we had pizza and drinks for all the kids and while there was still some uncertainty, they were able to talk to each other and have some fun together. A couple of the Cohen students did some step dancing for us. Then they thanked us for coming and one of their students said "We can't end this until we pray." So we all circled up and he thanked God for our visit and for safety for us. What an emotional time-with all these people in New Orleans have gone through over the past 4 years, faith has played a huge part in helping these people through these times. We hear all the stories, but it's the pictures of the kids from after the storm that make it so real. How do you make it through this horribly tragic situation when you are 3 or 6 or 8? How has it affected them? What kind of nightmares must they have had for years afterward? Now all these students are in school, some in high school, so days like today help pull them out of the for just a little while.
After we left, the emotion of the exchange took over. I can't think of a time when I've been more proud of my students. It took me to tears. I knew I had great kids, I just didn't know how great. Yeah we have great musicians and a great music program, but there is nothing less valuable about what they are doing in their program. It's all music and it's all making the lives of these kids richer. Today it brought two groups of very different students together in a common way. And all of them walked away knowing a little more about where the others are coming from. It was an awesome day and we haven't even started building yet!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Filling In at NU
We were the fill in pep band at Northwestern University on Dec. 15th for their game vs. the Univ. of Miss at Kansas City. The 'cats took it to them and we had a great time. Here's a bunch of photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/papajazz1973/NUPepBandDec152008#
http://picasaweb.google.com/papajazz1973/NUPepBandDec152008#
Friday, November 7, 2008
Free Sight-Reading Practice
Alright, For those of you out there that desperately want to be able to sight read better, you have to try this site. You can pick the difficulty of rhythms, different meters and set the tempo. Then you can play them on your own with your own metronome, or play along with the computer demonstrating the right rhythm. Best of all, It's FREE!
http://www.practicesightreading.com/index.php
Improving your sightreading is 98% about your ability to read rhythms.
http://www.practicesightreading.com/index.php
Improving your sightreading is 98% about your ability to read rhythms.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Playing the Blues
I've always taken it for granted that my students would learn the blues scales, but what I'm learning is that they don't really KNOW them. Actually, they don't really KNOW most of their scales in general. They can figure them out, but they can't move up and down and around and through them with very much ease. I've been teaching my students out of Greenblatt's book on the blues http://www.shermusic.com/new/1883217385.shtml and he makes it so easy to blow over the blues, using the major and minor blues scales. If only the students could master these scales, they could really start to blow! The other issue is that, while they may know a one octave scale, knowing these scales over the entire range of your horn is quite another thing, especially if they're not starting on the root. If you're looking for a great beginning to intermediate improv. book, this is great... it comes with a couple play a long CDs and is available in Eb, Bb and C versions. I highly reccomend it.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
OLD LZHS
Last one: The old Uniform Room (MAXXED OUT!)
The old PAC (400 seats, the symphonic band couldn't fit on the stage with 70 members, can you imagine 100!)
Our two lovely practice rooms!
This one has the piano that I redesigned and auctioned off as a piece of furniture...
Some more old LZHS:
The music hallway (now it's like Business or something!)
The choir/orchestra room-oh soooo roomy!
The band room: (actually it was a lot closer to the football field for marching practice, and windows?!, what a concept!) The column in the middle of the room was convenient too, especially for sleepy percussionists..
If you look in the back of the room, the door in the middle is the MIDI LAB!!
The music hallway (now it's like Business or something!)
The choir/orchestra room-oh soooo roomy!
The band room: (actually it was a lot closer to the football field for marching practice, and windows?!, what a concept!) The column in the middle of the room was convenient too, especially for sleepy percussionists..
If you look in the back of the room, the door in the middle is the MIDI LAB!!
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