Category: Biographical
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A recording should accomplish these two things
When I graduated from the U.S. Navy recruit training command (a.k.a. “boot camp”) at Great Lakes, Illinois, in 1998, the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (John Hagan at the time), gave a speech to the graduates. In the speech, he advised us to take advantage of the educational and financial benefits the Navy…
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Recording, part the deux
Yesterday’s recording session ended with a problem over how to record a computer-accompanied piece by Kevin Olson. This piece has computer cues to advance through the score–the cues help determine what the accompaniment is doing (that, and the trumpet sound). The problem was that my bluetooth pedal was not connecting with my computer, so I…
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My tribute to Edward Tarr
Today would be the 85th birthday for one of the truly great trumpeters of our era, Edward H. Tarr. He died in March of last year, so his loss is still a fresh wound to us all. He was a great trumpet player, a leader among our ranks, and a monumental mind. If you play…
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Producing Navy Band DVD on Husa
In 2014, I was asked to help produce, with Michael Schmitz, a U.S. Navy Band educational DVD about Karel Husa’s masterpiece, Music for Prague 1968. This was a huge project that was envisioned by the leader of the Navy Band at the time, Capt. Brian Walden. There were many things to hunt down and do…
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Remembering “Night Club”
Over the last two days, I have reminisced about the first two movements of my solo for trumpet and orchestra that I composed and performed in 2014, titled Night Passages. I shared a recording two days ago of the first movement “Night Fall.” Yesterday, I shared a recording of the second movement, “Night Walk.” Today,…
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Remembering “Night Walk”
In yesterday’s post, I reminisced about being invited to compose and perform a solo piece with Ulysses James’ Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic. I shared the piano reduction of the first movement in that post–a slow flugelhorn piece that evokes the coming of night–“Night Fall.” I forgot to mention that these recordings are available on the Ars…