This morning at 8:01 am, we received the automated phone call from "Hawk Alert" letting the University of Iowa students know that there was a possible shooter in the Iowa City area. An hour later the Hawk Alert was removed, but it was a tense morning. As it turns out, a local man was recently indicted for embezzlement from the company he worked for. Early this morning he killed his wife and four children. It was a terrible slaughter. Late this afternoon, the police learned that there was no gun involved and that the causes of death will be determined in the coming days as autopsies are performed. The killer's van was found off of I-80 burnt to a crisp with the killer inside (at least it is assumed it is the killer). The van VIN number matches the one owned by the killer, but the identity of the man will not be known until after his autopsy since he was burned beyond recognition.

Lesson of the day:
Don't embezzle from your employer. But we already knew that didn't we?

This past week has been our spring break. It was decent, I suppose. Kate was working overtime since some of the girls were out of town. I spent the week dedicated to re-aquainted with the trombone. It has been quite great! I can't really hold up the trombone by myself quite yet, but with the assistance of the ErgoBone, I have been able to get up to around 2 1/2 hours of playing in just a week. This is the most in almost a year! I am really excited about it.

The physical therapy exercises and stretches are going well. Each morning it is a little more tight than the night before, but then I do the stretches again and it feels better. My range of motion is probably 70% of normal, but in the next few weeks I hope to get most of that 30% back.

Only eight weeks left of school for the semester. Then I will only have two years of school left! Hard to believe! Some headway needs to be done on my 17th Century Music History project. The library was closed this week, so I wasn't able to get to some resources.

The trombone is coming along quite nicely! I have been trying to get basics back right now. I feel like I can do a lot of core things on the horn, but that finesse things are being difficult. My chops are holding up though! Friday was a landmark day, in a way. My chops got tired before my shoulder! That's the first time in several years. I like the direction this is going!

I don't have any pictures of this week, but enjoy this picture from Nice, California circa July 2002.
You may not recognize the guy in the picture. I call him "Skinny Jonathan".

I previously posted about Bonerama here. As it turns out, Bonerama is going to be in town this Wednesday the 26th at the Yacht Club at 9pm.

See you there!

I really need to do a legitimate blog post at some point, perhaps later today, but this site is awesome! Most of us have seen 360 degree photos for realtors or other things, but this company has developed a way to do this with video! Very cool.

According to article, Iowa State is working out a deal to have Google run it's university email system.

Dear University of Iowa: please do this, your email system stinks.

Thanks,


Bye.

Translation:

Go Go Mario

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go save Princess Peach! Go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a mushroom - it's Super Mario!
Get a flower - it's Fire Mario!

Goomba! Troopa! Buzzy Beetle! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

[Spoken] The only one who can reverse the spell that has captured the Mushroom People is Princess Peach. But Princess Peach is hidden underground, in a far-off castle. Ah, the days of peace... if we could once more return to those days... to save Princess Peach and bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom, that is why Mario is on his journey today.

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go and beat the Koopa tribe, go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a star - become invincible!
Quickly, go save Princess Peach!

Lakitu! Blooper! Cheep Cheep! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
He's made it to the castle and gets fireworks!
Lightly sidestepping the Hammer Bros.
Show the last of your power, Mario!
It's been a long journey but it's nearly at an end
You've done it, you've done it! You've defeated Bowser!

Princess Peach says "Thank you"
Mario's got a great big heart!

Mario's adventure is over for now, but
Mario's dream lives forever...

Taken from here

A Salt Lake transient was arrested for the 452nd time.

Get the story kutv.com

Today Logitec announced this iPod mic adapter. It comes with built-in stereo mic, mic in-put and a mini USB port (admittedly, I don't know what the USB port is for, unless this works with USB mics like the ones used for Skype and voice chat. Logitec claims that this adapter will "work will all generations of iPod" although, admittedly, this seems unlikely since there was a major operating system change from generations 1-5 (that ran on UNIX) and the 6th generation (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Classic, and video nano runs a miniature version of Mac OS X). In any case, for you iPod touting people out there (and those of you wanting to carry one less thing around), this might be a good solution for recording practice sessions and rehearsals.

Update: From what I can tell from comments and things, it looks like one of the members of Mnozil Brass, or one of their friends was getting married, so Mnozil rocked the wedding gig.

Update x2: It was Thomas Gansch's wedding.

• 
  
• Capriccio (1990) - Rodney Newton
• 
  
• Diverse Elements (1996) - David Gillingham
  I. Intrada
  II. Jazz Waltz
  III. Euphony
  IV. Caccia
  V. Fanfare/March
• 
  
• Concerto for Tuba (1997) - Anthony Plog
  I. Allegro
  II. Slowly, with Freedom
  III. Allegro - Variations
• 
  
• Two Mood for Tuba (1961) - Donald Swann
  I. Elegy
  II. Scherzando
• 
  

This new "Recitals" segment was is inspired by my own forgetfulness. In each of our Brass Pedagogy segments we have been asked to produce example recitals for the given instrument. I have been to hundreds of recitals, but to program a recital for instruments other than the trombone was not that easy for me. So, when I go to a recital I will reproduce the program here. This may not be helpful to anyone but me, so if you are one of these people, you can skip these segments!

At this point you probably have seen the new MacBook Air in all it's nano-sized glory. What you may have missed was the use of the trombone in Yael Naîm's song, New Soul used in this commercial. In the commercial we mostly hear the piano intro, but the full-length track has a lengthy use of the trombone.

Check out this article over at CNN about a 14 year-old that got cussing banned in South Pasadena, California for one week a year.

I received an email from a "Scott" suggesting I check out Drums and Tuba. It's a not a "brass ensemble" per se, but it is kind of cool. I don't know if Scott is a member of the group, a listener, or what his association is, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and give the shameless plug for the group. They have self-published eight albums (that is an incredible amount of tuba and drum music). If you are familiar at all with Cuong Vu, a very hip Vietnamese jazz trumpeter and former Pat Metheny Group band member, Drums and Tuba has a similar sound.


(Cuong Vu)

Check out Drums and Tuba over at iTunes.

Thanks for the suggestion, Scott. Scott also recommends subscribing to the Brass Band Podcast on iTunes. I subscribed to the Podcast, but I haven't had time to listen to it. For those that may not be familiar with what a Podcast is, it's like a radio show that you subscribe to on iTunes. Instead of having to tune in at a particular time, iTunes will automatically download it to your computer (or iPod when you sync it).

The Hora Decima Brass Ensemble, founded in 1994 by trombonist David Chamberlain, began as a workshop experience for professional musicians to enjoy brass literature. I initially discovered the HDBE through Joseph Alessi's website. On the HDBE's only album, Alessi and James Markey perform Janko Nilovic's Double Concerto pour Trombones. The performance in amazing not only on the solos, but on the entire album. Pick it up at iTunes for $9.99 or Amazon MP3 for $8.99. You can also get a hard copy in your hands for $15.00 from the Hora Decima Brass Ensemble website.



Other pieces on the album are:
Lawrence Widdoes (b. 1932 )
Concertino for Brass Choir
1. Fast (quarter note = 176)
2. Slow (half note = 48)
3. Very Fast (quarter note = 144)

4. Wallingford Reigger (1885-1961)
Nonet for Brass, Op. 49
Morris Kainuma, tuba soloist

5. Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981)
Stardust (arr. John Iveson)
RJ Kelley, French Horn soloist

Alfred Reed (b. 1921 )
Symphony for Brass and Percussion
6. Maestoso
7. Largo
8. Con Moto

Janko Nilovic (b. 1941 )
Double Concerto pour Trombones
Joseph Alessi and James Markey
Guest Artists and trombone soloists
9. Introduction
10. Théme/Variations
11. Interlude
12. Final

13. La Virgen de la Macarena (trad.)
arr. Charles Koff
David Schneck, trumpet soloist

Taken from Flikr

This seems to me like the most pointless thing I have found: a CSO Low Brass MySpace page. Who knows who actually created and maintains this page? It was nice to see that the CSO Low Brass with Richard Wagner and Dvorak.

myspace

I came across this article on the BBC about the Cory Brass Band from Ton Pente, Rhondda. Apparently, ten of the 28 members of the band are married.



BBC link.

I have already posted about James Pankow, but to refresh your memory, here he is again, in all of his 70's porn glory:



Leonhard Paul of Mnozil Brass:



Eric Ruske, horn soloist, former member of Empire Brass, and Professor of Horn at Boston University:



and.....Jon Hurrell of the Synergy Brass Quintet:



It is fro-alicious!

If you know any more brass musicians with ridiculous hair, especially mullets, let me know!

Art decided that James Pankow is the patron saint of brass mullets. Nice, Art.

Update:

Just minutes after publishing this post, I was reading news on reddit.com and I came across this:



My life is now complete!

If I am ever on tour with a brass ensemble in India, I will take the whole group here so that we can all get McGuyver hair!

Previously, I mentioned the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Brass album I downloaded from iTunes. I didn't think to check to see if they had a website. Well, they do! And they even have an English version!

Check it out here.

To finish that statement, you must!

From IMDB:

The film is set in "Grimley" in the mid-1990s — a thinly disguised version of the real South Yorkshire village of Grimethorpe, which had been named as the poorest village in Britain two years earlier by the European Union. The nearby areas of the Dearne Valley and the Hemsworth area were also identified as in need of serious aid. Indeed, the soundtrack for the film was recorded by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the story roughly reflects Grimethorpe Colliery Band's history.The miners in the film put up little resistance to the coal board's harsh redundancy policy. This can be understood in the context of the 1984 UK miners' strike, which effectively destroyed trade union power in British coal mining industry. The film depicts the spirit of hopelessness 10 years after the strike, and the miners' attempts to find redemption. An ongoing piece of symbolism in the first half of the film is the lack of conversation between one miner and his wife, until she finally criticises him harshly for not making a show of resistance against the closure, when he had been so full of fight in 1984.

The Youngblood Brass Band is based in Madison, Wisconsin, but they have traveled all the United States and Europe, hitting many major music festivals. The group was formed in 1992 and they have released five albums during this time. YBB has collaborated with DJ's, rappers, and others to produce their unique style.

Check out their website and their myspace page. Especially check out the "Multimedia" part of their website as they currently have nine MP3's available as a free download!

I have found their music very listenable and danceable, well....if I could dance it would be. I have reviewed several bands in this similar genre, but the Youngblood Brass Band I have found to be the most commercial without losing their musical authenticity.

My very first post for ABEL was on trombonist Michael Davis. He has a new album Absolute Trombone II: New York, Los Angeles, London, featuring nearly thirty of the greatest jazz trombonists from the listed cities. The album includes all new compositions for solo trombone, trombone duet, quartet, sextet, octet, and tentet. Order it here.

This is Michael Davis' ninth cd under his Hip-Bone Music label.

If you haven't checked out his website, he has a great set up. The look and feel is of a very high quality and his online store is very effective. His warm-up and etude books for learning jazz style and improvisation are top-notch. I recommend them to all brass musicians. Check out his site here.

The other day, Pat presented on orchestral brass sections. I recently found a recording on iTunes of the Concertgebouw Brass. For several years the Concertgebouw has been one of my favorite orchestras, especially their collection of Mahler symphonies with Ricardo Chailly (iTunes link).



The Concertgebouw Brass, under the direction of Ivan Meylamans (former Co-Principal Trombone of the Concertgebouw) perform works for brass by Derek Bourgeois, Giovanni Gabrieli, Hans Werner Henze, Willem Van Otterloo, William Schmidt, and Nick Woud. This is a very high quality recording; the solos in Henze's Ragtimes and Habaneras are especially outstanding.



I rate this as a must buy! Pick it up on Amazon as a SACD for $24.98 or on iTunes for a mind-blowing $7.99!! That's a can't miss price!

The Brazz Brothers, formed in 1981, are another 5+1 ensemble, but with a twist! (what else?)

From their website:

The music of The Brazz Brothers represent a unique mix of traditional jazz, modern jazz and folk music from different parts of the world. The Scandinavian folk music tradition is strongly represented. The musicians are continuosly striving towards an open minded way of playing where both improvisation and musical intuition play major parts. All this presented and performed with instrumental virtuosity and spontaneous humour.

iTunes US has seven albums from the Brazz Brothers (iTunes link) while the BB website only has six albums listed.

The English translation of the their website reveals some oddities. Part of their schtick is their "humor". I suppose that I just don't get Norwegian humor.

From their website:

Michael Jackson’s manager Rolf Hanson (Great, great, great grandmother from Brummendal – hence the name Hanson) contacted The Brazz Brothers last week with an overwhelming request. Michael Jackson has surprisingly enough decided to fix his nose up further. He is offering The Brazz Brothers enormous amounts in order to buy one of the brothers’ noses!! ”He wants to start fresh”..is the comment mentioned in the fax.The Brazz Brothers clearly see the point of having enough nose to slice into, men the brothers are in deep need of their noses themselves – at least for the rest of the year.Soren Hjort has for the timebeeing declined the offer in a nice letter with a copy to Brummendalen of course.

I have always been fascinated with the concept of social-networking websites. For those not familiar with the term, they are websites with the ability to add friends and build a network. The most popular of these are MySpace and Facebook. The positives of these sites are being able to communicate with people with ease and to keep in touch with people you normally would not keep in your circle. The downside to these sites are obnoxious ads and layouts like on MySpace (not to mention spam and seemingly promiscuous web-women trying to add you as friends), and unending invitations to add stupid applications on Facebook.

Enter Twitter. I had heard of Twitter months ago and created an account, but I forgot about it. A friend of mine, Phil, turned me on to it and now I really dig it. It has the best parts of Facebook, in status updates and direct messaging, without the obnoxious parts like apps and ads. Check it out at Twitter.

Today we experienced one of the craziest storms we have even seen! Around six o'clock tonight we had thunder and lightening and about an inch of rain. The crazy thing? This storm came with about 18 inches of snow on the ground! We had so much packed ice in the parking lot at our apartment, but it's almost all gone now! Finally! It was dark, but here's the best picture I could get:

For full size, click here.

I know that there are different schools of though on this subject, but I wish to only discuss the aural perception of the listener.

When one performs "jaw vibrato" by making a chewing motion with the jaw similar chewing, the resulting sound occurs above and below the actual pitch in equal amounts in an ideal situation. In the image below, the black, horizontal line represents the actual pitch while the sin wave represents the motion of the vibrato.



In comparison, slide vibrato is performed by moving the slide downward and back up - so the pitch is always BELOW the beginning pitch. The aural result is not a "flat" note, however since the initial note is a reference point for the listener. The result looks something like this:



The point of this post is not to argue the supremacy of one over the other, but to visually show that the two are different and rarely interchangeable. That being said, some individuals do not use slide vibrato at all and that some do not use jaw vibrato. Some trombonists, like Joseph Alessi, will sometimes use slide vibrato is classical music when in the high register because jaw motions are more subtle in this register.

I personally prefer jaw vibrato for solos and some rare instances in orchestral music and I use slide vibrato exclusively in jazz. Some might be able to use jaw vibrato more effectively in jazz than I can, but I simply can not produce the desired sound unless I use slide vibrato. Ultimately, the technique is secondary to how it sounds.

Duke Ellington once said, "If it sounds good, it is good". That's what matters - what it sounds like.

Earlier this week, Kate and I went to Lowe's to look at color swatches for Kate's bridal shop that we are planning to open at some point (hopefully sooner than later!). I decided to look at the swatches with this web site in mind. I ended up looking mostly at Martha Stewart's line since she had swatches with matching colors. Color schemes have been one of my weaknesses for the longest time. I was happy that some one did the leg work in getting stuff that matched. I took several of the cards and scanned them into the computer. I then used Apple's handy color utility that lets you grab the color for anything and add it to your color palette. I then added said colors to the site which is already design, but I obviously just altered the colors. I have had some positive feed back for the new theme, and I like it quite a bit. If you disagree, or have other suggestions, let me know in the comments.

Thanks!

From their website:

Simply put, The ReBirth Brass Band is an institution. Formed in 1983, the band has long since graduated from the streets of New Orleans to theaters and festivals all over the world. ReBirth is committed to upholding the tradition of brass bands while at the same time incorporating modern music into their show. Their signature brand of heavy funk has placed them among the world’s top brass bands and they are the hands-down favorite among the younger generation. In reference to the sometimes stringent competition amongst brass bands, Offbeat magazine remarked, "…it’s clear that ReBirth, which boasts 10 albums and has traveled the world, is the band to beat (July 2001)."

Some Accomplishments Over the Past 25 Years

• 
  
• Over 20 tours of Europe, 4 tours of Japan, and a 6 week tour in Africa
• 
  
• Has shared the stage with The Grateful Dead, the Meters, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars, Maceo Parker, Dr. John, The Ohio Players, and a six week tour with Ani DiFranco
• 
  
• Performances at virtually every major festival in the U.S. and Europe including New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Roskilde, Glastonbury Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and the Nice (France) Jazz Festival
• 
  
• Selling out multiple nights at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco; The Knitting Factory in New York City; The Fox Theater in Boulder, CO; Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta; The House of Blues in Boston; Park West in Chicago; and virtually every venue in New Orleans.
• 
  
• Two compositions on the soundtrack for Eddie Murphy’s film Boomerang
• 
  
• Appeared in a club scene in the Kate Hudson film Skeleton Key
• 
  

Go check them out!



iTunes Link

The Apple Store

Seriously!

Check out this story from Cosmopolitan

Cheers.

Again, while laying awake in bed last night, I thought about this topic. Most people have some method to help themselves to sleep, whether it be counting the sheep or some other method. Mine? I think about being nine years old, playing baseball for the East Hills Bluejays. Why this particular memory? I don't know. Perhaps it is because this is the most carefree time of my life. I was pretty good at baseball for my age group, so I felt the support of my coaches, teammates, friends, and family. Also, there are the obvious things: no bills, no professional responsibilities, I wasn't working on a doctorate........ We had two coaches that year, Paul Letzinger (who would continue to coach us for two more years as we advanced through the Little League ranks), and another guy that I can only remember as "Bernie's dad". Bernie was a very small kid who didn't throw particularly hard, but somehow he was our first string pitcher. Maybe because his dad was the coach?.....but I digress.... I usually played third base or shortstop, so I was close to the dugout. Bernie's dad would always yell "top of the ear". In retrospect, this seems like great advice because it is a concise way of teaching fundamentals - teaching good hand and arm placement for the delivery of a pitcher. This is funny because at the time I always thought he was saying "top of the year". It didn't make any sense to me! At any rate, I can generally picture this time period with Bernie on the mound-less mound {since the mound was not elevated for the younger players) and his dad yelling advice. This coupled with "fake sleep breathing" and I can usually fall asleep in minutes. Not tonight though.

Cheers.

While laying awake in bed last night I started thinking about motivation and what drives to me to things. Whenever I consider motivation I can't help but think about Steven K. Knudsen. He was the Mission President of the California, Santa Rosa mission while I served there from July 2000 to August 2002. One of talks has stuck with me like no other piece of advice ever given to me: "Action Precedes Feeling". At times of frustration - like when I have a major shoulder injury, can't play, and have to have surgery - I think about President Knudsen and this talk. It has driven me to succeed more than once. So, what does "Action Precedes Feeling" mean? It is a simple statement that is quite eloquently put: you don't know until you try. This advice was originally given in a spiritual sense, but that is not the purpose of this blog. In a musical sense, it can mean many things; anywhere from trying a suggestion from your studio teacher to bearing down and getting homework done. Many of us, myself included, have a negative reaction to the word "homework". I almost never want to do homework, but I am always glad that I did - once I am done. If we have the attitude that there is some reward, something to be learned or accomplished when we embark in anything new (or old!) we will reap the benefits of grinding through the hard times and just getting it done.