Wow - maintaining a blog is definitely not for the faint of heart! Although I have been performing in New Hampshire on a fairly regular basis, I certainly have not been advertising the fact too effectively. I know myself too well to make any promises that I will sit down on a regular basis, say at least once a week, but this brief message is my attempt to start making a regular effort to keep my fans (assuming I have any left) updated as to my recent musical activity.
One thing that is emerging from what otherwise looks like an empty landscape is the fact that I have been arranging several charts for the big bands that I have been a part of for the last few years. I have written both vocal and instrumental arrangements for the Freese Brothers Band from Concord, the Blue Note Big Band from North Hampton, and the Seacoast Band, which generally rehearses in Durham. You can catch some of the Harry Jones concert by checking the "News" section of this website. The real challenge is to finish arrangements of my original material, very little of which has found itself in circulation. I'm doing OK arranging other people's tunes, but have somehow seemed to successfully manage to avoid finishing any of my own charts up to this point. Well, I am "outing" myself in the hopes that public embarrassment will motivate me to get those charts finished, rehearsed and performed sometime in the near future.
I feel fortunate to be part of the above mentioned organizations that allow me to have a "lab band" or two on which to conduct musical experiments, if you will. They provide valuable feedback to an aspiring composer/arranger and are even willing in some instances to perform the charts in concert and grant me a modicum of public recognition for my efforts. I hope any of you reading these ramblings will drop by a concert sometime and give me some feedback as well. I want to go on record as noting that if I can write something half as good as trumpeter Craig Skeffington with the Seacoast Big Band or Bob Freedman, veteran arranger for the Capitol Center Jazz Orchestra, I will then feel like I am getting somewhere. Those guys are my idols, along with Mike Tomaro, Tom Kubis and Mark Taylor.
If you are so inclined, you can hear my arrangements of Bobby Watson's "Country Corn Flakes," and Chick Corea's "Bud Powell," by following the links to the recording of the recent Harry Jones concert in the News Journal elsewhere on this site. Happy Listening!