Posts tagged "jazz"

Although my day job is in IT, I've also got a very strong background in music. I am available for gigs and recordings as time allows; this post serves as a partial list of my various musical endeavors to date, for those interested.

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Well, my first semester of jazz arranging at UNT is drawing to a close; it's been a great experience, and I'm looking forward to doing some big band writing next semester. I feel like I've learned a heck of a lot, and gotten over some of the hurdles that usually get in my way when I want to write something. So that's good, right?

Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and post a couple of the better recordings; one of the nice things about studying at UNT is that there are plenty of musicians available that can read your charts down for you without any trouble. These recordings are mostly performed by my fellow class members; I haven't listed them here, but if you're one of them and you'd like me to list your name, just say so in the comments (and feel free to link to your own website as well).

I'm not terribly proud of my own playing on these, but that's not what they're for anyway …this is about the writing, and I think I did OK on that front. Here goes:

• Sax Soli for Joy Spring
• Circular (original composition)
• The More I See You

Tonight Jamie and I went to see the One O'Clock Lab Band's fall concert, with guest artist John Mosca, trombonist and co-leader of the Village Vanguard jazz orchestra. I don't think I'd been to a One O'Clock concert since I graduated a few years back, which is odd given how much I like jazz, and how close we've lived to UNT this whole time. But no matter; it was an excellent concert, and I hope to keep going back.

It did put some things in perspective as far as my playing goes—if tonight's trombone section is any indicator, I probably shouldn't have ever been in the band myself. Don't get me wrong, I can play the trombone…but I think I was never quite disciplined enough to play as cleanly and effectively as these guys did.

Since I am taking jazz classes again, I'm hoping to improve; once I get started with lessons and ensemble playing again I'm sure some of it will come back to me…but not without a good bit more shedding than I did last time around. Here's hoping for a better sense of discipline in the semesters to come.