EVI Embouchure Sensor Mod

I’ve spent many a night thinking about a series of little improvements/hacks that would improve the playability of my beloved instrument.  Many of these are software-based ideas to do (hopefully) clever things with the MIDI data stream.  I’ll do a separate post on where those are heading soon.
But some of these modification involve changes to [...]

The Brass Choir Experiment

GabrieliProject Play or download the file
One of the joys of being a brass player was being able to play in a brass choir – a small group  covering the range of brass instruments from trumpet to tuba.   My favorite composer of music for brass choir was always Giovanni Gabrieli.  But alas it’s difficult to find [...]

“Curtains” – Some Observations

Let me start by repeating that I loved the show.  Spending the last 8 months immersing myself in the sound and music aspects of community theatre has now changed forever the way I view performances.  So this post is about my personal take-aways and how I will try to use them in my future work.  [...]

It’s “Curtains” at Wheaton College

It’s been a week since the the Jesus Christ Superstar performance at Derryfield Rep, and I needed another theatre “fix”.  As luck would have it, the solution was two minutes down the road at Wheaton College’s Weber Theatre.  The Triboro Musical Theatre and Wheaton College are presenting 2 performances of “Curtains” (January 15,16) .  It [...]

Jon Stewart at the Kennedy Center Honors

Brilliant!  Jon Stewart’s introduction of Bruce Springsteen at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony:
“I am not a music critic, nor historian nor archivist.  I cannot tell you where Bruce Springsteen falls in the pantheon of the American Songbook.  I cannot illuminate the context of his work or its roots in the folk and oral history traditions [...]

Rock and Roll HOF Concert – Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder’s set started with him doing For Once in My Life. The band was nice and tight (as you’d expect) and we get a first introduction to the horns (trumpet, sax) and the singers.  Stevie then introduced Smokey Robinson who did Tears of a Clown.  A nice, slower version of the tune.  The man [...]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert-CSN Set

I managed to remember to record HBO’s 25th anniversary celebration concert of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier this week.   I watched it once (4 hours!) and wanted to go back and put down a few thoughts.
It was structured in “sets” anchored by A-list groups acting as the house band for a number [...]

Upgrading to WordPress 2.8

Mission accomplished!  A couple of weeks ago, my aging version of WordPress (2.61 I think) just sorta flaked out.  Specifically I couldn’t save edits to either posts or pages either new or existing entries.  I found similar forum entries over the last month from folks on the WordPress site – everything working fine for the [...]

WERS Radio – All A Cappella

I’ve been a fan of WERS (Emerson College Radio) in Boston for years.  They’ve held on to the traditions of a real college radio station.  Their programming continues to be a great, eclectic mix of music – such an enjoyable escape from commercial radio.  As expected, not every show is my particular cup of tea [...]

Cool Vocal Group – Perpetuum Jazzile

Over the weekend, Phil Smith turned me on to these guys.  I’ve been hooked on a cappella for quite a while.  This Slovenian choir (!) is not strictly a cappella but they have a beautiful, sophisticated large-ensemble sound.
As – Stevie Wonder

Africa – Toto
This piece is freakin’ awesome!  It starts slowly/quietly – be patient… the opening [...]