Oz meets Texas!

In May of 2015, two trombonists met at a trumpet workshop, no less...

They knew their lives had reached a new low, hanging around trumpeters and such...

They decided they MUST. TAKE. ACTION.

Introducing....

WORLDWIDE BONE

Oz meets Texas

Australian composer and trombonist Brendan Collins
Trombonist Chris Clark

Jazz Duet No. 1, by Brendan Collins

Sometimes you get lucky in life and run into people you just really have a great time with!  Brendan, in addition to being a talented trombonist, is a fantastic composer.  He has written a large amount of brass music, and continues to write interesting and fun compositions!  He has recently written a great quintet that Valor Brass hopes to perform this year.  I also took his Trombone Hymn for 4 trombones and recorded that with some friends this spring - that is a really beautiful piece.  Check out his music and give it a play!  

Brendan has generously offered to make his Jazz Duet available as a free download here on the site.  You can get it HERE.  Please take the time to join the email list on the site as well if you download the piece!

For the video, Brendan recorded the top line at home in Australia, and I recorded the bottom line and put the two together for the video.  It was great fun collaborating in this way.  We are already looking to do some more virtual projects together soon!  Virtual projects can yield REAL results...cool!

Enjoy.

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Ever hear of HER???!!!

So, after my David Bowie post recently, I came across another amazing musician that I'm mortified to learn I had never heard of, nor heard... My wife and son brought home a book from our public library today called "Little Melba and Her Big Trombone".  What an amazing story.  I actually thought, when we began the book, "this must be fiction..."  Once again, truth is stranger than fiction... That an African-American woman could do what she did in the 1950s and 60s, is amazing.  She went on the road with Dizzy, Duke, Quincy, and many others. There's a great NPR profile called "Women in Jazz", as well as another NPR Music piece called Melba Liston: Bones of an Arranger.  Check them out!  

Here's Melba Liston, 1960, Lausanne, with Quincy Jones...