New recording: Tuba and 12

I am constantly amazed at the colleagues I have a chance to regularly make music with here in Washington, DC.  Since I started recording and working in audio over the past few years, the chance to record my colleagues in the Marine Band is always a treat.  Today, I’d like to share a recording I made recently for composer Anne McGinty, of her piece called Tuba and 12.  Anne composed the piece for solo tuba, piccolo, flute, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 trumpets, 2 horns, and 2 trombones.  You can find the music for purchase at Anne’s website, McGinty Music. 

Here are Anne’s notes about the piece:

Tuba & 12 was inspired by a Bedouin proverb that states: “While the words are yet unspoken, you are master of them; when once they are spoken, they are master of you.”

Proverbs, in general, state a general piece of advice. This piece assumed that words were spoken, resulting in tension and an apology. Relationships, the first movement, has brass vs. woodwinds, tonality vs. dissonance, duples vs. triplets, et al. as well as the synergy and cooperation among all. Unspoken Words is the second movement and the dissonant opening theme in the piccolo and flute is presented three times. The third movement is Resolution. Over a constant low pedal G, the horn ostinato adds tranquility as all the themes from the first two movements return in fragmented form, before all is finally resolved.

Although tuba has top billing in the title, each instrument is equally important.

Many thanks to Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church for the use of their beautiful space to make this recording, and to Ryan Nowlin for his conducting and fantastic producer’s ear.

Personnel on this recording are:

Tuba - John Cradler

Piccolo - Courtney Morton

Flute - Beth Plunk

Clarinets - Tracey Paddock, Bill Bernier

Bass clarinet - Barbara Haney

Alto Sax - Steve Temme

Trumpets - Matt Harding, Michael Mergen

French horns - Hilary Harding, Mark Questad

Trombones - Bryan Bourne, Tim Dugan

Conductor and Producer - Ryan Nowlin

Producer, engineer, mixing - Chris Clark

Mastering - Michael Ducassoux, Red Room Productions

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Thanks for listening! 

Summer, and a very personal recording project

29 year ago, I spent the first of 3 unforgettable summers at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan.  That summer, I met a young trumpet player that completely knocked me out with his positive attitude, musicianship, fearlessness, and friendship.  I seem to find large projects to take on in the summer, these days.  With my boys home from school, and many hours spent parenting, and learning how to be a better father and husband (and that is an ONGOING thing!), I have taken to the example set by an author whose book I read a couple of years ago, Jocko Willink, and I find myself getting up many mornings (not all, still working on it) at 0430 to get a couple of hours of work in before the house stirs itself awake and the needs of my young ones overtake my own.  

Many of you are very familiar with Valor Brass, and the work this fabulous group of musicians has done over the past 13 years.  Our recording, Inaugural, in 2014, really changed a lot of things in life for me.  It was the first time I had really been an integral part of a creative process to make something lasting, throughout every stage of the process.  Specifically, the process of recording an album, and seeing it through to completion, absolutely fascinated me.  Our audio engineer, Ed Kelly, really captured what I felt was the true essence of our quintet.  That was the beginning of my interest in recording, and my exploration of that art, and what I could bring to my own recordings.  Needless to say, I took to it with a lot of focus and motivation, and began looking for every way that I could learn more about it, and put my skills into practice.

This June that trumpet player, Jack Sutte, and I reunited in Cleveland, to record two complete etude books, written by a young composer in Texas, Nathan Ost.  Jack and I have remained in constant contact since that summer of 1988, rooming together at Curtis, and again in New York while we worked on our masters degrees at Juilliard.  Jack has spent the last 18 years as 2nd trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra, and continues to push the bounds of new music as a trumpet soloist and with his brass trio, Factory Seconds, in his spare time.  

The three days of recording we had in June were just fantastic.  Jack has the ability to get to the heart of a piece of music like few people I have ever known, and he showed up to the sessions ready to make music.  Juggling a tough week of work performing the complete West Side Story film score in evening concerts, we recorded, during the day, all 42 of Nathan’s etudes at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, where Jack is a faculty member.  I am very excited about the recording, and the fantastic musicianship it portrays.  I hope you’ll take a listen.  

Nathan Ost has written two collections of etudes that I have no doubt will become a well-used and familiar resource to trumpet players around the world.  Modeled after the characteristic studies of Arban, and lyrical studies of Bordogni, his Lyrical Studies and Characteristic Studies are a fresh and interesting musical approach to developing technical facility, but most of all, musicianship.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to put Jack’s playing to “tape” and give budding trumpet players a beautiful reference with which to explore these new compositions.  

Nathan has a great deal going on his website... If you buy either book in PDF delivery format, you receive the recordings of Jack playing all the etudes, for free!  Cheers!

As you may now suspect, producing personal, musical recordings is a passion of mine.  Check out clarkmediaproductions.com for more examples of what I’ve been up to lately.

Brendan Collins: Two Motets for Four Trombones

Last May, on a trip to the ITG (yeah, that's right, trumpet conference) conference in Ohio, I had the chance to meet an Aussie composer named Brendan Collins.  Rex Richardson performed his Trumpet Concerto at the conference, and besides enjoying the piece a lot, Brendan is a great guy, and we may or may not have shared a few beers while in Columbus.  I shared a copy of our new Valor Brass CD with Brendan, and we continued our correspondence throughout the rest of 2015, and I got to know him a little better.  He's a trombone player as well, so he's got that going for him!  He teaches and composes in Australia, and is busy writing all kinds of new music.  This winter, he sent me a copy of a trombone quartet he wrote called Two Motets.  The first movement, Sacred, is just beautiful!  The 2nd movement has a very playful syncopated motif throughout the piece that is a lot of fun to play, and lays very well on the trombone (just as you would expect from a trombonist-turned-composer)!  Brendan mentioned he would love to hear a recording if I ever had a chance to play the piece, so with my ongoing interest in audio production, it seemed like a great opportunity to do a small project that would benefit both of us in multiple ways.   We made the recording in one short session with some fun and extremely informative mentoring from a new colleague of ours, Christian Amonson.  Christian runs his own audio and video production company called Arts Laureate, and is as enthusiastic about audio as he is knowledgeable.  Here's a cool video Christian made about a recent production Arts Laureate did... Hope you enjoy the quartet!

David Bowie and brass quintets...

No not really, sorry!  But I am embarrassed to say that it took David Bowie's death for me to discover his music.  And wow, have I been missing out!  His new album, Blackstar, is amazing, and due to my wife's amazing Christmas gift to me of a new turntable, I did order it on vinyl!  

Tonight, I watched a great video produced by the BBC, with producer Tony Visconti, about the recording of another seminal Bowie album, Heroes.  The video was posted by one of my favorite writers, Austin Kleon, and it's well worth the 20 minutes you'll spend watching...

http://bbc.in/1QqfRTZ

I think one of the most interesting things about insights like this is the debunking of the myth that great creations spring from some fully formed vision of the artist, and that it all comes out in one clear and finished product.  Just like one of my favorite podcasts of late, Song Exploder, you see that that is most often not the case...

So, what does David Bowie have to do with brass quintets?  Well, nothing yet... maybe we can get our good friend Tom Holtz, who has arranged so many great tunes for Valor Brass to arrange something cool...???  Tonight, we had the chance to perform on a recital of the Composers' Society of Montgomery County in Bethesda, Maryland.  We played a new piece by composer Jeffrey H. Bauer, titled Danse Macabre.  Jeff is a conservatory trained (Peabody Institute) pianist and trombonist, and he contacted Valor Brass a few months ago about working together.  We really enjoyed his new work, and it just reinforced the fact that relationships between creators (composers) and musicians (performers) are such a rewarding experience.  Check out Jeff's scores at Balquhhider Music.

Here's a rehearsal recording from a few days ago of Danse Macabre...