Now, Now, Now!

Happy New Year and best wishes to your health and happiness in 2016!

Yesterday, I listened to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, the Tim Ferriss show.  His guest was Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby.  In addition to talking about his life as a musician and circus performer, Mr. Sivers discusses the founding of CD Baby, a company that my brass quintet recently used to help distribute our new album, Inaugural.  Mr. Sivers presented a lot of interesting thoughts throughout the 2 hour episode, but I wanted to share one quick one that I found very intriguing and useful.

Mr. Sivers advocates the use of a "Now" page on personal websites.  He makes the point that most of us don't have time to keep people updated about our current work, in a general sense, nor are most social networks built for that.  If you're like me, you tend to tweet or post about the last good beer you had, or maybe something funny your kids said...

So, I have published my own NOW page!  I plan to only post things I'm currently working on, or have done recently.  So, I hope this might be a good way for us to keep up with each other, or at least for you to know what I'm up to!  If you have questions, drop me a line or post in the comments. 

I hope you have a happy and productive 2016, and please stay in touch!

Virtually yours,

Chris

Many thanks to Bruce Faske! Here's another great recording to check out...

For those of you who've read my page about Dr. Neill Humfeld, you know that he was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studies with the great Emory Remington.  When he began teaching at East Texas State University, he brought the great trombone choir tradition from Eastman to Commerce.  This is a recording of Tommy Pederson's Cogent Caprice, featuring Dr. Humfeld and the trombone choir at the 1974 Texas Music Educator's Association convention.  Dr. Bruce Faske is a graduate of Texas A&M - Commerce (as ETSU is now called), and took the time to put this performance online.  Many thanks, Bruce!

Still, Still, Still - a home recording project

Hi friends,

Well, it's been a while!  I wanted to get this recording posted, since we are OFFICIALLY past Thanksgiving and it is now appropriate to engage in Christmas type activities!  I began working on this multitrack recording last winter, after my most enjoyable interview with my buddy, Jim Nova, about his own amazing trombone ensemble recordings.  My secondary motivation was to use the project to begin to familiarize myself with the features and capabilities of Logic Pro X.  Our audio engineer, Ed Kelly, used Logic to record our Valor Brass album, Inaugural, and I was so taken with what I saw that I knew I had to learn more about it for myself.  This piece is one of my favorite carols, and I chose to give it a little "winterized" effect here.  I hope you enjoy it.  Feel free to download and share from the Soundcloud site.  

Happy Holidays,

Chris

Back Home band

Ahhh, nice long drive today from Lawton, Oklahoma back into Texas.... Great!  I think my colleagues get a little tired from all the Texas-love that all us Texas Natives express on these tours! :) Poor people, they'll just never know the feeling!  We have had (and always have) a great reception in my home state. Friday night, the people of Commerce turned out in force (and skipped Friday night football, no less!) to hear the band at Ferguson Hall on the campus of Texas A&M University - Commerce. We had a fantastic crowd, and it was great to either see old friends, or to know they were in the audience. 

Interestingly, as a child, my grandfather saw John Philip Sousa conduct his world famous Sousa Band in the same hall.  Since Sousa served as the Marine Band's director from 1880-1892, that was a pretty special connection.  Granddad had a funny story about talking to the tuba players in the band, and them showing the kids that they had made fake shirt sleeve cuffs that stuck out of the sleeves of their uniform coats. It kept them from being so hot on stage, and they told the kids they better not tell Mr. Sousa! In addition to my parents, cousin, and aunts and uncles, my good friend Nancy Jo Humfeld drove up for the concert. It was great to see my Humfeld family at the concert, I love them all so much. 

We had a chance to bring a number of musicians out to the music building in the afternoon before the concert to teach some master classes for their students. It's great to see not only excellent playing and teaching going on, and a world class facility, but the PEOPLE are amazing.  I have written in this blog before about the impression you get the moment you arrive at a place of higher learning. TAMU-Commerce has a faculty and student body full of quality people. I was truly impressed, once again. Of course, I'm sure that I'm a tad biased! Our trombone section played and talked to the students about our jobs in the Marine Band, and we then coached some excellent players through music they are currently preparing. 

   Onward to West Texas and home on Friday! Tour has been great, and I am ready to get home to my family!

Cheers,

Chris