New Youtube Series!

Hi everyone!  I wanted to tell you about another Clark Media production that is now available to the public!  My fantastic euphonium colleague, Hiram Diaz, came to me in the spring with a great idea to make a new series of videos.  Hiram, like many euphonium and trombone players, has been playing the 20 Counterparts duet series written by Tom Ervin, for many years.  These are duets written to accompany the Bordogni/Rochut etudes that so many of us incorporate in to our daily practice.  The videos include Hiram performing the duet part - the player utilizing the video provides the Bordogni etude.  Hiram also has some excellent comments at the beginning of each video encompassing his performance practice and musical ideas about the piece.  To purchase the original sheet music book, Counterparts, go to Tom Ervin's official website.  

Another George Hamilton Green rag arranged by the amazing Jonathan Bisesi!

Hi friends,

Whew!!! Summer is in full swing, and you know what that means?!?!?!?!  THE KIDS ARE OUT OF SCHOOL!!!  Seriously, what it means around the Clark household is a lot of fun pool and beach time, and a lot of bike rides as well.  The boys are getting older and able to ride longer and/or on their own, so we are having super fun just biking everywhere we have the chance.  Combine that with some recent bike commuting for me, beach rides, and even recharging some bike mechanic skills, and the summer is just ROLLING.  Love it.

One other thing I've done is to complete a few projects that were begun in the spring.  One of my favorites of this year was the brass quintet and xylophone arrangements my good friend and Marine Band colleague, Jon Bisesi.  We recorded four of his arrangements in the spring, and you can hear Jovial Jasper over on Youtube.  I'm going to introduce another one here below, Chromatic Fox Trot.  

For my audio folks out there, if you haven't ever recorded solo xylophone, I highly recommend it! It is a challenge, due to the nature of the instrument (think snare-like transients, but pitched and moving in the stereo field like marimba, or even piano.   Separating that from the brass players, and allowing them to both see and hear each other enough to play as one ensemble, is quite challenging.  I had some help from my good friend, Will Samson, and I think the final recording turned out great.  

Jon is a master of the xylophone, and his improvisations over these rags in this particular style are so natural and fun to listen to.  Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening!

New George Hamilton Green rags for xylophone and brass quintet, arranged by Jon Bisesi

It’s always awesome to see great musicians that are genuinely excited about what they are playing. It’s even better to see them take music that might be unfamiliar to many people, make it their own, and put it out into the world.  

I had the pleasure of producing audio and video (as well as playing trombone) for my friend Jon’s recordings of 4 arrangements he made of rags for xylophone and brass quintet.  The rags were written by George Hamilton Green, a virtuoso xylophone soloist that was born in 1892.   

May 23 is George Hamilton Green’s 125th birthday!  Happy birthday, George! (He passed away in 1970)...

Recording personnel are: James McClarty and Chris Larrios (trumpets), Mark Questad (horn), myself on trombone, and Will Samson (tuba).

Many thanks to Will Samson for helping greatly with the audio engineering...I couldn’t have done it without you!

For more info about Jon’s arrangements, go HERE.

Thanks! 

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!