Category: The Band Director

Max Roach

I have this video I show to my students every year – the original VHS tape I have is called Jazz in America, Dizzy Gillespie’s All Star Band at the Lincoln Center. It was filmed in 1982 and recently, they made it into a DVD called “Dizzy’s Dream Band”. There isn’t one part of that video that I ever get sick of and whenever I show it to kids, they’re just as drawn in as I am. I’ve actually met two trumpet players that were on that video, Marvin Stamm and Jon Faddis. When I met Jon Faddis a few years ago and had him autograph the cover of the DVD, he looked at all the names listed, shook his head and said that a lot of those cats had since passed away.

from NPRAnd now, we have lost another. Max Roach passed away this week at the age of 83. I hadn’t ever heard his name before this video but once I associated the name with the sound of his drumming, I could never separate the two. He was absolutely amazing at making the drumset sing. He knew exactly what part of each drum and cymbal sounded like and used it impeccably to play back the tune during a solo. His drum solos didn’t sound like racket. You could always find the beat and even the tune or horn played lick in them. Every drumset player I have, I want them to sound like Max Roach. There are a few recordings of his playing in sidebars to the NPR article about his passing. Take a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

Brain Dump Before Bed

I don’t know what to write about anymore since band has resumed being the center of my life. And I’m not sure who all reads my blog anymore, anyways. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily considering taking it down right now but we all just seem to be so busy. Or maybe the fascination of keeping up a blog has dwindled away. Eh, whatever.

We start school in a week so that can only mean it’s Staff Development week. We have some LOTS of new staff this year (head principal change) so there will be new faces to really not get to know. I just found out how many people are on faculty at SPHS. There are around 100 at the 9th grade center and 200 at the main campus. With the 3000 kids and other staff (custodial, cafeteria, etc.) we have on top of that, we’re a small city!! Amazing.

Things have been just chugging along nicely. Our show this year is called “From Earth to Sky” and it’s all about flight. The kids are really diggin’ the music and the drill is going to be amazing. If nothing else, working on the show is going to be a lot of fun!!!

Despite band having started back up again, I’ve still had a night or two out with the girls. My friend Crystal keeps things quite interesting, I’ll tell ya! Oh, and Monica & I went out dancing the other night. That was REALLY fun and just what I needed, too. Since my gallery still isn’t fixed (like someone is gonna come along and fix it for me or something), I’ve posted an album or two on MySpace. Yeah, yeah…I know…it’s still the work of the devil but sometimes, you have to dance with the devil in the pail moon light….. OH, I also created a gallery of Fashion Don’ts that I’ve collected recently.

So, I think that’s pretty much it for right now. I’m awfully tired tonight. It’s been a long week. Tomorrow, lots of laundry and other chores around the house. In reality, I’ll probably sleep in and get a load or two of laundry in. Eh, it’ll be okay. Rest is probably just what I need anyways. Well, take care.

Summer Band

Well, it’s starting all back up again.

I’ve had a nice amount of down time and partying this summer (see my MySpace photos albums for the most recent) so I’m really ready to head back into the grind of band. I’m kinda bummed that the cooler weather we’ve had all summer is now over (just the right timing, huh?) but really, it wouldn’t be the same summer band without blazing sun hitting us all day long. And the rain would really hinder us from getting a lot done outside.

So, we started yesterday with our First Annual Family Picnic and today starts our first day of Leadership Camp. Yeah, I know it’s Sunday but with the district’s staff development starting when it does, we have to start leadership today in order to get in at least a week of all day rehearsals. Most of the kids will be able to make it and the ones that can’t make it today can just watch the videos. I’m not going to post them on my YouTube, though because some of the sessions are very unique to our group and it’s fun to have trade secrets (or something). 😉

Just a little *sigh* to the end of my summer and a big *Hooray* to the beginning of another exciting year of band!!! Go Tigers!

That’s TWO, baby!!

So, being elected to Secretary of IAJE, Texas is proving to be quite a positive for me and my school. Thursday’s Williamson County edition of the Austin American Statesman is going to run an article about my jazz program at SPHS. Some of the details are incorrect (Tiger Tunes Tuesdays have nothing to do with jazz band) but still, it’s a positive plug for what we’re doing at SPHS and that’s what matters. So, you can read the article here. You may have to sign up to read it but you don’t have to subscribe to any newsletters or pay for anything. Cool, huh?

Almost the end of summer

This has been a very relaxing, yet productive summer. It’s almost time for me to get back to work full time and I think I’m alright with that after this great summer I’ve had. Ken being here all summer has been great, too. Having someone around to help with daily chores is so relaxing!

I have my garden boxes built but because of the rain, I didn’t get a chance to set up the soil and start any gardening. But I think I’m okay with that because the summer isn’t the planting season. But, if I had to build the boxes I wanted and do the gardening all during the spring, I’d never get it done. Also, this lets me spread out the cost of putting together this size of garden (I built two 4×5 foot boxes) will be fairly expensive. When it comes time, I’ll plant both seeds and seedlings. They will both be filled with edible plants.

Moving from the organic to the techincal, my iPhone is wonderful! There have been a few reports about things not going well for people but none of them have affected my phone. My favorite question so far from people has got to be, “Is it true that the battery is useless after 300 charges?”. And just so you know, no. It’s been reported that after 400 full charges from a battery that has been completely drained, the life of the battery is lowered to 80%. Tell me what re-chargeable device isn’t affected that way after 400 dead to full charges. *sigh* The only problem I’ve had would be keeping my contact list straight since I’m syncing it from two different places. When you sync from both Yahoo! Contacts and Plaxo, it tends to create duplicates in the Address Book software on my iBook. But I think I’ve got that straightened out.

I loaded everything back into my office at work on Monday. I’ve finally put certificates, etc. on my walls and realized how cool an office can actually look! LOL. I’m not quite done with putting all the papers in their places and I need a few picture frames but I’m back to a regular work schedule now.

So, Texas Bandmasters Association Convention this weekend. DCI San Antonio on Saturday, too. Seems like most of Saturday will be at the Alamodome ’cause there are so many corps I want to see this year. Good thing that there are only 2 clinics that I want to really go to I’ll miss during that time. Heck, those two are scheduled at the same time so I’d miss one of them anyways!

Speaking of drum corps, there is no telling who is going to win at this year’s World Championships in Pasadena, CA. Any of the top 3 corps right now could take it and any of the next 2 or 3 corps could push up to 3rd place. It’s a great season for drum corps and I can’t wait to see the shows on Saturday!!

Okay, I really should get up to work so I’m going to sign off. Have a great rest of the week and weekend!