Practice on Monday Night: 1 February 2010

Oh, practice on the first of the month. We will be continuing work on "The First Circle" but also polishing some more of Malaguena. Look to some work on "Ride the Wind," the Les Hooper piece, Samba Ti Kaye and In the Stone.

Just looking ahead to the future, we will be bringing in the french horns for Malaguena at the practice on Monday, February 8th. The monster is has had lift-off; now it's time for it to move along.

Practice Tonight!

Hey, just a friendly reminder that there is practice tonight. If anyone wants to listen to the charts prior to practice, there are mp3 recordings of the following at www.marinamusic.com:

"The First Cirlce" by Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays, arr. Bob Curnow
"Samba Ti Kaye" by Mark Taylor
"In the Stone" by Earth, Wind & Fire, arr. Paul Murtha
"Malaguena" by Ernesto Lecuona, arr. Bill Holman, trans. Bob Curnow
"Ride the Wind" by Les Hooper

Be ready for the monster chart. It's on the plate for tonight. ;)

Third Practice: Monday, 25th January 2010

Hey everybody! Here is the game plan for our third rehearsal on the upcoming Monday night. I know we have been doing a lot of sight-reading and checking out charts over the last two practices as we get used to our sound , etc., and that type of work is coming to a close. Now the fun work begins! Copies will immediately be handed out at the beginning of practice for all the pieces that you don't already yet have in your folders. The order of practice is:

Warm-up with "In the Stone"
work on the samba piece from last Monday
work on "First Circle"
break
work on "Work Song"
polish some more of Malaguena

Remember that we will be bringing the horn section in mid-February, so we want to be done some a good deal of polishing Malaguena prior to that. I know that the rehearsals have been some chop-busters, especially for the brass sections, but from now on we will not be using all of our charts at every one of the rehearsals. We will polish some of them and once they are in decent shape we will get the others up to decent shape and go from there. The goal of this group was to work a few pieces and get them accurate and polished and that remains the objective. It is nice, however, that we have the filler pieces that are easier to have a slightly larger folder.

See you all at practice on Monday evening, and good job last Monday night. :)

Malaguena!

Since we're gonna be working this piece this spring, I thought it would be educational to see this fantastic video recording of Stan Kenton himself introducing his own original playing the Bill Holman version we're doing. The link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN9sp6ApX4o

Note the bass saxophone sitting to the left of the tenor sax. Enjoy.

Next Rehearsal: January 18th, 2010

Hello all! I just want to congratulate everyone who was in attendance at tonight's first rehearsal of Jazz 4 Nothin'. If you couldn't be there, we missed you, but we hope to see you next week. As i write this blog post, it is almost midnight, but I can't wait for tomorrow to post how happy I am with the practice.

Malaguena sounded pretty good even missing some players and on the first run. I can't imagine how awesome it will be to have the full band playing it a few practices down the line. The First Circle is the monster laying in wait, like George Kennan's democracy monster in the mud... sorry, diplomatic history reference there. As I said, it's midnight. In the Stone is fun to play, and it makes me heart Paul Murtha arrangements.

Awesome job to our Director, Chris Horn. Everyone has busy schedules and some are driving quite some distances to come to practice, but having a solid director guiding us through these pieces, especially the tough ones, is irreplacable. I'm sure others will have more positive things to say about Chris as the weeks go on, but right now, his dedication to music and to jazz artistry in particular just shines brightly.

A special thanks goes to St. Paul's Lutheran, who continues to support Jazz 4 Nothin' by letting us have a place to practice once a week. We hope to entertain the folks there at whatever venue works best and when there is a demand for some soulful music. Because it's a church, remember?

Next rehearsal is the same time next week, and we should be up some more players in certain sections. To the Del Val kids: stick with us and you're gonna have a good time while in Doylestown.

The First Circle... I Mean, PRACTICE!

Yeah, okay, so the subject heading for this post could be taken two ways. The first could be to inform you that the first practice will be held on Monday, January 11th from 7-9 PM at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Doylestown. The other way to take this is as a hint that players should be looking at "The First Circle" by Pat Metheny. Not learning it wrong - just looking at it, 'cause it's difficult. It's like those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Do you remember those? Well, you can choose for yourself what this blog post's subject line is trying to tell you.

But, at any rate, it would be good to definitely state that the first practice will be held on Monday, January 11th from 7-9 PM in Room E at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Doylestown, PA. The address, for those of you who need to GPS it (or check a map, use a compass, etc.) is:

301 N. Main St.
Doylestown, PA 18901

If you know Doylestown, the church is relatively easy to find and you shouldn't need a GPS at all. It's the big church across from the Dairy Queen. See, wasn't that easy? There's ample free parking in the front and back lots. Only, you want to go in the front doors (the ones with the huge, beautiful awning) and proceed downstairs by taking the first staircase to the right. There should be someone there outside to guide you to the room. If not, don't go straight and to the left - in the small gymnasium are weekly AA meetings. Also, down the first main hallway to the left are council meetings, so we should try to keep it quiet when entering, if possible. Just walk in and take the first stairs down that are to your right.

So practice and see you at practice. Hasten the day! (Not really, because it gets dark way too early.)

;)