When it's time to master, just cry Wolf!!

And now, it has been mastered. Yes, the recording is 100% complete. It is done. No more changes in anything. It even has it's "ISRC". What's an ISRC you ask? Well, it's the code that goes on all commercially releases CDs that links it to all the info on the disc. The code that helps track radio play and many other things. Sort of like a digital barcode on the CD. Now, of course, before I went to mastering I had no idea what in the heck that was.

Anyway, on July 31 I drove to Arlington, VA to meet a Mr Bill Wolf at his studio to master this baby. Bill is one of the absolute best in the DC area. He has several grammy winning CDs that he has been a part of and I was excited to have him working on this project. I also brought along my trusty sound engineer, Mack McLaughlin. There were definitely some times when I was very glad to have him there. Bill sometimes asked questions that were totally in "geek speak" and I needed to have Mack there to interpret for me. Plus, they have worked together before and have great admiration for one another's work.

So, about 3:00 we got started. It began with a tour of the complex. Bill's workspace is in the confines of a much larger production company. Large kitchen/dining/entertainment area. Free coffee, espresso, etc. All kinds of goodies. Also got a new slant on the competition of politics during out little tour. This company does lot's of TV work and come election time they are cranking out the ads for clients. Sometimes there are Republicans and Democrats in the building at the same time working on their spots. They actually have to hire security in order to keep the two sides from trying to spy on what the other is producing as far as ads. Don't you just love election time?

Anyway, Bill had already listened to the final mix and wanted to know a few things up front. Primarily, what kind of dynamic range was I looking for. The recording has a very large dynamic range. Most modern recordings, jazz included have little dynamic range. The jazz may be played with dynamics, but a lot of them are taken out with compression and a flattening of the levels. Pop music has about zero dynamic range. It's all one level. And there has been this alarming trend of recording CDs hotter and hotter. Bill had a few recording magazines laying around and I read an article call "The Volume Wars". Seems the average level on a CD has increased by about 14 db over the last 10 years. That's a lot. One engineer in that article even mentioned that he no longer wanted to be listed on certain CDs by certain big acts because of how bad the sound was getting due to increased volume.

Anyway, back to my project. We decided to keep that big, full dynamic range. We made some ever, ever, ever so slight tweeks on a few of the softest tunes. Bill had a device that he called "the bootstrapper". It is so titled because he says it pulls things up by the bootstraps. It was actually designed for classical music radio stations. For anyone that has listened to classical music in the car you know that there are times when you can't hear anything unless you crank the volume all the way up. Then of course you get crushed at the loud parts. Well, this device gives a slight boost to those soft parts and recognizes a gradual increase in volume and slowly goes back to the original setting. There is still a lot of dynamic range. And you would still have to turn things up in your car. But not as much. And it sounds very natural.

Bill was very conscientious about the spacing between the tunes and the length of the applause. The three of us listened countless times to each fade of applause and the amount of silence between each track. Details one never thinks about when just listening to a CD.

So, a mere ten hours later we were finished with the whole thing. I left the studio a little after 1 am and had a one hour drive to get home. I was exhausted, but a very happy camper. Bill had great ears, a great attitude and was totally into the music. And he had a musicians perspective on it. He wasn't concerned about make it commercial or "sellable", he's concerned about making it right and good.

So, now my good friend Brian Sacawa, curator of the Mobtown Modern Concert Series is in contact with a label that we believe will want the CD. I'll keep everyone informed about if and when someone picks it up and when it will be available for purchase. And if you ever have a recording that you need mastered, just cry Wolf.

Who's Your Mack Daddy

So, after countless sessions and missed sessions, hours of listening and tweaking, wrestling with a live performance, finding and stomping on bugs, trying to edit but being unable because of the close set-up inperformance, EQ-ing, you name it, we encounteredit, we are through mixing "The Re-(w)rite Of Spring". Could we spend more time? Sure. Would that make a difference? Certainly. Would it make it better. Maybe, maybe not. But for now, we have put a fork in the mixing.

Much, much credit and many, many thanks need to be given to Mack McLaughlin for his dedication to this project. He engineered the live show. He recorded the live show and did all the mixing hinself. Sure I was there most of the time and I had input. The kind an arranger might have. Like "I need a little more of that third voice in the chord. Boost that clarinet and muted trumpet just a bit". But it was really Mack's incredible ears and knowledge that made this recording come together. How loud should the solo be? How bright should this be? How much should the rhythm section be "present" in this tune? All those things Mack knew and handled with ease.

I've known Mack for a good while now. We put in a lot of miles together travelling all over the country in a van while serving in the Army and performing with the Army Jazz Ambassadors. Well, I was performing with them. Mack was mostly unnoticed. And that's a good thing, because he was running sound. If you notice the sound man it's probably because he's not doing a very good job. And people very seldom noticed Mack. And Mack has been at this a long,long time. Check out his Facebook page and see the pictures of him travelling and playing with the family band when he was a kid. He was gigging by age 6 or 7. Some of those home converted vans/tour buses and ancient pa/mixing equipment shots will really give you a chuckle. But man, he knows what he's doing. And he knows what to listen for in the process. Something I gained just a little insight into during the many hours in the studio.

For those that think mixing is easy, think otherwise. Heck, just listen to all the really bad home projects being put out these days by people who buy Cubase and a few mics and think they now know how to operate a studio. They record poorly. They mix poorly. They EQ poorly. (And it's usually bad music to start with.)There is a whole lot of crap out there. My project will not be one of those.

Also, a few more performances are in the making. It looks like The Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra will be performing it at the Intersections Festival in DC in the early part of next year. And their is a chance The US Marine Band (The President's Own) may do it as well.

So, for now we are on to mastering. On Sunday, July 31 at 3:00 we will beging the process. The amazing Bill Wolfe in Arlington, VA will be doing that. So in a little more than 72 hours we will have a final project. Then it will be on to finding a label. Perhaps ARC with my friend Chris Burnett in Kansas City. Or perhaps someone else. Who knows. I'll certainly keep everyone up to date on that.

And who's your Mack Daddy? Why, Mack McLaughlin, of course.

More 2nd Clarinet, Please.

So, three months and 21 days later, I have finally returned to the keyboard, computer keyboard that is, to update my two or three followers about what has been happening since May 12. I suppose I should actually start with what did happen on May 12. As you know that was the big day of the premiere of my version of Rite Of Spring and in a nutshell I would have to say it was fantastic. We managed to get the whole band there on time and get a sound check and clear stage in time to open the doors 30 minutes out. That in itself is no small miracle. Getting 17 musicians to one place in the city on time is a major feat. And when the doors opened there was a good line going down the block waiting to get in for the first show. This on a night when there were some major rainstorms. It seems to be common for me. My big CD release concert many years ago at Blues Alley in DC was hampered by snow. Only about two inches. But if you know anything about the DC area, two inches of snow means go to the store for bread and milk, get some movies and wait for spring. (The season, not the Stravinsky work) But I digress.

So, we get a good intro from Brian Sacawa, the concert series curator, and kick it off. The audience is on the edge of their seats but probably not as much as the band. This is very tricky material and we have had very little rehearsal. We made it through without any major wrecks. I think I conducted everything right. There were a few bleeps and blops in wrong places. A few hairy moments. Oh yeah, I goofed the end of the last piece. Supposed to be "off on three". I gave a hold. Some went with it, others didn't. And I forgot to turn on my mic for my solo on the last number. Oops. Even so, the place went bonkers after that show. Tim Smith from the Baltimore Sun was there and wrote a glowing review. The show was also attended by a gentleman that writes for DMV classical and he wrote an amazing review. They are posted on my Facebook page. (Again, you may friend me if you want, just mention something about Stravinsky in the request)

The band was very relieved to get through the show and was wondering how they would endure a second one. A beer did the trick for many of them. And the second show was definitely more relaxed. A mixture or relief and alcohol is a good thing. And, both shows were recorded to 24 tracks so.......

.....we have finally begun to mix the performance. And a difficult task it is. This is really, really hard music to engineer and recording live in very close quarters makes it even harder. For instance, mixing a Basie recording would be quite simple. Once you have a good mix/balance/EQ for the sax section you would barely have to touch it the entire time. You can leave it there for the length of the album. The instruments don't change and individuals very, very rarely end up in a combination of horns from other sections. My arrangement is totally the opposite. The sax players change from saxes to flutes, to clarinets, to bass clarinets. Brass change to various mutes and the tumpets play flugels as well. All in many different intrument combinations. A tutti figure might get played by a combination of one sax, one clarinet, two flugel horns and a trombone in a bucket mute. So you mix those eights bars but have to change everything after that because now the bone takes the mute out and plays with his section, the sax switches to a line w/ trumpets and the clarinet plays a different line, joined by a second clarinet. And we need more of the second clarinet. But we can't boost him too much because he sat right next to the bari player and he is bleeding heavily into the 2nd clarinet's microphone. Me:"More second clarinet, please." Mack McLaughlin: "Can't, that boosts the bari too much." And so it goes. Thank God for automated boards, too. Otherwise we would need four guys on the board with their fingers on all the faders pulling things up and down over the course of a tune. Engineers and their staffs used to actually "rehearse" doing that to mix a tune down to two track.

Anyway, the recording is not without it's faults. In this day of pro-tools one can make all kinds of amazing edits and fixes, provided you have good seperation with your tracks. That's one thing we don't have. So we will have a very honest recording. A rarity these days as everything is so "fixed" in the mix that it isn't really at all reflective of what was actually played by the musicians in real time. We'll have some warts. But it is a recording of the world premiere. How often does that happen?

Anyway, word has slowly spread about the project. I was contacted by some people from The San Francisco Conservatory about the project. I sold a copy of the arrangement to a guy in Australia. By the way, anyone else interested in purchasing the chart? I am selling it for those that would like to perform it with their own band. However, not everyone is so enthused about the work. I applied to do a presentation/clinic about my project at next year's JEN (Jazz Education Network) conference but they didn't want it. Tried for a performance too and they didn't want that either. (This is the organization that has risen out of the ashes of IAJE) They'll probably have yet another Yamaha artist presenting something he prepared just two days before the conference. Ah,...the benefits of corporate sponsorship.

So, I'll try to post again soon and give any estimates I may have about time lines for mastering, producing and releasing the recording. Until then, keep swingin'.

T Minus 6 Hours And Counting

OK, so Diana Krall has nothing to do with my Stravinsky project, but isn't it a whole lot better than another picture of old Igor? I mean, c'mon. Beautiful face, sultry voice, swingin' piano player. What more could you ask for? And if I tag her I'm sure to get a lot more hits on the blog.

But, let's get to The Rite of Spring, shall we? Today is the day. Countless hours of listening. Many more hours of writing. Printing, photocopying, blogging, facebook updates, reading sessions, master classes, rehearsals, interviews, mailings, flyers, etc. What a production. And that's only my part of it. The people at Mobtown Modern have been hard at work as well. And it all boils down to two shows tonight. 7:30 and 9:30. About two and a half hours total time performing. I have this awful feeling that it will be like Christmas when we were young, greedy kids. All this hype and anticipation. Then when the day comes we tear open all the packages like a bunch of sharks in a feeding frenzy and in ten minutes we are saying, "Is that it?". After all, the performance time is just a little blip on the screen compared to all the prep time.

But hopefully this will live on. With a little luck there will be other performances by this band and hopefully by others as well. I have some inquiry about the availability of charts and I do plan to sell copies. And hopefully a CD will come out as well. And then there is the potential to market this to dance companies or choreographers to see if someone might want to produce a modern version of the ballet. Perhaps I can get some guest conducting gigs with some college bands. Anyone out there want to make an offer?

But let's talk a little more about tonight. The venue is as much a night club as it is a concert hall. So the audience will be more laid back than if they were all sitting in theater seats. And the set up of the band will be cramped. Generally this makes for some physical discomfort, but I think big bands play together better when they are squeezed like that. The space holds about 225 people. I hope it gets filled for both shows. I've also heard that a critic from The Baltimore Sun will be there. I really wish that I did not know that. I don't need those things in the back of my mind. I don't plan on telling the band about that. I want them to be loose and just play.

It is my plan to have a few more entries in this blog after the performance. Certainly I want to write on how the night went. I also want to follow up on anything else happening about this project that I feel is relevant. I hope those of you who have been following this blog have enjoyed it. If you would like to keep up with my activities please feel free to "friend" my on Facebook. I'm probably the only Darryl Brenzel on there. If not, then I'm the one with the sax. Just simply send the word "Stravinsky" with the request so I know you aren't some weirdo or salesperson or whatever.

And now, on with the show!

Next question, please.

Ever wonder what it's like to be the guy on the hot seat at a press conference? Or perhaps what it is like to sit down with Mike Wallace for a 60 Minutes interview. Maybe you've wondered what it would be like to take a seat in the easy chair next to David Letterman and have a friendly little chat. I had an experience this past week that was probably a cross between all three. And it turned out to be pretty fun.

First of all, I like questions. In general they tend to lead to the next thing, which then leads to more questions, which then lead to,.... well,.... you get it. Now, some questions simply look for a quantitative answer. "What's 2 + 2?". Some ask for information. "What happened at work today?". Some are rhetorical. "Do ya think?". (Said with sarcasm.) Some deal with trivial things. "Is there any of that pie left?". Others deal with deep issues. How about these three here? (That's not the deep question!) Where did we come from? What went wrong? How can it be fixed? Now, there's some questions deserving a whole other blog. I would love to write about that, but that's an issue for another time and place, don't you think?

Speaking of thinking, that's what I really liked about my experience this past week. I gave my first master class on my project of arranging Rite Of Spring for a jazz ensemble. The good people at The University of Maryland were kind enough to give me an evening to talk about it and play some musical examples for them. I talked about the usual issues of melody, harmony, rhythm, groove, etc. How to create solo space. I walked them through the Stravinsky score to part three and my score for the same part at the same time. That was a bit tedious as I wasn't as prepared as I could have been for that. None the less, I think it was beneficial once we listened to them both. But after that came the good part. The questions. All good. Some looking for straight forward information. Some about my own thoughts or feelings. And the really good ones that make me stop and think.

I wish I could remember more of them, but I'll address at least two of them here. One person asked how my own view of music has changed or how the music has changed me as a result of this experience. Wow. Hadn't really thought about that. And what is the answer? So, I started thinking out loud. Well, for one thing, I've changed my view on what I think about Rite of Spring. I used to think that it was a very dissonant, rhythmically abstract piece of music. I still think that, but I see that it is so much more. I remember listening to it and thinking, "My God, there is so much stuff in there". That was said as a reaction to being aurally overloaded. Now I listen and say, "Wow, there is so much stuff". Only now I say it with awe and appreciation. Sure, there aren't long melodies that flow through a piece, but there are melodies. Sometime very small ideas, but the piece is practically littered with them. But it takes repeated listening to find them or hear them. Yes there is dissonance, but the harmony is highly organized. The subtle variations in notes or harmonies as a fragment gets repeated is obviously well thought out. This is a piece which bears repeated listening and rewards the person that does so with new revelations each time. And what can I learn from that? How does that change my view of music? One thing becomes quite clear. There has got to be a lot of music out there that can't possibly be judged from just one listening. And I know we've all been guilty of that. Also, I think that perhaps I see new possibilities for what I can do with a piece of music. Specifically, what possibilities I have as a composer. Even as a composer of jazz music.

The second question was from someone who had been reading my blog. He even had stuff printed out and quoted from "Repent, The End Is Near". The question dealt with what I hope to accomplish with this piece in it's performance and presentation. He quoted the fact that I said I wanted to create an emotional impact from the music. And I'll add that what I wrote there goes not only for Rite Of Spring but anything I compose or arrange for big band. And that is that I want people to have an emotional experience from hearing the music. Not just a cheap thrill from high, fast and loud, but a deep and lasting experience. And the question was, "How do you know that you've accomplished this?". Another truly great question. How can I really know? I can know how hard I worked. I can know how hard I tried. I can know how I feel about my own work. But how do I know if I've succeeded in providing a deeply emotional experience for the listener, unless of course they actually come up to me and say so. Or, heaven forbid, they tell me they weren't moved by it. I think time will be at least part of the answer. Good music lasts. Cheap thrills don't. Sure, there is still a lot of mediocre to absolutely awful music that is still being played either live or over the airways 20, 30 40 or more years after it's release. But I have to believe that the vast majority of that is due to it's nostalgic appeal. We all like the music we grew up with. And we all think "it's better than the music these young people listen to nowadays". We associate it with good times in high school or college or other "coming of age" type events in our life. And the real meaning isn't in the music itself so much as the thoughts, emotions and memories it's connected to. My arrangement will never be on hit radio. It will never be the soundtrack of a person's life. If people continue to want to listen to this it will be because the music itself has some meaning. It will be because it touches something inside them. It somehow relates to the human condition. I feel this is one way to know if I have succeeded. And the sad part about that is, I'll probably never know how many people are still listening to this 10, 20 or 30 years down the road. (By the way, there is a plan to get this recorded so that people actually have the option to do this, should they so desire.) I do know this, if you aim for nothing, you are guaranteed to hit it. I'm aiming for emotional impact. Hopefully I'll not only hit it, but know that I did so.

So, one master class is completed. I'll have another at Towson University as well as at Peabody Conservatory. It will be interesting to see what the people at these classes ask and what I'll have to think about regarding my own thoughts, feelings and assumptions. It should be interesting.

Well, that about takes care of today's blog. Next question, please.

Snow, Snow, Snow!!!!

So, here in Maryland we usually get a little snow a few times each winter. Every other year or so we might get a snowfall that's at least a bit significant, say, 7-12 inches. About every 5-7 years we get a good one. Maybe 20-30 inches. Well, this winter we have received the mother load. There have been several snowfalls in the 4-6 inch range. In addition we had 20 inches in December, 30 inches just this past weekend and today, only the following Tuesday, we have snow coming down with potential accumulation of another 20+ inches!! Aaaaggghhh!!!! Will spring ever get here?

Well, spring is on the calender and will arrive whether it seems like spring or not. And perhaps this snow will all be gone by then. But perhaps not. But I have arrived at "Spring Rounds", the fouth part of the first half of Rite of Spring, Adoration of the Earth. And it will warm you right up.

I think perhaps this is my favorite section of Stravinsky's work. It is possibly the only section where one might say it is beautiful in the traditional sense of that word as it applies to music. It reminds me a lot of tango music. Not the old stuff from the 30's or 40's that you might hear played at a ballroom dance, but more like the tango nuevo style along the lines of Astor Piazzolla. It has a very haunting, mysterioso feel to it and is probably the part that most easily lends itself to a modern jazz treatment. There was a lot of figures that sounded totally "correct" exactly as they were when a rhythm section groove was put under it. As a matter of fact, I would say this piece has the best natural groove of all the parts of Rite of Spring.

For the intro I gave the trill from the flutes to two clarinets. The Eb and Bb clarinet line, which is the melody here in the intro, is covered by a flute, two flugels and guitar. The original line is nearly all quarter notes with a few half notes. I keep the sequence of pitches intact but change rhythms to add some syncopation. I also wrote it in 4/4 instead of all the 5/4, 7/4, 6/4, 5/4, etc. that Stravinsky used for who knows what reason. The melody doesn't necessarily imply those subdivisions. When the groove starts I have the drums establishing the time and feel by using mallets on the toms. This creates a very seductive, tango-ish atmosphere. The two part, off-beat figure in the bass clarinets and low strings is perfect "as is" for this vibe and I give it to the bones, who are in bucket mutes, and the guitar. The on-beat, two note part in violin II is covered by two clarinets and two flugel horns. There is is a little "break" figure that appears twice. This is covered by flute and soprano sax. The note sequence is again intact with a slight rhythm change. Two of the descending eighth notes become grace notes and more of an effect within the melody than an actual part of it. A scoop is added to the top note as well giving it a more mournful feel and is in keeping with the jazz style.

The on-beat and off-beat figures continue as the "theme" is introduced. It is played verbatim by flugels and clarinets. The bones eventually relinquish their off beat part to the piano and guitar. The bones now fatten the melody being played by flugels and clarinets. A piccolo part is also played in it's exact form by flute and soprano. This combination is high in pitch but has more warmth than is usually found in that register in a jazz band. At what would be bar 25 in the orchestra score I break from the form a bit. Here I give the piano chord changes to comp and give the bones some chordal/rhythmic figures not found in the score, but ones that would be common to big band writing. The "break" figure appears two more times. This time I re-inforced it with a bass clarinet. The last time leads into a full band chord held out for two measures followed by two measures of the rhythm section vamping on Eb min11 as a release.

At this point the soprano sax begins an improvised solo. As it progresses I introduce background figures of my own creation. A lot of them are "warm" clusters mixing brass and reeds. There are also falls and rips into notes for greater emotion. These are countered by some low, two part lines played by tenor sax, bari sax and trombones 3 & 4. I have to admit that a lot of what I was trying to do here was to capture the type of sonic ambience that Maria Schneider so readily creates in her music. Eight bars before the end of the solo is the biggest figure where all the horns come together for some hard, stacatto hits ending with a big fall. There is just abit of a release here and the different horn sections then trade around a quarter note triplet idea while the soprano wraps up it's solo.

At this point I'm back to covering the basic idea of what happens with the orchestra. The theme returns but is developed a bit by Stravinsky with added beats. I again keep things in 4/4 and keep the groove going. I cover the same ideas. This time I make the theme ever so slightly syncopated in places instead of playing it exact. This helps to create a bit more tension and excitement. The orchestra arrangement gets quite loud here and I follow those dynamics. At this point the piccolo trumpet, C trumpets, french horns and trombones come in with parallel #9 chords that are nearly deafening. I don't have the manpower to cover so many things so I give this to the trombones and ask them to do their best. I never thought I would write something where I'm asking players to blast, but here it is.

All this leads up to a big fermatta. Following this is a faster section with embellishment type flourishes in the high woodwinds as well as a figure in the strings using an effect that I'm sure has some high-brow name that I'm unaware of. They would be sawing back and forth hard as the line goes up and down with two 16th notes on each pitch. There are also some punches here as well. I cover the basic idea of the flourishes but play them at half the speed make them a "melody" that can be more easily followed by the ear. This is played by alto sax, two tenors and bari as well as guitar and the piano, which plays it in two octaves. This is much stronger than the flutes and clarinets from the orchestra version. All the hits are done by the brass. The drums are given a snare part that is sort of like a telegraph/evening news figure and provides a lot of tension and forward motion. The bass drum accents all the hits. The soprano rejoins the band eventually as well. It is covering piccolo trills.

After the last hit in the orchestra part a trill holds through and the intro figure is played again. Here I have the soprano play an improvised cadenza instead of the trill. This buys times for some trumpets to go to flugels as well as the other trumpets and all the bones to put in mutes. Now I score the intro figure with a different twist. The first is actually the result of a mistake. I thought I was looking at the flute part but was actually looking at the alto flute part so I ended up writing this whole ending section in the wrong key. Second, I harmonized it with tight voicings and a lot of parallel motion. I also come to fermattas in three places in the line and give the soprano a short, improvised fill at each. The key may be wrong, but it worked out well to get me back to an Eb min11 chord on the last note. This is again a fermatta with the bass playing arco and the piano doing a tremolo on two low Eb's in octaves. Now the soprano freely play a written fill based on the main theme and bring the tune to a close.

So, it may be Feb 9th, but I've just made my "Spring Rounds". It was warm and sensuous and at times a bit heated. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go shovel snow.

Repent, the end is near.

I'm getting close. Oh, so close. I can see it. I can smell it. I can almost taste it. It's really a good feeling. A week ago I finished part 12. That's 12 out of 14. Only two to go.

So why am I not just a little bit more excited? Perhaps it's because there is still so much more work after the music is written. There are 17 musicians that have to be assembled. Rehearsals have to be scheduled around all their schedules. Music has to be worked out. There are master classes I'll be preparing for at some local universities. Publicity to be done. A podcast to do. All kinds of things to take care of. Plus there is just quite a bit of time still until the actual performance.

But I think the real reason why I'm not quite so excited is that there is a bit of anxiety as to how this whole thing will come off. I've spent a lot of hours working on this. A lot. Will it really be any good? We all know that Stravinsky's work is considered a masterpiece. Am I doing this work justice? Stravinsky wrote something new and different. Will my arrangement sound like anything new? Or will it just sound like a bunch of big band charts? By the way, I'm so trying to avoid writing "charts". Not only on this project but in general with my writing for jazz orchestra. Charts are what writers have done for most of the history of big bands. They take a tune, someone else's or one of there own. Then they write an arrangement. They assign melodies and create counter lines. Perhaps introduce new harmony. Compress or elongate phrases. Insert solo sections. Write backgrounds, interludes, intros and endings. And after all is said and done the guys in the band will say "nice chart". But it is still an arrangement, not a composition for jazz orchestra. A tune that is arranged for big band almost always sounds like a tune that's arranged for big band. They virtually never have the feeling or the sense of a journey that can be created by putting paper to pen for the whole band before writing a "tune".

It is this desire or goal in my "original" writing that makes me anxious about this whole project. I would hate for it to sound like charts. No charts! If people hear this and it reminds them of Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, or, God forbid, Bob Mintzer, I will have failed immensely. So much of what those bands did though the second half of the twentieth century was to emphasize the showy part of big bands. High, fast, loud, slick. In general I hate that part of big band music. Sure there is physical excitement. And there is certainly a place for that. But I'm far more concerned about the subtleties. The musicality. And most importantly, the emotional content. Deep emotional content. Beauty, grace, joy, anger, wonder. The things of life. Physical excitement generates a more immediate and vocal response from the audience. They will appear to have enjoyed it more than a crowd hearing a more challenging and emotional program. But when the crowd has had a deeper emotional experience it will be a more lasting experience. Emotional content will have them listening intently over and over again, finding new things in the music. Physical excitement brings them back when they are looking for a cheap thrill but rarely rewards this listener with anything more.

So, I'm closing in on finishing the actual writing. After that it's out there for the world to judge. Will I have written music or will it be just a bunch of charts. The end is near. My time to repent is running out. But I think I will follow this road to it's final destination. We shall see if leads me to glory or perdition.

Post Script: Some rehearsal recordings have been posted at www.mobtownmodern.com. Go have a listen and tell me what you think.

Reading of part 5-10

So, this past Tuesday I brought six more completed arrangements in to Ft Meade to be read by The Jazz Ambassadors. They were kind enough to give me an entire two hour rehearsal to run the music. It was especially kind since they have rehearsals and a performance this weekend at The Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center Honors that they needed to prepare for. They get to play with Dave Brubeck as he is one of the honorees. Not bad. However a little bird told me the chart that was provided for them on Take Five is not that good and that certain past or present Jazz Ambassador arrangers would have done better. (Just a little fodder there for the tabloids.)

The band played quite well as the music is rather difficult. Not necessarily from the standpoint of the player needing to be a virtuoso, but instead because it is difficult from a conceptual standpoint as well as the blend and balance needed to pull off the orchestration. I have an affection for writing across the band as it is. That is, not writing so much tutti material for one section but instead having one idea played together by members of different sections while another idea, or two or three is being played by other instrument combinations. Most "traditional" big band music is not written this way. Generally, saxes are all playing the same figure, whether unison or harmony. The same goes for the trumpets and the trombones. Sometimes the different sections play different parts, other times they have a tutti figure for all the horns. This type of writing makes it easy for the player to hear and play together with those that are playing the same figure. As I mentioned, I have a tendency to do things a bit different. And The Rite of Spring is written such that it is even easier for me to decide to go that direction. This means that, for instance, the second alto might be playing a melodic line with the guitar and two muted trumpets. Now the second alto, instead of listening to his lead player next to him, has to "find" the other players that are playing with him and blend and interpret the line with them. And so it goes for several other sets of instruments.

The Jazz Ambassadors have been playing my music long enough to know to expect that from me. However, these figures are a bit different. There is a different harmonic orientation as well as some different sorts of melodic material. Often there are notes or lines that make you uncertain if you played them right. Or, if you know you played them right, you wonder if they are written right. This is why one player commented on my Facebook page that the music is cool but also hard as @%@&*%!. I take that as a compliment.

So, besides being hard there were the usual few editing errors on my part. Two trumpet parts had a wrong note. That was a unison that was cut and pasted from one part to another. The same thing happened with a figure in the piano and guitar parts on another tune. And there was a small enharmonic inconsistency in the sax parts in one chart. That was the tune that drove me crazy trying to get the sharps and flats spelled out in the most readable manner. (Key signatures, or the lack thereof, are a whole other story with this piece!) And now I'm down to just four more charts. I've yet to get started on part 11 which puts me ever so slightly behind in my scheduled goal of a January 31 completion date. But that date also allows for finishing quite later and still being on time.

So, as I had mentioned in my first blog, I intend to write a bit about the nuts and bolts of what I have done with each part of Rite of Spring. And since I had a face to face request for that the other day, next time I will talk about the first part/chart. I don't know if I'll get through it in one sitting or if it will stretch to another writing. We shall see. It's kind of like writing the music, I just get going and who knows where it will come out in the end.

Of NYC, Maria Schneider and Don Sebesky

Yesterday I made a crazy trip to New York City. A friend and I hopped on a train at the Amtrack BWI station at 3:50 in the afternoon, travelled to New York, grabbed some food, saw a show at The Jazz Gallery, went to a later show at The Jazz Standard, ate a late night slice and hopped on the train home getting in at 6:24 am. I'm a bit tired but also quite inspired.



At the Jazz Gallery I ended up sitting right in front of someone I knew from my days as part of The BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. I particiapated from Sep 2003 to July 2005. Naturally the Stravisky project made it into the conversation. He instantly replied that that had always been a dream/goal of his to do. He had purchased a score many years ago, looked at it and put it off. And it is still off. He did say, as have others, "I believe Don Sebesky did a version of Rite of Spring." And that is true. However, neither myself nor anyone else that has mentioned it has actually heard it. It is something he did for Hubert Laws on a CTI record from the 70s. I have looked it up to find it is all Sebesky arrangements of classical pieces. The Rite of Spring piece is 9 minutes and 10 seconds long. Quite obviously not the whole work. I've sampled the track on itunes but the free 30 seconds doesn't tell me much. I can't purchase the individual track although the $4.99 for the whole album might be a good deal. Anyway, The Marcus Gillmore Quintet with Mark Turner sounded great at that venue.



At 11:30 I was in my seat waiting to hear a big band play the music of arguably today's greatest jazz composer, and my personal favorite, Maria Schneider. Her band holds forth every year during the Thanksgiving week. What a fantastic show. Two friends from college, Greg Gisbert and Donny McCaslin play in the band. Both played an amazing solo that set. And the music gave me goose bumps and moved me very nearly to tears on several occasions. She opened with Concert in the Garden. Ben Monder played another mind bending solo. She followed that with Gumba Blue. Gisbert, Steve Wilson and Ryan Keberle tore up some minor blues on that piece. The Rich's Piece featuring Rich Perry. She closed with Hang Gliding, an amazing musical excursion. Donny played his tail off as did Ingred Jensen. After the set he was apologizing to Maria for his poor playing. She didn't buy it, telling him that his worst nights would slay most other mortals. Great players never seemed to be satisfied with their playing.



After the set I was able to talk to Maria for a bit. I suppose it would be a stretch to say we are freinds. Perhaps acquaintance is the correct word. But I have had numerous opportunities to interact with her. I even shared a table at dinner one time. And she does give me a hug every time I see her. (I know, you're all jealous.) Anyway, last night I actually gave her an invite to the premier of Rite of Spring for jazz ensemble. (May 12, 2010, Baltimore's Contemporary Museum) One of the first things she mentioned was "Don Sebesky did a version of Rite of Spring." We ended up talking a bit about that. She told me that Bob Brookmeyer was on that date . He has told Maria that the first rehearsal was a disaster. But Don knew what he wanted, communicated it and drove on and got a good recording. Her point was to not be thrown off or discouraged by a poor initial reading. Sometimes that can freak a composer/arranger out and make them worry about what they wrote. Point taken.



Anyway, it was an inspring night in NYC. Some great food, great playing, great compositions, great conversations. This type of music is always a boost to my playing and my writing. It makes me want to keep at it. As a matter of fact, it is making me anxious to finish this project so that I can get to some original material for a change. And I'm not to worried about first readings of the music. (I get six more charts read on Tuesday and I'll probably post about that) I have enough new pieces read to not be bothered by what an intitial reading may sound like. But I may just pee my pants if Maria was to actually show up at the premier performance.

What The Heck Is That ?

Let me start by saying I have no classical training at all. I have not studied it on my instrument nor have I taken classical theory, analysis, or music appreciation. (Music appreciation classes are generally misnamed as they are usually a class in the history of western classical music to the exclusion or near exclusion of all other music.) I am a jazz musician. In my two years at Berklee College of Music I was never made to practice or study the Creston or Ebert sonatas or the like. Personally I think they are of just about zero value in helping a player whose goal is to play jazz. Arguments for technique development are unfounded. Basic practice of scales, technicals studies and the like cross both the jazz and classical worlds. And if a saxophonist can practice and learn a Michael Brecker or Charlie Parker solo up to tempo he will gain as much technique as anyone playing "saxophone literature". Did I say I have no background in classical music?

All that being said, I do appreciate classical music. Amongst my nearly 1,000 CDs I do have a small "legit" collection. Beethoven and Bartok string quartets. Mussorgsky, Grieg, Copland, Tchaikovsky, etc. I enjoy some more modern things put out by the ECM New Series by composers like Valentin Silvestrov. (No choral music. Just doesn't do it for me.) And when asked to do this Rite Of Spring project I actually already had a recording in my possesion. But what I needed was the score. Easy enough. I went to Dale Music in Silver Sping and got one, opened it and nearly passed out.

First, it's pretty overwhelming to look at the 153 pages, some of which are rather condensed as I later found out, and realize that I have to figure all this out and create a way for this to be presented by a 17 piece jazz ensemble. I tried following the score a little bit along with the recording and started getting lost. That's when I began to discover the way in which the publisher tried to save paper. If an instrument is not playing, it disappears from the score. You may be following an oboe part that's three lines down on the score and turn the page to find that it is now five lines down because the piccolo and alto flute have now joined and their staves,which were previously non-existent, have now pushed the oboe down. Sometimes the score reads straight across the page. Other times the score itself has three "lines" on a page because very few staves are being used. This can be very frustrating.

And then there were the "what the heck is that?" moments. What is "C. ing". Or "Cl. in La". Or "Cl. in Re". Or "Corno in Fa". It was easy to tell that Cl. was clarinet. A little thought and it became evident that the solfegge terms were being used as well. Cl. in La was an A clarinet. Corno in Fa is horn in F. Or a French Horn as we uneducated jazzers would call them. Cor. ing. turned out to be English Horn. I had already figured out that Fagotto was a Bassoon. Plenty of juvenile jokes surround that instrument and it's alter ego. I know the Fl gr. part is flute, but what does the "gr." stand for? Haven't figured that one out yet.And then there's those transpositions as well as clefs I am unaccustomed to like alto and tenor cleff. Hoo boy, this is gonna be fun.

So, I think I have figured out what the heck everything is. And as I have been going along I have been slowly figuring out what the heck to write and who to write it for. I have figured out how in the heck to get improvised solos in the pieces, how to get some hip chord changes, how to deal with form, etc. Now, what the heck am I going to eat for lunch?

Rite of Spring as a work for Jazz Ensemble

So, I have been meaning to start this my first ever blog for quite a while now. I have however, procrastinated quite well. In fact, in much the same manner as I put off starting the project that I am now blogging about. And that is the daunting task of arranging and orchestrating Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" for jazz ensemble. Or "big band" as these groups were called as they emerged as popular American performers in the 1930s. The genre has not disappeared although they have become a fringe group, at least as compared to rock & roll, country or hip-hop. But they continue to survive as jazz ensembles, jazz orchestras or even the good old word big band. I don't like big band so much as it has too strong of a tie to bands like Glenn Miller that were playing dance music and never digging in to really play some jazz. But, now I'm off on another tangent.



About November of 2008, Brian Sacawa, curator of the Mobtown Modern concert series in Baltimore approached me with an idea. Why not present Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as a jazz piece. Being an arranger and composer as well as a glutton for punishment I said, "hey that's a good idea." Well, nothing more was said until the following February or so when we more or less said the same things. "Let's do it." And off it went into the recesses of my mind.



Well, sometime around April or May I googled Stravinsky, rite, jazz, etc and what do you think I found. The website for Mobtown Modern with a performance date for Rite of Spring "as arranged by award winning composer/arranger Darryl Brenzel". Panic!!!!! Now there's a deadline. May 12, 2010 at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. A little more procrastinating and pen finally starts to go to paper in July. Well, actually, I start to input my first notes in the computer.



Anyway, I am currently about 2/3 of the way through the actual writing. I have heard a rehearsal of about 40% of that. My intention with this blog is not only to keep you posted on my progress and all it's inherent hurdles and rewards, but to backtrack through some of the process to let you in on what has happened along the way. And to perhaps even re-think things myself. My goal is to update at least two times a week. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, I hope Igor is not rolling in his grave. I kind of like to think that he would appreciate what I am doing. And I hope on May 12, 2010 that my audience does as well.