Random Brain Activity

10 Jul 2010

Bohemian Rhapsody with Mnozil Brass

Simply awesome!

29 Jun 2010

The Brain on Jazz

This link comes courtesy of Dan Levitin, author of "This is Your Brain on Music." An interesting study on using fMRI technology on an improvising jazz musician.

16 Jun 2010

A friend of mine sent me this photo of the group I perform with playing at Christ Church in Fairview this past Sunday. Was a lot of fun to rock out there (yes - you can rock out at church) and look forward to the next time we can perform there.

14 Jun 2010

Horn Porn!

99% of you reading this will not care one bit about this post. More for the horn lovers out there. Visited a friend of mine on Friday who sells horns for a living. He helped broker a deal for a horn I owned about six years ago and foolishly sold it. Whether you think so or not, there is a lot of money sitting in this room.

Click here to download:

Horn_Porn_Tags_music_pics.zip (5295 KB)

27 May 2010

Birdland from Monday Night

(download)

This is audio from my Monday night gig I had this past week. It's rough but it is a nice version of the Maynard arrangement of Birdland. Had a lot of fun playing with that group that night.

3 Apr 2010

Musical improvising -- is it all in your brain?

A brief but interesting article on improvisation and the brain.

10 Dec 2009

?!?

Jazz musicians will recognize the tunes. If you're like me and enjoy some of these tunes, you probably won't make it through this movie.

24 Nov 2009

Pics of the horn

So a few weeks ago, I was on a big band gig in downtown St. Louis. The gig was dinner music for the local USO. Great group of people, both civilians and military. The band, who I sub with a few times a year, sounded great. I was also happy with how I played throughout the night. All in all, the gig was a great success...up until one of the trumpet players, not paying attention to where he was pulling a cord, knocked my horn (stilling on a stand) over, putting a rather vicious dent into the slide. It was probably one of the worst ways to end a gig. I took the horn to my friend and trusted repair tech in the area and the pictures below are his work. Not only did he fix the slide, he also stripped and scratch-finished the bell, giving it a cool, unique look.

For any brass player (especially trombone) in the St. Louis area (or anywhere if you are comfortable shipping your horn) needing work done to your horn, I can't recommend my friend Aaron highly enough. Leave a comment or drop me an email should anyone like to have his contact information.

Click here to download:

Pics_of_the_horn_Tags_pics_mus.zip (5214 KB)

9 Nov 2009

Music Improves Brain Function

This sort of study shouldn't be ground-breaking but it should emphasize the importance of musical training in children. It probably safe to say that adults could do well with this too.

Laurel Trainor, director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University in West Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues compared preschool children who had taken music lessons with those who did not. Those with some training showed larger brain responses on a number of sound recognition tests given to the children. Her research indicated that musical training appears to modify the brain's auditory cortex. Can larger claims be made for the influence on the brain of musical training? Does training change thinking or cognition in general?

Trainor again says yes. Even a year or two of music training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention when measured by the same type of tests that monitor electrical and magnetic impulses in the brain.

Rest the full article here.

28 Oct 2009

Europe's The Final Countdown...for Three Cellos and Orchestra

Yeah, you'll recognize this song. Quite popular in the 80's, assuming you were born then. One of my favorite rock tunes from that era for sure. Enjoy!