NEWS | ERIC RICHARDS

October 25, 2012

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:35:04 -0500

Serendipity on the Shelves…

A colleague recently posted on Facebook that Donald Fagen has a new album (Thanks, Paul!) I’ve always been a fan of the compositional and production prowess in his work with Walter Becker, (a.k.a. Steely Dan), so I look forward to hearing the new record. Like many folks, my usual M.O. when preparing to hear a new work by one of my favourite (yeah, I know…I dig the British spelling) artists is to go back and do a little “homework” by reviewing one of their classic projects. It helps to me to establish my own frame of reference for hearing the new music.

So I started digging through the “Archives” to find my favorite Steely Dan album, AJA. Right at the point where I was about to give up hope, I saw the black cover with the ribbon graphic and the woman’s face in the shadows. Luckily, at some point many years ago, I bought the CD (although I still have the vinyl.) This was a life-changing album for me at the age of 18. First of all, getting hit between the eyes with the multidimensional music of AJA at the very time the “music bug” was biting hard made a huge impression. At the time, I couldn’t articulate very clearly what was going on musically, but my gut told me that this music was Really Important…and I needed to figure it out.

Secondly, this music sustained my soul during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college where I endured a Western Pennsylvania young person’s rite-of-passage known as “Working At Kennywood.” For those of you who don’t know what this means, Kennywood is a large amusement park and is Pittsburgh’s answer to Six Flags Over Wherever. Every day…ev.er.y day…from Memorial Day to the 2^nd week of August, I would spend 14 hours as the Command Module Pilot of a wonderful 40 year old contraption known as the “SCOOTER” i.e., the Bumper Cars.

(Cue 18 Year Old Thinly Disguised Smart*** Voice on ancient public address system:)
“Welcome to the Scooter…please keep your arms inside the cars and remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop.” Every night after work I would stagger home, take a bath, set the alarm clock, fire up the turntable, plug in the phones, and decompress to some of the hippest music I had ever heard.

Fast forward to Middle Age…Even though several decades have passed since my initial fascination/obsession with AJA, I’m happy to report the obvious: the music still sounds amazing. The songwriting, production, grooves, improvisation (Wayne Shorter…Pete Christlieb…Steve Gadd!) sets the gold standard for contemporary popular music. For example, as a teacher of arranging, I would recommend the studio writing on Deacon Blues as a model for young writers of a perfectly balanced and crafted example of How To Do It. One curious result of having lived a significant part of my life since spending a lot of time with this music is that I have a totally different take on Fagen and Becker’s coy and ambiguous lyrics. As a young man, I was taking these lyrics waaaay too seriously. J

Here is where the Serendipity comes in (I’ll bet you thought I was going to post a link to one of the cuts from AJA, didn’t ya?)

On the shelf next to AJA was a record I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and trying to find for some time: Kenny Wheeler’s MUSIC FOR LARGE AND SMALL ENSEMBLES. I’m thinking of programming some of this music for an upcoming Jazz Vespers Service so finally finding this record along with AJA was a double stroke of good fortune! A good friend (Thanks, Tim Huesgen!) turned me on to this record in the ‘90’s. For those who know and love this record, I’ll bet that you would agree that it is difficult to express via the written word the beauty and power of this music. In my view, Kenny Wheeler and Bob Brookmeyer led the way in the development of contemporary jazz composition for large ensemble. Like AJA, the beautifully crafted and highly personal music on this record sounds as amazing to me now as it did twenty years ago. In addition to Kenny's writing, he is featured on flugelhorn as well as Dave Holland on bass, Peter Erskine on drums, as well as a band full of wonderful British players.

I invite you to listen to Kenny’s beautiful composition CONSOLATION, a movement from his Sweet Time Suite on this recording. For me, this has to be one of the most “spiritual” pieces for jazz orchestra ever written. My heart and mind are always blessed by hearing it. I hope it speaks to you as well. Peace.

Summer 2012

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:23:48 -0500

Greetings! I hope this update finds you all happy, healthy, and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. I really need to update this blog more than once a year...I'll try to be better about that!

A lot has happened since my last update in August 2011. First of all, I am now a tenured and promoted Associate Professor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music! This is a major step in the career of a college professor and I am most grateful for the support of colleagues and mentors who helped shepherd me through this process.

Most recently, I taught at summer jazz camps at the Yellowstone Jazz Camp as well as our own UNL Summer Jazz Camp. It was a privilege to work with some very talented young musicians and teach with great colleagues. The best part of the day at Yellowstone was the faculty hang around the campfire at night after all classes and rehearsals were over. This is where jokes, "gig stories", and impressions of famous (or perhaps, infamous) bandleaders were shared. The memory of certain phrases still trigger involuntary laughter from me...

First Post

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:55:13 -0500

Hi,

It has taken a while, but I'm happy to finally have a presence on the Interwebs. It's been a busy summer:
• reading AP Music Theory exams for a week in Cincinnati (kinda like preparing tax returns, except you're combing the paperwork to find "egregious" voice leading errors and poor chord choices instead of fake meal receipts and bad math)
• jazz camps with great young musicians at both UNL and the Yellowstone Jazz Camp near beautiful Cody, WY
• writing some music for the USAF Band of Flight @ Wright-Patterson AFB as well as for my colleague Art Bouton at the University of Denver.
In the midst of all this, my family and I were able to squeeze in a week together at "the huts of my wife's people" in Northdaktoah and Minnesotah. The accents start to get so thick, it's like being on the set of the film Fargo for a week (with much nicer people and without the gore). We even had time for a refreshing (i.e., icy) dip in the Lake of the Woods!

School starts soon...I look forward to re-connecting with my students and colleagues. This also means that I have to get back to work on my writing schedule. My near-term project schedule includes commissions for:
• The Nihon University Rhythm Society Orchestra (Japan)
• The Conjunto-High Energy Big Band (Japan)
• The Taipei Jazz Orchestra
• The Shanghai Conservatory of Music Jazz Orchestra
• New music for publication by Belwin Jazz Publications
• Re-orchestrating my Three Scenes for American Trombone and Brass Orchestra (premiered in 2008 by the great Joe Alessi and the USAF Brass in Blue, Offutt AFB) for solo trombone and wind ensemble. I look forward to hearing my UNL colleague Dr. Scott Anderson throw down on this new version some time in the upcoming academic year.

This year, I'm especially excited to be taking over the podium of the UNL Jazz Orchestra. My good friend, Dr. Paul Haar, has invested years in building a world class college band here at UNL. As a result of his work and the great work of our students, this band won its first Downbeat™ award this year. Paul has generously turned the band over to me this year, so that he can concentrate on overseeing the development of our new MM and DMA programs in Jazz Studies. I'll miss my musicians in the "other" jazz ensemble, the UNL Big Band...we've had a great two years together. This year, the UNL Jazz Studies program has booked a very cool roster of guest artists (Ingrid & Christine Jensen, Bill Watrous), so we should all be in for a good ride this year.