David Marriott, Jr. is a jazz trombonist, composer/arranger, educator, and blogger. A two-time Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award recipient and winner of the 1999 National Jazz Trombone Competition, David is active in a variety of Seattle jazz groups, including the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Zubatto Syndicate and his own critically-acclaimed groups Septology and Triskaidekaband.
Music at Tula's begins at 7:30pm. $15 Cover. Reservations recommended. Call Tula’s at (206) 443-4221 Debuting at Tula's, this re-imagining of Wayne Shorter's music for brass trio and rhythm section is sure to be a unique night of music. Don't miss it!
It's been a hugely exciting 24 hours since releasing The Periodic Table of Jazz to the world at large. I spent every free moment of the day on the phone, returning calls about the image, the idea, the design, and jazz in general. I received some great emails with questions - I will be getting to all of you, so please be patient. I also discovered more than a few more duplicate element symbols -- I think the color differences must be the explanation, otherwise how could so many people miss them, including me? I also took the opportunity to update the image in a few other ways, including taking a few missed opportunities with clever element symbols. One student requested shirts, and my motto has always been, "ask and you shall receive," so here are some Periodic Table of Jazz shirts - available in many styles, so take your pick.
I've also posted a bit larger version for folks to look at -- sorry, I'm trying not to let a printable version out into the wild for free quite yet, but I'm working on that as well (a free version).
Also, I've made a little video to show the process I went through making the poster. I made the video before making the latest changes to the design, but it should give you a look at the spurts of work that created the majority of the design. Enjoy the evolution of The Periodic Table of Jazz:
Last but not least, if you ordered a poster and it has the old design, feel free to send it back to Imagekind or Zazzle and re-order the updated version. Otherwise, you have a one-of-ten (or less) rare version print! Treasure it! Enjoy - more as it comes!
At long last, and just in time for graduation season, comes The Periodic Table of Jazz, a beautiful poster depicting "an evolution of jazz style, improvisation and innovation" in a visualization homage to the periodic table of elements. Perfect for band directors, music grads, and jazz geeks and fans alike! For full details on how to purchase, plus a lengthy article about the poster's creation, visit The Periodic Table of Jazz page. Stay tuned for more "jazz meets graphic design" from Red Raspus Music - there's more to come... If you are already sold and want to skip the long read and order one now, go to our Zazzle or Imagekind pages and get yours ASAP!
I'm unleashing a new project tonight at Egan's Ballard Jam House, or at least the first test of the concept. My new group, Pop Culture, is debuting tonight at 9pm playing one set until 10:30pm, with myself on trombone, Marc Fendel on saxophone, Chris Symer on bass, and Evan Woodle on drums. One set only! Come and check out the new project...
GOLD PACKAGE: Trombone player Martin Sager, @MSplaystrombone on Twitter. He asked me to please mention his "band leader Chris Hodges, The Chris Hodges Band, and Dothanjazz.com," as well as "the cities of Troy and Dothan, Alabama, and all the musicians of the Southeast. Keep doing what you're doing." We'll say more in our thank-you video, coming in the next day or two...
Thanks so much for all who entered, and we look forward to offering another batch of music when we hit the 5,000 follower mark. Stay tuned!
I had the pleasure this past week of spending a few days with the Liberty High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Phil Donley. At his kind invitation, I spent some time with them Monday working with the band, performed some lunchtime concerts at the school on Friday with a short Q-and-A for the band members, and performed with them as guest artist at the Eighth Annual Liberty Jazz Night. Phil has done a great job getting his students to deal with some complex arrangements in a musical way, not just technical. Their rhythm sections are solid, the band features a few fine soloists, and they seem to dive in head first to whatever music Phil throws their way. They peaked at the performance Saturday night, so what more could you ask for!
It's always nice getting good feedback from students, so I was delighted to get mentioned in a few posts on Twitter by some students from Liberty High School's Jazz Band:
My thanks to director Phil Donley for the invitation, and to all the band members of the Liberty High School Jazz Band for making my time with you so fun and easy. The performance Saturday night was a blast, to be sure! For those of you not in attendance, here's the program from the concert:
When Mountlake Terrace High School band director Darin Faul approached me earlier this year to arrange Norah Jones' "Back to Manhattan" for the MTHS Jazz Band, I was excited, flattered, and most of all thankful -- I needed the work, too! There wasn't much to it, mainly just adding a backdrop to the original version, staying out of the way of the vocalist. But the last two things I've arranged for him -- Duke Ellington's "The Single Petal of a Rose" and Artie Shaw's "Concerto for Clarinet" -- were somewhat more daunting tasks. Ellington himself only recorded the piece as a solo piano composition, and the Artie Shaw piece had originally been recorded for a full orchestra -- and then there were the reputations of the pieces and the artists themselves. With a quick turnaround time needed for their Hot Java Cool Jazz performance, I had to squeeze all my musical and physical juices to get something completed that I was happy with.
Well, after seeing these two videos from the concert, I can only say, "Bravo!" The Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Darin Faul, has hit a series of home-runs with these new charts, and made a whole ton of music out of some ink I put on a page. You clearly got the vibes I was going for, and then some. Bravo! Enjoy the videos of the two charts below:
Sometime late last week, I crossed the line to go beyond one thousand Twitter followers, and I thought I'd celebrate a little by sending some music out into the Twitterverse. But before I give out the details of the giveaway, I decided to share a few of the lessons I've learned over the course of gaining those first thousand followers and some tips out there from other sources:
Twitter works best for musicians when they interact -- don't just automate your calendar and sit back, waiting for people to follow you. Just like in forums or blogs, results come from activity -- and in this case, interactivity.
Don't waste your time with auto-follow services -- you'll just end up with a bunch of worthless followers you'll have to sift through and delete later. Rather, subscribe to keyword search results and go through the list once a day or week. You'll be much happier with your list of followers.
Keep an open mind regarding who might follow you and who you might follow. Just because you see an affiliate site following you doesn't mean that they aren't a fan of your music. Feel each and every follower out -- I put possible fans in a list called "potential something" so I can see where they are coming from.
Custom video greeting, announcement and "thank you" on our blog and YouTube channel, with link of your choice included (your band, website, blog, Twitter -- whatever within reason)
UPDATED!! $50 iTunes Gift Card!!
Winners will be drawn from random live on my uStream channel on March 30th at 4:00pm (moved up from 5:00pm) Seattle time. I'll be using some software to draw the winners from the list of contestants (at least, that's the plan).
So what do you have to do to enter the 1KTF Giveaway? It's simple:
Include your Twitter name (@redraspus, for example) in the Body of the e-mail.
Send it!
That's it! You only need to enter once and you are good to go for the drawing. As long as I can verify you as a follower at the time of the drawing on March 30th, you are elligible for one of the three prize packages. Winners will be contacted regarding shipping details for physical goods, and download codes will be e-mailed immediately for digital goods. Thanks for entering, thanks for following, and thanks for your support!
Update on 2010-03-30 10:55 by David Marriott, Jr.
UPDATE ON DRAWING TIME: I'll be moving up the drawing an hour, so the drawing will happen at 4pm Pacific Daylight Time. The stream address is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/red-raspus-music so be ready for the drawing!
This week only, as part of a Valentine's Week special promotion, I've decided to make the original ballad, "With All My Love", available as a free download on my music site. Originally recorded and released on the album "The High Country" with John Hansen, Geoff Harper, and Jon Wikan, I have since repackaged all of my original compositions from 1995-2000 in a new collection, "Early Originals". Follow the links above, or just click the download link below -- enjoy!
Writer and video journalist Bret Primack posts original video related to jazz with an insane amount of regularity -- four new videos posted just in the last 24 hours! One of this latest batch is from a group of videos featuring veteran pianist Mulgrew Miller, and this most recent entry where Miller gives some advice to budding young jazz musicians is not to be missed:
