The Glorious Life…

October 13th, 2010 § Comments Off § permalink

I know the life of a performing artist appears glamorous at times — doing something you are passionate about in front of an adoring audience, traveling the world, being immersed in a creative art form, etc. — but appearances, as always, can be deceiving. I was reflecting on this very fact last night while trudging in the pouring rain across an acre-wide, flooded parking lot, wearing my black suit, no umbrella, and with a heel broken off of one shoe. The concert I had just completed had gone fine, but that was the only consolation from a night where I:

  1. Started warming up and felt like playing the trumpet was the single most difficult thing ever undertaken by man.
  2. Had the heel of my left shoe inexplicably fall off while walking backstage just prior to going on stage.
  3. Played well, but felt like I was in a death-cage match against Attila the Hun.
  4. Forgot to acknowledge the composer for the brass quintet we performed.
  5. Came out of the hall to find monsoon conditions had once again arrived in South Florida…
  6. … and realized my umbrella was in my car, which was about a half mile away across the aforementioned flooded parking lot.

I am very fortunate to have the life I do. I love music, my job, performing, collaborating with talented and creative people, and all of the great things that come along with it, but the sacrifices are immense and the glamour? Uh…. no. Not so much.

Charlier Project

October 4th, 2010 § Comments Off § permalink

Théo Charlier: 36 Etudes Transcendantes. I remember the first time I saw those words scrawled on a piece of paper by my college trumpet professor, Ray Crisara. I had no real idea at the time what kind of journey I was undertaking or how many hours of my time would be poured into the music in those pages. I simply took the note and placed my order for what I assumed was just the next etude book. Studying those etudes, though, was a seminal experience for me. I was forced to re-evaluate my playing — new weaknesses were exposed, old weaknesses were laid bare. These etudes cover essentially every aspect of trumpet technique, and they do so within a musically challenging and rewarding context. Given that, I suppose it is no mystery why this etude book has become a long-standing rite of passage for most trumpet players. But unlike most rites of passage, these seem to keep coming back to haunt you, to test your improvement (or lack thereof) to challenge you again in many old ways and also to offer up new challenges that perhaps you hadn’t experienced before. This etude book is not the “Trumpet Player’s Bible” like the Arban Method, but its role in the development of serious trumpet students is unparalleled. Virtually every college level trumpet player works from the book, and if there is an etude book that is universally revered, studied, and debated within the trumpet community, it’s this one. And now I have undertaken a project to record these etudes with no editing or effects of any kind and upload the results to YouTube (CraigMorrisTrumpet ) for the entire world to see. This is how you know that I am clinically insane.

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Besides the obvious insanity, however, there are some good reasons to take on this project. In this day and age there is so much editing and processing that goes into recordings that it is difficult to know what a top professional trumpet player actually sounds like, what his/her abilities truly are. You can decide for yourself if I actually belong in that category, but whatever your opinion, these etudes will give you a very real idea of how I actually play. My hope is that this knowledge will be useful for players who are trying to ascertain where they stand in their progress on the instrument, at least as it pertains to these etudes. Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves for playing that we should really be proud of, worried that we just don’t measure up to the players we hear on recordings, especially so called “live recordings”. At other times we aren’t demanding enough, thinking that perhaps top players have perfect recordings simply because of the editing, not knowing how well those people actually played. In this project, however, there is no doubt. For better or worse, this is how I sound. I simply start recording takes until I have one that I am reasonably happy with, and then I continue on, hoping to improve on that. After I’m done, I listen through my top takes and select my favorite to post to YouTube. Simple, honest, and hopefully not horribly painful as the etudes get more difficult (this is where that insanity comes into play).

Beyond those lofty goals, however, there are some personal motives driving this project as well. It was a little over 20 years ago when Ray Crisara introduced these etudes to me and proceeded to shape my playing and musicality with them and through them. I remember so clearly — sitting in his studio and carefully listening as he would point out one problem or another, suggest some different musical ideas and approaches, and demonstrate with his pristine and beautiful playing how he felt they should really be played. For me, revisiting these etudes in a serious manner is a walk down memory lane, a study in my progress as a trumpet player and musician, and a test to see if I can actually come close to how I believe they should go, all rolled into one. For this reason, I am recording the etudes in the order that I first went through them with my teacher. Inside my old Charlier book (a well-worn, large size edition with a missing cover) the dates that I had these etudes assigned to me is written at the top of each etude. My plan is to follow that order throughout, perhaps recounting some of my experiences from when I first learned them along the way.

It will be an interesting journey, as I plow ahead through these transcendent etudes by Théo Charlier. I don’t know that there will be anything transcendent happening, but hopefully this project will give people studying these etudes some kind of real benchmark to shoot for and even surpass. I make no claims to greatness, no assertion that these recordings will be definitive in any way. No, they simply show what is real: just a guy with trumpet, a macbook pro, a USB microphone, and a tattered old etude book, doing the best that he can. I’m glad I have some great teaching and invaluable memories to help light the way.

Favorite CabFest Photos

August 19th, 2010 § Comments Off § permalink

Continuing with my series of lists covering the 2010 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary music, I have compiled this list of favorite photos that I took while at the festival.  There are certainly other photos (taken by others) that deserve to be in this list, but I don’t have the original files for those.  If  some of you CabFest musicians have photos to share with me, then I can make a separate list for those.

You will, no doubt, notice that many of the photos have nothing to do with music or the festival directly. IMHO, that is a defining characteristic of a successful festival: a setting that will attract the best musicians and give them a reprieve from their daily lives and whatever music they happen to be playing at the time. All the pics of the California Coast (below) were taken on our day off, and believe me — amidst the insanity of the music we play (and, as Daniel Barenboim used to say, “I mean that in the nicest possible way”) — we needed these peaceful surroundings to be able to recharge our batteries before tackling the programs for the second week of the festival. I hope you enjoy the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Soif!

10. Soif! -- One of THE places to be after a show. Great Wine. Great Food. What’s not to like? I think this is the only time I saw it during the day…

Boardwalk Santa Cruz

9. Santa Cruz Boardwalk – The Essence of Santa Cruz

Bella California Coast

8. California Coast – Where else would you find this scenery?

Up on a Rock

7. Up on a Rock — Taken from atop a lone rock, 30 meters in the air. Only in California…

Bautista Cross

6. The Cross at Mission San Juan Bautista — Sunset at the mission is stunning. Fantastic light.

Grey Day

5. Grey Day — Feeding my inner Ansel Adams.

Mission San Juan Bautista Bells

4. San Juan Bautista Bells — The Bell Tower at the Beautiful Mission San Juan Bautista

John and Me3. John and Me — John Adams and me after the performance of City Noir at the Cabrillo Festival 8/14/2010

Jutting Rocks

2. Jutting Rocks — Does it get any more dramatic than the California Coast?  Love my Leica D-Lux4

The Soloists. The Composer.

1. The soloists. The composer. — The true value of any festival comes in the people you work with. When I look at the quality of the musicians in this picture, I know that the value of the Cabrillo Festival is as high as they come. (L to R: Craig Morris [tpt], Ava Ordman[trb], John Adams, Tim Mcallister[sax])

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Looking Back at CabFest 2010

August 17th, 2010 § 2 comments § permalink

If you happen to have been following me on twitter lately, then you already know that I have been immersed in the world of new music via the portal that is the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. CabFest 2010 was an extraordinary affair: 12 visiting composers including John Adams, Philip Glass, Kevin Puts, Jennifer Higdon, and Mark Anthony Turnage. Not bad company for a new music festival! It was a privilege and a treat to collaborate with the composers, and it was extraordinary to have so many of them in attendance. The biggest treat of this festival, however, was, as always, getting to play with this great orchestra under the expert guidance of Marin Alsop; it is a very rare thing to find an orchestra that matches up to what you always hoped playing in an orchestra would be like.

The festival lasts just two weeks, but reflecting on it now (as I “767-it” back to Miami) it seems that it runs for much longer; it’s like a Cabrillo time warp that makes the beginning of the festival seem even more distant than the days and weeks leading up to the festival. It’s a strange sensation. It definitely seems like long ago that Jennifer Higdon and Mark Anthony Turnage first turned up at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium for the first rehearsals of their pieces.

Given that distance in time (and the fact that a long-winded prose about the festival would read like the equivalent to “My Summer Vacation” and would be just as gripping now as it was when you were in 2nd grade) I have decided to go classic-blog-style and make a series of lists outlining the various peaks and valleys of our “Festival in the Fog”. Here goes:

Since this website is centered around trumpet, why not have the first lists feature things relevant to Gabriel’s instrument. If you are not a trumpet player then… well… Sorry.

Top Chop-Burner Pieces of CabFest 2010

  1. Drowned Out by Mark Anthony Turnage
  2. Symphony No. 3 by Michael Hersch
  3. Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Philip Glass

Summary: Starting with the trumpet-pig-head-list, this list shows the pieces that make you rub your cheeks, blow raspberries, and doubt the very reason you ever picked up this blasted mess of tubes (not to mention cursing under your breath at the composer). Turnage’s Drowned Out was one of the most physically intimidating pieces I’ve ever seen. I think I spent a whole concert’s worth of chops on one small section of the 1st movement alone. Proceed with care (i.e. run like hell) If you see this piece show up on your stand. Actually, that isn’t quite true. I really did enjoy this playing this piece when all was said and done. It was a bit daunting in the practice room however.

I’m not sure if the Michael Hersch was harder on the face, or more demanding technically. Either way, it was the hands down hardest trumpet part of the festival. Bravo to Micah Wilkinson for a fantastic job on the 2nd trumpet part. As for the Philip Glass: it’s like the Caruso 6 notes, only much longer, higher, and more interesting rhythmically. This piece will want to make you pack along a face-masseuse if you take it on tour; and to make matters worse, the rest of the orchestra will stare at you in confusion if you tell them it is physically demanding.

Favorite Trumpet Solos/Moments of CabFest 2010

  1. City Noir by John Adams (solo)
  2. Having Mark Inouye down from the San Francisco Symphony to play second trumpet on City Noir.
  3. Chicago Remains by Mark Anthony Turnage (off-stage solo)
  4. On A Wire by Jennifer Higdon (trumpet “trios”)
  5. Symphony No.3 by Michael Hersch (impossible trumpet writing)

Summary: John Adams has now, IMHO, written the top two trumpet solos in the entire literature. My favorite remains the stunningly beautiful and moving solo in Doctor Atomic, but the City Noir solo is a close second. Now all that remains is to get him to write us a trumpet concerto. I mentioned this to him after the concert last Saturday and he seemed to have his interest piqued a bit. Hopefully there will be some way to get this great composer to write a piece for our instrument. The trumpet deserves it, it really does.

Having Mark Inouye (Principal Trumpet in the San Francisco Symphony) down to play second trumpet on City Noir was a real treat. It was like old home week for us, playing in a section together again. I think we managed to rock the house pretty well, if I do say so myself.

The solo in the Turnage Chicago Remains is truly haunting and is surprisingly written in the 3rd trumpet part. This solo is not really a solo per se, as it is played in a unison trio with soprano sax and clarinet. Whether you call it a trio or a solo, it’s still very demanding, with wide leaps in all directions and soaring up to a high D (concert) at the end. But it really is a beautiful line and it is a joy to play in spite of its difficulty. The only other entry on the list that needs explaining is the Hersch. I included it here because it is simply very rewarding to pull off something that you were pretty sure was impossible when you were learning it. Also, in spite of its fast and rangy flourishes that are nearly impossible to play (much less sing) excerpts from this part kept spinning around in my head, making me look like a total idiot walking around Santa Cruz trying to hum them.

Okay, hopefully making lists about the top trumpet moments of the festival will pacify my inner geek for the moment. I will keep assimilating ideas for further lists that aren’t focused on the trumpet, so there is more to come. If you were at the festival and want to suggest a list, or entries on a list, please send me an email or simply comment below.

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Headphones

October 19th, 2009 § Comments Off § permalink

I am sitting here listening to the music of my friend, Michael Ward-Bergeman on his MySpace page. It is fantastic music, but cranking it on the living room speakers would have less than ideal consequences considering it is almost midnight as I write this (I have a whole house full of people that need to stay asleep while I indulge myself in the hyper-accordion). So what am I doing? I’m cranking the music on my headphones!

I love headphones. And by headphones I don’t mean the cheap little earbuds that come with your iPod (and no, not the old ones that came with your Walkman that have all the foam falling off the earpiece either. If you don’t know what a Walkman is, then don’t talk to me). I am talking about really good quality headphones; the kind that put you right into the middle of the music you are listening to, immersing you in the sound. My personal favorites are a pair of Sennheiser’s that I bought in London while on tour (Think airplane seat. Think demolished plug on old headphones). I paid a lot of money for them, but then again, I have had them for (gulp) 10 years. I think it has been worth it!

Anyway, the point is, there is really nothing like experiencing music played through a really good set of headphones. It is your own private concert in the best stereo you will ever hear. There is something about retreating to your own space and immersing yourself in the music you are hearing and that only you are hearing: your own audio world to observe and explore. Good music needs focus to be fully appreciated. It shouldn’t be relegated to some background soundtrack for dishes and laundry. Listening on headphones provides that. It provides you the opportunity to absorb music on a level it deserves. So grab your ‘phones, put on some fantastic music, close your eyes, and disappear for a while. You will be glad you did.

Plus, it doesn’t wake the baby. And at this particular point in my life, that is a pretty important thing.

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