Well, it's been a long time. I am glad to see that you are still composing and fishing. I am teaching and playing in Charlotte still. We have a good quartet here and our second CD is coming out at the end of this month. Jim Stack and friends on Artist's house records. Send me your address and I will send you one. Let me hear from you. Doug Henry
It's been awhile since we last spoke. I thought I would update you on a few of my new tunes. If you get a chance, go over to my page and listen to a few of them. See what you think. Of course, I don't have the talent in my whole body that you have in your little pinky, but enjoy.
I was just looking around while a piece was uploading and saw you. Miss you on the other site. You always gave me such great encouragement and I miss that. Nice to see a picture of you as well. I remember some of these pieces you have here. Cool.
Thanks for writing. What you don't know about me is that I am also a huge fan of swing and big-band jazz. I like Benny Goodman, Claude Thornhill, and Django Rhinehardt, for example. It actually means quite a lot to me that you like my "classical" piece. I wrote it before I took harmony and advanced composition instruction, but I do feel that I have a good ear. I am also really into rhythm and therefore like dance music, which because I am an audio engineer, and am technically oriented, I have an affinity for. But I really respect people like you that "know" harmony and can write acoustic-based material. In any case, I believe that compositions that sound good and have an emotional impact are best. Thanks for the feedback, and I hope we can both learn something from each other.
Didier EUZET:
This looks and sounds quite professional, however due to my age and training, it is not a genre' that I am into. Thanks for the invite but I fail to see that we would have any mutual interests, so please accept my "no thanks."
Good writing and continued success.
Haven't seen Birch or Tommy in several years. Last spoke with Ricky Reed and Alison Prestwood a few years ago - both in Nashville at the time. (I always have to go find THEM). Haven't heard from Bethany in a bunch of years. I'm married 20 years this year, and have 14 and 17 yr old sons, so that's kept me off the streets for a while! My older guy is looking to play college baseball, so we've been traveling all summer with a tournament team showcasing him to college scouts. I'm off tomorrow to a week of jazz guitar 'camp' - 8 to 10 hours of classes and playing each day. My annual tune-up. Would love to hear what Steve and Marty have been doing. I'm also reachable at jdemond@bresnan.com if you'd rather not share all the personal catch-up with the whole group here. Do you know what the other NY folks are up to?
Not enough space here for the first "Hey Steve" in nearly 30 years! As your former student I should say that I still dutifully play every day (even if it's at 2 am after the family goes to sleep!). Glad I found your hiding spot here - hope to catch up with you directly some time soon (and the other guys here, too).
read the blog about them - i just wanted you guys to know that i had ventured out and had some projects for albums and releases - that genre and process is where the money is made and history is made in the industry - through popular songs. I did not choose the arrangements or productions sounds. that was left to the studios - except for like children, which has a live rhythm section recorded in a live setting and i played piano on that track, all others i wrote only the copyrightable elements - lyrics, melody, form, and harmonic lead sheet. Everything else is done by somon else for their stylistic and markting purposes. As far as the songs themselves are concerned - i wanted the melody etc to work in any style, as I believe good compositions can stand up to that standard. Thus the melody and harmony and form could work as a op song with larged production, as a piano melody alone, with singer and guitar, as a string quartet , etc. I think these tunes have some of that quality in them, in that they are "hookey" and melodically memorable, and have a form that is allowing of "arranging techniques" being applied to it - thus giving the tune a life beyond its original setting. atthe university we studied arranging and orchestration techniques. highly useful stuff, but dick and I found out that the industry moves in compositions which means experience with lyric writing, harmony, rhythmic style mastery, and hooks, as these can apply to songs, jingles, advertising and film. Dick and I leasrned these on our own and we are struggling to tame our own dragons for our own uses. Alas, academic "Jazz" degrees still do not train musicians in these reality based skills, thye now have fatr much less arranging techniques than we had and more improv i suppose with some history, whjich makes the students aware of the greats who did well at what dick and I are trying to do in composition - to add to the american popular song literature. But we only get to do it through the demands of others - how sad. Any way - just sharing may attempts.
Steve,
I just posted 6 new songs I wrote because I just got Mp-3's of them to put up here. Give a listen and tell me what you think. I enjoy songwriting but don't get to do it often - here is the best of my work in this genre! ENJOY -
GREAT to hear from you! Ya know, I've been meaning to aoplogize for acting like such a little shit during that unforgettable two weeks at U of A years ago. You were too kind not to kick me out...
How have you been? Where are you living these days? Looks like you're extremely active in the music world!
My wife & I are living in the Atlanta area & have no complaints at all. Lots of work there & a great & healthy live music scene (all styles). Plus, I'm in a NYC-based Caribbean band that travels to the French speaking world every few months, so I do 't go stir-crazy...
Fill me in on your happenings when you get a minute! Again, it was great to hear from you!
Ken
kenwatt@aol.com
http://www.wattersbrothers.com
(770)965-6464 (home)
(256)603-5059 (cell)
Well, my band at UTC is young. I'm entering my 3rd year and when I started, I literally had 3 saxes, 2 bones, 3 trumpets a drummer and bass player (from the orchestra). I did wonders with them because they worked hard. Now, I have a full ensemble with rhythm section players to spare. They are a young group, doing to be many freshman next year which is fine, they'll be smokin' in 4 years.
I drive them hard - so - whatever you hear in the recordings, will be the best that they have - I wont accept anything less.
No need for a father's prejudice - Stevie is an amazing musician - if you haven't heard him in a while, his solos are as musical as anyone with a horn. It's always great to be on the same stage with him - he plays the set the way I play my horn. I'm not sure if you knew this interesting bit of trivia - I am the last person to graduate from U of A with the arranging degree, after me that degree was retired & a Jazz Studies degree was put in place.
This has been great for Chris and I - discovering this and him being able to communicate with you has given us much more to talk about & has seemingly put a fresh gleem in his eye. We've been talkin' about some great things - he has a HUGE idea that he's putting together. Let's just say it's going to be groundbreaking when it's all finished. I'll leave it at that. I don't want to give away too much.
thanks for the kind words. you know they mean a lot coming from you. You are the standard and the only thing that seperates us is the generation in which we were born and thus the opportunities associated with those generations. But we are kindred spirits and souls and you know that.
Mart and Rich have really come a long way as mature soloists. Forgive a father's prejudice, but it's hard to find someone that can drive and kick a band better than "thunder thumbs," as Jeff Demond used to call him. His soloing has come a light year also, as I used to tell him "your time and kicks are great but your solos sound like somebody kicked over a garbage can."
I am anxious to her your group play my newer charts which will be forthcoming.
Well - the piano soloist was a student in Alabama's Jazz Ens. at the time. He was a young brother that grew up in the black church. The rest of the soloists were (yes) Tom on Guitar, Rich on Tenor Sax & Mart on Flugel - and of course - your spawn on the drums.
I have to say - I'm the tail end of a great era of musicians/writers/arrangers & everything i've learned - I've gotten from watching You, Chris (who still amazes me), Mart and some others. Tom was always encouraging and helpful too.
I'm excited to get some of your charts for my UTC students - they have not let me venture into teaching a jazz arranging class just yet - but - I'm trying to get that to happen.
Hey Steve - Just thought I'd let you know that there are now Live Performances of "Hello Young Lovers" and "Cascavelo" up on my playlist. Much Love to Galen - but - I put a Double D in the middle of "Lovers" too. :-)
There is also a lot more of my writing that I don't know if you've ever heard (particularly the marching band writing toward the bottom) - Enjoy!
If this thing keeps growing like it is - it's going to be the Steve Sample student alumni forum. I've invited Jimmy Bowland, Mart and whoever else I could think of - maybe they'll all start poppin' up soon.
If you want those two MP3s - if you can't download them from here - let me know and I'll e-mail them too you.
I iwll post some things when i get them onto my computer - I have not kept good audio records over my career. I would have stuff. then lose it or misplace it, get it again, to only think it was taking up space and lose it again. So I am reclaiming some stuff from others and it is in route back to me. Maybe in a couple of weeks I can have a representative amount of stuff for folks to check out.
Thanx 4 the invite! I left you a message last night but I must have not pressed the delivery button. I'll figure it out this time (hopefully). Your music sounds incredible as always
Now explain where you got the title! My former dept. head was named Monk and he could sure have used your tune as his play-on music at faculty meetings.
KIT-S
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It's been awhile since we last spoke. I thought I would update you on a few of my new tunes. If you get a chance, go over to my page and listen to a few of them. See what you think. Of course, I don't have the talent in my whole body that you have in your little pinky, but enjoy.
Take care!
I was just looking around while a piece was uploading and saw you. Miss you on the other site. You always gave me such great encouragement and I miss that. Nice to see a picture of you as well. I remember some of these pieces you have here. Cool.
Ron
Thanks for writing. What you don't know about me is that I am also a huge fan of swing and big-band jazz. I like Benny Goodman, Claude Thornhill, and Django Rhinehardt, for example. It actually means quite a lot to me that you like my "classical" piece. I wrote it before I took harmony and advanced composition instruction, but I do feel that I have a good ear. I am also really into rhythm and therefore like dance music, which because I am an audio engineer, and am technically oriented, I have an affinity for. But I really respect people like you that "know" harmony and can write acoustic-based material. In any case, I believe that compositions that sound good and have an emotional impact are best. Thanks for the feedback, and I hope we can both learn something from each other.
-Carolyn
This looks and sounds quite professional, however due to my age and training, it is not a genre' that I am into. Thanks for the invite but I fail to see that we would have any mutual interests, so please accept my "no thanks."
Good writing and continued success.
Steve Sample
I just posted 6 new songs I wrote because I just got Mp-3's of them to put up here. Give a listen and tell me what you think. I enjoy songwriting but don't get to do it often - here is the best of my work in this genre! ENJOY -
GREAT to hear from you! Ya know, I've been meaning to aoplogize for acting like such a little shit during that unforgettable two weeks at U of A years ago. You were too kind not to kick me out...
How have you been? Where are you living these days? Looks like you're extremely active in the music world!
My wife & I are living in the Atlanta area & have no complaints at all. Lots of work there & a great & healthy live music scene (all styles). Plus, I'm in a NYC-based Caribbean band that travels to the French speaking world every few months, so I do 't go stir-crazy...
Fill me in on your happenings when you get a minute! Again, it was great to hear from you!
Ken
kenwatt@aol.com
http://www.wattersbrothers.com
(770)965-6464 (home)
(256)603-5059 (cell)
I drive them hard - so - whatever you hear in the recordings, will be the best that they have - I wont accept anything less.
No need for a father's prejudice - Stevie is an amazing musician - if you haven't heard him in a while, his solos are as musical as anyone with a horn. It's always great to be on the same stage with him - he plays the set the way I play my horn. I'm not sure if you knew this interesting bit of trivia - I am the last person to graduate from U of A with the arranging degree, after me that degree was retired & a Jazz Studies degree was put in place.
This has been great for Chris and I - discovering this and him being able to communicate with you has given us much more to talk about & has seemingly put a fresh gleem in his eye. We've been talkin' about some great things - he has a HUGE idea that he's putting together. Let's just say it's going to be groundbreaking when it's all finished. I'll leave it at that. I don't want to give away too much.
Talk soon.
Shane.
I am anxious to her your group play my newer charts which will be forthcoming.
S
I have to say - I'm the tail end of a great era of musicians/writers/arrangers & everything i've learned - I've gotten from watching You, Chris (who still amazes me), Mart and some others. Tom was always encouraging and helpful too.
I'm excited to get some of your charts for my UTC students - they have not let me venture into teaching a jazz arranging class just yet - but - I'm trying to get that to happen.
Back to recovering for me - more soon.
Shane.
There is also a lot more of my writing that I don't know if you've ever heard (particularly the marching band writing toward the bottom) - Enjoy!
If this thing keeps growing like it is - it's going to be the Steve Sample student alumni forum. I've invited Jimmy Bowland, Mart and whoever else I could think of - maybe they'll all start poppin' up soon.
If you want those two MP3s - if you can't download them from here - let me know and I'll e-mail them too you.
Take it easy
Shane.
KIT-S
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