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Hello everyone, and welcome to Behind the Bower. I'm Ryan Stephan,
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the executive director for a Bower Center for the Arts
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in beautiful Bedford, Virginia. This podcast is all about inspiring conversations,
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exploring the arts in our community, and shining a spotlight
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on the incredible individuals and organizations that make the Bedford
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arts scene so vibrant. I am excited to welcome today
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our guest, Chris McGee. One of the many hats that
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Chris wears is as the music director for the Big
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Band of the Blue Ridge. Just this year, Bower Center
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for the Arts has become the kindest sort of home
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for the Big Band of the Blue Ridge. And if
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you're ever here for a class or a meeting leading
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up to one of their concerts, you may have had
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the pleasure of hearing them rehearse. In fact, they have
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a concert with us this Saturday, so I'll get to
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listen to them to them tonight during our board meeting.
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Welcome Chris, great to be here. Well, Chris, let's start off.
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Can you just introduce yourself and tell us a little
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bit about you and who you are?
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All right, Well, I'm originally from Harrisonburg, but I just
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retired back in May as Associate professor music at the
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University of Lynchburg. And this is home, so we're not
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going anywhere.
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And so.
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I'm performing around the region and composing and arranging and
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working with a Big Band of the Blue Ridge. Yeah
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I wear many hats.
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Yeah you do. So let's talk a little bit about
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how Big Band of the Blue Ridge landed at the
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Bauer Center. Okay, because that's you know, I know that
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you were in a different spoton. Now you're in this one, right.
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Well, the Big Band of the Blue Ridge began as
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a community big band at the University of Lynchburg. I
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started about the second year I was there, in about
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twenty fourteen, and it became one of the more popular
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groups on campus. We would, you know, do several concerts
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a year and sometimes participate in win Symphony concerts and
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so forth. And so when the university announced they were
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closing the music department a year ago, I decided I
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wanted to keep the band going because everyone in the
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band are community people who have a love of playing
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big band jazz.
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And so.
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After Lynchburg ended, I opened up conversations with you and
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brought the band to Bedford and so that's how we
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got here.
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So now they're they're making a commute to our little
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old town in our art center, Yeah, and playing some big,
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big music in that little room.
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We have players that come in from both Lynchburg and
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Roanoak and round the Bedford area. So it's it's a
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broad mix geographically that you know, feeds into our band.
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Yeah, we'll get to this in a minute. I met
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some really, really interesting and cool people through your big band,
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just in conversations before and afterwards. We'll come back to that.
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I want to talk about you first a little bit.
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Can you tell us a little bit about your musical journey?
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How did it start? How'd you discover it? Why is
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it still so important to you now?
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Well, I came to music, believe it or now, back
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in the sixties, of course. Leonard Bernstein in the New
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York Philharmonic did a CBS Saturday afternoon show every week.
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They were called the Young People's Concerts. And I heard
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one of those broadcasts one day and they were playing
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something I think by Beethoven, and it just struck me, Wow,
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I want to get involved in this. So I started,
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you know, my mom started me on piano lessons, and
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then later on I took up the trumpet and attended
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James Madison University for music. My first gig out of
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college was at Disney World. Okay, what did you do there?
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I was at Epcot with a band called Future Corps.
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It was a small drum and bugle Corps. And we
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would do seven shows a day, five days a week,
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fifty weeks a year, and and and that was my
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first gig. And then after I left Disney, I decided
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I wanted to get into teaching, so I went back
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to school for a master's, spent some time in Mississippi
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and Iowa. While I was in Iowa, I did my
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doctorate at the University of Iowa, and I've taught at
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a number of different schools in various states. I mean,
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one of the things about being a college professor is
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that you have to be willing to be a nomad.
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So I've lived in Mississippi and Iowa and Texas and
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Virginia to do what I do. But that that kind
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of has uh has brought me here.
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So what drew you to teaching? I'm sorry, what drew
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you to teaching? Well, besides stabilities? Yeah, I mean, you.
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Know, making a living as a as a full time
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working musician is a challenge, particularly in the non major cities,
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you know. I mean, you know, New York and Chicago
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and LA. You know, there are a lot of musicians
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that make their living solely from playing. You know, in
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an area like like Southwest Virginia or Central Virginia, you
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have to be a little more creative. So you teach,
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you perform, you write music.
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You know, you do you do.
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What you have to do, you know. Yeah, so that's
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kind of stability is maybe one of the big things.
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But I enjoy sharing music with people and that's has
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remained a constant throughout the throughout my career.
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Which is why you still perform now exactly. So let's
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let's talk a little bit about big band of the
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Blue Ridge. How how old is this band? How long
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have they been around?
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Started in twenty fourteen. Okay, it was at first, you
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know it Like any pro there's a certain inertia that
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you have to overcome.
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You know.
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We for the first few months couldn't get a full band,
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and you know, there was one week where it was
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just me and like three other people showed up. Okay, well,
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let's just go have a beer instead. But out of that,
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you know, and I was about to bag it, and
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then one of my colleagues, the director of the Wind Symphony,
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said well, why don't you see if you can get
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a group to just do a few Christmas tunes on
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our Christmas concert. And so I called everybody up that
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I could find, and we did two or three tunes
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on that concert. And at that point everybody saw how
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much fun it could be and how musically satisfying it
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could be. At that point it got legs and took
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off from there.
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Yeah. I can say listening into rehearsals, I can feel
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and hear that joy whenever you all are working together. Yeah,
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it's great. It's fun. I mean the process is just
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as fun as the as the product. Yeah. So so
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it's kind of a nomadic group, correct. You know some
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people in some people have been there for a long time.
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Tell me a little bit about the makeup of the group.
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Yeah, but you know, the folks that are members of
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the band have very varying backgrounds. I mean, I've got
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my my bass trombonus was a career Army musician. Uh.
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Other people are doing it more from a from a
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hobbyist kind of a standpoint. So it's a it's a
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wide mix of players with differing kinds of interest, but
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we all have intersect at big band jazz.
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Yeah yeah, So so how how did you know some
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of your new newer musicians? How do they find you? Well?
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Usually I find that. I mean, I mean, one of
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my jobs as music director is I also handle all
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the personnel. And yeah, I do have a long history
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in this region.
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You know.
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I when we when my wife and I our family
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came back to Virginia from Iowa in the late nineties.
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We lived in Roanoke for about twelve years or so.
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Then we went to Texas for a few years because
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I found a teaching job. But but but the time
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I have lived in this area, you know, you meet people,
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you know who the good players are, and you know,
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I've for years I say, okay, well, if I was
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going to start a band, I'd ask for this person
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and this person and that person. And so that's partially
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how that process began, in that I already knew a
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lot of players in the area, and so it was
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easy to identify who I wanted when we got started.
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But you know, over the years since then you know,
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people come and go. I mean that it's it's just
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the way you know, it's the the arts work. That's
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the way the arts work. And so as people go,
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then I find you know other people.
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Yeah, I think you hit on a really important part
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there is that you know, it's a great, big world,
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but when you get into our narrow arts world, it
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actually can be really small.
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It's a very small world.
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Yeah. And you know, we know a lot of people,
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or we know people who know people, and all of
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a sudden our paths seemed to cross more often than
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we think they would have. Exactly Yeah, that's exactly right.
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So can you tell me, you know, big band? A
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lot of people may not necessarily know what the sound
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of a big band is. Can you tell me, like,
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what would you say your personality or sound of this
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particular band would be.
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Okay, well, you know, the nature of a big band
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is a jazz group that consists of a section of saxophones,
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section of trombones, trumpets, and then a rhythm section consisting
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of at the minimum piano, bas and drums. Okay, and so,
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and then we also of a singer. Donna Kay is
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going to sing with us, but Uh. You know, big
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band jazz uh is a lot more than just Glenn
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Miller or Duke Ellington or Count Basie.
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Uh.
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There are many different styles of big band jazz in
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you know, in addition to swing. You know, we we
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played Latin tunes. We play rock and funk tunes.
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Uh.
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Our our last concert back in the in the fall, Uh,
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we actually did a country tune, but a jazz arrangement
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of a chundry teon. So you know, jazz, big band
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jazz is a very broad genre of music that encompasses
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many sub sub styles of music. And and and if
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you come out to our concert, you'll hear a number
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of styles. I mean, yes, we're playing plenty of swing.
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Uh.
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We're also doing funk, We're doing Latin. Uh, we do ballads.
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Uh.
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Donna Donna is going to sing a beautiful arrangement of
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the old Anthony Newley tune who Can I Turn to?
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So you'll hear lots of different kinds of styles of
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music coming from me.
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So you anticipated the next thing I was going to
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ask you. You've got a concert coming up this Saturday, right,
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what can we expect out of this concert? What kind
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of music you're play in What are some of the
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songs or some of the highlights we can expect this weekend.
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All right, well, we're going to play music from Count Basie.
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We've got a chart called I Never Knew. It was
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the flip side of one of Bassie's other hits, Tickletoe.
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And this is a transcription. Someone sat down with the
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recording and actually wrote down all the notes that they heard.
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That's what happened, what we're going to We're.
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One of the other tunes that Don is going to
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sing is a nineteen forty six Less Brown tune called
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Ah Yes, There's good Blues Tonight, which was originally sung
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by a very young Doris Day. Okay, let's see. We're
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going to hear some music from Felonious Monk a tune
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called Bemshah Swing, which was arranged for big band by
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Bill Holman, who was a very important composer just passed
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away in about the last two years. Wrote many fine
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arrangements for Stan Kenton in the fifties and sixties. We're
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going to hear some Latin from a great writer named
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Alan Baylock. Alan was for many years the staff arranger
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for the US Air Force Airman and note and then
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for a number of years he was up in Winchester
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as the jazz director at Shenandoah Conservatory. Now he's at
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the biggest jazz school in the country, University of North Texas,
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directing their top band. Uh so he's a amazingly good writer.
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We're gonna play a little music from the Kenny Clark
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Francis Bowland big band from the UK. Kenny Clark was
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an American drummer who moved to to to the UK.
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See what else a great funk chart called out on
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a whim from a great writer named Mike Tomorrow.
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Uh.
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And then we're gonna play a few originals too.
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Tell me who's writing those? Well, I wrote one.
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We're gonna open with a with a chart that I
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wrote some years back called ben There Done that. And
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then we're gonna close Saturday night with a composition from
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our lead trombonus, Chris Sharp, called Throttle Up, which is
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a tune that's based on the cords from an old
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standard called Cherokee, which is a tune that has struck
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fear into the hearts of jazz musicians. It's a really
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hard set of chords to to solo on. But yeah,
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so so yeah, that's a that's a little taste of
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what we're gonna be doing.
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That leads into my next question. Is there some as
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you all have been rehearsing, You've been rehearsing for a
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few weeks now for this. Is there a song that
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you all just really love to rehearse? Hmmm, Well, they're
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all great charts. Uh.
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I really love that Alan Baylock chart. It was it's
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it's a chart called living Larger than Life and it
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was one that he wrote in memory of a high
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school student who had been I believe killed in an
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automobile accident.
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Uh.
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And and so he was commissioned to write it for
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her and dedicated her. It's a it's a it's a
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beautiful chart. It's very uplifting.
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Uh.
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The the funk chart out on a whim, Uh is
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is a lot of fun. It's it's very quirky. Uh
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has a few challenging moments in it, but it's it's
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a lot of fun to play that. That's the flip
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side of the question. Are there any songs in this
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one that you that you all get? You You're like, oof,
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this one's hard. We can just make it. It's worth
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it will be okay, Well, let me think hmmm, y well, well,
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you know that that chart on swing is is a
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really interesting chart. I mean, you know Felonious Monk, his
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compositions are always very quirky and and and that's a
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good way to to, uh, to describe swing. It's it's
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it's it's swings like there's no tomorrow, but it's uh,
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it's got it's got some quirks in it. So yeah,
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it's fun. It's fun to play, but it's also pretty challenging.
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So speaking of challenging, do you find it hard to
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be a director who's also a player.
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Well, it has its moments. I mean I I I
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prefer to stay back in the trumpet section in parts
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so I can hear the rest of my section. And
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also because I'm playing lead trumpet, I want my section
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to be able to hear me.
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You know.
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I At some times, at some points in our history,
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I've been forced to stand out in front so I
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can play and direct from the front, and and I
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do that when I have to, But I prefer to
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stay in the back. But that means that if I'm
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in the back, the people in the front can't see
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me waving my arms if I do so, so usually
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I have to delegate those those duties to my lead
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alto player because he sits at the center up in
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the front of the band and and he can give cutoffs.
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And and and and and things like. It's like that.
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It's something that stuck out to me when I watched
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the last concert was sometimes it appears like account off
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to get him started, and then it's magical, like I'm
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sure there is somebody who's really kind of running the show,
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but it feels like very organic. It feels like you
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all are just listening to each other and working together
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and almost feeling it together. Yeah, so it feels very
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magical sometimes to watch it. Yeah, it's like a big
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a big band literally a big band playing and nobody
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actually really leading it. It's just like they're feeling it.
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Together, right Yeah, yeah, the best the best big bands.
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Whereas you know, when you see an orchestra concert, there's
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always going to be a conductor to direct traffic. Yeah,
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with a good with a good big band, unless it's
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really complicated stuff, director is almost never necessary. Everyone just
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listens and you know, plays with good time together and
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and right and it all things.
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And intuitively just just feels it. Yeah, it's really cool. So,
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you know, I've listened to lots of recordings of big bands.
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I'll be honest, yours was the first one I had
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ever heard live. How would you describe the difference between
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listening to a big band live versus listening to a
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recording of it.
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Well, you know, and this really I think is true
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for all music, is that, you know, live there's an
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energy you get in live performance that you can't get
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from a recording. You know, in a recording studio, yes,
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you have absolute control over what goes into the mix,
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but but there's you know, when you're performing, you get
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energy back from your listeners, and it's a two way street.
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You're giving your your your your listener's energy and then
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they give it back.
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And that.
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Energy makes live performance even though you know, live performance
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is almost invariably more imperfect than a studio recording because
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you can, you know, in a studio, you can do
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things over and over until you get it exactly the
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way you want to, you know, and in live performance
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you get one shot, you know.
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And that's where sometimes you stop and you're like, well
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this work.
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There have been a few moments, let's let's just start over.
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It feels like you're It feels a very intimate part
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of the process as an audience member when in a
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musicists say hold on this just not somebody's out of tune.
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We got to fix this real quick. Ry's It reminds
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us that it's not a recording that it you know,
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that it is real life yea, performing in front.
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Of us exactly, you know. And that's that's part of
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what makes the magic, Yeah, is is that that the
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fact that it's tappening in real time.
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Yeah. And we talked about this before the podcast started today.
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In the Bower Center specifically, it's it's an intimate room.
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It's a loud room. Yeah. And one of the things
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that I felt really interesting the last time you all
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had a concert was the pure vibration that it makes
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my body feel that a recording never gives you. And
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I think that that's true of all music when you're
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in the room live with it. You know, this one
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is particularly there's you know, there's a lot of brass
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coming at you in a small live space, you know,
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And we do heavier plugs for those who need it,
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need to dampen it down a little bit. Yea. But
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even if even if you're closing enough in your ears,
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it's this is gonna be dumb. You feel it like
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I feel it in my skin. I feel the vibrations
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in my skin, and it just it's unlike anything else
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that I can say that I've experienced. That's what live
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music does to me.
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Oh. I mean when I was a kid, the first
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time that I played in a jazz band, the first
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time I heard a jazz band live, it was it
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was just like, Wow, there's just nothing like this. I
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just wanted to do it more.
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Yeah. Yeah, let's let's let's transition to talk about some
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bigger philosophical things. So what do you think a group
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like the Big Band of the Blue Ridge's role is
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in like our local arts and music scene.
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Well, you know, uh, I think arts in any community
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are are an important, uh thing. And I'm a passionate
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believer in the importance of music and the arts in general.
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In in our schools too. I mean they they they
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give people life lessons and social skills that you just
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can't get anywhere else. And you know, music is like
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emotion in sound. Yeah, that's the easy If if I
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had to define what what what music is it's it's
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it says things in a language that spoken language, you know,
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or written language cannot express. And uh, music to that
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in that way, can bring a community together in a
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way that other events can't.
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Uh.
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And so so I think I think music is a
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very important thing in any community.
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Uh.
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It's uh, it's it's part of what makes us whole.
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Is as human beings.
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I love that it is what makes us whole. This
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is a complicated question, maybe not easy to answer. What
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do you hope your audience feels when they listen to
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you all play Wow?
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Well, you know, I talk all day about that. I
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hope they feel joy. I remember after our fall concert,
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I had a lady come up to me and say,
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you just made my my day and my week and
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my year. I mean, I mean that's the if we
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If we reach people in in that way that they
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that they feel that kind of of joy, Uh, then
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I think we've been successful. Yeah, and so that's what
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we're hoping for.
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And you know, and it's there's not a lot of
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avenue to hear this type of music around here. Yeah.
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So you know, I think it's it's really a gift
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that you all give to this area, that a small
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art center and a small town in between two bigger
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towns can have something this magical as well. You know,
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I think people would expect it in Ronoc, or they'd
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expected in Lynchburg. I kind of love that we get
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to have it tucked away in our own little pocket here.
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Yes, absolutely, and we are. We are so tickled that
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that that we've been able to continue, and that we've
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developed this relationship with a Bouer Center so that we
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can continue. We're looking forward to many more concerts me too,
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Me too in the coming years.
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So clearly in all of our conversation, you feel passionate
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about music. Music. What keeps you passionate about it?
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It's I can't imagine my life without without music. It's uh,
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I mean, music is in my head all day long.
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If you could, if you could see inside my brain,
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and yeah, there's there's music playing all day long, either
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something I'm listening to or something I'm working on writing
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and I'm trying to work it out in my head
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or whatever.
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You know. Yeah, you know, I think for those of
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us who are art's minded, and that makes sense. I
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was an arts teacher for twenty one years, and you know,
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I took a break, as many of our listeners know,
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and I became a bartender at a brewery, which is
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actually how we met. That's how we and that's how
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this whole idea got pitched. Was over a bar and
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a beer exactly. Yeah, you know, but after three years
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of being away from it, what I realized is the
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arts needed to be there for me. Yeah, and so
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you know, I'm the facilitator of arts. For that, I
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am a creator. But it brings me joy to see
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the see what it proventes us.
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Know, you play a very important role, you know, you
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help facilitate what what artists and musicians and so forth
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are able to do. So it's a it's a wonderful thing.
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I appreciate that. Thank you.
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I'm looking at our time. We're actually kind of close
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up to be and it need to be done. So
448
00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:03.039
thank you again for joining us. Don't forget Big Band
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00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:05.039
of the Blue Ridge will be here at the Bauer
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Center on March twenty eight. That's this Saturday show starts
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at six o'clock PM. We would love to see you
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all there, and there is always all kinds of things
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happening at the Bower Center, so we have a full
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slate of concerts and performances throughout this year for the
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music lovers. Just a few that are coming up. On
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April fourth, we have Noah Spencer, who is one of
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the top ten finalists from NBC's The Voice Season number
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twenty four. On May twenty six, we have the locals
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Wing Creasey and CW. Markham the third and they're going
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to return to the stage with their Spring Cabaret Lovers
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00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.680
and other Strangers. And then in June we've brought through
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the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the R and B
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and soul A Kalas Simone Trio. All those concerts are
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going to begin at six o'clock PM and advanced tickets
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are only twenty dollars. And details on all those concerts
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you can find on our website. We also have the
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twelfth annual Curry Bauer Exhibit in our galleries until April fourth,
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and after that we'll be hosting the bed for County
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Public Schools middle school and high school shows back to
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back in April. Our class schedule is chocked full of
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classes in mosaics, clay painting, jewelry, anything you can think of. Again,
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00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:14.440
just check the website to see what we've got available,
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and that's just a glimpse of what Bower Center has
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for the arts has to offer. Make sure you check
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out our website Bowercenter dot org and that there you
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can get any details on our classes, events, programs and exhibitions.
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And if you're in the neighborhood to stop by and
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00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:58.319
say hello, I'd love to talk to you.
1
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Hello everyone, and welcome to Behind the Bower. I'm Ryan Stephan,
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the executive director for a Bower Center for the Arts
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in beautiful Bedford, Virginia. This podcast is all about inspiring conversations,
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exploring the arts in our community, and shining a spotlight
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on the incredible individuals and organizations that make the Bedford
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arts scene so vibrant. I am excited to welcome today
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our guest, Chris McGee. One of the many hats that
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Chris wears is as the music director for the Big
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Band of the Blue Ridge. Just this year, Bower Center
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for the Arts has become the kindest sort of home
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for the Big Band of the Blue Ridge. And if
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you're ever here for a class or a meeting leading
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up to one of their concerts, you may have had
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the pleasure of hearing them rehearse. In fact, they have
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a concert with us this Saturday, so I'll get to
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listen to them to them tonight during our board meeting.
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Welcome Chris, great to be here. Well, Chris, let's start off.
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Can you just introduce yourself and tell us a little
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bit about you and who you are?
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All right, Well, I'm originally from Harrisonburg, but I just
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retired back in May as Associate professor music at the
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University of Lynchburg. And this is home, so we're not
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going anywhere.
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And so.
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I'm performing around the region and composing and arranging and
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working with a Big Band of the Blue Ridge. Yeah
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I wear many hats.
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Yeah you do. So let's talk a little bit about
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how Big Band of the Blue Ridge landed at the
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Bauer Center. Okay, because that's you know, I know that
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you were in a different spoton. Now you're in this one, right.
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Well, the Big Band of the Blue Ridge began as
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a community big band at the University of Lynchburg. I
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started about the second year I was there, in about
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twenty fourteen, and it became one of the more popular
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groups on campus. We would, you know, do several concerts
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a year and sometimes participate in win Symphony concerts and
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so forth. And so when the university announced they were
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closing the music department a year ago, I decided I
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wanted to keep the band going because everyone in the
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band are community people who have a love of playing
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big band jazz.
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And so.
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After Lynchburg ended, I opened up conversations with you and
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brought the band to Bedford and so that's how we
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got here.
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So now they're they're making a commute to our little
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old town in our art center, Yeah, and playing some big,
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big music in that little room.
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We have players that come in from both Lynchburg and
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Roanoak and round the Bedford area. So it's it's a
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broad mix geographically that you know, feeds into our band.
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Yeah, we'll get to this in a minute. I met
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some really, really interesting and cool people through your big band,
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just in conversations before and afterwards. We'll come back to that.
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I want to talk about you first a little bit.
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Can you tell us a little bit about your musical journey?
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How did it start? How'd you discover it? Why is
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it still so important to you now?
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Well, I came to music, believe it or now, back
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in the sixties, of course. Leonard Bernstein in the New
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York Philharmonic did a CBS Saturday afternoon show every week.
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They were called the Young People's Concerts. And I heard
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one of those broadcasts one day and they were playing
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something I think by Beethoven, and it just struck me, Wow,
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I want to get involved in this. So I started,
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you know, my mom started me on piano lessons, and
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then later on I took up the trumpet and attended
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James Madison University for music. My first gig out of
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college was at Disney World. Okay, what did you do there?
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I was at Epcot with a band called Future Corps.
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It was a small drum and bugle Corps. And we
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would do seven shows a day, five days a week,
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fifty weeks a year, and and and that was my
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first gig. And then after I left Disney, I decided
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I wanted to get into teaching, so I went back
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to school for a master's, spent some time in Mississippi
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and Iowa. While I was in Iowa, I did my
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doctorate at the University of Iowa, and I've taught at
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a number of different schools in various states. I mean,
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one of the things about being a college professor is
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that you have to be willing to be a nomad.
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So I've lived in Mississippi and Iowa and Texas and
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Virginia to do what I do. But that that kind
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of has uh has brought me here.
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So what drew you to teaching? I'm sorry, what drew
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you to teaching? Well, besides stabilities? Yeah, I mean, you.
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Know, making a living as a as a full time
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working musician is a challenge, particularly in the non major cities,
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you know. I mean, you know, New York and Chicago
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and LA. You know, there are a lot of musicians
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that make their living solely from playing. You know, in
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an area like like Southwest Virginia or Central Virginia, you
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have to be a little more creative. So you teach,
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you perform, you write music.
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You know, you do you do.
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What you have to do, you know. Yeah, so that's
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kind of stability is maybe one of the big things.
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But I enjoy sharing music with people and that's has
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remained a constant throughout the throughout my career.
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Which is why you still perform now exactly. So let's
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let's talk a little bit about big band of the
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Blue Ridge. How how old is this band? How long
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have they been around?
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Started in twenty fourteen. Okay, it was at first, you
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know it Like any pro there's a certain inertia that
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you have to overcome.
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You know.
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We for the first few months couldn't get a full band,
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and you know, there was one week where it was
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just me and like three other people showed up. Okay, well,
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let's just go have a beer instead. But out of that,
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you know, and I was about to bag it, and
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then one of my colleagues, the director of the Wind Symphony,
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said well, why don't you see if you can get
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a group to just do a few Christmas tunes on
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our Christmas concert. And so I called everybody up that
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I could find, and we did two or three tunes
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on that concert. And at that point everybody saw how
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much fun it could be and how musically satisfying it
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could be. At that point it got legs and took
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off from there.
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Yeah. I can say listening into rehearsals, I can feel
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and hear that joy whenever you all are working together. Yeah,
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it's great. It's fun. I mean the process is just
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as fun as the as the product. Yeah. So so
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it's kind of a nomadic group, correct. You know some
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people in some people have been there for a long time.
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Tell me a little bit about the makeup of the group.
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Yeah, but you know, the folks that are members of
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the band have very varying backgrounds. I mean, I've got
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my my bass trombonus was a career Army musician. Uh.
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Other people are doing it more from a from a
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hobbyist kind of a standpoint. So it's a it's a
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wide mix of players with differing kinds of interest, but
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we all have intersect at big band jazz.
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Yeah yeah, So so how how did you know some
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of your new newer musicians? How do they find you? Well?
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Usually I find that. I mean, I mean, one of
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my jobs as music director is I also handle all
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the personnel. And yeah, I do have a long history
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in this region.
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You know.
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I when we when my wife and I our family
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came back to Virginia from Iowa in the late nineties.
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We lived in Roanoke for about twelve years or so.
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Then we went to Texas for a few years because
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I found a teaching job. But but but the time
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I have lived in this area, you know, you meet people,
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you know who the good players are, and you know,
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I've for years I say, okay, well, if I was
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going to start a band, I'd ask for this person
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and this person and that person. And so that's partially
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how that process began, in that I already knew a
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lot of players in the area, and so it was
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easy to identify who I wanted when we got started.
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But you know, over the years since then you know,
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people come and go. I mean that it's it's just
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the way you know, it's the the arts work. That's
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the way the arts work. And so as people go,
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then I find you know other people.
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Yeah, I think you hit on a really important part
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there is that you know, it's a great, big world,
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but when you get into our narrow arts world, it
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actually can be really small.
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It's a very small world.
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Yeah. And you know, we know a lot of people,
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or we know people who know people, and all of
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a sudden our paths seemed to cross more often than
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we think they would have. Exactly Yeah, that's exactly right.
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So can you tell me, you know, big band? A
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lot of people may not necessarily know what the sound
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of a big band is. Can you tell me, like,
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what would you say your personality or sound of this
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particular band would be.
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Okay, well, you know, the nature of a big band
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is a jazz group that consists of a section of saxophones,
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section of trombones, trumpets, and then a rhythm section consisting
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of at the minimum piano, bas and drums. Okay, and so,
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and then we also of a singer. Donna Kay is
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going to sing with us, but Uh. You know, big
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band jazz uh is a lot more than just Glenn
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Miller or Duke Ellington or Count Basie.
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Uh.
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There are many different styles of big band jazz in
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you know, in addition to swing. You know, we we
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played Latin tunes. We play rock and funk tunes.
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Uh.
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Our our last concert back in the in the fall, Uh,
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we actually did a country tune, but a jazz arrangement
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of a chundry teon. So you know, jazz, big band
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jazz is a very broad genre of music that encompasses
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many sub sub styles of music. And and and if
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you come out to our concert, you'll hear a number
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of styles. I mean, yes, we're playing plenty of swing.
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Uh.
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We're also doing funk, We're doing Latin. Uh, we do ballads.
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Uh.
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Donna Donna is going to sing a beautiful arrangement of
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the old Anthony Newley tune who Can I Turn to?
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So you'll hear lots of different kinds of styles of
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music coming from me.
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So you anticipated the next thing I was going to
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ask you. You've got a concert coming up this Saturday, right,
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what can we expect out of this concert? What kind
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of music you're play in What are some of the
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songs or some of the highlights we can expect this weekend.
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All right, well, we're going to play music from Count Basie.
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We've got a chart called I Never Knew. It was
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the flip side of one of Bassie's other hits, Tickletoe.
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And this is a transcription. Someone sat down with the
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recording and actually wrote down all the notes that they heard.
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That's what happened, what we're going to We're.
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One of the other tunes that Don is going to
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sing is a nineteen forty six Less Brown tune called
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Ah Yes, There's good Blues Tonight, which was originally sung
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by a very young Doris Day. Okay, let's see. We're
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going to hear some music from Felonious Monk a tune
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called Bemshah Swing, which was arranged for big band by
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Bill Holman, who was a very important composer just passed
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away in about the last two years. Wrote many fine
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arrangements for Stan Kenton in the fifties and sixties. We're
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going to hear some Latin from a great writer named
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Alan Baylock. Alan was for many years the staff arranger
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for the US Air Force Airman and note and then
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for a number of years he was up in Winchester
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as the jazz director at Shenandoah Conservatory. Now he's at
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the biggest jazz school in the country, University of North Texas,
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directing their top band. Uh so he's a amazingly good writer.
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We're gonna play a little music from the Kenny Clark
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Francis Bowland big band from the UK. Kenny Clark was
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an American drummer who moved to to to the UK.
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See what else a great funk chart called out on
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a whim from a great writer named Mike Tomorrow.
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Uh.
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And then we're gonna play a few originals too.
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Tell me who's writing those? Well, I wrote one.
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We're gonna open with a with a chart that I
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wrote some years back called ben There Done that. And
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then we're gonna close Saturday night with a composition from
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our lead trombonus, Chris Sharp, called Throttle Up, which is
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a tune that's based on the cords from an old
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standard called Cherokee, which is a tune that has struck
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fear into the hearts of jazz musicians. It's a really
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hard set of chords to to solo on. But yeah,
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so so yeah, that's a that's a little taste of
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what we're gonna be doing.
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That leads into my next question. Is there some as
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you all have been rehearsing, You've been rehearsing for a
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few weeks now for this. Is there a song that
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you all just really love to rehearse? Hmmm, Well, they're
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all great charts. Uh.
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I really love that Alan Baylock chart. It was it's
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it's a chart called living Larger than Life and it
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was one that he wrote in memory of a high
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school student who had been I believe killed in an
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automobile accident.
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Uh.
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And and so he was commissioned to write it for
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her and dedicated her. It's a it's a it's a
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beautiful chart. It's very uplifting.
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Uh.
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The the funk chart out on a whim, Uh is
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is a lot of fun. It's it's very quirky. Uh
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has a few challenging moments in it, but it's it's
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a lot of fun to play that. That's the flip
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side of the question. Are there any songs in this
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one that you that you all get? You You're like, oof,
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this one's hard. We can just make it. It's worth
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it will be okay, Well, let me think hmmm, y well, well,
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you know that that chart on swing is is a
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really interesting chart. I mean, you know Felonious Monk, his
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compositions are always very quirky and and and that's a
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good way to to, uh, to describe swing. It's it's
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it's it's swings like there's no tomorrow, but it's uh,
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it's got it's got some quirks in it. So yeah,
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it's fun. It's fun to play, but it's also pretty challenging.
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So speaking of challenging, do you find it hard to
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be a director who's also a player.
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Well, it has its moments. I mean I I I
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prefer to stay back in the trumpet section in parts
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so I can hear the rest of my section. And
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also because I'm playing lead trumpet, I want my section
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to be able to hear me.
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You know.
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I At some times, at some points in our history,
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I've been forced to stand out in front so I
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can play and direct from the front, and and I
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do that when I have to, But I prefer to
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stay in the back. But that means that if I'm
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in the back, the people in the front can't see
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me waving my arms if I do so, so usually
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I have to delegate those those duties to my lead
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alto player because he sits at the center up in
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the front of the band and and he can give cutoffs.
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And and and and and things like. It's like that.
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It's something that stuck out to me when I watched
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the last concert was sometimes it appears like account off
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to get him started, and then it's magical, like I'm
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sure there is somebody who's really kind of running the show,
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but it feels like very organic. It feels like you
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all are just listening to each other and working together
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and almost feeling it together. Yeah, so it feels very
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magical sometimes to watch it. Yeah, it's like a big
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a big band literally a big band playing and nobody
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actually really leading it. It's just like they're feeling it.
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Together, right Yeah, yeah, the best the best big bands.
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Whereas you know, when you see an orchestra concert, there's
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always going to be a conductor to direct traffic. Yeah,
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with a good with a good big band, unless it's
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really complicated stuff, director is almost never necessary. Everyone just
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listens and you know, plays with good time together and
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and right and it all things.
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And intuitively just just feels it. Yeah, it's really cool. So,
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you know, I've listened to lots of recordings of big bands.
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I'll be honest, yours was the first one I had
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ever heard live. How would you describe the difference between
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listening to a big band live versus listening to a
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recording of it.
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Well, you know, and this really I think is true
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for all music, is that, you know, live there's an
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energy you get in live performance that you can't get
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from a recording. You know, in a recording studio, yes,
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you have absolute control over what goes into the mix,
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but but there's you know, when you're performing, you get
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energy back from your listeners, and it's a two way street.
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You're giving your your your your listener's energy and then
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they give it back.
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And that.
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Energy makes live performance even though you know, live performance
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is almost invariably more imperfect than a studio recording because
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you can, you know, in a studio, you can do
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things over and over until you get it exactly the
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way you want to, you know, and in live performance
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you get one shot, you know.
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And that's where sometimes you stop and you're like, well
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this work.
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There have been a few moments, let's let's just start over.
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It feels like you're It feels a very intimate part
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of the process as an audience member when in a
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musicists say hold on this just not somebody's out of tune.
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We got to fix this real quick. Ry's It reminds
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us that it's not a recording that it you know,
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that it is real life yea, performing in front.
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Of us exactly, you know. And that's that's part of
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what makes the magic, Yeah, is is that that the
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fact that it's tappening in real time.
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Yeah. And we talked about this before the podcast started today.
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In the Bower Center specifically, it's it's an intimate room.
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It's a loud room. Yeah. And one of the things
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that I felt really interesting the last time you all
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had a concert was the pure vibration that it makes
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my body feel that a recording never gives you. And
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I think that that's true of all music when you're
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in the room live with it. You know, this one
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is particularly there's you know, there's a lot of brass
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coming at you in a small live space, you know,
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And we do heavier plugs for those who need it,
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need to dampen it down a little bit. Yea. But
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even if even if you're closing enough in your ears,
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it's this is gonna be dumb. You feel it like
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I feel it in my skin. I feel the vibrations
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in my skin, and it just it's unlike anything else
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that I can say that I've experienced. That's what live
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music does to me.
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Oh. I mean when I was a kid, the first
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time that I played in a jazz band, the first
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00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:39.759
time I heard a jazz band live, it was it
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was just like, Wow, there's just nothing like this. I
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just wanted to do it more.
371
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Yeah. Yeah, let's let's let's transition to talk about some
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bigger philosophical things. So what do you think a group
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like the Big Band of the Blue Ridge's role is
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in like our local arts and music scene.
375
00:20:58.440 --> 00:21:03.519
Well, you know, uh, I think arts in any community
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are are an important, uh thing. And I'm a passionate
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believer in the importance of music and the arts in general.
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In in our schools too. I mean they they they
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give people life lessons and social skills that you just
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can't get anywhere else. And you know, music is like
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emotion in sound. Yeah, that's the easy If if I
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00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:41.000
had to define what what what music is it's it's
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it says things in a language that spoken language, you know,
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or written language cannot express. And uh, music to that
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in that way, can bring a community together in a
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way that other events can't.
387
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Uh.
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And so so I think I think music is a
389
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very important thing in any community.
390
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Uh.
391
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It's uh, it's it's part of what makes us whole.
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Is as human beings.
393
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I love that it is what makes us whole. This
394
00:22:21.400 --> 00:22:23.599
is a complicated question, maybe not easy to answer. What
395
00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:25.599
do you hope your audience feels when they listen to
396
00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:27.200
you all play Wow?
397
00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:30.960
Well, you know, I talk all day about that. I
398
00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:35.359
hope they feel joy. I remember after our fall concert,
399
00:22:35.480 --> 00:22:39.279
I had a lady come up to me and say,
400
00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:42.079
you just made my my day and my week and
401
00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:45.759
my year. I mean, I mean that's the if we
402
00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.240
If we reach people in in that way that they
403
00:22:49.240 --> 00:22:53.200
that they feel that kind of of joy, Uh, then
404
00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:56.200
I think we've been successful. Yeah, and so that's what
405
00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:57.000
we're hoping for.
406
00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:59.559
And you know, and it's there's not a lot of
407
00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.599
avenue to hear this type of music around here. Yeah.
408
00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:04.880
So you know, I think it's it's really a gift
409
00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:07.359
that you all give to this area, that a small
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00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.839
art center and a small town in between two bigger
411
00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:12.759
towns can have something this magical as well. You know,
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00:23:12.759 --> 00:23:14.720
I think people would expect it in Ronoc, or they'd
413
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expected in Lynchburg. I kind of love that we get
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to have it tucked away in our own little pocket here.
415
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:24.599
Yes, absolutely, and we are. We are so tickled that
416
00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:27.759
that that we've been able to continue, and that we've
417
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:32.119
developed this relationship with a Bouer Center so that we
418
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can continue. We're looking forward to many more concerts me too,
419
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:39.200
Me too in the coming years.
420
00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:42.440
So clearly in all of our conversation, you feel passionate
421
00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:45.720
about music. Music. What keeps you passionate about it?
422
00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:52.279
It's I can't imagine my life without without music. It's uh,
423
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.240
I mean, music is in my head all day long.
424
00:23:56.759 --> 00:23:59.960
If you could, if you could see inside my brain,
425
00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:05.359
and yeah, there's there's music playing all day long, either
426
00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:08.559
something I'm listening to or something I'm working on writing
427
00:24:08.599 --> 00:24:10.400
and I'm trying to work it out in my head
428
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:11.079
or whatever.
429
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:14.480
You know. Yeah, you know, I think for those of
430
00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:16.559
us who are art's minded, and that makes sense. I
431
00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:19.279
was an arts teacher for twenty one years, and you know,
432
00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:21.160
I took a break, as many of our listeners know,
433
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:23.640
and I became a bartender at a brewery, which is
434
00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:25.839
actually how we met. That's how we and that's how
435
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:27.799
this whole idea got pitched. Was over a bar and
436
00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:31.640
a beer exactly. Yeah, you know, but after three years
437
00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:33.440
of being away from it, what I realized is the
438
00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:36.039
arts needed to be there for me. Yeah, and so
439
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:39.400
you know, I'm the facilitator of arts. For that, I
440
00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:41.640
am a creator. But it brings me joy to see
441
00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:43.319
the see what it proventes us.
442
00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:45.759
Know, you play a very important role, you know, you
443
00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:50.759
help facilitate what what artists and musicians and so forth
444
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:54.039
are able to do. So it's a it's a wonderful thing.
445
00:24:54.680 --> 00:24:55.839
I appreciate that. Thank you.
446
00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:58.440
I'm looking at our time. We're actually kind of close
447
00:24:58.519 --> 00:24:59.799
up to be and it need to be done. So
448
00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:03.039
thank you again for joining us. Don't forget Big Band
449
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:05.039
of the Blue Ridge will be here at the Bauer
450
00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:09.000
Center on March twenty eight. That's this Saturday show starts
451
00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.799
at six o'clock PM. We would love to see you
452
00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.720
all there, and there is always all kinds of things
453
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:16.759
happening at the Bower Center, so we have a full
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00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:19.440
slate of concerts and performances throughout this year for the
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00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:22.079
music lovers. Just a few that are coming up. On
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00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.039
April fourth, we have Noah Spencer, who is one of
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00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:27.960
the top ten finalists from NBC's The Voice Season number
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00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:30.920
twenty four. On May twenty six, we have the locals
459
00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:33.839
Wing Creasey and CW. Markham the third and they're going
460
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.440
to return to the stage with their Spring Cabaret Lovers
461
00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.680
and other Strangers. And then in June we've brought through
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00:25:39.720 --> 00:25:42.559
the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the R and B
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00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:46.640
and soul A Kalas Simone Trio. All those concerts are
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00:25:46.680 --> 00:25:49.440
going to begin at six o'clock PM and advanced tickets
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00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.359
are only twenty dollars. And details on all those concerts
466
00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:54.640
you can find on our website. We also have the
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twelfth annual Curry Bauer Exhibit in our galleries until April fourth,
468
00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:00.559
and after that we'll be hosting the bed for County
469
00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.640
Public Schools middle school and high school shows back to
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00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:06.960
back in April. Our class schedule is chocked full of
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00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:11.960
classes in mosaics, clay painting, jewelry, anything you can think of. Again,
472
00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:14.440
just check the website to see what we've got available,
473
00:26:14.920 --> 00:26:16.839
and that's just a glimpse of what Bower Center has
474
00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.440
for the arts has to offer. Make sure you check
475
00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:23.039
out our website Bowercenter dot org and that there you
476
00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:26.279
can get any details on our classes, events, programs and exhibitions.
477
00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:28.480
And if you're in the neighborhood to stop by and
478
00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:58.319
say hello, I'd love to talk to you.
