This Friday, I'll be presenting my most ambitious (and crazy) program to date...a progressive rock concert for my "recital". I've been wanting to get back into playing drum set for a while, and decided to see about pursuing a few students to see if they'd be up for it. Luckily, they were, and they've more than met the challenge. We will be playing some standard rock instrumentals (La Villa Strangiato, YYZ), some from my early formative years (Ice Cakes), and some contemporary craziness (Stream of Consciousness, Enigma Machine)...I hope my short-hand charts are enough to pull me through this one! 

I've also been crazy enough to invest in a brand new set to make this thing really kick. Finally said goodbye to the Ludwig kit...after 34 years, it had outlived it's usefulness.

But I think the trade off was worth it...finally got the set-up that I've wanted for so many years!!!

A good bit of the cymbals and the hardware are being "borrowed" from UAB (work has its advantages), so it wasn't like this was all purchased at the same time. Just the 7 piece shell kit and the rack for now...eventually I'll add my own cymbals into the mix.

​Until next time...rock on!!!

It's finally officially here...my CD, Occam's Razor, will be released on November 6. It will be released digitally on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and a ton of other online sources. I will get a supply of physical CD's to use for family and friends, but also for recruiting purposes (which was the main idea to begin with). 

Exciting times, for sure!!!

Check out the cover art:

Be sure to download your copy starting on November 6!!!

Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote, which actually caused the long silence in the first place. The sudden cancellation of our football team here at UAB was a shock to everyone, and the subsequent fallout has kept most of us very busy. Things are looking good for us though - there are significant signs that the football team will be brought back (maybe 2016 or 2017), but most importantly, the Marching Blazers will continue to function this fall. We are planning many great things, and I hope that it will lead to a new direction in what we do.

The CD project is in a holding pattern, but will be wrapping up shortly. Just waiting on the videos to be edited and to complete the jacket with all pertinent information. The cover design has been completed, and it looks GREAT. I'm really excited about getting it out there. Hopefully we can have everything on iTunes and Amazon within a month or so, with a physical release sometime after that.

Additionally, I've recently been picked up by Symphonic Pulse Percussion, a new company, to digitally publish some of my original UAB Drumline cadences. For the past year or so, I've had everything posted for free on this site, but when I saw they were looking for more product, I sent my link to them to peruse and here we are. Looks like it will be a good thing moving forward, so here's to new partnerships!

Wind Symphony concert tonight, snow day tomorrow (likely), then getting ready for Percussion Ensemble on April 1...

Woo!

As of yesterday, all recording has been completed for my CD. As part of completing the project, I'm looking for some input and suggestions about order and choosing what will be the title of the release. The performance order that I used on the recital won't work for various reasons, so I'm looking for what will be the most meaningful and have the most impact.

Here is the order that I am currently using upon first thought, along with a brief description of each and timing:

"Occam's Razor" - solo marimba with percussion quartet (9')
"Mario Can't Dance in the Kitchen" - small multi-percussion (6')
"Where Thou Art - That Is Home" - solo marimba chorale (4')
"Le Batteur" - large multi-percussion (8')
"Torch" - solo marimba, atmospheric harmonies with running 16th's (6')
"Shadowfax" - solo rudimental snare with percussion quartet (4')

All of these videos can be found on my YouTube channel for reference. I'm either thinking about "Occam's Razor" or "Le Batteur" (French for "The Drummer") as the title of the CD. I'm open to any other suggestions as well...

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have!

GF

So, for most people, 13 is an unlucky number. For me, it can't be. I just finished my 13th year of teaching at UAB, and it has been a truly great year. How's this for starters:

-Largest drumline ever at UAB
-Appointed as Associate Editor for Percussive Notes.
-Had an arrangement performed on the new literature session at PASIC
-Guest performance at Lee University
-Visit to Pearl and Innovative Percussion offices in Nashville
-6 original compositions performed on my faculty recital in April
-Recording project approved and underway
-Officially promoted to Associate Professor at UAB.
-Third band director hired at UAB
-New 5.0 octave Adams Alpha marimba for school

I really couldn't be in a better place, in terms of my career as well as personally for my family. I'm extremely grateful for everything happening right now, so as you can see there is no reason for 13 to be anything but my new lucky number.

Time to let the batteries recharge and get ready for the fall....speaking of which, it's not even the end of June and I have already updated my course syllabus, picked the fall percussion ensemble program and even started making copies of music. What?!?

Now, if I could only get some scores to start writing the drumline book....nah, still plenty of time.

After many, many years of debating how I wanted to go about doing this, I've finally decided to give it a try. I've often thought about what my "top 10" or "top 25" albums of all-time would be, or what albums I would want if I was stranded on an island. There is no way for me to narrow it down to a specific number, so I came up with a different way to approach it; what are the most influential albums in my life? So, I'm going to do this chronologically, and include albums that had an impact on my life at the time. I'm going to attempt to remember albums throughout various points in my life, so some of the groups may be bunched together (as I discovered them) and some will be listed separately (as they were released). For some of these, it was a lasting impact, for others not so much. Anyway....if you are interested, here goes:

KISS - Destroyer

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Dixie Dregs - What If, Unsung Heroes, Industry Standard

Rush - Moving pictures, Exit...Stage Left

King Crimson - Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair

Steve Morse Band - The Introduction

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind, Powerslave

Saga - Heads or Tales

James Newton Howard & Friends

Yes - 90125

Rush - Power Windows

Zebra - 3.V

Queensryche - Rage for Order, Operation: Mindcrime

Marillion - Misplaced Childhood, Clutching at Straws

Mr. Big - Mr. Big, Lean Into It

Dave Weckl - Master Plan

Chick Corea Elektrik Band - Beneath the Mask

Dream Theater - Images and Words

Red Hot Chili Peppers - BloodSugarSexMajik

Sting - Ten Summoners Tales

Marillion - Brave

Steve Vai - Fire Garden

Marillion - This Strange Engine

Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity, Scenes from a Memory

Seal - Seal II, Human Being, Seal IV

Spock's Beard - The Kindness of Strangers, V

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia, Nil Recurring

Marillion - Marbles

Dream Theater - Octavarium

The Frost - Experiments in Mass Appeal, Milliontown

Spock's Beard - X


OK, so 45 albums...no way I can limit it to top 10. I also did not include any orchestral, band, percussion ensemble, or solo marimba...maybe that will be for another post sometime.

So much to be thankful for this year!!!

What a great semester so far; although it's not quite over, it's been a great year so far. We will be wrapping up marching band this weekend with the last game against USM. Even though the W-L isn't that great, it hasn't prevented us from having a "turnaround" year in the line...numbers, hands, and heads were all improved, and it looks to be continuing into next year.

PASIC was a blast...met a ton of great people, saw some amazing performances, and came back inspired. Took part in "official" duties as my new position of Associate Editor of Percussive Notes (!), including speaking to the Marching Committee. What a trip to have the attention of Scott Johnson, Paul Rennick, and Dennis DeLucia all at once! Also, hearing one of my arrangements performed (and being acknowledged afterwards) was a unique experience...and somewhat surreal.

The Percussion Ensemble had a great semester of learning new, classic literature, and a premiere performance as well. The concert was well received and ran smoothly, but we were unfortunately scheduled against a pretty big basketball game the same evening...of course. Now for my favorite part of the year...planning the next one!!!

We are also able to have TWO steel bands this year because of numbers. This should be an improvement all the way around, for everyone concerned. We can learn more literature, train more students for the future, and improve the quality of performance for the concert....exciting times!!!

On a personal note, I was approved for my recording project this year, which will hopefully result in new compositions for both my recital and this project. One other big news item in the hopper, but I'll share that when the time is appropriate...

One of my arrangements, "The Sunken Cathedral" by Debussy, was performed at the New Literature session by Concordia University at PASIC...what an honor! This pic is the stage before the concert started.

With Bob Becker...he's pretty good.

With Erik Johnson at IP...great support, great products, great people!