Podcasts about Maynard Ferguson

The big wins in the "Big Beautiful" Budget Bill. A listener call-in on her experience playing with Maynard Ferguson in high school. More commentary on the feud over social media between billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dein Weckruf an Deine innersten Kräfte. Goldene Fanfaren verkünden Aufbruch und Ankündigung: Du packst das! Diese Musikstücke hast Du in der Folge gehört: Jean-Joseph Mouret – "Sinfonies de Fanfares" // John Williams – "Bugler's Dream/ Fanfare" // Earth, Wind & Fire – "In The Stone" // Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – "Trompetenouvertüre" // The Beatles – "Got to get you into my life" // Maynard Ferguson – "Gonna Fly Now (Rocky)" // Den Podcast "Mein Einsatz – der NDR Feuerwehrpodcast" von NDR 1 Niedersachsen findest Du hier: https://www.ardaudiothek.de/sendung/mein-einsatz-der-feuerwehr-podcast-von-ndr-niedersachsen/12859235/ Wenn Du eine Idee oder einen Wunsch zu einem musikalischen Thema hast, dann schreib ihm eine Mail: playlist@ndr.de

Kirk pays a visit the musical world of The Muppets, from their Sesame Street origins in the 60s to the globe-hopping, cinematic heights of the 70s and 80s, with plenty of detours along the way.FEATURING:"Sesame Street Theme" by Joe Raposo, Jon Stone, and Bruce Hart"Mah Na Mah Na" by Piero Umilliani from Sweden: Heaven and Hell"Pinball Number Count" by Walt Kraemer and Ed Bogas, feat. The Pointer Sisters"Rainbow Connection" by Paul Williams (Lyrics) and William Ascher (Music), sung by Jim Henson as Kermit the FrogALSO REFERENCED/DISCUSSED:"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Josef Zawinul from Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live at 'the Club'), Cannonball Adderley Quintet, 1966"Sesame Street Theme" performed by Gladys Knight and the Pips"Sesame Street Theme" arr. Dennis DiBlasio for Maynard Ferguson on Storm, 1982"Bein' Green," "'C' is for Cookie," "Happiness Hotel," and "Sing" by Joe RaposoRowlf (

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The Trombone Corner Podcast is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass and The Brass Ark.  Join hosts Noah and John as they interview Nick Lane, commercial trombonist from Los Angeles.   About Nick: Nick Lane is a free lance trombonist, arranger & composer who's been a fixture on the Los Angeles music scene for many years. Born and raised in Marshalltown Iowa, he attended Drake University on a euphonium scholarship after high school. More excited by performance and jazz, he transferred to Boston's Berklee College of Music to pursue trombone and music composition. Soon after graduating he joined Maynard Ferguson's band and spent the next 4 years honing his skills, recording 5 albums and 17 of his arrangements and/or compositions with Maynard. After moving to L.A. Lane formed his own band resulting in the “Bone in the USA” album in 1985. By that time he'd been asked to do several long tours with Rod Stewart and then Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. So his band leader days transitioned into side man days, touring extensively with Stewart and later the Who (Quadraphenia) Neil Diamond, Etta James, among others. For the past 20+ years, he's often filled in with the group Chicago. When NOT traveling, Lane has found his way onto over 500 CD recordings as well as hundreds of TV shows & movies. His arrangements & compositions have been featured in all mediums. He has released 2 more CD's of his music….Alias Smith & Lane with baritone sax pal Greg Smith and a B-3 organ trio and Songs of the Heartland….a CD of music Lane composed for the Central Iowa Music Festival featuring full orchestra and chorus. It's Nick's fascination with melody and harmony that has inspired his continuing song writing and composing efforts. In more classical settings he has written extensively for brass: large ensemble, brass quintet, trombone quartet & trio plus numerous commissions for various groups and individuals. With writing partner Doc Kupka, several songs have found their way onto recent Tower of Power CD's as well as projects with vocalists Ray Greene and Ellis Hall. (Available on Strokeland Records website) Lane continues to write, record & produce horn sections in the pop, rock & R&B genres. Still not afraid to “shake it” on stage, these days he's more often found in a recording studio, trying to capture the moment.

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This week, Ira spoke with drummer, vocalist, songwriter, and educator Dave Tull, performing at Vic's Las Vegas (along with John Belzaguy and Dave Loeb) February 7-8. In this episode of “Talk About Las Vegas With Ira,” Dave talks about starting drum lessons at 10; growing up with music in the house in Berkeley; taking jazz band classes early on; worked with Maynard Ferguson right after college; the change in the recording scene with his generation; the genesis of “The Texting Song”; being known for having songs with humor in them; why he also loves to teach; why he began signing after 15 years of drumming; how singing and drumming are all coming from the same place; how singing and drumming at the same time are like having a fifth limb; “time feel”; working with Jack Sheldon for more than 20 years; drawing a little bit out of every experience you have; leading his own band since 2007; working with Barbra Streisand (2016-19) and her level of performance; and the song he always performs at every venue. (Also Watch Full Podcast Video)

THIS IS SUMMIT WEEK! Three Summits featuring some of the best Saxophonists, Bassists and Drummers. Today is DRUM SUMMIT with:Peter Erskine, a 2x Grammy winner and a 10x Best Jazz Drummer winner. He's played with Weather Report, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and many others.Danny Gottlieb, an all-star drummer who has played with Pat Metheny, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gary Burton, Airto Moreira and the Lt. Dan Band among others.Adam Nussbaum, an acclaimed drummer who has played on hundreds of recordings with artists including John Abercrombie, Eliane Elias, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and John Scofield.My featured song is “Metro Shuffle”, featuring Mindi Abair, from the album The PGS Experience by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here .To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------ROBERT'S SINGLES:“SOSTICE” is Robert's newest single, with a rockin' Old School vibe. Called “Stunning!”, “A Gem!”, “Magnificent!” and “5 Stars!”.Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------“THE GIFT” is Robert's ballad arranged by Grammy winning arranger Michael Abene and turned into a horn-driven Samba. Praised by David Amram, John Helliwell, Joe La Barbera, Tony Carey, Fay Claassen, Antonio Farao, Danny Gottlieb and Leslie Mandoki.Click HERE for all links.—-------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES”. Robert's Jazz Fusion “Tone Poem”. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's sublime, atmospheric Jazz Fusion tune. Featuring guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

Vinnie Cieselski shares the beginning of his journey to Brass Mastery. Starting from early beginnings in a South Florida drum and bugle corps, Vinnie recounts his experiences from being introduced to the trumpet at age nine to receiving early lessons from Al Carroll, whose optimistic and practical teaching methods laid a strong foundation. The discussion also explores the physical demands of playing the trumpet, the influences of legendary players like Maynard Ferguson and the importance of a positive mindset. Additionally, the episode highlights the impactful careers of contemporary trumpet players such as Jeff Bailey and William Leathers, and their significant contributions to both classical and pop music.Episode highlights00:11 Early Beginnings with the Trumpet02:29 Lessons from Al Carroll06:23 Discovering Influences and Inspirations07:52 Maynard Ferguson's Impact10:29 Modern Trumpet Heroes14:03 Classical and Pop Music Fusion16:11 Conclusion and Joining the Brass Mastery Tribe**Mastery Is Within Reach. Will You Go For It?Follow Brass Mastery and stay updated via email every time a new episode is released at https://brassmastery.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.brassmastery.com/subscribe

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In this episode, you dive deep into the world of sound with Bryan “Froggy” Cross, where being a bass player was just the start. Froggy shares how his journey starting with Maynard Ferguson and later, Tower of Power, led him from backline work to becoming a tour manager by 21. […] The post Sound Wisdom with Bryan “Froggy” Cross: IEMs, Mics, and More — Gig Gab Podcast 450 appeared first on Gig Gab.

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This is a Drum Summit, a Special Episode of the podcast. It features three of the world's best jazz drummers: Peter Erskine, Danny Gottlieb and Adam Nussbaum. Each has previously been a guest on the podcast, but now they're together in this episode.Peter Erskine is a 2x Grammy winner and a 10x Best Jazz Drummer winner. He's played with Weather Report, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and many others.Danny Gottlieb is an all-star drummer who has played with Pat Metheny, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gary Burton, Airto Moreira and the Lt. Dan Band among others.Adam Nussbaum is an acclaimed drummer who has played on hundreds of recordings with artists including John Abercrombie, Eliane Elias, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and John Scofield.---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES” is Robert's new single. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's recent single. With guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------“MILES BEHIND”, Robert's debut album, recorded in 1994, was “lost” for the last 30 years. It's now been released for streaming. Featuring Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears), Anton Fig (The David Letterman Show), Al Foster (Miles Davis), Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones), Jon Lucien and many more. Called “Hip, Tight and Edgy!” Click here for all links.—--------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's latest Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at festivals in Pennsylvania and Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.Click here for song videos—-----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Peter at:www.petererskine.comConnect with Danny at:www.dannygottlieb.orgConnect with Adam at:www.adamnussbaum.net Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

Peter Erskine is a Superstar Drummer. He's a two-time Grammy winner who has played on over 700 albums and film scores. He rose to worldwide fame with Weather Report, perhaps the greatest band of the 1970s Jazz Fusion era. He has also played with Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan and many more. He was voted Best Jazz Drummer of the Year 10 times by the readers of Modern Drummer. And he's an author too with several books to his credit including “No Beethoven”, which chronicles his career including his time with Weather Report.My featured song is “Joe Z”. Spotify link.---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------“LOU'S BLUES” is Robert's new single. Called “Fantastic! Great playing and production!” (Mark Egan - Pat Metheny Group/Elements) and “Digging it!” (Peter Erskine - Weather Report)!Click HERE for all links.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's recent single. With guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------“MILES BEHIND”, Robert's debut album, recorded in 1994, was “lost” for the last 30 years. It's now been released for streaming. Featuring Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears), Anton Fig (The David Letterman Show), Al Foster (Miles Davis), Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones), Jon Lucien and many more. Called “Hip, Tight and Edgy!” Click here for all links.—--------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's latest Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at festivals in Pennsylvania and Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.Click here for song videos—-----------------------------------------Intro/Outro Voiceovers courtesy of:Jodi Krangle - Professional Voiceover Artisthttps://voiceoversandvocals.com Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Peter at:www.petererskine.com Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

STANDAR SEMANAL.-It Could Happen To You.-JAZZANIVERSARIO.-Maynard Ferguson.-JAZZACTUALIDAD.-ADIRANO TORTORA Chore

Michael Abene is a Grammy winning Big Band arranger. He's worked with Germany's WDR Radio Big Band,  played in the Maynard Ferguson Big Band, and arranged for the GRP All-Star Big Band. He's also arranged for Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Dianne Reeves and Steps Ahead.My featured song is my version of Thelonious Monk's classic “Well, You Needn't” from my 1994 debut album Miles Behind. Spotify link. ---------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!For more information and other episodes of the podcast click here. To subscribe to the podcast click here.To subscribe to our weekly Follow Your Dream Podcast email click here.To Rate and Review the podcast click here.“Dream With Robert”. Click here.—----------------------------------------“THE RICH ONES”. Robert's new single. With guest artist Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears) on flugelhorn. Crossover instrumental.Click HERE for all links.—---------------------------------------“MILES BEHIND”, Robert's first album, was recorded in 1994 but was “lost” for the last 30 years. It's now been released for streaming. Featuring Randy Brecker (Blood Sweat & Tears), Anton Fig (The David Letterman Show), Al Foster (Miles Davis), Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones), Jon Lucien and many more. Called “Hip, Tight and Edgy!” Click here for all links.—--------------------------------------“IT'S ALIVE!” is Robert's latest Project Grand Slam album. Featuring 13 of the band's Greatest Hits performed “live” at festivals in Pennsylvania and Serbia.Reviews:"An instant classic!" (Melody Maker)"Amazing record...Another win for the one and only Robert Miller!" (Hollywood Digest)"Close to perfect!" (Pop Icon)"A Masterpiece!" (Big Celebrity Buzz)"Sterling effort!" (Indie Pulse)"Another fusion wonder for Project Grand Slam!" (MobYorkCity)Click here for all links.Click here for song videos—-----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with Michael:Website: https://michaelabene.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.abene.5/ Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring lead trumpeter Dave Trigg, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. Dave Trigg is a distinguished trumpeter whose career spans over four decades, marked by versatility and collaborations with some of the most iconic names in music. Starting his professional journey in 1979, Dave made a significant mark as the lead trumpeter with the Ringling Bros Circus World House Band in Florida. This early experience set the stage for a series of notable engagements, including the national tour with "Holiday on Ice" and recording with the legendary Maynard Ferguson Band in 1981, contributing to the "Hollywood" release. In the early 1980s, Dave's talent took him to the heart of entertainment at Walt Disney World in Florida, where he performed with various bands at Epcot Center and MGM Studios until 1990. His broad range of musical abilities allowed him to share the stage with luminaries such as Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Quincy Jones, Harry Connick Jr., Tina Turner, and many others. Dave's Broadway credentials are equally impressive, featuring performances in productions like "Wonderful Town," "Hot Feet," "Fame Becomes Me," "Promises, Promises," "Pippin," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Legally Blonde," "Gigi," and "Hello Dolly." The 1990s ushered in a new chapter for Dave as he joined Natalie Cole's band, embarking on global tours and performing with major orchestras, including the BBC Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His work with Cole led to four Grammy-winning albums and numerous TV appearances on shows such as The Tonight Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show. Dave also showcased his talent on TV specials like the three Sopranos live concert and was a part of Sheila E's house band for the 1998 ALMA Awards. Dave's move to Los Angeles expanded his repertoire to include recording sessions for artists like Dr. John, Phil Collins, and Mary J. Blige, as well as soundtracks for films like "Miracle on 34th St." and "Shaft." His involvement with the Big Bands of Bill Holman, Bob Florence, and others underscored his versatility and excellence in jazz and big band music. Relocating to New York in 1999, Dave continued to dazzle at jazz festivals worldwide, including Montreux and Newport, and paid tribute to Maynard Ferguson at the New York Brass Conference. His recent performances include a gala with the National Symphony Orchestra and a featured appearance at the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival, maintaining his status as a sought-after musician for both live performances and studio recordings. Dave Trigg's illustrious career, marked by collaborations with a wide array of artists and performances across prestigious venues, underscores his enduring impact on the music industry and his mastery of the trumpet.

Welcome to Episode #112 of "The Other Side of the Bell", a podcast brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. In this episode, John talks with Wayne Bergeron and Jeff Bunnell about their recently released album called "Homage" by the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble.  We hope you'll enjoy their conversation as well as the album. Join us at Dillon Music, November 9-11 for valve alignments and mouthpiece consultations. Email sales@dillonmusic to schedule an appointment! About the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble Album "Homage"  The recording scene in Los Angeles has a long history of great and highly versatile trumpet playing. For the most part, though, these trumpet players rarely get a chance to be featured. In 1957, Tutti Camarata arranged and produced a record called Tutti's Trumpets that featured some of the top session trumpet players in Los Angeles at that time. That was over 60 years ago. Wayne Bergeron and Jeff Bunnell started talking about doing another recording that would feature some of the current session trumpet players here in Los Angeles. Wayne suggested recording a trumpet ensemble CD to Jeff and they loved the idea and thought a choir of trumpets would work well. With that, the Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble came into being. In choosing the music Jeff arranged for this CD, he wanted to pay tribute to some of the film composers who are part of the Los Angeles recording scene (and who write so well for the trumpet), and also pay tribute to some of the great trumpet players of the past and present.  Jerry Hey graciously wrote the arrangment for the last track, the iconic Al Jarreau tune "Roof Garden". Los Angeles Trumpet Ensemble Members Jeff Bunnell Wayne Bergeron Jon Lewis Dan Fornero Marissa Benedict Dan Rosenboom Rob Schaer Larry Hall Dan Savant About Wayne Bergeron Wayne Bergeron is enjoying a career as one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. Studio sessions, film dates, international touring, jazz concerts, guest appearances, and clinics keep him busy not only in his hometown of Los Angeles but worldwide. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1958, Bergeron came to California at age one. He originally started on French horn but switched to trumpet in seventh grade where he found a natural upper register ability. Bergeron credits his junior high and high school teachers, Ron Savitt and Bob Smith, for molding his talent into practical working skills. Bergeron first caught the ear of many when he landed the lead trumpet chair with Maynard Ferguson's band in 1986. Bergeron can be heard on Maynard's recordings of Body and Soul, Big Bop Nouveau, Brass Attitude, and The One and Only Maynard Ferguson.  Bergeron demonstrates daily why Maynard remarked, “Wayne is the most musical lead trumpet player I've had on my band.” As a sideman, Bergeron's list of recording credits reads like a “who's who” in contemporary jazz and pop, running the stylistic gamut from Ray Charles to Green Day. Other names include Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand, Michael Buble, Indina Menzel, Leslie Oden Jr., Herb Alpert, The Jonas Brothers, Burt Bacharach, The Dirty Loops, Seth MacFarlane, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Seal, Diana Krall, Tito Puente, Christina Aguilera, Dianne Reeves, Michael Bolton, Earth Wind & Fire, The Pussy Cat Dolls, My Chemical Romance, The Mars Volta, Chicago, Rosemary Cloony, Diane Schuur, Barry Manilow, Lee Ann Womack, Lou Rawls, Eric Marienthal, Kenny G., and David Benoit. Bergeron has worked on over 500 TV & motion picture soundtracks. A partial list of film credits includes Red Notice, Turning Red, Soul, Bob's Burgers, Ford vs. Ferrari, Toy Story 4, Frozen 1 & 2, The Lion King (2019), The Secret Life of Pets, Wreck it Ralph 2, Crazy Rich Asians, Sing 1&2, Moana, Frozen 1 & 2, Get On Up, Toy Story 3, Monsters University, High School Musical 3, Get Smart, Superman Returns, The Simpson's Movie, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Mission Impossible 3, Ice Age 2, Spiderman 1 & 2, Team America and South Park. Bergeron's featured trumpet solos can be heard on the motion pictures West Side Story (2021 Steven Spielberg), La La Land, Sing, The Incredibles 1 & 2, Rocky Balboa, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Rough Night, Jazzman's Blues, Vacation Friends, Ted 2, Minions, Minions 2:The Rise of Gru, Spies in Disguise, Jersey Boys, The Green Hornet, The Interview, Despicable Me 1, 2 & 3, Duplicity, Princess & the Frog, The Perfect Game,, Hey Arnold (the movie), The Rat Pack, Child Star, Aladdin King of Thieves and High Crimes and  many others. Numerous TV credits include Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, SAG Awards, NBC, ESPN & TNT sports themes, American Idol (2001-02), Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Animaniacs Reboot, Family Guy, American Dad, Simpson's, Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, The Cleveland Show, Green Eggs and Ham,  Jeopardy, America's Funniest Home Videos, Will and Grace, Phineas & Ferb, Emperor's New School, Mouse Works, Have a Laugh, House of Mouse, King of the Hill, Futurama, Buzz Lightyear, Hercules, and Hey Arnold. Bergeron's greatest love is playing lead in big bands. He has recorded and played with some of Los Angeles' most respected bands including Gordon Goodwin, Arturo Sandoval, Pat Williams, Sammy Nestico, Jack Sheldon, Chris Walden, Tom Kubis, John La Barbara, Bob Florence, Joey Sellers, Ray Anthony, Bill Watrous, Bob Curnow, and Quincy Jones. After being behind the scene for so many years, Bergeron stepped out on his own with his first solo effort, You Call This a Living?  This debut project earned him a Grammy nomination in 2004 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, as well as rave reviews from fans and press worldwide. Bergeron's second CD, Plays Well With Others, released on the Concord Jazz label in 2007, was met with the same acclaim. Bergeron's most current (and personal favorite) CD, Full Circle, was released in January of 2016.  Bergeron performs various events for the Hollywood Bowl summer season. He has done guest appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Taiwan Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic. Bergeron is a National Artist for the Yamaha Corporation of America and is co-designer of the YTR-8335LA trumpet and YFH-8315G Flugelhorn. Bergeron also designed a series of trumpet mouthpieces with Gary Radtke of GR Technologies that are available through Bergeron's website. Bergeron was mentored by legends Uan Rasey, Bobby Shew, Warren Luening, Gary Grant, Rick Baptist, and George Graham. Bergeron hopes to inspire a new generation of young players and enjoys his work as a clinician and educator. “Nothing makes me feel more accomplished than hearing a young musician say that I inspired them or had a positive influence on their life. For me, that's the real payday.” Bergeron is currently on faculty at California State University Northridge. Perhaps Grammy winning composer and bandleader, Gordon Goodwin said it best, “Wayne is a once in a lifetime lead trumpet player.” About Jeff Bunnell Trumpeter Jeff Bunnell has enjoyed a successful career in many musically diverse settings. He is an active member of the Los Angeles freelance performing and recording community, and has been for over four decades. The many artists Jeff has worked and recorded with include Mel Torme, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Natalie Cole, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, Seth MacFarlane, Rosemary Clooney, Paul Anka, Lou Rawls, Barry Manilow, Dianna Krall, Frank Sinatra Jr., David Sanborn, Diane Schuur, Brian Wilson, Tom Harrell, Steve Lawrence, Maroon 5, Michael Feinstein, Debby Boone, Andy Williams, Patti Austin, Brian Setzer, Jack Sheldon, Steve Allen, Marilyn McCoo, Engelbert Humperdink and Shirley Bassey. Jeff has toured with Ray Charles, Horace Silver and Poncho Sanchez. He has performed with many of the top big bands in Los Angeles including Tom Kubis, Bill Watrous, Alf Clausen, Johnny Mandel, Bill Holman, Arturo Sandoval, Gordon Goodwin's Phat Band, Les Hooper, Pete Christlieb, Pat Williams, Wayne Bergeron, Steve Spiegl, Carl Saunders and Bernie Dresel. He has recorded with many of these big bands including Ray Charles, Tom Kubis, Bill Watrous, Les Hooper, Pete Christlieb, Jack Sheldon, Brian Setzer, Wayne Bergeron, Steve Spiegl and Bernie Dresel. Jeff played the lead trumpet chair with the Carl Saunders Big Band, the Pete Christlieb Tall and Smail Band, and the Steve Spiegl Big Band. Currently Jeff plays one of the solo chairs with both The Tom Kubis Big Band and Bernie Dresel's BBB. Jeff has worked with many of the orchestras in Southern California including The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Long Beach Symphony, The New West Symphony, The Pacific Symphony and The Pasadena Pops Orchestra. As a session player Jeff has played on hundreds of feature film and television soundtracks. His film credits of note include “Star Trek Beyond”, “Jurassic World”, “The Incredibles”, UP (Oscar winner for Best Soundtrack), and “O.J. Simpson: Made in America” – where Jeff is a featured soloist throughout the film (Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature). His television credits include “Pennyworth”, “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, “Why Women Kill”, “American Dad”, “Parks and Recreation”, “Alias”, and “The Clone Wars” animated series. He has also played on hundreds of television and radio commercials, as well as the Academy Awards and the SAG Awards. As a musical theater pit musician, Jeff has played on more than 60 Broadway shows including “West Side Story”, “Phantom Of The Opera”, “Dream Girls”, “Into the Woods”, “Sophisticated Ladies”, “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Titanic”. He has studied trumpet privately with Joe Alessi Sr., Boyde Hood, Bobby Shew, Claude Gordon and Uan Rasey. Jeff is currently a faculty trumpet and jazz instructor at The Master's University. Jeff is also a Bach Artist & Clinician. In addition to playing the trumpet, Jeff also works as an arranger, orchestrator, and conductor. He has orchestrated for film and television, as well as other areas of music such as Broadway Shows, cruise ship music and theme park music. His original big band charts can be found in the books of Arturo Sandoval, Bill Watrous, Jack Sheldon, Ron Jones, Emil Richards, Steve Spiegl and Bernie Dresel. He has published three transcribed jazz trumpet solo books through Aebersold Jazz. Links Listen to this episode online: https://bobreeves.com/blog/la-trumpet-ensemble/ Watch the video of this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H2-vc5QQLpk    

More on high school student Ruby LaRocca's piece in The Free Press; "A Constitution for Teenage Happiness." William F. Buckley's Sharon Statement, issued upon the founding of Young American's for Freedom (YAF). A parody of the Signs of Justice "We Believe" yard sign. Why the Seth Leibsohn Show loves Maynard Ferguson. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[SNW209] … musicals are like baseball. Support SAG-AFTRA and the WGA. Background and segment musics during this episode may include RedCaio's, VioDance's, Maynard Ferguson's, and Captain Meatshield's covers of the […]

Welcome to a brand new feature of the podcast, Trumpet Icons!From jazz virtuosos to classical maestros, explore a curated collection of iconic trumpet players who have left an indelible mark on the world of music.To suggest a trumpeter that should be included in this series, or if you believe information shared about a previous player needs to be corrected, simply visit https://trumpetdynamics.com/icons. All suggestions and/or corrections will be read and adjusted as necessary!

#911 - Alan Chez The Alan Chez Interview is featured on The Paul Leslie Hour. Are you here? Look, I'm just checkin'. I ask because I like the peace of mind. It's good to let you know that you're tuned in to The Paul Leslie Hour. This is the show that keeps on going, with interviews with some of the great creators of our time. We've got an interview from the archives with Alan Chez, sometimes called Al Chez. So let me explain what you're about to hear. This is an interview with trumpet and flugelhorn player Alan Chez. He was a member of Paul Shaffer's CBS Orchestra starting in 1997. From there he started his own band: Al Chez and the Brothers of Funk Big Band.  Alan Chez has also toured with Bon Jovi, Robert Cray, Tower of Power, Young Rascals, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Maynard Ferguson, Eric Clapton, Dave Edmunds Band, Ben E. King, Sam & Dave as well as many other artists and bands. Quite a resume, huh? As we roll into 20 years of these interviews, we want to encourage you and kindly ask you to please subscribe to Paul Leslie's YouTube channel. It's a big deal to us as we're trying to grow the channel. It's fast and free and lots of fun. Won't you do it please? Well, we gotta start the interview portion. Let's hear what your host Paul Leslie and Al Chez had to say. In fact, how about we listen together?

For our third episode this season, we have a near record breaker with this interview being our second longest interview yet! But it is absolutely nothing short of great stories, great laughs, and incredible inspiration from one of the biggest trombonists in the music industry, Alex Iles. Mr. Iles has enjoyed a varied and successful career in numerous musical settings performing in the musically diverse area of the Southern California freelance performing and recording community. As a very in-demand performer, recording artist and educator he has performed/recorded with Zubin Mehta, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, The Tonight Show, Danny Elfman, John Williams, Paul McCartney, Fallout Boy, Prince, and many jazz artists/bands such as Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Bob Florence's Limited Edition and even the Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band. With such an incredible musical career in the jazz world, orchestral world, and recording world, Mr. Iles talks about his present projects, his upbringing in music and the interesting approach of how he learned to improve as a musician, and we of course hit him with some rapid fire questions to find out who the real Alex Iles is! By the way, look up his page, I guarantee if you have watched any movies in the past 20 years, he's recorded for it! -- Transition Music #1: Remembering, Dave Slonaker, Alex Iles Transition Music #2: Count Bubba, Gordon Goodwind's Big Phat Band Instagram: @8thposition @dbaldwin903 @_mehurst_

Alex Iles is principal trombonist of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he has toured as lead and solo jazz trombonist with Maynard Ferguson and the Woody Herman Orchestra and performs in many of the top LA based big bands and jazz groups including Bob Florence's Limited Edition, The Seth McFarlane Orchestra, The Tom Kubis Big Band, and Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band. Alex can often be found playing in the pit orchestras of numerous Los Angeles  productions of Broadway shows and has performed on hundreds of television and motion picture soundtracks. He has also appeared on numerous recordings with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, John Williams, Paul McCartney, and Prince. Alex  has been a faculty trombone and jazz instructor at the California Institute of the Arts, Azusa Pacific College and California State University, Northridge. He has appeared numerous times as a featured soloist at the International Trombone Workshop and at The American Trombone Workshop in Washington DC.

Trumpet player, Jamie Hovorka, talks about taking on the pressure of lead chair in the University of North Texas 1 O'clock Lab Band and how that compares to the Los Angeles music scene. He tells the story of working on horn parts with Paul McCartney and the first time he played with the iconic band, Eagles. He talks about working with Danny Seraphine in his band, California Transit Authority (CTA).        www.bestbrass.com     www.divebarrockstar.com

The horn is 1%; the mouthpiece is 9%; and the rest of the 90% is in your head, says our guest on today's episode.High note specialist Lynn Nicholson joins us on the show to discuss how Maynard Ferguson was able to did what he did physically, the Human Element of live music (that has been lost to some degree in the modern era), the search for the perfect mouthpiece and much more!What you'll hear in this episode with Lynn:-Trying to figure out how Zen Master Maynard Ferguson did what he did...03:11-How Lynn got his start on trumpet and diving headlong into the professional scene...10:44-Making it with Bill Chase's band and beyond...19:30-Do you really need to be a "well-rounded" player?...22:00-What is the proper balance between getting the right equipment and knowing what we want to sound like in our head?...27:00-Stepping away from full-time music and getting back into it to a limited extent...32:10-The difference between being irreverent and flippant while spoofing "legit" music...37:30-Advice from a grizzled veteran to the youngins looking to make their mark in the musical world...41:45-Plus whatever your discerning ears deem worthy of your time and interest...Resources mentioned:mfprotocol.trumpetdynamics.comThree More Foxes YouTube Lynn mentionsMentioned in this episode:Robinson's Lip RepairPainful chops because of pesky cold sores are a thing of the past with Robinson's Remedies Lip Repair!Robinson's Remedies

After a listener shows Adam another cover of ‘Eli's Coming', he discovers the man behind it, Maynard Ferguson, also covered ‘Stoney End' in a case of cover song coincidence. Adam gives an update on his upcoming 12-hour walk before Gina explains why picky eaters should have to take a “no thank you” bite. Host of the podcast ‘American Nightmare', Paul Wagner, talks to Adam about the third season of the show where he follows the case of the Potomac River Rapist. He gives some insight into the interesting elements of the case and explains how law enforcement uses DNA evidence to solve cold cases. PLUGS: See Jon Reep live: Myrtle Beach, SC - The House of Blues - November 16th Las Vegas, NV - Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club - December 8th through 11st And for more dates visit: Countryish.com Listen to Jon Reep's podcasts, ‘Country-ish' & ‘Heffron and Reep Show' wherever you find podcasts And follow him on Twitter, @JonReep Check out season 3 of Paul Wagner's ‘American Nightmare: Unknown Subject' available wherever you listen to podcasts Visit Paul Wagner's website to learn more: CaseJackets.com And follow him on Twitter @PaulCWagner THANKS FOR SUPPORTING TODAY'S SPONSORS: Geico.com Stamps.com enter ADAM The Jordan Harbinger Show

Bonus Lost Episode! A funny and lively conversation with my old pal Gregg Bissonette. We talk about Gregg's long and successful career beginning with Maynard Ferguson, to David Lee Roth, to Ringo Starr's All Star Band and more! Lots of great and valuable information for drummers, by one of the busiest and most successful drummers on the scene! This episode aired live on Facebook on January 31, 2021 and was only available on YouTube until now! https://linktr.ee/live_from_my_drum_room

On this Matt Bissonette Interview: VERY DEEP convo, talking about his early struggles, importance of being open-minded, God, selfishness, what top artists have that others don't have… working with Rick Springfield, Maynard Ferguson, Ringo Starr, Julian Lennon & Elton John… important lesson from Maynard, why joy and peace shouldn't come and go, TONS more cool stuff Cool Guitar & Music T-Shirts!: http://www.GuitarMerch.com Matt Bissonnette's played on literally hundreds of records. He's also toured as a sideman with Joe Satriani (5 LPs, multiple world tours), David Lee Roth (2 world tours & 1 LP), Elton John (last 7 years), Rick Springfield, Maynard Ferguson & loads of others. Matt's also released 3 amazing LPs with his own band, The Mustard Seeds Subscribe & Website:  https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe Support this show: http://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support

#783 - Diane Schuur The Diane Schuur Interview on The Paul Leslie Hour. Are you here? If you think I don't know that you're here, listening to The Paul Leslie Hour, well you've got another thing coming. Okay, seriously we've got an interview from the archives with Diane Schuur. This was broadcast on FM radio years ago and hasn't been heard since. Did you know that we have a lot of archival interviews like this just waiting to get heard. You can help us in our mission to get all of this content out there. Be a patron of the spoken word and supporter of independent media. Just go www.thepaulleslie.com/support This interview with Jazz legend Diane Schuur was conducted by Paul E. Leslie just after she released her album “The Gathering,” on Vanguard Records. Although Diane Schuur is one of jazz's leading singers, “The Gathering” is a collection of country songs mostly written during the 1960s. Produced by Steve Buckingham, the album features Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Larry Carlton, Mark Knopfler, and Kirk Whalum. Diane Schuur or “Deedles” as she is called by fans and friends alike, has a career spanning more than 40 years. She's collaborated with the likes of jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Caribbean Jazz Project, Stevie Wonder, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles, and bluesman B. B. King. She is a Grammy award-winner and it we think the word “legend” suits her perfectly. Now let's get into the interview. The Paul Leslie Hour - Helping People Tell Their Stories is a talk show with new episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Some of the most iconic people of all time drop in to chat. Frequent topics include Arts, Entertainment and Culture.

WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?"CHAMELEON"  by Maynard Ferguson (Columbia, 1974)I admit that I'm woefully unequipped to discuss Big Band music, or any Jazz for that matter, in great detail. Although, throughout my life I've developed a passion for the odd jazz master here and there, and as a matter of personal pride I've always strived to be conversant in the subject, at the very least. However, the trumpeter Maynard Ferguson was a blank slate for me. So, when combing through my 8 tracks and I stumbled upon this cart, I decided to give it a spin. This record depicts big band music at that cusp of time when it was struggling for relevance. Doc Severinson, Johnny Carson's band leader, (another trumpet player), played what seemed comically bloated and old fashioned - my parent's music. Maynard Ferguson was Doc's contemporary who played with him in Charlie Barnet's band in the late 40's, and he carried the big band flag all the way to his death in 2006 at the age of 78. When he made Chameleon in '74 he was 46 - still vital and searching for a key to the mystic highway. The covers of Paul McCartney's Jet, the titular funk track by Herbie Hancock, and the sprawling Livin' for the City by Stevie Wonder all testify to this cool Quebecois's questing versatility. And it's good stuff - lustily orchestrated and delivered. As his obit in the Washington Post described Mr. Ferguson's high register wailing: he was: “…. A gladiator, a combat soldier, a prize fighter, a circus strongman…” Now here's where the story gets weird and interesting for me: In 1963, Maynard brought his family to live with Timothy Leary and Ram Dass at their compound in Hitchcock Estates and lived there for three years, recording and taking psychedelics. Then, he went to India and taught Krishnamurti at the Rishi Valley School. And, he always attributed his ability to hit and sustain those high notes from his Yogic breath control. This turned my perception of this artist's output on its head. Live and learn.Side One:1. | "Chameleon" | Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, Bennie Maupin, Herbie Hancock | 4:352. | "Gospel John" | Jeffrey Steinberg | 6:023. | "The Way We Were" | Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman | 3:254. | "Jet" | Paul McCartney | 3:55Side Two:1. | "La Fiesta" | Chick Corea | 8:042. | "I Can't Get Started" (vocals by Maynard Ferguson) | Ira Gershwin, Vernon Duke | 3:423. | "Livin' for the City" | Stevie Wonder | 4:554. | "Superbone Meets the Bad Man"

In this episode I am talking to Sandy Koplowitz and Roger Homefield whom my friend Adrienne introduced me to. Now just because I like their song doesn't mean that I am supporting Trump. If you watch or listen to the episode I tell you how I feel about him and what I think about another 4 years of Trump. Below is the back story of how this song was born. Sandy brought Roger his lyrics for a pro-Trump parody, even though Roger hadn't sung or performed in 15 years and had become a political activist hosting his own "The Joe Citizen Show."  Roger modified the tempo and keys of Rogers and Hart's "The Lady is a Tramp" sung by Frank Sinatra for Sandy's new version for Roger to belt out criticism of Democrats and praise for Trump's accomplishments.  A musical weapon aimed at Trump's adversaries and deploring Biden's mismanaging America. Roger did an amazing job fitting his vocals into the song with the band, with Sandy's lyrics hitting the hot spots to help voters make the right decisions before America slips away for good, if Biden wins another term.  Homefield was lead jazz trombonist with the Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, and Maynard Ferguson big bands and was "Joe Citizen" on his pro-American radio show, composer for his orchestra, and arranged music for his musical variety act. Koplowitz and Homefield met playing senior softball.  A long-time member of the American Mensa Society, Sandy was a computer programmer for IBM and today he and Gabi, his opera-singing fiancée, perform singing gigs entertaining residents at assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Link to the song on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oGqnlohevRc That's Why We Need to Bring Back Trump YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyPkd4DKY2O9kKh-u2fP2bw/featured Thanks for listening! If you have any comments feel free to leave me a voice message on my Anchor podcast page and tell me what's on your mind. If I like what you have to say I will play it on an episode of the show. All of the links for the show and social media are there as well in the link below. Anchor Podcast Page: https://anchor.fm/no-where-to-go-but-up --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/no-where-to-go-but-up/message

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! En esta edición estrenamos 'Love Planet', el que es el segundo disco del pianista Mark Etheredge. En él han colaborado músicos como Paul Brown, Greg Vail o Steve Oliver. En el repaso a novedades de la música Smooth Jazz reseñamos los álbumes de Paul Brown, Khari Cabral Simmons, Kyle Schroeder, Avery Sunshine y Jazz Funk Soul. En el bloque para el recuerdo recuperamos unos cuantos álbumes de la década de los 70 del trompetista canadiense Maynard Ferguson.Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de Cloud Jazz Smooth Jazz. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/27170

Join the band as we discuss the self-described Greatest Trumpet Player of All times and learn about why Joe never screams.website: actonmusicproject.comemail: music@actonmusicproject.comCraig's phone number: ‪(978) 310-1613‬

My guest for this episode is Rich Willey. Rich speaks from experience. A veteran sideman and prolific composer, Rich has played with the likes of Maynard Ferguson, Mel Torme, and Tommy Dorsey, and has published a massive collection of arrangements, compositions, and method books. But success on the bandstand came at a price. Rich has had to endure a number of setbacks that nearly ended his career, eventually leading Rich to become a student of Donald Reinhardt's Pivot System and to his commitment to provide help and hope to others. Check out what Rich has to say about learning from adversity, the power of self-talk, his advice on recovering from Bell's Palsy, why you can't cram for trumpet playing, being committed, why you have to be willing to suck, an introduction to the teachings of Donald Reinhardt, the musical side of Doc Reinhardt, diagnostic tools, diagnosing problems, self-diagnosis, moving to Philadelphia to study with Doc Reinhardt, Reinhardt resources, inspirations for his method books, how talent can be your biggest enemy, the sound characteristics of Reinhardt types, lip buzzing, and so much more! So pour yourself a big glass, pull up a chair, and let the hang begin! -------------------------------------------------------------- Find Rich's music and publications at: https://www.boptism.com/ Listen to Dr. Donald Reinhardt explain his concepts: https://www.boptism.com/product-category/doc-reinhardt-listening-zone/ Sound like a million bucks without breaking the bank with Barkley Microphones: http://barkleymic.com/ Let Vennture Mouthpieces help you on your search for the perfect mouthpiece. Use the code "TRUMPETGURUS21" to get 10% off your purchase: https://www.vennture.mp/ If you play hard, you need to make sure you show your chops some love with Robinson's Remedies products: bit.ly/ChopLove Let Jose help you master your mental game: bit.ly/MindfulnessSecrets ----------------------------------------------------------------- 00:00:00:00 Intro 00:03:37:12 Learning from adversity 00:07:05:02 The power of self-talk 00:08:31:14 His advice on recovering from Bell's Palsy 00:11:21:12 Why you can't cram for trumpet 00:13:45:14 Being committed 00:15:31:12 Why you have to be willing to suck 00:18:54:03 An introduction to the teachings of Donald Reinhardt 00:23:24:14 The musical side of Doc Reinhardt 00:29:34:24 Diagnostic tools 00:32:54:07 Diagnosing problems 00:40:05:17 Self diagnosis 00:46:17:07 Moving to Philadelphia to study with Doc Reinhardt 00:52:44:20 Reinhardt resources 00:56:19:20 Inspirations for his method books 01:05:36:20 How talent can be your biggest enemy 01:07:26:02 Sound off 01:12:04:22 Sound characteristics by type 01:14:34:20 Lip Buzzing 01:16:19:19 Geared Up 01:24:41:11 Rapid Fire Round --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thetrumpetgurus/support

Trumpet Night Each of these three Trumpet Players have incredible resumes and they also play in Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band together!  Really great stories and some insights into trumpet playing, high notes, and who they are listening to now! Wayne Bergeron Wayne Bergeron is enjoying a career as one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. Studio sessions, film dates, international touring, jazz concerts, guest appearances, and clinics keep him busy not only in his hometown of Los Angeles, but worldwide.  Maybe Grammy winning composer and bandleader, Gordon Goodwin said it best, “Wayne is a once in a lifetime lead trumpet player.” Waybe discusses his new smartphone App "Wayne Bergeron Playalong" - find it at - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wayne-bergeron-play-along/id1578404590 Dan Fornero Six months after moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Dan toured for a year playing lead trumpet with Woody Herman, kickstarting his career as a freelance trumpet player.  He has also played with Tom Jones, Brian Setzer, Al McKay, Phil Collins, Niel Diamond as well as the films Incredibles 2, Coco, La La Land, The Brothers Warner, Tag, Purl, CHiPs, Tangled, Horrible Bosses 2, Night School, Ferdinand, Sing, Rio 2, Despicable Me 2, Epic, Monster Trucks, Ice Age 3,  Ice Age 2 Mike Rocha Gwen Stefanie, Panic at the Disco, Christina Aguilara, Bob Dylan, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band & Little Phat Band, Jeff Bernat, Death from Above 1979 the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Ensemble, the John Daversa Big Band, the Geoff Stradling Large Ensemble, the Alan Chan Big Band, and the Vardan Ovsepian chamber ensemble. He has his own album out with the Lappitt-Rocha Sextet called First Take.  Find it on Apple Music at https://music.apple.com/us/album/first-take/1431368869 Mike also talkes about the Berklee Reserve Bookroom (playalongs).  You can find it at https://lrweb.berklee.edu/resources/playalongs/ Wayne Bergeron – Trumpet Performed with: Jazz Round Table #19 Trumpet Night 3/8/22 Bio – Wayne Bergeron is enjoying a career as one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. Studio sessions, film dates, international touring, jazz concerts, guest appearances, and clinics keep him busy not only in his hometown of Los Angeles, but worldwide.  Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1958, Bergeron came to Los Angeles at age one, so considers himself a native Californian. Originally starting on French horn, he switched to trumpet in seventh grade and found he had natural upper register ability. Bergeron credits his junior high and high school teachers, Ron Savitt and Bob Smith, for molding his talent into practical working skills.  Bergeron first caught the ear of many when he landed the lead trumpet chair with Maynard Ferguson's band in 1986. Bergeron can be heard on Maynard's recordings of Body and Soul, Big Bop Nouveau, Brass Attitude, and The One and Only Maynard Ferguson.  Bergeron demonstrates daily why Maynard remarked, “Wayne is the most musical lead trumpet player I've had on my band.”  As a sideman, Bergeron's list of recording credits reads like a who's who in contemporary jazz and pop, running the stylistic gamut from Ray Charles to Green Day. Other names include Panic, AT the Disco!, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Barbra Streisand, Michael Buble, Mary J. Blige, Indina Menzel, Leslie Oden Jr., Herb Alpert, The Jonas Brothers, Burt Bacharach, The Dirty Loops, Seth MacFarlane, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Seal, Diana Krall, Tito Puente, Christina Aguilera, Dianne Reeves, Michael Bolton, Earth Wind & Fire, The Pussy Cat Dolls, My Chemical Romance, The Mars Volta, Chicago, Rosemary Cloony, Diane Schuur, Barry Manilow, Lee Ann Womack, Lou Rawls, Eric Marienthal, Kenny G., and David Benoit.  Bergeron has worked on over 450 TV & motion picture soundtracks. A partial list of film credits include Minions 2:The Rise of Gru, Soul, Ford vs. Ferrari, Toy Story 4, Frozen 1, 2, Despicable Me 1, 2, and 3, Secret Life of Pets 1, 2,

Clear your spit valves, tighten your drum heads, and adjust your plumes... this week, Christie Buchele returns to the show and we're talking about Marching Band. Topics include John Phillip Sousa, the Sudler Shield, Scramble Bands and more. Plus we're playing I See What You Did There and FMK! *trumpet blurt*Follow Christie: https://twitter.com/cabuchsy and watch out for A Father Named Todd, her album, to drop!Check out Rise Comedy: https://risecomedy.com/Check out Maynard Ferguson: https://maynardferguson.com/And some CSU Trombone Suicides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f6zAycXcP0Plus, don't miss out on the Drum and Bugle Corps too! MUSIC!!!!! 

My guest for this episode is Louis Dowdeswell. Louis is incredible. Louis' seemingly effortless command of the trumpet's upper register puts him in rare air indeed. As one of the Young Lions of the bustling London music scene, you can hear Louis light it up in studios, soundstages, and pits as well as with his own big band. And Louis' video covers of soundtrack tunes have had millions of views worldwide. But the best part is that Louis' laugh comes just as easy as his double C. Check out what Louis has to say about connecting with Wayne Bergeron, being a mentor. learning how to be a successful musician, the Tom Walsh Effect, the London musical path, finding your unique selling proposition, defining moments, change and growth, the necessity of trade-offs, Maynard Ferguson, anatomy and efficiency, the importance of soft playing to develop the upper register, Reinhardt Types, his theory on aperture size and compression, how to practice to develop the upper register, and so much more! So pour yourself a big glass, pull up a chair, and let the hang begin! -------------------------------------------------------------- Find all things Louis at: https://www.louisdowdeswell.com/home Louis on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChickenTiko Sound like a million bucks without breaking the bank with Barkley Microphones: http://barkleymic.com/ Let Vennture Mouthpieces help you on your search for the perfect mouthpiece. Use the code "TRUMPETGURUS21" to get 10% off your purchase: https://www.vennture.mp/ If you play hard, you need to make sure you show your chops some love with Robinson's Remedies products: bit.ly/ChopLove Let Jose help you master your mental game: bit.ly/MindfulnessSecrets ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:53 Connecting with Wayne Bergeron 00:08:21 Being a mentor 00:15:20 Learning how to be a successful musician 00:23:00 The Tom Walsh Effect 00:29:05 The London musical path 00:32:59 Finding your unique selling proposition 00:40:46 Defining moments 00:51:42 Change and growth 01:01:08 The necessity of trade-offs 01:06:30 Maynard Ferguson 01:10:14 Anatomy and efficiency 01:13:29 The importance of soft playing to develop the upper register 01:19:00 Reinhardt Types 01:21:02 His theory on aperture size and compression 01:29:25 How to practice to develop the upper register 01:32:33 Sound Off 01:37:57 Geared Up 01:42:34 Rapid Fire Round --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thetrumpetgurus/support

I was looking through the roster of jazz birthdays for the month of May and decided to commemorate some of the folks listed both living and dead on this week's edition of Jazz Unlimited with Paul Anthony. We'll listen to music by those born in the first week of May including Maynard Ferguson, Shirley Horn, Ira Sullivan, Richard Groove Holmes, Blues and R & B singer Big Maybelle and those still with us…..40 year old trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and a special tribute to soon to be 85 year old prolific bassist Ron Carter. Join me for Part 1 of May Birthdays on Jazz Unlimited with Paul Anthony.

IT'S TIME! Everyone gather round for the main event, where the popular athlete dog "Air Bud" enters the world of mixed martial arts and tries to claim the belt as the best fighter. In this week's episode of "Writer's Block", we are back for the second dog themed movie idea in a row, and we bring Air Bud to life and put him smack dab into the UFC octagon. Also, you get to hear some alien, Miami, dog themed scripts from last week's episode from Brandon, Lukas, AND MARINA! Now why is Air Bud fighting in the UFC? Does he use his teeth and claws when he fights? And who in the world is Maynard Ferguson, and why does Lukas know who he is? Tune in this week to find out all of this and more, but only on "The Good, The Bad, & The Movies"! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tgtbtm/message

In episode 2, Jeff and Rachael answer more listener questions including how many hours a week we actually work, what we talk about when the mics are off, and how we come up with different content ideas. Also, Jeff finally proves Rachael wrong - there is another Maynard Ferguson fan out there. (And he's a band conductor. Shocking.) We want to hear from you! Call or text our hotline any time at 405-320-9799

Today's guest, Johnny Rabb is the drummer for multi-platinum rock band Collective Soul. Throughout his career, he's also played with artists including Maynard Ferguson, SheDaisy, Tanya Tucker, Mindy McCready, and many more! He's also an educator, and was voted #1 Best Educational Author by Modern Drummer Magazine's Reader's Poll.

In this episode, top Pittsburgh-based bassist Paul Thompson discusses his favorite rhythm sections of all time, what he looks for in a drummer, and much more. In the Shop Talk segment, we try to identify the origin of a mysterious vintage drumset with Chris Hawthorne of Hawthorne Drum Shop.

My guest for this episode is Lynn Nicholson. Lynn is a seeker. As a young trumpet player, his search for a better solution to playing outdoors led to him discovering The MF Protocol. His superhuman upper register landed Lynn's first professional gig with Bill Chase and then as a featured member of the Maynard Ferguson band. While Lynn's life has taken some unpredictable twists and turns he has always followed his heart and remained true to his inquisitive nature. Check out what Lynn has to say about stumbling onto the MF Protocol, the need for a methodical approach, having an enquiring mind, being surrounded by greatness, transitioning to life in LA and Vegas, learning to be comfortable in the uncertainty, motivations, making mouthpiece magic, myth-busting, what he learned from Maynard, and so much more! So pour yourself a big glass, pull up a chair, and let the hang begin! -------------------------------------------------------------- Find out more about The MF Protocol and Lynn's other products at: http://james-r-new.com/affiliates/lynn-nicholson.html Sound like a million bucks without breaking the bank with Barkley Microphones: http://barkleymic.com/ Let Vennture Mouthpieces help you on your search for the perfect mouthpiece. Use the code "TRUMPETGURUS21" to get 10% off your purchase: https://www.vennture.mp/ If you play hard, you need to make sure you show your chops some love with Robinson's Remedies products: bit.ly/ChopLove Let Jose help you master your mental game: bit.ly/MindfulnessSecrets ----------------------------------- 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:13 Stumbling onto the MF Protocol 00:05:41 The need for a methodical approach 00:08:37 Having an inquiring mind 00:12:39 Being surrounded by greatness 00:15:39 Transitioning to life in LA and Vegas 00:23:40 Learning to be comfortable in the uncertainty 00:27:00 Motivations 00:40:07 Making mouthpiece magic 00:50:51 Myth-busting 01:01:36 What he learned from Maynard 01:12:42 Sound Off 01:14:07 Geared Up 01:17:01 Rapid Fire Round --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thetrumpetgurus/support

Pittsburgh Trombonist Reggie Watkins has always had a knack for music. He has come a long way from learning how to play the piano at six. Born and raised in West Virginia and spending years in Pittsburgh, Reggie was exposed to musical influences that would later turn him into an internationally-recognized performer, pianist, arranger, and composer. Leveraging  his experience fronting a quarter on a cruise ship, he then served as trombonist and musical director for trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson. From there he went on to tour and record with  Jason Mraz from 2008 to 2013. He has shared the stage with many great artists from various genres including Aretha Franklin, Dave Matthews, Dianne Shuur, Jose Feliciano, Willie Nelson, Arturo Sandoval, Trombone Shorty, The Temptations, and the O'Jays. He is also a member of the Grammy-nominated Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band. He joins us in this episode to talk about his epiphany moment with jazz, his music education and influences, his early cruise ship gigs, his years touring with the Maynard Ferguson band and Jason Mraz, his practice routine, and the honor of playing at Aretha Franklin's funeral. 

This week's episode looks at “Tomorrow Never Knows”, the making of Revolver by the Beatles, and the influence of Timothy Leary on the burgeoning psychedelic movement. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Keep on Running" by the Spencer Davis Group. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata A few things -- I say "Fairfield" at one point when I mean "Fairchild". While Timothy Leary was imprisoned in 1970 he wasn't actually placed in the cell next to Charles Manson until 1973. Sources differ on when Geoff Emerick started at EMI, and he *may* not have worked on "Sun Arise", though I've seen enough reliable sources saying he did that I think it's likely. And I've been told that Maureen Cleave denied having an affair with Lennon -- though note that I said it was "strongly rumoured" rather than something definite. Resources As usual, a mix of all the songs excerpted in this episode is available at Mixcloud.com. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. For information on Timothy Leary I used a variety of sources including The Most Dangerous Man in America by Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis; Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In by Robert Forte; The Starseed Signals by Robert Anton Wilson; and especially The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin. I also referred to both The Tibetan Book of the Dead and to The Psychedelic Experience. Leary's much-abridged audiobook version of The Psychedelic Experience can be purchased from Folkways Records. Sadly the first mono mix of "Tomorrow Never Knows" has been out of print since it was first issued. The only way to get the second mono mix is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but the stereo mix is easily available on Revolver. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start this episode, I'd like to note that it deals with a number of subjects some listeners might find upsetting, most notably psychedelic drug use, mental illness, and suicide. I think I've dealt with those subjects fairly respectfully, but you still may want to check the transcript if you have worries about these subjects. Also, we're now entering a period of music history with the start of the psychedelic era where many of the songs we're looking at are influenced by non-mainstream religious traditions, mysticism, and also increasingly by political ideas which may seem strange with nearly sixty years' hindsight. I'd just like to emphasise that when I talk about these ideas, I'm trying as best I can to present the thinking of the people I'm talking about, in an accurate and unbiased way, rather than talking about my own beliefs. We're going to head into some strange places in some of these episodes, and my intention is neither to mock the people I'm talking about nor to endorse their ideas, but to present those ideas to you the listener so you can understand the music, the history, and the mindset of the people involved, Is that clear? Then lets' turn on, tune in, and drop out back to 1955... [Opening excerpt from The Psychedelic Experience] There is a phenomenon in many mystical traditions, which goes by many names, including the dark night of the soul and the abyss. It's an experience that happens to mystics of many types, in which they go through unimaginable pain near the beginning of their journey towards greater spiritual knowledge. That pain usually involves a mixture of internal and external events -- some terrible tragedy happens to them, giving them a new awareness of the world's pain, at the same time they're going through an intellectual crisis about their understanding of the world, and it can last several years. It's very similar to the more common experience of the mid-life crisis, except that rather than buying a sports car and leaving their spouse, mystics going through this are more likely to found a new religion. At least, those who survive the crushing despair intact. Those who come out of the experience the other end often find themselves on a totally new path, almost like they're a different person. In 1955, when Dr. Timothy Leary's dark night of the soul started, he was a respected academic psychologist, a serious scientist who had already made several substantial contributions to his field, and was considered a rising star. By 1970, he would be a confirmed mystic, sentenced to twenty years in prison, in a cell next to Charles Manson, and claiming to different people that he was the reincarnation of Gurdjieff, Aleister Crowley, and Jesus Christ. In the fifties, Leary and his wife had an open relationship, in which they were both allowed to sleep with other people, but weren't allowed to form emotional attachments to them. Unfortunately, Leary *had* formed an emotional attachment to another woman, and had started spending so much time with her that his wife was convinced he was going to leave her. On top of that, Leary was an alcoholic, and was prone to get into drunken rows with his wife. He woke up on the morning of his thirty-fifth birthday, hung over after one of those rows, to find that she had died by suicide while he slept, leaving a note saying that she knew he was going to leave her and that her life would be meaningless without him. This was only months after Leary had realised that the field he was working in, to which he had devoted his academic career, was seriously broken. Along with a colleague, Frank Barron, he published a paper on the results of clinical psychotherapy, "Changes in psychoneurotic patients with and without psychotherapy" which analysed the mental health of a group of people who had been through psychotherapy, and found that a third of them improved, a third stayed the same, and a third got worse. The problem was that there was a control group, of people with the same conditions who were put on a waiting list and told to wait the length of time that the therapy patients were being treated. A third of them improved, a third stayed the same, and a third got worse. In other words, psychotherapy as it was currently practised had no measurable effect at all on patients' health. This devastated Leary, as you might imagine. But more through inertia than anything else, he continued working in the field, and in 1957 he published what was regarded as a masterwork -- his book Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality: A Functional Theory and Methodology for Personality Evaluation. Leary's book was a challenge to the then-dominant idea in psychology, behaviourism, which claimed that it made no sense to talk about anyone's internal thoughts or feelings -- all that mattered was what could be measured, stimuli and responses, and that in a very real sense the unmeasurable thoughts people had didn't exist at all. Behaviourism looked at every human being as a mechanical black box, like a series of levers. Leary, by contrast, analysed human interactions as games, in which people took on usual roles, but were able, if they realised this, to change the role or even the game itself. It was very similar to the work that Eric Berne was doing at the same time, and which would later be popularised in Berne's book Games People Play. Berne's work was so popular that it led to the late-sixties hit record "Games People Play" by Joe South: [Excerpt: Joe South: "Games People Play"] But in 1957, between Leary and Berne, Leary was considered the more important thinker among his peers -- though some thought of him as more of a showman, enthralled by his own ideas about how he was going to change psychology, than a scientist, and some thought that he was unfairly taking credit for the work of lesser-known but better researchers. But by 1958, the effects of the traumas Leary had gone through a couple of years earlier were at their worst. He was starting to become seriously ill -- from the descriptions, probably from something stress-related and psychosomatic -- and he took his kids off to Europe, where he was going to write the great American novel. But he rapidly ran through his money, and hadn't got very far with the novel. He was broke, and ill, and depressed, and desperate, but then in 1959 his old colleague Frank Barron, who was on holiday in the area, showed up, and the two had a conversation that changed Leary's life forever in multiple ways. The first of the conversational topics would have the more profound effect, though that wouldn't be apparent at first. Barron talked to Leary about his previous holiday, when he'd visited Mexico and taken psilocybin mushrooms. These had been used by Mexicans for centuries, but the first publication about them in English had only been in 1955 -- the same year when Leary had had other things on his mind -- and they were hardly known at all outside Mexico. Barron talked about the experience as being the most profound, revelatory, experience of his life. Leary thought his friend sounded like a madman, but he humoured him for the moment. But Barron also mentioned that another colleague was on holiday in the same area. David McClelland, head of the Harvard Center for Personality Research, had mentioned to Barron that he had just read Diagnosis of Personality and thought it a work of genius. McClelland hired Leary to work for him at Harvard, and that was where Leary met Ram Dass. [Excerpt from "The Psychedelic Experience"] Ram Dass was not the name that Dass was going by at the time -- he was going by his birth name, and only changed his name a few years later, after the events we're talking about -- but as always, on this podcast we don't use people's deadnames, though his is particularly easy to find as it's still the name on the cover of his most famous book, which we'll be talking about shortly. Dass was another psychologist at the Centre for Personality Research, and he would be Leary's closest collaborator for the next several years. The two men would become so close that at several points Leary would go travelling and leave his children in Dass' care for extended periods of time. The two were determined to revolutionise academic psychology. The start of that revolution didn't come until summer 1960. While Leary was on holiday in Cuernavaca in Mexico, a linguist and anthropologist he knew, Lothar Knauth, mentioned that one of the old women in the area collected those magic mushrooms that Barron had been talking about. Leary decided that that might be a fun thing to do on his holiday, and took a few psilocybin mushrooms. The effect was extraordinary. Leary called this, which had been intended only as a bit of fun, "the deepest religious experience of my life". [Excerpt from "The Psychedelic Experience"] He returned to Harvard after his summer holiday and started what became the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Leary and various other experimenters took controlled doses of psilocybin and wrote down their experiences, and Leary believed this would end up revolutionising psychology, giving them insights unattainable by other methods. The experimenters included lecturers, grad students, and people like authors Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, and Alan Watts, who popularised Zen Buddhism in the West. Dass didn't join the project until early 1961 -- he'd actually been on the holiday with Leary, but had arrived a few days after the mushroom experiment, and nobody had been able to get hold of the old woman who knew where to find the mushrooms, so he'd just had to deal with Leary telling him about how great it was rather than try it himself. He then spent a semester as a visiting scholar at Berkeley, so he didn't get to try his first trip until February 1961. Dass, on his first trip, first had a revelation about the nature of his own true soul, then decided at three in the morning that he needed to go and see his parents, who lived nearby, and tell them the good news. But there was several feet of snow, and so he decided he must save his parents from the snow, and shovel the path to their house. At three in the morning. Then he saw them looking out the window at him, he waved, and then started dancing around the shovel. He later said “Until that moment I was always trying to be the good boy, looking at myself through other people's eyes. What did the mothers, fathers, teachers, colleagues want me to be? That night, for the first time, I felt good inside. It was OK to be me.” The Harvard Psilocybin Project soon became the Harvard Psychedelic Project. The term "psychedelic", meaning "soul revealing", was coined by the British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond, who had been experimenting with hallucinogens for years, and had guided Aldous Huxley on the mescaline trip described in The Doors of Perception. Osmond and Huxley had agreed that the term "psychotomimetic", in use at the time, which meant "mimicking psychosis", wasn't right -- it was too negative. They started writing letters to each other, suggesting alternative terms. Huxley came up with "phanerothyme", the Greek for "soul revealing", and wrote a little couplet to Osmond: To make this trivial world sublime Take half a gramme of phanerothyme. Osmond countered with the Latin equivalent: To fathom hell or soar angelic Just take a pinch of psychedelic Osmond also inspired Leary's most important experimental work of the early sixties. Osmond had got to know Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and had introduced W. to LSD. W. had become sober after experiencing a profound spiritual awakening and a vision of white light while being treated for his alcoholism using the so-called "belladonna cure" -- a mixture of various hallucinogenic and toxic substances that was meant to cure alcoholism. When W. tried LSD, he found it replicated his previous spiritual experience and became very evangelistic about its use by alcoholics, thinking it could give them the same kind of awakening he'd had. Leary became convinced that if LSD could work on alcoholics, it could also be used to help reshape the personalities of habitual criminals and lead them away from reoffending. His idea for how to treat people was based, in part, on the ideas of transactional analysis. There is always a hierarchical relationship between a therapist and their patient, and that hierarchical relationship itself, in Leary's opinion, forced people into particular game roles and made it impossible for them to relate as equals, and thus impossible for the therapist to truly help the patient. So his idea was that there needed to be a shared bonding experience between patient and doctor. So in his prison experiments, he and the other people involved, including Ralph Metzner, one of his grad students, would take psilocybin *with* the patients. In short-term follow-ups the patients who went through this treatment process were less depressed, felt better, and were only half as likely to reoffend as normal prisoners. But critics pointed out that the prisoners had been getting a lot of individual attention and support, and there was no control group getting that support without the psychedelics. [Excerpt: The Psychedelic Experience] As the experiments progressed, though, things were becoming tense within Harvard. There was concern that some of the students who were being given psilocybin were psychologically vulnerable and were being put at real risk. There was also worry about the way that Leary and Dass were emphasising experience over analysis, which was felt to be against the whole of academia. Increasingly it looked like there was a clique forming as well, with those who had taken part in their experiments on the inside and looking down on those outside, and it looked to many people like this was turning into an actual cult. This was simply not what the Harvard psychology department was meant to be doing. And one Harvard student was out to shut them down for good, and his name was Andrew Weil. Weil is now best known as one of the leading lights in alternative health, and has made appearances on Oprah and Larry King Live, but for many years his research interest was in mind-altering chemicals -- his undergraduate thesis was on the use of nutmeg to induce different states of consciousness. At this point Weil was an undergraduate, and he and his friend Ronnie Winston had both tried to get involved in the Harvard Psilocybin Project, but had been turned down -- while they were enthusiastic about it, they were also undergraduates, and Leary and Dass had agreed with the university that they wouldn't be using undergraduates in their project, and that only graduate students, faculty, and outsiders would be involved. So Weil and Winston had started their own series of experiments, using mescaline after they'd been unable to get any psilocybin -- they'd contacted Aldous Huxley, the author of The Doors of Perception and an influence on Leary and Dass' experiments, and asked him where they could get mescaline, and he'd pointed them in the right direction. But then Winston and Dass had become friends, and Dass had given Winston some psilocybin -- not as part of his experiments, so Dass didn't think he was crossing a line, but just socially. Weil saw this as a betrayal by Winston, who stopped hanging round with him once he became close to Dass, and also as a rejection of him by Dass and Leary. If they'd give Winston psilocybin, why wouldn't they give it to him? Weil was a writer for the Harvard Crimson, Harvard's newspaper, and he wrote a series of exposes on Leary and Dass for the Crimson. He went to his former friend Winston's father and told him "Your son is getting drugs from a faculty member. If your son will admit to that charge, we'll cut out your son's name. We won't use it in the article."  Winston did admit to the charge, under pressure from his father, and was brought to tell the Dean, saying to the Dean “Yes, sir, I did, and it was the most educational experience I've had at Harvard.” Weil wrote about this for the Crimson, and the story was picked up by the national media. Weil eventually wrote about Leary and Dass for Look magazine, where he wrote “There were stories of students and others using hallucinogens for seductions, both heterosexual and homosexual.” And this seems actually to have been a big part of Weil's motivation. While Dass and Winston always said that their relationship was purely platonic, Dass was bisexual, and Weil seems to have assumed his friend had been led astray by an evil seducer. This was at a time when homophobia and biphobia were even more prevalent in society than they are now, and part of the reason Leary and Dass fell out in the late sixties is that Leary started to see Dass' sexuality as evil and perverted and something they should be trying to use LSD to cure. The experiments became a national scandal, and one of the reasons that LSD was criminalised a few years later. Dass was sacked for giving drugs to undergraduates; Leary had gone off to Mexico to get away from the stress, leaving his kids with Dass. He would be sacked for going off without permission and leaving his classes untaught. As Leary and Dass were out of Harvard, they had to look for other sources of funding. Luckily, Dass turned William Mellon Hitchcock, the heir to the Mellon oil fortune, on to acid, and he and his brother Tommy and sister Peggy gave them the run of a sixty-four room mansion, named Millbrook. When they started there, they were still trying to be academics, but over the five years they were at Millbrook it became steadily less about research and more of a hippie commune, with regular visitors and long-term residents including Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and the jazz musician Maynard Ferguson, who would later get a small amount of fame with jazz-rock records like his version of "MacArthur Park": [Excerpt: Maynard Ferguson, "MacArthur Park"] It was at Millbrook that Leary, Dass, and Metzner would write the book that became The Psychedelic Experience. This book was inspired by the Bardo Thödol, a book allegedly written by Padmasambhava, the man who introduced Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century, though no copies of it are known to have existed before the fourteenth century, when it was supposedly discovered by Karma Lingpa. Its title translates as Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State, but it was translated into English under the name The Tibetan Book of the Dead, as Walter Evans-Wentz, who compiled and edited the first English translation was, like many Westerners who studied Buddhism in the early part of the twentieth century, doing so because he was an occultist and a member of the Theosophical Society, which believes the secret occult masters of the world live in Tibet, but which also considered the Egyptian Book of the Dead -- a book which bears little relationship to the Bardo Thödol, and which was written thousands of years earlier on a different continent -- to be a major religious document. So it was through that lens that Evans-Wentz was viewing the Bardo Thödol, and he renamed the book to emphasise what he perceived as its similarities. Part of the Bardo Thödol is a description of what happens to someone between death and rebirth -- the process by which the dead person becomes aware of true reality, and then either transcends it or is dragged back into it by their lesser impulses -- and a series of meditations that can be used to help with that transcendence. In the version published as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, this is accompanied by commentary from Evans-Wentz, who while he was interested in Buddhism didn't actually know that much about Tibetan Buddhism, and was looking at the text through a Theosophical lens, and mostly interpreting it using Hindu concepts. Later editions of Evans-Wentz's version added further commentary by Carl Jung, which looked at Evans-Wentz's version of the book through Jung's own lens, seeing it as a book about psychological states, not about anything more supernatural (although Jung's version of psychology was always a supernaturalist one, of course). His Westernised, psychologised, version of the book's message became part of the third edition. Metzner later said "At the suggestion of Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard we began using the Bardo Thödol ( Tibetan Book of the Dead) as a guide to psychedelic sessions. The Tibetan Buddhists talked about the three phases of experience on the “intermediate planes” ( bardos) between death and rebirth. We translated this to refer to the death and the rebirth of the ego, or ordinary personality. Stripped of the elaborate Tibetan symbolism and transposed into Western concepts, the text provided a remarkable parallel to our findings." Leary, Dass, and Metzner rewrote the book into a form that could be used to guide a reader through a psychedelic trip, through the death of their ego and its rebirth. Later, Leary would record an abridged audiobook version, and it's this that we've been hearing excerpts of during this podcast so far: [Excerpt: The Psychedelic Experience "Turn off your mind, relax, float downstream" about 04:15] When we left the Beatles, they were at the absolute height of their fame, though in retrospect the cracks had already begun to show.  Their second film had been released, and the soundtrack had contained some of their best work, but the title track, "Help!", had been a worrying insight into John Lennon's current mental state. Immediately after making the film and album, of course, they went back out touring, first a European tour, then an American one, which probably counts as the first true stadium tour. There had been other stadium shows before the Beatles 1965 tour -- we talked way back in the first episodes of the series about how Sister Rosetta Tharpe had a *wedding* that was a stadium gig. But of course there are stadiums and stadiums, and the Beatles' 1965 tour had them playing the kind of venues that no other musician, and certainly no other rock band, had ever played. Most famously, of course, there was the opening concert of the tour at Shea Stadium, where they played to an audience of fifty-five thousand people -- the largest audience a rock band had ever played for, and one which would remain a record for many years. Most of those people, of course, couldn't actually hear much of anything -- the band weren't playing through a public address system designed for music, just playing through the loudspeakers that were designed for commentating on baseball games. But even if they had been playing through the kind of modern sound systems used today, it's unlikely that the audience would have heard much due to the overwhelming noise coming from the crowd. Similarly, there were no live video feeds of the show or any of the other things that nowadays make it at least possible for the audience to have some idea what is going on on stage. The difference between this and anything that anyone had experienced before was so great that the group became overwhelmed. There's video footage of the show -- a heavily-edited version, with quite a few overdubs and rerecordings of some tracks was broadcast on TV, and it's also been shown in cinemas more recently as part of promotion for an underwhelming documentary about the Beatles' tours -- and you can see Lennon in particular becoming actually hysterical during the performance of "I'm Down", where he's playing the organ with his elbows. Sadly the audio nature of this podcast doesn't allow me to show Lennon's facial expression, but you can hear something of the exuberance in the performance. This is from what is labelled as a copy of the raw audio of the show -- the version broadcast on TV had a fair bit of additional sweetening work done on it: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I'm Down (Live at Shea Stadium)"] After their American tour they had almost six weeks off work to write new material before going back into the studio to record their second album of the year, and one which would be a major turning point for the group. The first day of the recording sessions for this new album, Rubber Soul, started with two songs of Lennon's. The first of these was "Run For Your Life", a song Lennon never later had much good to say about, and which is widely regarded as the worst song on the album. That song was written off a line from Elvis Presley's version of "Baby Let's Play House", and while Lennon never stated this, it's likely that it was brought to mind by the Beatles having met with Elvis during their US tour. But the second song was more interesting. Starting with "Help!", Lennon had been trying to write more interesting lyrics. This had been inspired by two conversations with British journalists -- Kenneth Allsop had told Lennon that while he liked Lennon's poetry, the lyrics to his songs were banal in comparison and he found them unlistenable as a result, while Maureen Cleave, a journalist who was a close friend with Lennon, had told him that she hadn't noticed a single word in any of his lyrics with more than two syllables, so he made more of an effort with "Help!", putting in words like "independence" and "insecure". As he said in one of his last interviews, "I was insecure then, and things like that happened more than once. I never considered it before. So after that I put a few words with three syllables in, but she didn't think much of them when I played it for her, anyway.” Cleave may have been an inspiration for "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". There are very strong rumours that Lennon had an affair with Cleave in the mid-sixties, and if that's true it would definitely fit into a pattern. Lennon had many, many, affairs during his first marriage, both brief one-night stands and deeper emotional attachments, and those emotional attachments were generally with women who were slightly older, intellectual, somewhat exotic looking by the standards of 1960s Britain, and in the arts. Lennon later claimed to have had an affair with Eleanor Bron, the Beatles' co-star in Help!, though she always denied this, and it's fairly widely established that he did have an affair with Alma Cogan, a singer who he'd mocked during her peak of popularity in the fifties, but who would later become one of his closest friends: [Excerpt: Alma Cogan, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"] And "Norwegian Wood", the second song recorded for Rubber Soul, started out as a confession to one of these affairs, a way of Lennon admitting it to his wife without really admitting it. The figure in the song is a slightly aloof, distant woman, and the title refers to the taste among Bohemian British people at the time for minimalist decor made of Scandinavian pine -- something that would have been a very obvious class signifier at the time. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"] Lennon and McCartney had different stories about who wrote what in the song, and Lennon's own story seems to have changed at various times. What seems to have happened is that Lennon wrote the first couple of verses while on holiday with George Martin, and finished it off later with McCartney's help. McCartney seems to have come up with the middle eight melody -- which is in Dorian mode rather than the Mixolydian mode of the verses -- and to have come up with the twist ending, where the woman refuses to sleep with the protagonist and laughs at him, he goes to sleep in the bath rather than her bed, wakes up alone, and sets fire to the house in revenge. This in some ways makes "Norwegian Wood" the thematic centrepiece of the album that was to result, combining several of the themes its two songwriters came back to throughout the album and the single recorded alongside it. Like Lennon's "Run For Your Life" it has a misogynistic edge to it, and deals with taking revenge against a woman, but like his song "Girl", it deals with a distant, unattainable, woman, who the singer sees as above him but who has a slightly cruel edge -- the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there,  you feel a fool, is very similar to the woman who tells you to sit down but has no chairs in her minimalist flat. A big teaser who takes you half the way there is likely to laugh at you as you crawl off to sleep in the bath while she goes off to bed alone. Meanwhile, McCartney's two most popular contributions to the album, "Michelle" and "Drive My Car", also feature unattainable women, but are essentially comedy songs -- "Michelle" is a pastiche French song which McCartney used to play as a teenager while pretending to be foreign to impress girls, dug up and finished for the album, while "Drive My Car" is a comedy song with a twist in the punchline, just like "Norwegian Wood", though "Norwegian Wood"s twist is darker. But "Norwegian Wood" is even more famous for its music than for its lyric. The basis of the song is Lennon imitating Dylan's style -- something that Dylan saw, and countered with "Fourth Time Around", a song which people have interpreted multiple ways, but one of those interpretations has always been that it's a fairly vicious parody of "Norwegian Wood": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Fourth Time Around"] Certainly Lennon thought that at first, saying a few years later "I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, what do you think? I said, I don't like it. I didn't like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn't like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out and out skit, you know, but it wasn't. It was great. I mean he wasn't playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit." But the aspect of "Norwegian Wood" that has had more comment over the years has been the sitar part, played by George Harrison: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Norwegian Wood"] This has often been called the first sitar to be used on a rock record, and that may be the case, but it's difficult to say for sure. Indian music was very much in the air among British groups in September 1965, when the Beatles recorded the track. That spring, two records had almost simultaneously introduced Indian-influenced music into the pop charts. The first had been the Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul", released in June and recorded in April. In fact, the Yardbirds had actually used a sitar on their first attempt at recording the song, which if it had been released would have been an earlier example than the Beatles: [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Heart Full of Soul (first version)"] But in the finished recording they had replaced that with Jeff Beck playing a guitar in a way that made it sound vaguely like a sitar, rather than using a real one: [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Heart Full of Soul (single)"] Meanwhile, after the Yardbirds had recorded that but before they'd released it, and apparently without any discussion between the two groups, the Kinks had done something similar on their "See My Friends", which came out a few weeks after the Yardbirds record: [Excerpt: The Kinks, "See My Friends"] (Incidentally, that track is sometimes titled "See My Friend" rather than "See My Friends", but that's apparently down to a misprint on initial pressings rather than that being the intended title). As part of this general flowering of interest in Indian music, George Harrison had become fascinated with the sound of the sitar while recording scenes in Help! which featured some Indian musicians. He'd then, as we discussed in the episode on "Eight Miles High" been introduced by David Crosby on the Beatles' summer US tour to the music of Ravi Shankar. "Norwegian Wood" likely reminded Harrison of Shankar's work for a couple of reasons. The first is that the melody is very modal -- as I said before, the verses are in Mixolydian mode, while the middle eights are in Dorian -- and as we saw in the "Eight Miles High" episode Indian music is very modal. The second is that for the most part, the verse is all on one chord -- a D chord as Lennon originally played it, though in the final take it's capoed on the second fret so it sounds in E. The only time the chord changes at all is on the words "once had" in the phrase “she once had me” where for one beat each Lennon plays a C9 and a G (sounding as a D9 and A). Both these chords, in the fingering Lennon is using, feel to a guitarist more like "playing a D chord and lifting some fingers up or putting some down" rather than playing new chords, and this is a fairly common way of thinking about stuff particularly when talking about folk and folk-rock music -- you'll tend to get people talking about the "Needles and Pins" riff as being "an A chord where you twiddle your finger about on the D string" rather than changing between A, Asus2, and Asus4. So while there are chord changes, they're minimal and of a kind that can be thought of as "not really" chord changes, and so that may well have reminded Harrison of the drone that's so fundamental to Indian classical music. Either way, he brought in his sitar, and they used it on the track, both the version they cut on the first day of recording and the remake a week later which became the album track: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"] At the same time as the group were recording Rubber Soul, they were also working on two tracks that would become their next single -- released as a double A-side because the group couldn't agree which of the two to promote. Both of these songs were actual Lennon/McCartney collaborations, something that was increasingly rare at this point. One, "We Can Work it Out" was initiated by McCartney, and like many of his songs of this period was inspired by tensions in his relationship with his girlfriend Jane Asher -- two of his other songs for Rubber Soul were "I'm Looking Through You" and "You Won't See Me".  The other, "Day Tripper",  was initiated by Lennon, and had other inspirations: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] John Lennon and George Harrison's first acid trip had been in spring of 1965, around the time they were recording Help! The fullest version of how they came to try it I've read was in an interview George Harrison gave to Creem magazine in 1987, which I'll quote a bit of: "I had a dentist who invited me and John and our ex-wives to dinner, and he had this acid he'd got off the guy who ran Playboy in London. And the Playboy guy had gotten it off, you know, the people who had it in America. What's his name, Tim Leary. And this guy had never had it himself, didn't know anything about it, but he thought it was an aphrodisiac and he had this girlfriend with huge breasts. He invited us down there with our blonde wives and I think he thought he was gonna have a scene. And he put it in our coffee without telling us—he didn't take any himself. We didn't know we had it, and we'd made an arrangement earlier—after we had dinner we were gonna go to this nightclub to see some friends of ours who were playing in a band. And I was saying, "OK, let's go, we've got to go," and this guy kept saying, "No, don't go, finish your coffee. Then, 20 minutes later or something, I'm saying, "C'mon John, we'd better go now. We're gonna miss the show." And he says we shouldn't go 'cause we've had LSD." They did leave anyway, and they had an experience they later remembered as being both profound and terrifying -- nobody involved had any idea what the effects of LSD actually were, and they didn't realise it was any different from cannabis or amphetamines. Harrison later described feelings of universal love, but also utter terror -- believing himself to be in hell, and that world war III was starting. As he said later "We'd heard of it, but we never knew what it was about and it was put in our coffee maliciously. So it really wasn't us turning each other or the world or anything—we were the victims of silly people." But both men decided it was an experience they needed to have again, and one they wanted to share with their friends. Their next acid trip was the one that we talked about in the episode on "Eight Miles High", with Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Peter Fonda. That time Neil Aspinall and Ringo took part as well, but at this point Paul was still unsure about taking it -- he would later say that he was being told by everyone that it changed your worldview so radically you'd never be the same again, and he was understandably cautious about this. Certainly it had a profound effect on Lennon and Harrison -- Starr has never really talked in detail about his own experiences. Harrison would later talk about how prior to taking acid he had been an atheist, but his experiences on the drug gave him an unshakeable conviction in the existence of God -- something he would spend the rest of his life exploring. Lennon didn't change his opinions that drastically, but he did become very evangelistic about the effects of LSD. And "Day Tripper" started out as a dig at what he later described as weekend hippies, who took acid but didn't change the rest of their lives -- which shows a certain level of ego in a man who had at that point only taken acid twice himself -- though in collaboration with McCartney it turned into another of the rather angry songs about unavailable women they were writing at this point. The line "she's a big teaser, she took me half the way there" apparently started as "she's a prick teaser": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Day Tripper"] In the middle of the recording of Rubber Soul, the group took a break to receive their MBEs from the Queen. Officially the group were awarded these because they had contributed so much to British exports. In actual fact, they received them because the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, had a government with a majority of only four MPs and was thinking about calling an election to boost his majority. He represented a Liverpool constituency, and wanted to associate his Government and the Labour Party with the most popular entertainers in the UK. "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work it Out" got their TV premiere on a show recorded for Granada TV,  The Music of Lennon and McCartney, and fans of British TV trivia will be pleased to note that the harmonium Lennon plays while the group mimed "We Can Work it Out" in that show is the same one that was played in Coronation Street by Ena Sharples -- the character we heard last episode being Davy Jones' grandmother. As well as the Beatles themselves, that show included other Brian Epstein artists like Cilla Black and Billy J Kramer singing songs that Lennon and McCartney had given to them, plus Peter Sellers, the Beatles' comedy idol, performing "A Hard Day's Night" in the style of Laurence Olivier as Richard III: [Excerpt: Peter Sellers, "A Hard Day's Night"] Another performance on the show was by Peter and Gordon, performing a hit that Paul had given to them, one of his earliest songs: [Excerpt: Peter and Gordon, "A World Without Love"] Peter Asher, of Peter and Gordon, was the brother of Paul McCartney's girlfriend, the actor Jane Asher. And while the other three Beatles were living married lives in mansions in suburbia, McCartney at this point was living with the Asher family in London, and being introduced by them to a far more Bohemian, artistic, hip crowd of people than he had ever before experienced. They were introducing him to types of art and culture of which he had previously been ignorant, and while McCartney was the only Beatle so far who hadn't taken LSD, this kind of mind expansion was far more appealing to him. He was being introduced to art film, to electronic composers like Stockhausen, and to ideas about philosophy and art that he had never considered. Peter Asher was a friend of John Dunbar, who at the time was Marianne Faithfull's husband, though Faithfull had left him and taken up with Mick Jagger, and of Barry Miles, a writer, and in September 1965 the three men had formed a company, Miles, Asher and Dunbar Limited, or MAD for short, which had opened up a bookshop and art gallery, the Indica Gallery, which was one of the first places in London to sell alternative or hippie books and paraphernalia, and which also hosted art events by people like members of the Fluxus art movement. McCartney was a frequent customer, as you might imagine, and he also encouraged the other Beatles to go along, and the Indica Gallery would play an immense role in the group's history, which we'll look at in a future episode. But the first impact it had on the group was when John and Paul went to the shop in late 1965, just after the recording and release of Rubber Soul and the "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out" single, and John bought a copy of The Psychedelic Experience by Leary, Dass, and Metzner. He read the book on a plane journey while going on holiday -- reportedly while taking his third acid trip -- and was inspired. When he returned, he wrote a song which became the first track to be recorded for the group's next album, Revolver: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows"] The lyrics were inspired by the parts of The Psychedelic Experience which were in turn inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Now, it's important to put it this way because most people who talk about this record have apparently never read the book which inspired it. I've read many, many, books on the Beatles which claim that The Psychedelic Experience simply *is* the Tibetan Book of the Dead, slightly paraphrased. In fact, while the authors use the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a structure on which to base their book, much of the book is detailed descriptions of Leary, Dass, and Metzner's hypotheses about what is actually happening during a psychedelic trip, and their notes on the book -- in particular they provide commentaries to the commentaries, giving their view of what Carl Jung meant when he talked about it, and of Evans-Wentz's opinions, and especially of a commentary by Anagarika Govinda, a Westerner who had taken up Tibetan Buddhism seriously and become a monk and one of its most well-known exponents in the West. By the time it's been filtered through so many different viewpoints and perspectives, each rewriting and reinterpreting it to suit their own preconceived ideas, they could have started with a book on the habitat of the Canada goose and ended with much the same result. Much of this is the kind of mixture between religious syncretism and pseudoscience that will be very familiar to anyone who has encountered New Age culture in any way, statements like "The Vedic sages knew the secret; the Eleusinian Initiates knew it; the Tantrics knew it. In all their esoteric writings they whisper the message: It is possible to cut beyond ego-consciousness, to tune in on neurological processes which flash by at the speed of light, and to become aware of the enormous treasury of ancient racial knowledge welded into the nucleus of every cell in your body". This kind of viewpoint is one that has been around in one form or another since the nineteenth century religious revivals in America that led to Mormonism, Christian Science, and the New Thought. It's found today in books and documentaries like The Secret and the writings of people like Deepak Chopra, and the idea is always the same one -- people thousands of years ago had a lost wisdom that has only now been rediscovered through the miracle of modern science. This always involves a complete misrepresentation of both the lost wisdom and of the modern science. In particular, Leary, Dass, and Metzner's book freely mixes between phrases that sound vaguely scientific, like "There are no longer things and persons but only the direct flow of particles", things that are elements of Tibetan Buddhism, and references to ego games and "game-existence" which come from Leary's particular ideas of psychology as game interactions. All of this is intermingled, and so the claims that some have made that Lennon based the lyrics on the Tibetan Book of the Dead itself are very wrong. Rather the song, which he initially called "The Void", is very much based on Timothy Leary. The song itself was very influenced by Indian music. The melody line consists of only four notes -- E, G, C, and B flat, over a space of an octave: [Demonstrates] This sparse use of notes is very similar to the pentatonic scales in a lot of folk music, but that B-flat makes it the Mixolydian mode, rather than the E minor pentatonic scale our ears at first make it feel like. The B-flat also implies a harmony change -- Lennon originally sang the whole song over one chord, a C, which has the notes C, E, and G in it, but a B-flat note implies instead a chord of C7 -- this is another one of those occasions where you just put one finger down to change the chord while playing, and I suspect that's what Lennon did: [Demonstrates] Lennon's song was inspired by Indian music, but what he wanted was to replicate the psychedelic experience, and this is where McCartney came in. McCartney was, as I said earlier, listening to a lot of electronic composers as part of his general drive to broaden his mind, and in particular he had been listening to quite a bit of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen was a composer who had studied with Olivier Messiaen in the 1940s, and had then become attached to the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète along with Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Edgard Varese and others, notably Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. These composers were interested in a specific style of music called musique concrète, a style that had been pioneered by Schaeffer. Musique concrète is music that is created from, or at least using, prerecorded sounds that have been electronically altered, rather than with live instruments. Often this would involve found sound -- music made not by instruments at all, but by combining recorded sounds of objects, like with the first major work of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer's Cinq études de bruits: [Excerpt: Pierre Schaeffer, "Etude aux Chemins de faire" (from Cinq études de bruits)] Early on, musique concrète composers worked in much the same way that people use turntables to create dance music today -- they would have multiple record players, playing shellac discs, and a mixing desk, and they would drop the needle on the record players to various points, play the records backwards, and so forth. One technique that Schaeffer had come up with was to create records with a closed groove, so that when the record finished, the groove would go back to the start -- the record would just keep playing the same thing over and over and over. Later, when magnetic tape had come into use, Schaeffer had discovered you could get the same effect much more easily by making an actual loop of tape, and had started making loops of tape whose beginnings were stuck to their ending -- again creating something that could keep going over and over. Stockhausen had taken up the practice of using tape loops, most notably in a piece that McCartney was a big admirer of, Gesang der Jeunglinge: [Excerpt: Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Gesang der Jeunglinge"] McCartney suggested using tape loops on Lennon's new song, and everyone was in agreement. And this is the point where George Martin really starts coming into his own as a producer for the group. Martin had always been a good producer, but his being a good producer had up to this point mostly consisted of doing little bits of tidying up and being rather hands-off. He'd scored the strings on "Yesterday", played piano parts, and made suggestions like speeding up "Please Please Me" or putting the hook of "Can't Buy Me Love" at the beginning. Important contributions, contributions that turned good songs into great records, but nothing that Tony Hatch or Norrie Paramor or whoever couldn't have done. Indeed, his biggest contribution had largely been *not* being a Hatch or Paramor, and not imposing his own songs on the group, letting their own artistic voices flourish. But at this point Martin's unique skillset came into play. Martin had specialised in comedy records before his work with the Beatles, and he had worked with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan of the Goons, making records that required a far odder range of sounds than the normal pop record: [Excerpt: The Goons, "Unchained Melody"] The Goons' radio show had used a lot of sound effects created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a department of the BBC that specialised in creating musique concrète, and Martin had also had some interactions with the Radiophonic Workshop. In particular, he had worked with Maddalena Fagandini of the Workshop on an experimental single combining looped sounds and live instruments, under the pseudonym "Ray Cathode": [Excerpt: Ray Cathode, "Time Beat"] He had also worked on a record that is if anything even more relevant to "Tomorrow Never Knows". Unfortunately, that record is by someone who has been convicted of very serious sex offences. In this case, Rolf Harris, the man in question, was so well-known in Britain before his arrest, so beloved, and so much a part of many people's childhoods, that it may actually be traumatic for people to hear his voice knowing about his crimes. So while I know that showing the slightest consideration for my listeners' feelings will lead to a barrage of comments from angry old men calling me a "woke snowflake" for daring to not want to retraumatise vulnerable listeners, I'll give a little warning before I play the first of two segments of his recordings in a minute. When I do, if you skip forward approximately ninety seconds, you'll miss that section out. Harris was an Australian all-round entertainer, known in Britain for his novelty records, like the unfortunately racist "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" -- which the Beatles later recorded with him in a non-racist version for a BBC session. But he had also, in 1960, recorded and released in Australia a song he'd written based on his understanding of Aboriginal Australian religious beliefs, and backed by Aboriginal musicians on didgeridoo. And we're going to hear that clip now: [Excerpt. Rolf Harris, "Sun Arise" original] EMI, his British label, had not wanted to release that as it was, so he'd got together with George Martin and they'd put together a new version, for British release. That had included a new middle-eight, giving the song a tiny bit of harmonic movement, and Martin had replaced the didgeridoos with eight cellos, playing a drone: [Excerpt: Rolf Harris, "Sun Arise", 1962 version ] OK, we'll just wait a few seconds for anyone who skipped that to catch up... Now, there are some interesting things about that track. That is a track based on a non-Western religious belief, based around a single drone -- the version that Martin produced had a chord change for the middle eight, but the verses were still on the drone -- using the recording studio to make the singer's voice sound different, with a deep, pulsating, drum sound, and using a melody with only a handful of notes, which doesn't start on the tonic but descends to it. Sound familiar? Oh, and a young assistant engineer had worked with George Martin on that session in 1962, in what several sources say was their first session together, and all sources say was one of their first. That young assistant engineer was Geoff Emerick, who had now been promoted to the main engineer role, and was working his first Beatles session in that role on “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Emerick was young and eager to experiment, and he would become a major part of the Beatles' team for the next few years, acting as engineer on all their recordings in 1966 and 67, and returning in 1969 for their last album. To start with, the group recorded a loop of guitar and drums, heavily treated: [Excerpt: "Tomorrow Never Knows", loop] That loop was slowed down to half its speed, and played throughout: [Excerpt: "Tomorrow Never Knows", loop] Onto that the group overdubbed a second set of live drums and Lennon's vocal. Lennon wanted his voice to sound like the Dalai Lama singing from a mountaintop, or like thousands of Tibetan monks. Obviously the group weren't going to fly to Tibet and persuade monks to sing for them, so they wanted some unusual vocal effect. This was quite normal for Lennon, actually. One of the odd things about Lennon is that while he's often regarded as one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, he always hated his own voice and wanted to change it in the studio. After the Beatles' first album there's barely a dry Lennon solo vocal anywhere on any record he ever made. Either he would be harmonising with someone else, or he'd double-track his vocal, or he'd have it drenched in reverb, or some other effect -- anything to stop it sounding quite so much like him. And Geoff Emerick had the perfect idea. There's a type of speaker called a Leslie speaker, which was originally used to give Hammond organs their swirling sound, but which can be used with other instruments as well. It has two rotating speakers inside it, a bass one and a treble one, and it's the rotation that gives the swirling sound. Ken Townsend, the electrical engineer working on the record, hooked up the speaker from Abbey Road's Hammond organ to Lennon's mic, and Lennon was ecstatic with the sound: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows", take one] At least, he was ecstatic with the sound of his vocal, though he did wonder if it might be more interesting to get the same swirling effect by tying himself to a rope and being swung round the microphone The rest of the track wasn't quite working, though, and they decided to have a second attempt. But Lennon had been impressed enough by Emerick that he decided to have a chat with him about music -- his way of showing that Emerick had been accepted. He asked if Emerick had heard the new Tiny Tim record -- which shows how much attention Lennon was actually paying to music at this point. This was two years before Tim's breakthrough with "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", and his first single (unless you count a release from 1963 that was only released as a 78, in the sixties equivalent of a hipster cassette-only release), a version of "April Showers" backed with "Little Girl" -- the old folk song also known as "In the Pines" or "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?": [Excerpt: Tiny Tim, "Little Girl"] Unfortunately for Emerick, he hadn't heard the record, and rather than just say so he tried bluffing, saying "Yes, they're great". Lennon laughed at his attempt to sound like he knew what he was talking about, before explaining that Tiny Tim was a solo artist, though he did say "Nobody's really sure if it's actually a guy or some drag queen". For the second attempt, they decided to cut the whole backing track live rather than play to a loop. Lennon had had trouble staying in sync with the loop, but they had liked the thunderous sound that had been got from slowing the tape down. As Paul talked with Ringo about his drum part, suggesting a new pattern for him to play, Emerick went down into the studio from the control room and made some adjustments. He first deadened the sound of the bass drum by sticking a sweater in it -- it was actually a promotional sweater with eight arms, made when the film Help! had been provisionally titled Eight Arms to Hold You, which Mal Evans had been using as packing material. He then moved the mics much, much closer to the drums that EMI studio rules allowed -- mics can be damaged by loud noises, and EMI had very strict rules about distance, not allowing them within two feet of the drum kit. Emerick decided to risk his job by moving the mics mere inches from the drums, reasoning that he would probably have Lennon's support if he did this. He then put the drum signal through an overloaded Fairfield limiter, giving it a punchier sound than anything that had been recorded in a British studio up to that point: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows", isolated drums] That wasn't the only thing they did to make the record sound different though.  As well as Emerick's idea for the Leslie speaker, Ken Townsend had his own idea of how to make Lennon's voice sound different. Lennon had often complained about the difficulty of double-tracking his voice, and so Townsend had had an idea -- if you took a normal recording, fed it to another tape machine a few milliseconds out of sync with the first, and then fed it back into the first, you could create a double-tracked effect without having to actually double-track the vocal. Townsend suggested this, and it was used for the first time on the first half of "Tomorrow Never Knows", before the Leslie speaker takes over. The technique is now known as "artificial double-tracking" or ADT, but the session actually gave rise to another term, commonly used for a similar but slightly different tape-manipulation effect that had already been used by Les Paul among others. Lennon asked how they'd got the effect and George Martin started to explain, but then realised Lennon wasn't really interested in the technical details, and said "we take the original image and we split it through a double-bifurcated sploshing flange". From that point on, Lennon referred to ADT as "flanging", and the term spread, though being applied to the other technique. (Just as a quick aside, some people have claimed other origins for the term "flanging", and they may be right, but I think this is the correct story). Over the backing track they added tambourine and organ overdubs -- with the organ changing to a B flat chord when the vocal hits the B-flat note, even though the rest of the band stays on C -- and then a series of tape loops, mostly recorded by McCartney. There's a recording that circulates which has each of these loops isolated, played first forwards and then backwards at the speed they were recorded, and then going through at the speed they were used on the record, so let's go through these. There's what people call the "seagull" sound, which is apparently McCartney laughing, very distorted: [Excerpt: Tomorrow Never Knows loop] Then there's an orchestral chord: [Excerpt: Tomorrow Never Knows loop] A mellotron on its flute setting: [Excerpt: Tomorrow Never Knows loop] And on its string setting: [Excerpt: Tomorrow Never Knows loop] And a much longer loop of sitar music supplied by George: [Excerpt: Tomorrow Never Knows loop] Each of these loops were played on a different tape machine in a different part of Abbey Road -- they commandeered the entire studio complex, and got engineers to sit with the tapes looped round pencils and wine-glasses, while the Beatles supervised Emerick and Martin in mixing the loops into a single track. They then added a loop of a tamboura drone played by George, and the result was one of the strangest records ever released by a major pop group: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows"] While Paul did add some backwards guitar -- some sources say that this is a cut-up version of his solo from George's song "Taxman", but it's actually a different recording, though very much in the same style -- they decided that they were going to have a tape-loop solo rather than a guitar solo: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows"] And finally, at the end, there's some tack piano playing from McCartney, inspired by the kind of joke piano parts that used to turn up on the Goon Show. This was just McCartney messing about in the studio, but it was caught on tape, and they asked for it to be included at the end of the track. It's only faintly audible on the standard mixes of the track, but there was actually an alternative mono mix which was only released on British pressings of the album pressed on the first day of its release, before George Martin changed his mind about which mix should have been used, and that has a much longer excerpt of the piano on it. I have to say that I personally like that mix more, and the extra piano at the end does a wonderful job of undercutting what could otherwise be an overly-serious track, in much the same way as the laughter at the end of "Within You, Without You", which they recorded the next year. The same goes for the title -- the track was originally called "The Void", and the tape boxes were labelled "Mark One", but Lennon decided to name the track after one of Starr's malapropisms, the same way they had with "A Hard Day's Night", to avoid the track being too pompous. [Excerpt: Beatles interview] A track like that, of course, had to end the album. Now all they needed to do was to record another thirteen tracks to go before it. But that -- and what they did afterwards, is a story for another time. [Excerpt, "Tomorrow Never Knows (alternate mono mix)" piano tag into theme music]

MASTER percussionist PETER ERSKINE demonstrates his concepts and techniques at the drums! He explains his musical concepts and his instrumental techniques – his way of dealing with the sometimes-challenging personalities of his fellow musicians. He tells HOW Weather Report and Steps Ahead rehearsed new material. How the grooves for Seth McFarlane album were created. And he demonstrates it all on the drums in his home studio. Grammy and multi award-winning drummer/composer Peter Erskine is widely regarded as one of the world's finest musicians. His 50 albums as leader are joined by playing in the iconic bands of Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, both Brecker brothers, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny and John Scofield. In this extraordinary interview with composer Richard Niles, Erskine talks about when to play and what to play and how to LISTEN. He explains his musical concepts and his instrumental techniques – his way of dealing with the sometimes-challenging personalities of his fellow musicians. He tells HOW Weather Report and Steps Ahead rehearsed new material. And he demonstrates it all on the drums in his home studio. This makes this video a must for any musician and a special event for drummers to sit next to Erskine in his studio and absorb his wisdom. Listen, learn and enjoy!  Peter Erskine–DRUM-TASTIC Part 2: MASTERCLASS! Steps Ahead - Seth McFarlane and more! Watch this episode in video HERE #PeterErskine #richardniles #radiorichard #stepsahead #sethmcfarlane #weatherreport #SteelyDan #PatMetheny #jonimitchell #dianakrall  Please Like, Share, and Subscribe to our YouTube channel:

Grammy and multi award-winning drummer/composer Peter Erskine is widely regarded as one of the world's finest musicians. His 50 albums as leader are joined by playing in the iconic bands of Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, both Brecker brothers, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny and John Scofield. In this extraordinary interview with composer Richard Niles, Erskine talks about when to play and what to play and how to LISTEN. He explains his musical concepts and his instrumental techniques – his way of dealing with the sometimes-challenging personalities of his fellow musicians. He tells HOW Weather Report and Steps Ahead rehearsed new material. And he demonstrates it all on the drums in his home studio. Peter Erskine–DRUM-TASTIC Part 1:Weather Report-Pat Metheny-Steely Dan Watch this episode in video HERE #PeterErskine #richardniles #radiorichard #weatherreport #SteelyDan #PatMetheny #jonimitchell #dianakrall Please Like, Share, and Subscribe to our YouTube channel:

In general, the art that we love means something to us. It makes us feel happy, sad, it comforts us, it gets us riled up, it gives us goosebumps, it challenges us, shows us something new about ourselves…. It means something to us. When you listen to "Blue in Green" or "Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis, they give you that feeling of calm and love. Or when you hear Kanye West's "We Major," you immediately get pumped up and ready to attack your day. Or on November 1st, when you hear the first notes of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. That is the power of amazing art…. But what about the people that make the art? Do they have a stake in giving you those nice feelings? Should our feelings be transferred to them as the creators of the art we love? Yes… No… Maybe… Well, the only thing to be sure of is that it's definitely complicated. Fortunately, on today's show we'll be digging deep into these questions as we discuss the concept of Art vs. The Artist. And, with a topic this heavy we just had to bring on an expert guest to help us untangle everything. Special Guest: Tom Moon Tom Moon has been writing about pop, rock, jazz, blues, hip-hop and the music of the world since 1983. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, and a contributor to other books including The Final Four of Everything. From 1988 until 2004 he served as music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer and his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Blender, Spin, Vibe, Harp and many other publications. Since 1996 he has contributed to NPR's All Things Considered and he's also won several awards, including two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Music Journalism awards. Beyond his bonafides as a music journalist he's also an accomplished saxophonist whose professional credits include several tours with the Maynard Ferguson orchestra and recently he launched EchoLocator which is a newsletter devoted to nearly vanished sounds, spirits, ideas and recordings. Tom's Links - https://echolocator.substack.com/ http://www.ensemblenovo.com/ Companion Art vs. Artist Spotify Playlistwww.rightfiction.com

This week on Jazz Unlimited with Paul Anthony we'll listen to an archive edition recorded at the turn of the millennium, January 1, 2000. A date, if you recall, was destined to be doomsday. But we survived. This is our annual New Year's show..a big band extravaganza featuring Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, the Terry Gibbs Big band and I'll run down near the end of the show the list of Jazz musicians who passed away in the year 2000…Charlie Byrd, Mel Torme, Michel Petrucciani and Grover Washington, Jr. among others.Join me as we celebrate New Year's week 2021 with a look back at the year 2000 on Jazz Unlimited with Paul Anthony "