Twisty, Curvy Roads

    I hope that you will enjoy listening to this performance of my original song, Love, Love, Love At Christmas.  There is a story behind this song. For several years, my band, The Second Line Jazz Band, performed a monthly gig at a coffee shop in Round Rock, Texas. We developed quite a following. There was one lady in particular that always showed up at our gigs. She was an older lady, but her spirit and excitement always made her stand out. After a performance one even, she came up and said that she had written a Christmas poem and would I be willing to set it to music. I couldn't say "no", so she handed me her poem typed on a much-folded sheet of paper. I put the paper in my instrument case and finished breaking down the equipment. Several week went by before I though of the song. I got it out and looked at what Gloria had written. It was a bit long and rambled a bit and the meter was not really consistent, but, here and there there were lines that I could work with. ...

The arrangement (score and parts) is available here !   This composition for woodwind quintet was based upon a melody by Netherlands composer, Gijs Bikker. Gijs and I met via Marc Sabatello's " Mastering Musescore " school.  There are four short variations, each with a different take on the original theme.  I. Adagio - The first variation begins quitely, with the horn playing a long, sustained note. Then the flute and oboe introduce the theme and are gradually joined to build, and then recede from the climax. The movement ends with the sustained note from the horn. II. Gigue - A gigue is a lively dance characterized by leaping movements. The melody has been transformed from the slow 3/4 of the first movement into a fast 6/8. The bassoon takes the lead and everything progresses from there!  III. Humoresque - This is my favorite movement! The mode changes to minor in an almost "circus"-like two-step. The melody is beginning to loose all semblance to the original,...

 I just finished this arrangement of the Wang Wang Blues for brass quintet. I think this is one of my best arrangements for a brass quintet! Check out all of my compositions and arrangements on YouTube .  The scores and sheet music is available from  SheetMusicPlus .

I absolutely love Goodman's music. At my high school, each year the senior class would take a trip to visit New York City. I was somewhat of a clarinet nerd, so I took along my clarinet. Every chance that I had, I would hide in the hotel room closet and practice y clarinet. There was a copy of The New Yorker magazine in the hotel room and I happened to notice that Benny Goodman was going to be performing at a place called Basin Street East. It looked to me as though his performance would begin at 2 a.m. the next morning. To say that I was excited would be the understatement of the century! I knew better than to ask our chaperones whether or not I could go hear Goodman. There was absolutely no possibility that they would agree to allow a seventeen year-old Alabama boy out of the hotel to roam around New York City in the wee hours of the morning. I waited until after bed-check and around midnight I sneaked out of the hotel and began a trek across Manhattan toward Basin Street East. I...

Score and parts available In memory of Elizabeth Anne White Clieno Scene I: Tapestry Life is a tapestry woven from many threads. This short introductory movement presents several musical statements which are then developed in the following movements. In measure one the flute introduces the theme that will become the basis for Scene II. In measure 9 the violins introduce the theme that will become the basis for Scene IV. There is also some non-musical symbolism in Scene I. The single sustained note played by the french horns in m. 7 introduces a descending major scale that represents the forces of fate that influenced the lives of so many who were born during the 1920s. The generation endured both the Great Depression and WWII. Every life was lived against this backdrop of tragedy. In m. 16 the direction reverses and the major scale, voiced in the french horns, begins an assent that is symbolic of Faith and the resolve born of that Faith. The final cadence, again in the french horns, is...

Words are inadequate to express the deep revulsion that many of us have to the events taking place in Afghanistan. There is little doubt that Joe Biden wanted nothing more than to be able to brag that he had "brought the troops home" by the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. This misery is entirely due to the ego-driven actions of Mr. Biden! I composed this piece to reflect the pain that so many of us feel when we see the death of not only our own soldiers, the American citizens that Joe Biden has abandoned, and the many Afghans who have died during this disastrous political event. 

Here is an arrangement for strings of a Welsh folk song. It was popular for barn dances. Score and parts available here

Beginning at around the age of 12 or 13, peer group begins to take over from the parents as the major influencer in the lives of children. It is a period of experimentation and testing of rules. It is natural and the same type of behavior can be found in herd animals such as elk and buffalo where the adolescents, especially males, leave the herd and gather together on their own.  When I was a high school band director, I understood that this was a natural tendency and became very good at recruiting 6th graders to join my band! I also understood that it is super important to have rules. Kids are going to experiment, and it is better to have clear-cut and unambiguous rules with clearly spelled out and consistently delivered consequences. The kids are going to test the rules and the teacher or the parent had better be prepared to follow through with consequences. Otherwise, all hell will break loose! What we are seeing today is a consequence of the Great Society experiment of the '60s...

  The Caliph is a four movement orchestral suite! This project began simple enough, but as I worked, it expanded! I began to listen carefully to what I had written, and, as I did, I saw visual images began to take place in my imagination. I realized that I wanted a larger pallet and so expanded, not the length, but the vision. The visual that I have is a set from the Arabian Nights! An isolated palace beside an oasis in the desert. In the distance, a caravan approaches the palace. As the caravan approaches the gates to the palace courtyard, a fanfare announces its arrival. The gates swing open and a marvelous procession enters the courtyard. The tension builds as the procession nears the great hall of the palace. No one knows why this powerful ruler has chosen to come to this isolated spot. Everyone is wondering if this event presents a danger! The piece comes to a dramatic end just as the Caliph arrives at the main hall of the palace. I used perfect intervals and a heavy percussio...

 The Constitution does not define when "Personhood" begins. So, in a legal sense, if a person does not exist until the moment of birth, then Hillary Clinton is correct when she denies that a child still in the womb has any "Constitutional Rights". However, for most non-Democrats, this is an ethical question, not a legal question. If we ask, "Should society protect children who are still in the womb?", most non-Democrats will answer, "Certainly!". We may go on to discuss specific and possible extenuating circumstances, but in general, non-Democrats agree that the human potential of a child in the womb deserves society's consideration, care, and protection. Democrats, on the other hand, subscribe to an ethical view that the powerful have the right of life or death over the powerless. Democrats are perfectly OK with the ethical proposition that adults are entirely within their right to make a life or death decision regarding the powerless child....

Here is a little reminder of Mardi Gras!

 

We have been taught that there are four branches of government, but that is not true! In reality, although not outlined in the Constitution there is a fourth branch. It is the bureaucracy, also known as "The Swamp"!  The bureaucracy, as has been clearly demonstrated during the last four years, controls a great deal of power. In fact, It can easily be argued that today, the bureaucracy is more powerful than any of the three legitimate branches of government. That is the first of my concerns with the popular call for "term limits". In any new job, there is a learning curve. During that learning curve, it is common for the new employee to lean heavily on the "staff" and take cues from them. If term limits are imposed, that will mean that the number of elected officeholders who are in the early stage of the learning cycle will increase. Would that not mean that the "staff", who are employees and not elected by the people, would have more power? My s...

Announcing a Hot New Jazz Arrangement All Of Me Check it out and get your copy at Sheet Music Plus Arranged as a jump/shuffle a la Louie Prima, this is a jazz standard that will have your audience dancing in the aisles! It is perfect for swing dancing. It is arranged for trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, baritone sax and full rhythm section.  Download the free  WOODSHED TRACK  of the rhythm section. Use the Woodshed Track to practice the tune before jamming with others or even to perform with only the four horns! Be sure to join our blog so you will receive notices each time we publish a new piece!  Here is a demo of the tune!   Jim Ivy, REALTOR® Central Metro Realty, LLC (512) 341-9103

Snowfall in the woods behind my home When I woke this morning, I noticed a slight chill inside my Casita. It wasn't cold, just a bit cooler than usual for January. It felt good to pull my sleeping bag a bit more tightly around my shoulders. I could feel Max snuggled against my back. After a bit, Max indicated that perhaps it would be a good idea for me to crawl out of bed and open the door so he could go outside. I was surprised when I glanced through the window and saw that the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow! Even though I am an old man by most folks' standards, my emotions are still rooted in my boyhood days. Growing up in northern Alabama, "snow" has always been something of a romantic novelty. Although I have never experienced a "White Christmas", in my imagination, Christmas, no matter how many gifts were beneath the tree, was not quite as exciting as it would have been with a deep layer of snow outside. We did have snow now and...

  After feeding Max this morning, I set about fixin' my own breakfast. I am pretty much of a food agnostic - meaning I will eat just about any and everything, but this morning I happened to have all of the ingredients at hand to fix my perfect breakfast. List of Ingredients: # Ingredient Notes 1 Grits               Custom ground. NO instant or quick grits. I Recommend custom ground grits from Homestead Gristmill . But, Bob's makes a fair yellow grit that you can find in well-stocked local groceries 2 Venison Sausage Slice a 3 to 4 inch section off the link and slice it into 1/4 inch slices. Whittington's Meat Processing , in Johnson City, Texas, makes the best venison sausage that I have ever eaten. You supply your own deer! They will butcher, add pork, stuff the sausage, and store it for you! If you don't have the time or inclination to harvest your own deer, HEB sells a venison and pork sausage. Although it...

Grits! I thank God that I grew up with a Grandmother who knew how to cook grits! To me, grits with my bacon and eggs are about as essential as food gets. Since I moved to Texas all those years ago, I find it sometimes difficult to find a restaurant that can cook grits. Sometimes, when I ask for grits, the waiter will look at me with a blank stare. If the waiter tells me that they do not serve grits, I get up and leave! Often they serve me with a thin whitish gruel that looks like some sort of soup. They bring me a spoon because the "grits" are too watery to stay on my fork! These same restaurants think nothing at all of serving greasy potatoes hashed and fried into inedible patties, but if you ask for grits they treat you like some sort of weird character! Grits are simply ground field corn so there is no reason that they should be difficult to find, especially in Texas. In the early days of Texas, corn and pork were the primary food groups! Chickens were decimated by coyotes...

Announcing a Hot New Jazz Arrangement Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me Check it out and get your copy at Sheet Music Plus Part of the Trad Jazz Pub Repertoire Builder Series, the arrangement comes with leads and full rhythm section parts. There is also a free  WOODSHED TRACK  so you can practice the tune before jamming with others. Be certain that you subscribe to our blog so you will receive notices each time we publish a new piece! Just add your email to the field on the left. Here is a demo of the tune!