Valerie Naranjo and a New Marimba Fundraiser

Greetings, all!

I've been fortunate to teach at a school that is the hometown of the fabulous NYC percussionist, Valerie Naranjo. She is a member of the Saturday Night Live Band, arranged the percussion score and played for The Lion King Broadway show, recorded numerous albums and film scores, toured with Philip Glass for more than a decade, won major awards on several continents, including breaking new ground for women gyil performers in Ghana, gigs more than anyone, and frankly, she's an incredible person. Since I've been here (a little over 2 years), Valerie has done residencies at the college and this year was another treat. Her husband, Barry joined us and not only only is he a phenomenal jazz/latin/salsa pianist, but a fine trombonist (his major in college at Manhattan), and great afro-cuban drummer!

Valerie helped kick off the fund raising project I've started for a new 5.0 octave concert marimba with a very successful women's drumming class, sponsored by Vic Firth, Zildjian, and the Alamosa Live Music Association (ALMA), as well as a concert sponsored by ALMA. I was fortunate to collaborate on the program by playing tar on a piece (the photo was taken at the rehearsal- I'm actually playing a Cooperman hadjira and she's playing my new M1), as well as a trio of traditional Ghanaian drumming/singing. She's incredibly inspiring and I am so grateful she's from Alamosa!!

And by the way, if you are reading this and want to contribute to the marimba fundraiser- please contact me!!!

J-

Screws and a Plate for Tracy's Christmas

As the previous post mentioned, we took an excursion to the midwest for the holidays, including my father's 60th birthday (way to go, Dad!). Tracy, Gabe and I set out a few days before Christmas, just ahead of a brewing snow storm that would eventually lengthen our trip with a closed interstate and an unexpected stay in the "Little Apple" of Manhattan, KS. We made it to my mother's farm on the eve of Christmas Eve, celebrated, opened gifts with extended family, and settled in for the night. The next morning (Christmas Eve), a few of us took an excursion into the woods on ATV's and on Tracy's inaugural trip driving an ATV, she concluded her ATV life experience with a serious accident, sending her to the ER. The fact she merely fractured her wrist was amazing, and if it weren't for the helmet, it would have been worse.

The 26th, they set her wrist and we extended our stay in St. Louis, while taking in more family time, the St. Louis Symphony for New Year's Eve, and a long overdue visit with a friend since elementary school.

Once we returned to the dry, cool, and elevated San Luis Valley, she started to experience serious pain in her wrist. A follow-up x-ray showed more fractures than originally suspected and a shifted position from the initial set.

Needless to say, Tracy had to have surgery to screw all of the bones back together with a large plate, and we are anxiously awaiting the next several weeks/months as she tries to regain mobility and play her flute again.

ATV's and flutists... yikes.

2008 already

Greetings all!

As I write this first entry of the new year, it is hard to believe my previous entry was made while still in Africa. There was still much to do in the desert before returning- more traveling, more gigs, cleaning and repairing of instruments and gear, preparations for the next band's rotation, and, of course, preparing to return home.

The return home was a whirlwind and took place during the first week of the fall semester. We arrived in Baltimore. Baltimore to Dallas. I spent the night in Dallas and then returned to Albuquerque the next day, was met by Tracy and we made our way back up to our home in southern Colorado on a Thursday evening. I slept the next two days, had a gig with our Irish band, Tripping Upstairs on Sunday, and taught class on Monday. The whole experience quickly faded as new and important activities consumed my life.

To begin with, my studio grew with the addition of some great freshmen, I secured funds for, purchased, rehearsed, and staged a performance with my new and full steel drum band at the college (tentatively called the Rocky Mountain Pan Handlers- I am curious if there's a higher (as in, elevation) steel drum band in the nation (or world... hmmm).

The fundraising began for a new concert grand marimba for the school, while I patiently... ok, impatiently waited for Marimba One to finish building my personal 5.0 octave instrument. I hosted a guest chamber ensemble at the school, taught a section of music literature, percussion methods, ensemble, lessons, and two sections of hand drumming, while making a wonderful connection with a fantastic instrument builder right here http://www.rbidrums.com/ in the valley.

There were occasional gigs here, in Texas, at Don Richmond's studio, and beyond. PASIC was a treat, our newest faculty member (director of bands) is a great guy and amazing musician, and a trip back to the northeast was met with fun family times and a great trip to the Cooperman factory in Vermont. This trip led me to hooking up with Glen Velez in Santa Fe where Tracy and I had a wonderful vacation before returning to the midwest for the holidays (more on this later).

The original intention of this blog was to keep track of my travels overseas, but I now see it as a vehicle to keep track of my percussion life in general, with the occasional reflection on other things non-percussion along the way. I am scheduled to give a faculty lecture on January 30th regarding my thoughts and reflections from the trip, but it is all so fuzzy to me...

One thing that did keep everything in perspective was catching a Denver news story of Air Force guys returning to Colorado in early January from one of the bases we performed at in Iraq. Their deployment schedule would have had them at the base while we were there, and as I watched the story with hair that had not been cut since September, 25 lbs of extra weight, and a mindset of educator, not drum set player traveling overseas, the thought of those still over there from before I got there is something worth contemplating.

Enough on this topic for a while.