Eric sent photos of UOP goings on. Here are the extra pics:
Above is the concert hall building, right next to the music school. The rest are of me and the brass choir, the last thing I did at UOP. We played Bach, Gabrieli and a modern fanfare by David Uber (prolific contemporary brass writer):
And the “get jiggy” final photo:
After a very successful residency (“We will have an opening next year. Please apply!”) at University of the Pacific, we drove to Mill Valley/Sausalito area to spend 2 days with our dear friend Clark (originally grew up in Logan). Clark has lived in the Bay area for most of his adult life. We met him about 5 years ago at a wine party when he was back visiting family in Logan. He works in the wine business as part of his retirement (Finance) managing wine bars in the Mill Valley and Tiburon area. We stayed at the Acqua Hotel, posh for us, on the Bay, adjacent to Tiburon on one side and Sausalito on the other. Here is a pick of the hotel, which had free use of bikes (we rode to Sausalito), wine reception every day at 5pm and full cooked breakfast.
The shot above is the hotel from the walk way that borders the bay. Here is a shot from across the bay in Sausalito, looking towards the Mill Valley/Tiburon side of the shore.
The pic above was after riding a half hour or so from Mill Valley to Sausalito, resting along the rocks just past the house boats. Clark lived/rented a house boat for about two years total, and as such, was able to give us a tour of the docks. This is extremely cool. The house boats often look like boats, but often look like real houses. They are built on concrete slabs that are hollowed out and actually float/rise and fall with the tide. There are dozens of house boats on each pier. Here are pics of several of the boats:
The pic above was Clark’s boat.
Clark’s friend Paul bought a house boat 20+ years ago. It is at the end of the dock and faces out towards the harbor. He has completely redone the boat and it is beautiful. We had drinks on the back of the boat, a tour of the boat, and then headed off to dinner in Sausalito. Liz and I will be attending the San Francisco Symphony next weekend, and visiting Clark’s wine bar in Tiburon. Paul insisted that we come stay the night on the boat! We’ll see if that works out. Another house boat dweller is Mark Lawrence, retired princ bone of the SF Symphony. He lives just a few boats down from Paul. Clark and Paul have known Mark for years, and I just happen to have invited him to USU to be tbone guest artist back in 2003. I hadn’t seen him since. Clark and Paul invited Mark to a bit of bourbon tasting, with out Mark knowing that I would be there. What a fun reunion of two old tbone friends. Needless to say, he was flabbergasted. Here are some photos of the event!
View from the back of the house boat:
Clark, Paul and I in the kitchen on the boat:
Mark, Clark, Kitty, Paul and yours truly.
As we ended our two days with Clark, he escorted us up the coast (on our way to Cloverdale) to Point Reyes. Coastal towns are a strange mix of hippies, down to earth types, wanderers and folks just trying to escape city life. Not much to blog about here, but there was a 1959 Studebaker in the weeds right in the middle of town. Studebakers are a bit sentimental to the Fallis clan. We had one back in 1963 or so.
We are now off to Cloverdale, about 90 min above SF on the 101. This is the heart of wine country and I plan to do a residency at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. We have rented a one room cabin for 5 weeks overlooking the hills, Cloverdale and vineyards. A hammock, hot tub and grill round out the amenities. Wine tasting is on the horizon! Here are three shots from our deck:
It will be a rough April, but someone has to do it. I will blog again with news of wineries and trombone teachings!
Time to get back on the road! We left Park City, Utah last Saturday and made our way across Utah, Nevada (along I80) and into California. We had never been to Nevada City, just passed by on our way to other destinations. So we spent the night in the old gold mining town and were quite impressed with the turn of the century architecture. In 1985 or so, the city passed an ordinance that all old homes and structures would be preserved, and that new modern structures would be prohibited. It guaranteed charm for Nevada City. Here is a taste of the town:
Above: one of the most beautiful late 1800’s homes; stained and leaded glass everywhere. Below is the firehouse, again dating back to the turn of the century:
Hard to see, but there is a bell in the tower. The opera house is still pretty much the way it was. We stepped inside and got a tour from the box office guy:
From NCity, we headed for University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. I have been friends with the band director at UOP for over 20 years. Back in the 90’s both schools were in the Big West conference, so we met up on bball tourny’s, usually somewhere in California (Anaheim, Long Beach etc) or in Nevada (Reno, LVegas). Since we were coming to wine country, I emailed him to see if he would be interested in me coming for a guest artist residency. Any time we musicians can get someone else to do our work for us, we usually take them up on it. So, over 3 days, I worked with 2 concert bands, a brass choir, the jazz band and all 12 trombone students (one hour lessons). We stayed at the director’s house in Lodi, and sipped wine at several Lodi region wineries in the late afternoons. Dancing Fox and Klinkerbrick were our two faves. We also discovered a new grape for us – albarino. It makes for a fab summer crisp white wine. And, of course we tried all things Zinfindel which is what the region is known for. A pic of the water tower on UOP campus, which is adjacent to the school of music:
Above: the band director and I waxing eloquently, in front of the band.
I led a breathing exercise with the students, which involved getting down and dirty.
Conducting the band above.
Working with the jazz band and Patrick, their very able jazz director. And finally, conducting the brass choir in the UOP concert hall. Very fun 3 days!
From UOP, we drove 2 hours South to Fresno. There was a huge band festival going on, but more importantly, old friends of ours live in Fresno. Larry Honda was the clarinet player in the USC graduate quintet that Liz played in back in 84-86. That group competed in Munich , Germany and Colmar, France (2 separate trips) and apparently, became legendary at USC. Larry and Diane’s kid Marissa did all three oboe degrees at USC (finishing up this semester) and she told her folks that students in the quintet STILL talk about the infamous quintet from days of yore! We hadn’t seen Larry and Diane since the late 80’s, so we spent 4 hours at a local restaurant catching up. It was SO good to see them.
Cody Birdwell was our band director at USU from 94-98 and we see him on occasion. He was one of the festival judges at Fresno, so we spent a few hours with him in the evening. From Fresno, we drove 3.5 hours to Sausalito/Mill Valley area for two nights of R and R at the Aqua Inn Hotel right on the bay. Again, an old Logan friend of ours lives in Mill Valley and whenever we are in Sonoma (every Fall), Clark comes up to see us. This time we returned the favor and visited his stomping grounds. We will tour the house boats of Sausalito later today, and have dinner out with him. On Sunday, we head to Cloverdale. So I will blog to you from there. I will have pix of a Lodi winery or two, in addition to pix of Mill Valley area. Til then!
For the past umpteen years, Leaping Lulu has showcased the band with Riverdance style dancers in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration known as Celtic Night! This year was no exception, as the band performed on March 11, 2017 at the Ellen Eccles Theater in downtown Logan, Utah. After a whirlwind of rehearsals both with and with out dancers, Leaping Lulu took to the stage. Long time singer Kent Braddy, who left the band in 2014, came back from Arizona to sing with the band. Nostalgia was the emotion of the day. This incarnation of the band had lasted 10 years and it was wonderful to have the “Irish tenor” back in their midst! The crowd loved the show, provided a standing ovation, and bought many of their 5 CD’s released to date. Here are a few photos of the performance:
The band: Liz, Sara, Sam on percussion, Don, Nate and Kent
The dancers.
Liz featured out in front of the band, dazzling the audience with her piccolo playing.
Cache Valley touts many arts organizations, and we play in most of the musical ones, and contribute/support most of the artistic ones. One of the valley ring leaders/maestro/impressarios is Jay Richards. He produces two musicals a year, composes musicals, conducts and develops area wide singing talent. He also is an avid producer of his musical pieces. And when it comes time to record, he calls on us to help him out. He has a recording studio in his converted garage, and several times a year, I find myself in the recording room laying down tracks for whatever project is at hand. He was commissioned to write music for a small 4 years school in Idaho and needed “trombone overdubs” for one of the selections. Here are a few shots of the action:
If you want to hear yourself live, you keep one side of the headphone off of your ear. It also gets in the way of the back part of the trombone.
I play on about half of the albums you see here:
A shot of the mixing gear:
A shot of Jay and Me:
The Heber Valley Historic Railroad (HVRR) is a heritage railroad based in Heber City, Utah. It operates passenger excursion trains along a line between Heber City and Vivian Park, which is located in Provo Canyon. The HVRR carries over 94,000 passengers a year.
Originally, the line carried freight and passengers from 1899-1967 between Provo and Heber City. In 1970, it re-opened as the “Heber Creeper”; a tourist train line described here:
“The railroad line is approximately 16 miles (26 km) long. A typical round trip ride on the train takes about 3 hours. There are a total of four passing sidings outside of the Heber yard limit. Notable landmarks seen from the train include Mount Timpanogos, Cascade Mountain, Deer Creek Dam and Reservoir, Provo River, Sundance Ski Resort, Tate Barn, and Soldier Hollow. A variety of wildlife including deer, eagles, fox, moose, turkeys, hawks, mountain lions (cougars), and beavers, have all been seen from the train as well.”
“During the 2002 Winter Olympics the railroad was part of the Olympic Steam Team, carrying spectators to the Soldier Hollow Olympic venue. The railroad’s No. 618 and 75 steam-engines, were joined by the Nevada Northern Railway Museum’s No. 93 steam-engine, in pulling eight-car trains full of passengers, to the Soldier Hollow depot where they disembarked and continued to the venue entrance on a horse-drawn sleigh.[1] The day prior to the Opening Ceremony of the games, all three locomotives were combined into one triple-headed train, and used to transport the Olympic flame from Soldier Hollow to Heber City as part of the torch relay.”
In 2016, Leaping Lulu was contracted to perform on the train as part of Heber City’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration. I played cajon (a drum that you sit on) and can testify that playing on an old train is akin to playing under the influence of Jameson’s Irish Holy Water! The train lurches from side to side making playing quite the challenge. We played 20 minute sets in each car, before moving on to the next car. The “concert” culminated in everyone singing along to Danny Boy, the quintessential St Paddy’s day tune. It was such a success, that Heber City contracted Leaping Lulu to perform yet again for 2017. Eye candy for you train enthusiasts:
140 peeps bought tix for the train ride, so they ended up with 3 cars (all from the early teens and 20’s of the last century) and a concessions car. We played 15 minutes sets in each car on the way out, and a different 3 sets on the way back. The pic above was a quick rehearsal before the passengers loaded.
I blog to you from Nevada City, California; our over night stop on our way to Stockton, California for my performance residency at University of the Pacific. Thus begins our 2 month music and wine journey for Spring 17. Stay tuned and I will update you regularly as we drink…er I mean perform our way across the West!
In 1956, Lerner and Loewe collaborated on what would become one of the most endearing and beloved musicals of all time: My Fair Lady. The original run was in Philadelphia, and relatively short. But it opened on Broadway later that year and was the longest running show Broadway had ever seen, up until then. I have had the opportunity to play trombone for this musical 3 times in my career. It is truly an audience favorite as we maintained near full house attendance for 6 shows. Incidentally, over the span of my career (30 years), I have played in roughly 80 ( and several of those more than once) operas and musicals from Mozart to Verdi to Andrew Lloyd Webber. Each of those 80 operas/musicals averages about 7 performances per run. That’s about 560 times that I have sat in the pit and performed these amazing works of art. And imagine that the average running time is about 2 and 3/4 hours per performance. Yikes! Well another one is in the books and here are several photos to share in the fun.
Above are two pics of my “office” for the past two weeks. The Newyorker kept me occupied during the many dialog sections of show. I included two shots above that. Liz was playing principal flute:
You’ll notice we are in all black, and not formal black dress or tuxedos. In the pit, not being seen is key, so black pants and shirt are the uniform of the down under. Much more comfy too, I have to say. The last 4 pics are what happens to be going on, on stage. I can almost hear them sing and certainly can not see anything up above me. People ask me, “How’s the show?” I always respond, “I don’t know, but it sounds pretty good in the pit”. All these years of playing shows and I haven’t ever been able to see one! But I can tell you, The Rain in Spain, Falls Mainly in the Plain!
Two more events before we take off on sabbatical part three (California trip). Leaping Lulu, Liz’s Celtic band, performs their Celtic Night Celebration of music and dance on Saturday March 11. Then, the band will play on the Heber Creeper, an old train in the Heber Valley that now provides passenger rides and tours, on St Patrick’s Day. I will blog these two events together with some great pics of the band and the train. We leave March 18 and head to California for 5 weeks. I will be doing guest artist activities at Univ of the Pacific, Sonoma State and Santa Rosa Junior College. We will be in California for a total of 5 weeks before heading up the coast to Vancouver to see family. One last thing: If retirement is anything like what I have been doing this school year, sign me up!!
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