Big Band Arrangements of Radiohead Compositions
The Radiohead Jazz Project was co-commissioned by the Frankfurt Radio Bigband (hr-Bigband) and the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.
Music Video for "Bodysnatchers" below:
RADIOHEAD JAZZ PROJECT HISTORY
Many jazz solo artists and small ensembles have recorded Radiohead songs and frequently include them as “new standards” performance repertoire. To name but a few: Pianist Brad Mehldau ("Exit Music from a Film," "Paranoid Android," "Everything in Its Right Place," and "Knives Out"); saxophonist Chris Potter ("Morning Bell"); singer Jamie Cullum ("High and Dry"); ensemble Bad Plus (“Karma Police”); and pianist Robert Glasper (cleverly combining Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” with Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place”).
It’s a logical progression to expand jazz solo and small group interpretations of Radiohead tunes to the large jazz ensemble format, and the RADIOHEAD JAZZ PROJECT is the first grand scale effort to arrange multiple Radiohead compositions for the jazz big band.
Jazz composers/arrangers/educators James Miley (Willamette University), Patty Darling and Fred Sturm (Lawrence University Conservatory of Music) established the RJP in the summer of 2010, selecting Radiohead song titles and establishing the international team of jazz artists to arrange the music. Sturm coordinated the writers, developed project funding, and produced the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble studio recordings with engineer Larry Darling. Sierra Music Publications (Bob Curnow, owner/president), released the resulting 12 titles as the “Radiohead Jazz Series” in the summer of 2011. The internationally renowned HR Big Band of Frankfurt has scheduled September 2011 RJP performances in Germany, and numerous American universities are planning concert programs showcasing the RJP repertoire.
RADIOHEAD JAZZ PROJECT TITLES & ARRANGERS
15 Step — MATT HARRIS, California State University Northridge
My arrangement of 15 Step is basically through-composed utilizing minimal melodic material from the original song. The obvious aspect of the 5/4 “odd meter” from the original song was something I tried to avoid in my arrangement. I used the basic drum groove but worked it into 11/4 (alternating bars of 5/4 and 6/4). I also used the basic I-IV-V progression from the original tune but changed the chord types. I tried to maintain interest with various orchestration colors including flute, soprano sax, and 2 bass clarinets in the woodwind section. My arrangement also features 3 contrasting sections to showcase improvised solos and ensemble figures.
2+2=5 — FLORIAN ROSS, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln
This tune is about guitar. Guitar, guitar and more guitar. So what do you do with it for a big band? I decided to stick with the original as much as I could, not trying to imitate the guitar excessively with the ensemble. For the head in, I tried to keep it as simple as the original, using just two-voice harmony plus the guitar accompaniment. I really like the impact Radiohead’s bass had when it finally entered in their version, so I also kept the bass out of my arrangement until well into the tune. I think the original’s form is well constructed, so I felt no need to change that, but in this jazz context I wanted some space for improvisation. In order to make it clear to the listener that the improvised part is an added feature, I decided not to use an harmonic progression or groove that had been used in the original. Instead, I constructed something entirely new and appended it to the end of the arrangement. The piano arpeggios serving as the basis for the improvised part appears briefly at the beginning of the arrangement, giving the listener the chance to remember.
All I Need — SHERISSE ROGERS, Metropole Orchestra, Netherlands
Because the bass line repeats throughout the Radiohead original as a primary feature, I used it as an identifying feature in my arrangement. While the original contains no harmony until the final minute, I focused my chart upon the creation of new chords and subsequent harmonic variation above the repeating bass line.
The original vocal melody contains a lot of open space, so I used that space to add different colors and textures to propel the tune forward. My improvised section uses a 4-measure repeating pattern that builds dramatically toward the final statement of the melody. As it reaches that climax, the melody is significantly reharmonized until the brass and reeds fade away above the rhythm section.
Bodysnatchers — FRED STURM, Lawrence University
I largely maintained the original Radiohead rhythmic and melodic materials, focusing my arrangement upon harmonic variation, textural manipulation, and formal expansion. The unifying feature of the original tune is the ever-present D in the bass lines, which I developed into unifying pedal points. I composed new harmonic material for the B section of the tune, for the solo section, for the cadences ending each of the formal segments, and for the ending. I recycled melodic material from various sections of the original to create unifying counterpoint. Because the Radiohead version burns loudly at one dramatic level throughout, I began my version softly and sustained a gradual crescendo from pianissimo to fortissimo over the last 4 minutes of the chart.
Everything in Its Right Place — JAMES MILEY, Williamette University
Everything In Its Right Place -- the chart that got this whole project started -- was commissioned in the fall of 2009 by Paul Lucckesi and the Buchanan High School Jazz Band from Clovis, California. The original tune is deceptively simple and extremely economical in its use of a couple of primary themes throughout, the first being a simple four note motive (C- Bb – Db – C) derived from the opening chord progression, and the second a repeating perfect fourth between C and F. The biggest challenge in working with such limited material was trying to find a way to transfer the core of the song to an instrumental setting without the vocal line and have it still project a solid musical form in the end. The piece opens with the same figure in the Rhodes piano on the original recording, following the roadmap of Radiohead’s studio recording as the ideas are introduced, then using that material as a springboard for a newly composed solo section with more involved harmonic motion and an expansion of the principal melodic units in the winds. Following the extended solo section, the original figures return in the band, building to a coda that features the wind players in the ensemble singing fragments of Thom Yorke’s vocal line over a truncated version of the opening Rhodes line in the rhythm section.
High and Dry — BOB WASHUT, University of Northern Iowa
The main challenge for me was to create interest from a jazz point of view in the areas of harmony, form and groove. I set the tune in 7/8 meter to create an interesting groove based on a rhythmic pedal figure. This pedal figure is a major unifying device throughout the piece. An additive build-up ensues to set up the melody. Since the original Radiohead version uses only three diatonic chords, I found some harmonic color through an ascending bass line. The resulting progression also serves as a unifying device. At the beginning of the solo section, I moved to an open feel (alternating 8/8 and 7/8) that gradually returns to the original 7/8 groove. This helped to create contrast both rhythmically and formally, allowing the piece to both re-gather momentum and enable the soloist to build an improvisation. Harmonically, this section is newly composed but faithful to the character of the original. All background figures are derived from the melody. The “development” section is essentially a transition back to the main melodic hook, with splashes of dissonance suggested by the tune’s lyrics. The piece builds to the end, yielding to a sudden dynamic fade with the opening pedal figure.
Idioteque — PATTY DARLING, Lawrence University
Idioteque has a beautiful, simple, dark intensity that needed to be preserved in this arrangement. I focused upon the repetitive rhythmic melodies of the verses and the song’s single harmonic progression, Gm-6 to Ebmaj9. This inspired me to write the entire chorus (“Here I’m allowed ev’rything all of the time”) with a heavy bass pattern built on a single dissonant chord. The melodies of the verses are split into fragments and used throughout the piece to create rhythmic forms. They can be found in the introduction, solo backgrounds, transitions and the ending. The melody “evr’ything all of the time” is also a key part of the arrangement, and it occurs at the very beginning and ending of the piece.
Kid A — STEVE OWEN, University of Oregon
In choosing Kid A to arrange for this project, I was initially drawn to the surreal quality of sounds that Radiohead achieved recording the vocal and rhythm tracks and thought that I would enjoy trying to reach for something similar in writing for big band. I was also intrigued with the sinister undertones of the melody and the delicate keyboard vamp that opens the piece. Striving to maintain these qualities, I harmonized the melody in open 5ths, suspended it over a pedal Gb, and then blurred its presentation by placing it in a quasi round. I later opted to remove the pedal Gb from under the melody, but found that it was ideal as a jumping off point for the solo section and to close the piece. Of course, the common thread that runs through my arrangement is the deconstruction of Radiohead's vamp, truncating the motive and placing it in 3/4.
Knives Out — DAN GAILEY, University of Kansas
One of the things that I find most interesting about Radiohead is the "counterpoint" that goes on beneath the melodies--there always seems to be some sort of subversive element in play. However, Knives Out had me hooked the first time I heard it based solely on its beautiful melody. I used a lot of the original's chord progressions, with some tweaks and reharmonizations along the way. The biggest departure from the original was in the meter, and how the melody unfolds within that. I've always been a huge fan of Vince Mendoza's writing, and heard him talk about letting the natural order of things determine the length of phrases in his writing. With that in mind, I literally sat down and sang/played the tune on piano, moving on to new phrases when it felt right, and determining the meter based on the results. The reharmonization at the end of each chorus also ended up serving as the "development" material (drum solo over the piano ostinato). The original version by Radiohead is such a beautiful, dark work -- I wanted to keep that as the central focus of my big band reinterpretation.
Packt Like Sardines — DAN CAVANAGH, University of Texas at Arlington
Like many of Radiohead's tunes, Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box contains limited yet very interesting melodic content. A feature that stood out was the repeating "D"s in the melody, and I used that melodic pedal point to create a pivot on which to reharmonize – most chords in the entire arrangement contain a D, providing a new "functionality" not necessarily based on V-I. The drum groove at the beginning of the recording was too cool to leave out, so I created a hybrid groove with drum set and a pair of brake drums. Another wonderful thing about Radiohead's music is the way they use texture, and I spread much of the textures the guitar has on the recording across the horns, allowing them to create wavering textures as a whole. The repeating D motive turns into the propulsive force behind the energy flow in the chart, allowing space for the reharmonized chords to create movement.
Paranoid Android — KEN SCHAPHORST, New England Conservatory
I like Radiohead's Paranoid Android. I like its ambitiousness, stitching together three radically contrasting musical ideas. So one of my goals was to communicate what I admire about the piece as directly as possible. I decided early on to feature the piano, an instrument that is not featured on the original recording. This started after orchestrating Radiohead's opening guitar accompaniment figure for piano, saving the big band's guitar part for the lead guitar figures. The role of the piano reaches its climax with the arrangement of the opening of the slow theme as a solo ("Rain down, Rain down over me"). This piano solo had two associations for me, reminding me of Chopin, while at the same time recalling Brad Meldau, whose cover of Paranoid Android was always on my mind. (Interestingly, Brad arranged this part for brass.) One of the biggest challenges was in handling the transitions between sections. As much as I love Radiohead's recording, I wanted to try to make the transition into the slow theme less jarring, with a slightly different harmonic path coupled with the addition of a piano cadenza. Also, I never quite bought into Radiohead's ending. Initally, I considered ending the piece in the slower tempo. But in the end, I went with a more abbreviated return to the initial groove.
There,There — JAMES MILEY, Williamette University
There, There (the Boney King of Nowhere), is a track from Radiohead’s fifth recording, “Hail to the Thief,” that received a fair amount of airplay on pop radio and MTV following the album’s release in 2003. In addition to having a soft spot for pieces that begin with solo drums, I was immediately attracted to the rise and fall nature of the modal melody and its clever implication of both major and minor modes throughout. Similar in approach to my arrangement of Everything In Its Right Place, I chose to start from Radiohead’s original version and work from there, resulting in a piece which begins as a fairly straightforward re-orchestration of the original recording and ends up morphing into a completely re-imagined version of the tune by the end of the arrangement. The first indication that we’re about to leave the realm of Radiohead is the first solo section for tenor saxophone; it begins with a variation on the opening two chords that seems poised to lead in an entirely new direction, yet first returns to the original changes from the head before finally moving into new territory with the next solo section over a re-harmonized version of the melody. The final section of the piece layers increasingly complex lines derived from the melody over a chord progression based loosely on the major/minor ambiguity of the final section of the original recording before dissipating into an unaccompanied angular bass line at the end.
The English alternative rock band Radiohead was formed in 1985, releasing their first single in 1992 and first album in 1993. The cutting edge 5-piece group achieved notoriety in the U.K. by the mid-1990s and international recognition before the turn of the century. In 2005, they were ranked 73rd in Rolling Stone's list of "The Greatest Artists of All Time,” and they are commonly viewed as the most inventive and successful band in modern rock.
Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Greenwood (guitars, keyboards, etc.), Ed O’Brien (guitars, backing vocals), Colin Greenwood (bass, synthesizers), and Phil Selway (drums, percussion) have cited the music of jazz icons Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus as inspirational sources. The band has abandoned conventional instrumentation and standard song forms, and they’ve employed rhythms and grooves seldom found in the rock genre. They claim that they’ve drawn many conceptual elements from jazz. "We bring in our favorite jazz albums and say: We want to do this," says Radiohead lead guitarist and principal arranger Jonny Greenwood. "That's what we do, and that's what bands have always done, since the late '50s -- a bunch of guys in England listening to American blues records and copying them. In our case, it's jazz."
Department Links
Faculty
- Bill Carrothers
Lecturer of Music - Jazz Piano
Bill Carrothers has been a professional pianist for 31 years. He has played many venues throughout the U.S. and Europe including the Village Gate, Knitting Factory, Birdland, Blues Alley, New Morning (Paris), the Audi Jazz Festival in Brussels, the Nevers Jazz Festival (where he shared the bill with Abbey Lincoln), the Montreal Jazz Festival, Jazz Middelheim, and the Marciac Festival in France. In October of 2000, Mr. Carrothers headlined the prestigious Rising Star Tour throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. More recently, Bill headlined a week with his trio at the famed Village Vanguard in New York City as well as two solo performances at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival.
He has been a leader on twenty recordings, all of which have received critical acclaim. His sideman credits have included some of the greatest names in jazz including Scott Colley, Buddy DeFranco, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, Eric Gravatt, Drew Gress, Tim Hagans, Billy Hart, Billy Higgins, Ari Hoenig, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Konitz, James Moody, Gary Peacock, Dewey Redman, Charlie Rouse, James Spaulding, Bill Stewart, Ben Street, Ira Sullivan, Toots Thielemans, and Benny Wallace.
Critical praise for Bill Carrothers:
"The relentlessly inventive pianist Bill Carrothers' harmonic sophistication has to be heard to be believed."
- Chicago Tribune"The pianist of the 21st century."
- Liberation (France)"One of the most underrated jazz pianists around"
- Pacific Sun"The new monster of the piano."
- Telerama (France)"Carrothers' discs are epistles of taste and derring-do."
- Village Voice"Bill Carrothers is standing on the threshold of being the great hope of the piano."
- Jazzman Magazine (France)"Carrothers is a class act, already endowed with a formidable breadth of experience, and able to fit in with most contemporary jazz situations."
- Penguin Guide To Jazz (9th edition, 2008)Bill Carrothers' personal webpage: http://www.carrothers.com/
- John Daniel
Associate Professor of Music
John Daniel is the Professor of Trumpet at Lawrence University. He received the Specialist in Music degree from the University of Michigan, Master of Arts in Music from the University of Iowa, and Bachelor of Music from Ball State University. His primary teachers were David Greenhoe, Richard Giangiulio, and Armando Ghitalla. Mr. Daniel previously held tenured positions at Penn State University and Abilene Christian University. While attending the University of Michigan on full scholarship he won the graduate concerto award and was principal trumpet of orchestras in Ann Arbor and Saginaw, Michigan. Mr. Daniel served as principal trumpet with the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra for nine years and has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, Palm Beach Opera, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Music at Penn's Woods Orchestra, as well as “subbing” for the Broadway revivals of "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Gypsy." He performs as co-principal trumpet in the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and first trumpet in Lawrence Brass. He has played recitals in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, throughout South Korea, and throughout the United States. As a jazz musician he performs with the Lawrence University faculty jazz group and has appeared with Lionel Hampton, Bill Watrous, Wycliff Gordon, Marvin Stamm, Vinnie DiMartino, Phil Woods, Ernie Watts, The Nelson Riddle Orchestra and many others. He conducts and solos annually for the West Texas Rehabilitation Center Telethon Orchestra. Mr. Daniel released “A Calling” in 2004, a jazz CD featuring his own compositions and is featured on a 2006 Mark Masters release, “Karel Husa Trumpet Concertos.” The Husa CD was on the entry list to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the category “best solo with orchestra” and “best classical recording.” He has been a member of North America’s finest brass band, The Brass Band of Battle Creek, since 1993 and plays Schilke trumpets, flugelhorn and cornets exclusively. In April of 2011, Mr. Daniel self published a trumpet method, “Special Studies for Trumpet.” The book represents a lifetime of practicing and teaching the trumpet. It is used by members of major symphony orchestras, leading freelancers in New York and Los Angeles, soloists and college trumpet teachers at major institutions including the Juilliard School. It is available at: johndanieltrumpet.com
Contact by e-mail: john.daniel@lawrence.edu
- Larry Darling
Director of Recording
Larry Darling is Director of Recording at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Supervising a recording crew of 20 student engineers and recording assistants, Mr. Darling oversees the recording and archiving of more than 250 ensemble, student, and faculty music recitals and concerts each academic year. In addition, Mr. Darling has engineered and mastered CDs for the Lawrence Percussion Studio, Jazz Department, Choral Studies Department, and Wind Ensemble. Mr. Darling has also produced many CD projects for Lawrence faculty and alumni.
Mr. Darling has been involved with Lawrence, first as a student, since 1972, studying trumpet and composition with John Harmon, '57. In 1974, Darling co-founded the jazz group "Matrix" and toured nationally until 1980, appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York and twice at the Monterrey Jazz Festival in California. The group was heavily involved in jazz education, giving numerous concerts and clinics at the high school and college level. During that time, the group recorded four albums for RCA, Warner Brothers, and Pablo Records. In 1980, Darling resettled in Appleton and built his own recording studio, focusing on original music for radio, television, and corporate multimedia presentations. He has also engineered sound for live concerts including the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Dave Brubeck, Bobby McFerrin, Cassandra Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dianne Schuur, Jon Hendricks, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard and Bill Watrous.
Darling received the 1984 Down Beat award for best studio recording in the college division and has since been recipient of numerous local and regional awards for radio and television music campaigns. As a member of Matrix, Darling has just recorded and produced the group's first recording in 23 years, which is available on Summit Records.
Contact by e-mail: larry.c.darling@lawrence.edu
- Patty Darling
Lecturer in Music
Patty completed her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in 1985. She has composed music for a wide variety of mediums, including works for orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber groups, jazz ensembles, and numerous instrumental soloists.
Patty has received awards for her compositions and arrangements from Down Beat Magazine, the Presser Foundation, the Eastman School of Music, and the International Association for Jazz Education. While pursuing an advanced composition degree at the University of Minnesota, she served as a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Electronic Music. Patty's recording studio, founded in 1988 with Larry Darling, has been featured in Keyboard Magazine, where Patty's and Larry’s world music compositions are described as “more than a network of fragmentary styles, their music is an integrated whole.” In addition to her role as conductor of the Lawrence University Jazz Band, Patty is the owner of IMPACT Music, where she focuses on composing original soundtracks for broadcast, corporate multimedia events, and the IMPACT Music Library. She has created hundreds of music tracks in a wide variety of styles, and many have been distributed worldwide.
Contact by e-mail: patricia.a.darling@lawrence.edu
- José Encarnacion
Instructor of Jazz & Improvisational Music and Jazz Performance Coordinator
José L. Encarnacion leads the jazz improvisation classes, coaches jazz small groups, teaches applied jazz saxophone, and coordinates the jazz performance program at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. He studied saxophone, flute and clarinet at the Free School of Music in San Juan, Puerto Rico, completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he graduated magna cum laude, and received his Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music (including the 2002 Schirmer Prize in Jazz Performance). He previously served as Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music, Instructor of Saxophone, Latin Jazz Performance Workshop, and Youth Saxology for the Eastman Community School, and as Jazz Ensemble Conductor at the Rochester (NY) School of the Arts.
He has performed jazz, salsa, and Latin music with the Bob Mintzer Big Band, the Dave Rivello Ensemble, Gilberto Santarosa, Roberto Rohena, Bobby Valentin, Domingo Quinones, Israel “Cachao" Lopez, Tito Puente, Danilo Perez, Dave Valentin, Giovanni Hidalgo, Batacumbele, Humberto Ramirez, and David Sanchez. His pops performances include appearances with the Temptations, Dianne Reeves, Natalie Cole, Doc Severinsen, Lou Ralls, New York Voices, Brasilia, Ann Hampton Calloway, and the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Rochester, and Green Bay.
- Marty Erickson
Lecturer in Music
Marty was principal/solo tubist with the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., where he served for twenty-six years. He has been the principal Eb Tubist with the Brass Band of Battle Creek for the past fifteen years and is a founding member of Millennium Brass Quintet, The Symphonia tuba-euphonium ensemble, and the Tuba-Percussion duo Balance with percussionist Alison Shaw.
Having served on the faculties of Penn State University and Eastern Michigan University, Mr. Erickson is in his ninth year as Lecturer of Tuba, Euphonium and Chamber music at the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University and performs with the Lawrence Brass faculty brass quintet.
Mr. Erickson has performed as a soloist/clinician throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, Scandinavia, United Kingdom. Bermuda, Cuba and in 48 of the 50 United States. He has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the National Symphony and Annapolis Chamber Orchestras (with performances at Carnegie Hall and the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, the Maryland Symphony, the Washington Masterworks Orchestra, and the Smithsonian Masterworks Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Gunther Schuller, and most recently, as principal tuba with the Green Bay Symphony. He has also performed as soloist on concert and recital series programs with the United States Army Band, The United States Army Field Band, the United States Marine Band and the Army Garrison bands of Oulu and Helsinki, Finland. In April 2008, Mr. Erickson performed four concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, serving as “extra tuba” in performances of Symphony Fantastique with CSO tubist and longtime friend Gene Pokorny, under the direction of Maestro Kenneth Nagano.
He has been a featured jazz and classical performer at five International Tuba-Euphonium Conventions, which will include ITEC 2008 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He was a featured jazz soloist and member of the Balance Duo which performed at the International Women’s Brass conference at Illinois State University this past June. In May 2007, Marty was the guest jazz performer and “docent” at the Deutsches Tuba Forum International Conference in Hammelburg, Germany, his fourth consecutive conference of service in that country.
In addition to his solo jazz CDs "My Very Good Friend" and "Smile," Mr. Erickson may be heard on over forty recordings of orchestra, concert band, brass band, dixieland jazz, folk, and children's music. His most recent recordings include performances with the Millennium Brass Quintet, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the New Columbian Brass Band on the Dorian label, as well as Grammy-nominated recordings with the Symphonia Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble. His newest CD is a collaboration with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon entitled “You and I,” released in the late spring of 2008.
A Past-President of Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association (now ITEA-International Tuba and Euphonium Association), Mr. Erickson is currently the jazz editor for the ITEA Journal publication. He is the Adjudicating Chairman for the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival (LFIETF), and serves on the Board of Directors for the Colonial Euphonium Tuba Institute (CETI), as well as the Quorum Chamber Arts Collective. Most recently, Mr. Erickson served as clinician and adjudicator for the National Association for Brass Bands in America (NABBA) championships in New Albany, IN.
Marty is a clinician/design consultant for the Willson tubas distributed by the Getzen Company in the US, and performs on the Willson 3400S Eb Tuba, the 3100S BBb Tubas and the Erickson Signature mouthpieces he helped to design.
Contact by e-mail: marty.erickson@lawrence.edu
- Nick Keelan
Associate Professor of Music
Nick Keelan is Associate Professor of Trombone at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Along with teaching trombone he teaches in the Jazz and Improvisational Music Department, directs the Lawrence Trombone Ensemble, and performs with the Lawrence Faculty Jazz Group and the Lawrence Brass, the faculty brass quintet. The Lawrence Trombone Ensemble is currently composed of 29 trombonists and has performed recently with Conrad Herwig, Stuart Dempster, Todd Baldwin (US Army Ceremonial Band), Wycliffe Gordon, and Jim Pugh. Since he joined the faculty in 1985, Keelan has taught trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, tuba, chaired instrumental music education, chaired the Woodwind-Brass-Percussion department, and served as conductor of the Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Jazz Workshop. Prior to coming to Lawrence he taught for ten years in the schools of Colorado and Texas. His degrees are from the University of Northern Colorado and Henderson State University in Arkansas. He performs on and is a clinician for Getzen trombones.
Contact by e-mail: nick.keelan@lawrence.edu
Nick Keelan's personal webpage: http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/keelann/
- Steve Peplin
Lecturer in Music
Steve Peplin concurrently serves as adjunct jazz guitar instructor at Lawrence and as Professor of Composition, Major Instrument Guitar I-IV, Harmony and Music Appreciation at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Berklee College of Music with a B.A. in composition and earned an Associate degree in Occupational Music from MATC.
In addition to performing with his own group, Steve has performed with a variety of artists such as Jamie Briewick, Aaron Gardner, John Price, Sam Belton, The Static Chicken, De La Buena, Organica, Como No, David Wake, Art Davis, the Milwaukee Symphony, Doc Severinsen, Maureen McGovern, Howard Levy, Jack Grassel, Melvin Rhyne, Invocation Trio and others.
Steve has written for Guitar One Magazine and has authored numerous transcription books for Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation. He is also a prolific composer of contemporary classical works, jazz compositions, serial music, songs and occasionally, just plain noise!
Contact by e-mail: steve.peplin@lawrence.edu
- Janet Planet
Lecturer in Music
Jazziz Magazine hailed her as a "Voice of the New Jazz Culture...amazingly powerful with seemingly limitless expression.” In her career, Ms. Planet has performed with legends such as Jackie and Roy, George Benson, and her mentor Nancy King, and shared the stage with many other accomplished jazz artists including Ellis Marsalis, John Harmon, Gene Bertoncini, and Marian McPartland. Janet is also on the staff of the Tritone Jazz Camp and teaches voice privately as well as conducting clinics.
Planet frequently shares with students and others her knowledge of vocal technique, jazz history, performance careers, and the music business, bringing to this experience her perspectives as a woman and artist. A busy concert schedule has taken her to performing arts centers, opera houses, colleges, universities, jazz festivals and jazz clubs across the USA and internationally, with appearances in Europe and Japan where she co-founded the First Fraternity of Musicians in the city of Nagasaki in 2000.
Janet Planet has been paying her dues and studying the craft of singing for over two decades, steadily building a career that began with a high school talent show performance. Her 1985 Seabreeze release, “Sweet Thunder” brought Janet to the attention of Steve Allen who wrote, “There are so many dumb and inarticulate singers today. It’s a pleasure to hear someone who knows what singing is all about.” As the past century closed and a new one began, music critics have noted her arrival as an accomplished artist.
While technique sometimes gets in the way of creative jazz singing, Planet employs her faultless technique to the service of phrase and text. Words count, and are never shorted, her clear but easy diction exploring surfaces and recesses alike. Her ability to support the tone and sustain a long line, tells time after time. And, in every ballad and every samba, the sheer beauty of her tone takes her performance to a level of its own. Still, she can brandish heat and steel, she brings a special insight and affection to every song. “Janet Planet is now almost certainly the best of today’s jazz singers, but even more, she'd earn a high standing in any age.” said Erik Eriksson.
Producer, recording artist, for numerous years Janet has served as a session artist. She co-founded Stellar Sound Productions in 1995, a recording label that has consistently earned praise from reviewers for both exceptional artistic content and high production values. Among the Stellar releases are artists, jazz singer/piano duo, Nancy King and Steve Christofferson, Cellist, Matt Turner and pianist/composer, John Harmon. Active in all aspects of the recording business, she owns and operates Steel Moon Recording Studio with her husband, saxophonist/composer, Tom Washatka.
A productive recording artist herself, Janet has 23 recordings in her discography to date. Celebrating her Stellar release “Just Above A Whisper” with guitarist Gene Bertoncini and pianist/composer John Harmon, she performed at Manhattan’s Jazz Standard in 2006. Cadence Magazine said: “Janet’s a cappella opening on “Close Enough For Love” is all you have to hear to understand how voice and lyric can be heard as one. On “Like Someone In Love,” she displays uncanny vocal virtuosity in unison passages with Bertoncini’s guitar...an exemplary hour of music.”
Janet Planet's webpage: http://www.janetplanet.com/
Contact by e-mail: janet.planet@lawrence.edu
- Dane Richeson
Professor of Music
Dane Richeson is Professor of Music at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he has been Director of Percussion Studies for 27 years. Under the direction of Mr. Richeson, the Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble (LUPE) has released two critically acclaimed CDs, and been awarded honors by the Wisconsin Music Educators Association and the Percussive Arts Society.
Dane Richeson is recognized as one of the most versatile virtuosi in percussion. Throughout the world he has been featured in such diverse roles as solo marimbist, percussionist in contemporary music settings, world percussion specialist and jazz drummer. Performances have been with such diverse artists as Bobby McFerrin, Gordon Stout, Nancy Zeltsman, Gunther Schuller, Geoff Keezer, Joe Lovano, NDR Big Band of Germany, Roscoe Mitchell, Medeski-Martin-Woods, Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine, and Lyle Mays. He regularly performs with the chamber ensembles CUBE (Chicago), The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (Madison, WI) and has been a featured marimba artist/teacher at several of the Zeltsman Marimba Festivals, the Ivana Bilic Marimba/Percussion Week in Croatia, and the Central Conservatory Chamber Music Festival in Beijing. Moreover, he has performed at festivals such as Ravinia, North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals, and Beijing Music Festival.
Mr. Richeson has performed on numerous recordings including works on Blue Note Records, Origin Records, Klavier, Accurate, Mark, Naxos, A-Records, CRI, Albany, Innova, and A-440. In addition, Mr. Richeson has lived in three distinctly different cultures: Ghana, Africa, studying the music and dance of the Ewe people with master drummer Godwin Agbeli and gyil with Kakraba Lobi; Matanzas, Cuba where he studied with Afro-Cuban drummer Jesús Alfonzo, musical director of Los Muñiquitos de Matanzas and Daniel Alfonso; Salvador and São Paulo, Brazil where he studied the drumming traditions of the State of Bahia with Giba Conceicao and choro/MPB styles with Guello. This research was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts/Arts International and Lawrence University.
Contact by e-mail: dane.m.richeson@lawrence.edu
- Fred Sturm
Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music
Fred Sturm is the Director of Jazz and Improvisational Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. He serves as guest conductor/composer/arranger for professional jazz ensembles and radio orchestras in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Norway; as director of university jazz ensembles and high school all-state jazz bands throughout the U.S.; as clinician at national educational conferences and festivals; and as composer-in-residence for school and university music programs.
Fred's compositions and arrangements have been performed by jazz ensembles, symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, and chamber groups worldwide, featuring renowned artists Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Gary Burton, Arild Andersen, and John Scofield. His works are published by Lorenz Heritage JazzWorks, Universal Edition, Sierra Music Publications, Kendor, Warner Brothers/Alfred Music, Advance Music, Ensemble Publications, Really Good Music, and UNC Jazz Press, have been issued on Concord Jazz, RCA, hrMedia, and Warner Brothers Records, and received a 1997 Grammy Award nomination. His 9 "inning" baseball symphony Forever Spring is currently touring American orchestras with The Baseball Music Project under the auspices of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Migrations: One World, Many Musics, Fred’s concert suite featuring indigenous music from 21 countries, was premiered by vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the NDR Big Band in Germany in 2007 and toured Europe the following summer.
Fred was the 2003 recipient of the ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted annually to one established jazz composer of international prominence. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music, and the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund. His texts, Changes Over Time: The Evolution of Jazz Arranging, Kenny Wheeler: Collected Works on ECM, and Maria Schneider: Evanescence are published by Advance Music (Germany) and Universal Edition (Vienna), and his teaching concept titled All Ears: Improvisation, Aural Training, and the Creative Process is widely used by school music educators.
Fred served as Professor and Chair of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music in New York from 1991 to 2002, where he directed the internationally acclaimed Eastman Jazz Ensemble, conducted the 70-piece Eastman Studio Orchestra, and coordinated the Eastman jazz composition and arranging program. During his university teaching career, Downbeat Magazine has cited his ensembles as the finest in the United States and Canada nine times. He studied at Lawrence, Eastman, and the University of North Texas, and was a founding member of the jazz nonet Matrix. He received the University Award for Excellence in Teaching at Lawrence in 2005 and the 2010 Downbeat Jazz Education Achievement Award.
Fred Sturm's personal webpage: http://www.fredsturm.com
Mizar 5 Web Magazine Interview
Contact by e-mail: fred.sturm@lawrence.edu
- Matt Turner
Lecturer of Music
Matt Turner is widely regarded as one of the world's leading improvising cellists. Equally skilled as a pianist, Turner performs in a myriad of styles and has shared the stage in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia with Cape Breton fiddle sensation Natalie MacMaster, avant-garde musicians Marilyn Crispell, Peter Kowald, Guillermo Gregorio, Scott Fields, and John Butcher, as well as country musician Wanda Vick, singer-songwriter LJ Booth, and jazz musician Bobby McFerrin to name a few. He appears on over 100 recordings on Sketch/Harmonia Mundi, Illusions, Music and Arts, Accurate, Polyvinyl, Cadence Jazz and others, recording with jazz violinist Randy Sabien, goth vocalist/pianist Jo Gabriel, singer/songwriters Mark Croft and Tret Fure, punk artist Kyle Fischer, Kitty Brazelton's chamber rockestra Dadadah, alt-country band Heller Mason, and with the Pointless Orchestra.
Turner completed his undergraduate studies at Lawrence University and his Master of Music degree in Third Stream Studies (now the Contemporary Improvisation program) at the New Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dave Holland, Geri Allen and Joe Maneri, and where he was the recipient of a Distinction in Perfomance Award.
As a leader, Turner's recordings appear on Illusions, Stellar, O.O. Discs, Asian Improv, Penumbra, Fever Pitch, Geode, Tautology and Meniscus Records. Turner is a Yamaha Performing Artist and currently performs and records with Bill Carrothers' Armistice 1918 ensemble and with the Fantastic Merlins.
Contact by e-mail: Matthew L. Turner
- Mark Urness
Associate Professor of Music
Mark Urness is a versatile bassist, composer, and educator. His diverse performance experience encompasses orchestral, chamber, jazz, salsa, and solo playing. He has served as Principal Bassist for the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and for five seasons was Principal Bassist for the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra. From 1999-2001 he freelanced in New York City, where he played with Adam Nussbaum, Lew Soloff, Eric Rasmussen, and Curtis Fowlkes, among others. He was awarded First Prize in the International Society of Bassists Jazz Competition, and performed with Bill Mays and Tim Froncek at the 2001 ISB Convention.
His compositions appear on several recordings, including the Bob Washut Trio's Songbook, Triptych's Play Here, and the University of Northern Iowa Jazz Band I's Northern Exposure. Recent recordings include Mafficked Simulacrum with the University of Iowa's jazz faculty group, oftEnsemble; a new album with the salsa band Orquesta Alto Maiz; and a project with Iowa City's eclectic jazz quartet, OddBar.
Prior to his appointment to the faculty of Lawrence University, Mr. Urness taught at the University of Iowa, Coe College, and the University of Northern Iowa. He received a Master of Music in double bass performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Arts in music from the University of Northern Iowa, and studied music and computer science at the University of Iowa.
Contact by e-mail: mark.urness@lawrence.edu
