New Band Debuts Tonight at Egan's: David Marriott Jr. Presents Pop Culture

I'm unleashing a new project tonight at Egan's Ballard Jam House, or at least the first test of the concept. My new group, Pop Culture, is debuting tonight at 9pm playing one set until 10:30pm, with myself on trombone, Marc Fendel on saxophone, Chris Symer on bass, and Evan Woodle on drums. One set only! Come and check out the new project...

1KTF Music Giveaway Results and Video

It's time to announce the winners of the One Thousand Twitter Follower Music Giveaway! I had a great time doing my first live stream today -- if you missed it, I've posted the video below. Thanks to all the folks who entered -- I decided to give music to the two-runners-ups, so followers @QTSCHO and @NutmegDesigns will both get a copy of Septology: In the Beginning. Here are the big winners:

BRONZE PACKAGE: Long-time Twitter friend and follower @ElementsOfJazz -- her new website Elements of Jazz just launched, check it out!.

SILVER PACKAGE: Photographer Juan-Carlo Hernandez, @jchernandezjazz on Twitter. Lots of beautiful stuff to check out on his blogs.

GOLD PACKAGE: Trombone player Martin Sager, @MSplaystrombone on Twitter. He asked me to please mention his "band leader Chris Hodges, The Chris Hodges Band, and Dothanjazz.com," as well as "the cities of Troy and Dothan, Alabama, and all the musicians of the Southeast. Keep doing what you're doing." We'll say more in our thank-you video, coming in the next day or two...

Thanks so much for all who entered, and we look forward to offering another batch of music when we hit the 5,000 follower mark. Stay tuned!

On Working and Performing with the Liberty High School Jazz Band

I had the pleasure this past week of spending a few days with the Liberty High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Phil Donley. At his kind invitation, I spent some time with them Monday working with the band, performed some lunchtime concerts at the school on Friday with a short Q-and-A for the band members, and performed with them as guest artist at the Eighth Annual Liberty Jazz Night. Phil has done a great job getting his students to deal with some complex arrangements in a musical way, not just technical. Their rhythm sections are solid, the band features a few fine soloists, and they seem to dive in head first to whatever music Phil throws their way. They peaked at the performance Saturday night, so what more could you ask for!

It's always nice getting good feedback from students, so I was delighted to get mentioned in a few posts on Twitter by some students from Liberty High School's Jazz Band:

My thanks to director Phil Donley for the invitation, and to all the band members of the Liberty High School Jazz Band for making my time with you so fun and easy. The performance Saturday night was a blast, to be sure! For those of you not in attendance, here's the program from the concert:

Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Band Premieres Two of My Arrangements at Hot Java Cool Jazz

When Mountlake Terrace High School band director Darin Faul approached me earlier this year to arrange Norah Jones' "Back to Manhattan" for the MTHS Jazz Band, I was excited, flattered, and most of all thankful -- I needed the work, too! There wasn't much to it, mainly just adding a backdrop to the original version, staying out of the way of the vocalist. But the last two things I've arranged for him -- Duke Ellington's "The Single Petal of a Rose" and Artie Shaw's "Concerto for Clarinet" -- were somewhat more daunting tasks. Ellington himself only recorded the piece as a solo piano composition, and the Artie Shaw piece had originally been recorded for a full orchestra -- and then there were the reputations of the pieces and the artists themselves. With a quick turnaround time needed for their Hot Java Cool Jazz performance, I had to squeeze all my musical and physical juices to get something completed that I was happy with.

Well, after seeing these two videos from the concert, I can only say, "Bravo!" The Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Darin Faul, has hit a series of home-runs with these new charts, and made a whole ton of music out of some ink I put on a page. You clearly got the vibes I was going for, and then some. Bravo! Enjoy the videos of the two charts below:

What I've Learned From My First Thousand Twitter Followers - Plus Three Giveaways!

Sometime late last week, I crossed the line to go beyond one thousand Twitter followers, and I thought I'd celebrate a little by sending some music out into the Twitterverse. But before I give out the details of the giveaway, I decided to share a few of the lessons I've learned over the course of gaining those first thousand followers and some tips out there from other sources:

1. Twitter works best for musicians when they interact -- don't just automate your calendar and sit back, waiting for people to follow you. Just like in forums or blogs, results come from activity -- and in this case, interactivity.
2. Don't waste your time with auto-follow services -- you'll just end up with a bunch of worthless followers you'll have to sift through and delete later. Rather, subscribe to keyword search results and go through the list once a day or week. You'll be much happier with your list of followers.
3. Keep an open mind regarding who might follow you and who you might follow. Just because you see an affiliate site following you doesn't mean that they aren't a fan of your music. Feel each and every follower out -- I put possible fans in a list called "potential something" so I can see where they are coming from.
4. Read these lists of suggestions: Twitter 101 for Jazz Musicians posted on TwitJazzNet,  Musicians Twitter Roadmap on Ariel Publicity, and Top Twitter Tips for Musicians by Steve Lawson -- these basics to using the service will keep you on the right path.

Now for the giveaway! For any of my followers, I will be giving out three packages I've named in honor of our recent Olympics here in the Northwest...

BRONZE AWARD PACKAGE

• CD copy of Marriott Brothers Band, "The High Country" - autographed by me to the winner
• MP3 copy of David Marriott, Jr., "Septology: In the Beginning"

SILVER AWARD PACKAGE

• CD copy of Marriott Brothers Band, "The High Country" - autographed by me to the winner
• CD copy of Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, "Alive and Swingin'" - autographed by me and the bandleader to the winner
• MP3 copy of David Marriott, Jr., "Septology: In the Beginning"

GOLD AWARD PACKAGE

• CD copy of Marriott Brothers Band, "The High Country" - autographed by me to the winner
• CD copy of Emerald City Jazz Orchestra, "Alive and Swingin'" - autographed by me and the bandleader to the winner
• MP3 copy of David Marriott, Jr., "Septology: In the Beginning"
• MP3 copy of David Marriott, Jr., "Early Originals 1995-2000"
• Custom video greeting, announcement and "thank you" on our blog and YouTube channel, with link of your choice included (your band, website, blog, Twitter -- whatever within reason)
• UPDATED!! $50 iTunes Gift Card!!

Winners will be drawn from random live on my uStream channel on March 30th at 4:00pm (moved up from 5:00pm) Seattle time. I'll be using some software to draw the winners from the list of contestants (at least, that's the plan).

So what do you have to do to enter the 1KTF Giveaway? It's simple:

1. Compose an email to david.marriott@gmail.com.
2. Type "1KTF Giveaway" in the Subject field.
3. Include your Twitter name (@redraspus, for example) in the Body of the e-mail.
4. Send it!

That's it! You only need to enter once and you are good to go for the drawing. As long as I can verify you as a follower at the time of the drawing on March 30th, you are elligible for one of the three prize packages. Winners will be contacted regarding shipping details for physical goods, and download codes will be e-mailed immediately for digital goods. Thanks for entering, thanks for following, and thanks for your support!

Update on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 03:52AM by David Marriott, Jr.

UPDATE ON DRAWING TIME: I'll be moving up the drawing an hour, so the drawing will happen at 4pm Pacific Daylight Time. The stream address is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/red-raspus-music so be ready for the drawing!