Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Taylor Barnett

One of the requirements Jake has in band is an outside activity. He has to attend some sort of college of professional level performance and submit a paper summing up his experience. Rock concerts generally don't qualify unless the student interviews a band member.

The hard part is that it is completely up to the student to find qualifying performances. Fortunately we live near Richmond and we are able to take advantage of the many and varied offerings of the VCU music Department. Last year we got to see a Flamenco guitarist courtesy of the VCU Guitar Series. Last night we got to see Taylor Barnett and the VCU Faculty Big Band.

I love big band and after talking with our piano teacher I found out that Taylor Barnett is a fairly big deal in the world of Jazz trumpet. To get a bit of a taste of what he all about you can check out his MySpace page, he has a few clips up of his music. Two of them, Shine and Growing Apart Together, were performed last night.

It was a great concert. Jake loved the music and I think it was fun for him to see four world class Jazz trumpeters doing their thing. The only flaw was that the concert was less than an hour and a half long.

In some ways ita a pain finding an attending these outside activities, but it is worth it in the end. I don't think I ever would have been motivated to find these concerts.

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