I took some time to write a few out, and I figured it would be nice to put it up here.  Happy practicing!

Partial Skipping Lip Slurs

I’ve been really lucky to have some of the best brass teachers out there.  Big shout out to: Rodney Hudson, Phil Ostrander, Robin Eubanks, Norman Bolter, and Tom Plsek – my main trombone teachers over the years.  And John Faieta and Gabe Langfur, too.  Thanks for everything, guys!

PDF Files:

randys routine 1
randys routine 2

Happy practicing!

January 8th, 2013 at the Outpost

picture by Matthew Small

Kathy Olson – bari sax
Randy Pingrey – trombone
Mark Zaleski – bass
Austin McMahon – drums

Tygart Valley by Kathy Olson

Many apologies for the lack of posts in recent…years.  Due to popular demand, I’ll be back at it in the next few months.  I couldn’t be more happy with how these recordings came out – Austin, Mark, and Kathy all sound fantastic!

As always, thanks for listening!

Solo Trombone – 30th of October, 2011
@ Mobius in Cambridge, MA

Haute Cuisine

All compositions by Randy Pingrey, except – of course – for All of Me…

Also: the new Olson Pingrey Quartet album, Low Contrast, is now available here:
http://theolsonpingreyquartet.bandcamp.com/

As always, thank you so much for listening!

Premonition - R. Pingrey

Short Piece – R. Pingrey

Mark Zaleski – alto sax (solo on Premonition)
Rick Stone – alto sax
Sean Berry – tenor sax
Kathy Olson – bari sax

I originally performed Premonition in a very different sort of quartet with James Wylie, Assaf Shatil, and Scott Halligan during the Spring of 2009 (listen to the original version here).  It was a real pleasure to hear it played again by Mark, Rick, Sean, and Kathy.

Short Piece is brand new, written in late July and early August.  One day after one of their first rehearsals, Rick Stone and I were talking about the anxieties of writing for a group like the saxophone quartet.  Neither of us are “composers-with-a-capital-C”, and the notion of writing for a group without a rhythm section was quite daunting.  Rick mentioned that whatever he wrote would probably be short and not very good, so we challenged each other to write the shortest, most disappointing piece possible.  Such a notion is a very interesting tool to spur on creativity, and – ironically – I’m very happy with the result.  Rick’s piece was also totally rockin’.

Also, I’ve never not been involved with the performance of a piece of mine, and it was a very unusual sensation, to say the least, to hear my music played by other folks.  If you happen to be a member of a saxophone quartet, and you’re interested in performing one of these pieces, I’d be very happy to email you PDF files of the parts if you drop me a line.

As always, thank you for listening!

Fausto Sierakowski – alto saxophone
Randy Pingrey – trombone

Recorded  April 7th, 2011 at NEC

Huntington Traffic

7 Haviland

Hampshire Street Parking Garage

Main and Windsor

Are further comments even necessary?  I think not…

Music for Lonely Folks
Randy Pingrey – trombone, paper, tape

Ellipsis and Ellipsis

Straight Talk

Sduoitle

Acoustic

Not Even Electronic

Déjà vu

And Ellipsis

And a taste of what’s to come:

Every solo concert is a learning opportunity, and this one was no different.  I found myself going back to little motives over and over again – there was the allure of a certain dominant-to-tonic lick, an odd minor third in the upper register here and there, some fragments of old standards (maybe because it was Valentine’s Day) - and it helped anchor the structure of these improvisations.

Special thanks goes to Derek Beckvold and Andrew Hock for sharing the evening with me – they both did long-form solos which were totally amazing (you can listen to Andrew’s set here).  Also, extra special thanks goes to Rob Chalfen for running the Outpost: its casual radicalism makes it one of my favorite places to play.

And thank you for checking out the music!

On the DL by Randy Pingrey

Tygart Valley by Kathy Olson

Low Contrast by Randy Pingrey

High Contrast by Randy Pingrey

Kathy Olson - bari sax
Randy Pingrey - trombone
Mark Zaleski – bass
Austin McMahon - drums

Recorded on 2/6/11 from 5:01 PM to 5:38 PM in Cambridge, MA.
Thanks to Mark and Austin for being totally amazing to work with and to Rob Chalfen for having us play.

Unfortunately, due to a technical mishap that was entirely the trombonist’s fault, we weren’t able to record the entire performance of the OPQ’s recent hit at the Outpost.  Missing from this documentation is the incredibly brave performance Kathy gave on her Blues for Mac, the group’s nuanced reading of Stone Age Rhumba, and the deep, odd-metered pocket of Mark and Austin’s work on Reverie.  At least we have something from the gig, and I hope you enjoy the tunes!

Things have been pretty quiet here at Trombonist-at-Large for the past month.  That’s something I hope to change very soon!  Keep yer’ eyes peeled!

Randy Pingrey – trombone
James Wylie - alto sax
Ezra Weller – trumpet

Part 1: The Changing Same
for George Lewis

The Changing Same

The Changing Same

The Changing Same

The Changing Same

The Changing Same

The Changing Same

Part 2: 3 Things I Know about Her
for JLG

She

Thing

Thing

Thing

She

Part 3: Coda

Improvisation for Brian

Shostakovich’s Prelude for Saxophone, Trumpet, and Trombone

It was an incredible honor to share this performance with James and Ezra – they both sound so wonderful.  Their performances are totally amazing: they are both virtuosic instrumentalists and brilliant improvisers.  James and Ezra (if you ever read this): thank you so much!

I really enjoyed this performance, and I’m quite happy to present the entire concert here.  There are a few suggestions I have to the listener for fun, unusual ways to experience this music (other than listening to each track separately, of course):

1) Try listening to all 6 versions of The Changing Same simultaneously.
2) Try listening to all 3 Things at the same time, and compare what you hear to the 2 Shes.  Hopefully they sound similarly to you.
3) Try listening to “Improvisation” and the prelude at the same time.  Unlike the previous two things, they weren’t originally meant to go together, but somehow they do…

I hope you enjoy the music!  Feel free to download the tunes – I think they sound a little better that way (as opposed to streaming) – and share them with all of your friends.  Thank you very much for listening.

Click to view slideshow.

Think Well of Me
Jack Teagarden

I have a fascination with what happens when great artists get near the end of their run.  Late Beethoven string quartets come to mind as the archetypal example, but post-1960′s Lawrence Brown recordings, Johnny Hodges’ performance on “…and his mother called him Bill”, and Eric Dolphy’s last European recordings also fit the bill.  This recording, Teagarden’s second to last studio date, is filled with the gravitas which make these things such powerful documents.

The facts: Teagarden went into the studio in January of 1962 and ended up recording 11 songs, most of which were written by under-lauded composer Willard Robinson (best known for Old Folks, which Miles Davis recorded on the Someday My Prince Will Come record).  He’s backed by Don Goldie, a trumpeter who played in Teagarden’s last touring ensemble, a rhythm section, and a string orchestra which, in a twist of trombonistic fate,  was partially arranged by Bob Brookmeyer.

These songs are totally perfect for Teagarden – the lyrics are equal parts nostalgia, cynicism, and wisdom – and he sings and plays his heart out during the entire disk.  Check out the way he sings the bridge to the title track:

The way he sings “forget the past” in that example kills me every time.  Teagarden dedicated himself to his art – he sacrificed his health and his finances to be out on the road, and I can’t help but to hear this record as tinged with a little regret over past choices made.  He sounds like – and is – an old man looking back on his accomplishments, reflecting on past glory and tragedy.  And that’s what I love about artists in the late stages of their career – you can hear something that is impossible to simulate, no matter how many licks you practice in all 12 keys: it’s the grain of his experience rubbing up against our smooth youth.

In a Little Waterfront Cafe:

There is very little improvisation on this disk, but I don’t really miss it – the record is so beautiful as it is, and Teagarden’s occasional melodic trombone statements and Don Goldie’s embellishments add just enough.

I remember when I was a high schooler just getting into jazz, this record was totally unavailable.  I wanted to hear it because I was really interested in Bob Brookmeyer (this was when I was still on euphonium – I was interested in hearing every valve trombonist I could in order to see if I had to switch to the slide instrument).  I’m glad that I didn’t hear it then, because I think my young ears would have taken one listen to the string orchestra and then would have subsequently dismissed the whole album as commercial shlock (which it might be, although it’s also so much more).  It is, happily, available now through MP3 downloads on amazon.com and on Verve’s website.  I hope I’ve convinced you to get yourself a copy.

Postscript:

There is an amazing video of Jack Teagarden playing Basin Street Blues in 1963, the year that he died:

It’s a video that gives me goose bumps every time I watch it.  In some ways, Teagarden really seems to be phoning in his performance (at this point he’s probably played this arrangement of Basin Street Blues  hundreds of times), but you can’t argue with the look in his eyes as he’s singing, or with the effort he tries to hide as he’s playing the trombone.  Teagarden was a  master!