Wonderful Performance Featuring Ed Saindon

Today we were fortunate to have the amazing Ed Saindon as a guest artist on the NIU campus. Ed presented a jazz improvisation workshop in the afternoon, and performed this evening at one of our local music venues, The House Cafe. Performing with Ed this evening was my colleague Rodrigo Villanueva on drums, our fantastic alum Doug Stone on tenor and soprano saxes, and another fabulous alum on bass, John Tate.

Ed's been one of my favorite vibraphonists since I first heard him play, sometime in the early 1980's I think it was. I met Ed for the first time in 1990, and the past couple of years we've been in touch more. He is a warm, genuine human being who happens to be an absolutely incredible musician. Immediately following one of his solos tonight, before any clapping could start, one of the audience members yelled "WOW!" I'm pretty sure that sums up how everyone in the audience was feeling about Ed's playing. It was so great to see Ed and to hear him play again. I hope you get the chance to see and hear him, too.

New Position at NIU!
(and other assorted percussion stuff)

Avid readers of this blog know that since July I've held the position of Acting Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University. I'm extremely excited to report that following a several-month national search, I have been offered, and accepted, the position as Dean of the CVPA.

I am looking forward to continuing the work on the several initiatives in which I've been involved in this year as well as pursuing new ones. We have so many wonderful things going on in the arts at NIU, it's a real honor for me to know I'm now the permanent Dean.

If you care to read the official press release, it's here.

I can hardly believe it's been nearly two months since my last post. Just a few of the goings-on since then: I was an adjudicator at the National Percussion Festival, run by Music For All, in Indianapolis in March. The other adjudicators were John Tafoya, Cort McClaren, and my good friend Jim Campbell. It was a great time - great friends, great music, and for a great purpose. I was also able to spend time with my good friends Michael Kenyon and Scott Deal.

My colleagues here at NIU, Liam Teague and Robert Chappell, performed a recital in March. I played on one tune - Robert and I revived our old "Dueling Xylophones" schtick with several changes and updates. The recital is online here. To get to the piece I'm on , you can click on the bottom scroll bar to move ahead - the piece begins at the 47 minute mark.