"Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking." - Stephen Hawking
Welcome.
There's not much jazz to be played these days, and so I'm not playing as much as I'd like, but check my Music Calendar page for the occasional performance.
Non-music news…
On July 14th, 2010, I released my 4th "How to" DVD, related to 3D modeling and animation, "Modeling with modo, Volume Two" is available now, on my 3D-related site at mikejamesmedia.com.
A link I'm proud of...
I've been a big Gino Vannelli fan since the early 1970's. Over the years, as I studied various writers, I kept notes on their techniques. (You can see many of those by viewing my articles for arrangers on this site.) One of my (1980-ish) transcriptions has just been published on the Gino Vannelli fan site, operated by Barend and Trees in Holland, the Netherlands. See it here.
Like to study great drummers?
For many years, Bernhard Castiglioni has had the best drumming-related site on the planet, drummerworld.com. There are huge amounts of information, photos, and videos of all the top drummers. To check out the newest educational materials there, visit the DrummerWorld News Page.
Music-related articles:
A series of articles and notes for those of you with an interest in arranging, transcribing, and composing music. Click here for the intro. (or look under the "Articles" menu at the top of any page)
Click here for a brief series of articles for drummers, including Drum "tuning", Musical forms, Transcribing, reading, and writing drum parts, Improvising, etc..
Click here for a brief series of articles on the subject of live recording.
Enjoy, and stay tuned for more!
Mike James
Two places to find out a LOT about what's going on...
This brilliant and beautiful film, "HOME", (on YouTube) vividly illustrates the problems we all face today. Check out this compelling piece of work. It's important.
Visit www.nasa.govTo view the Flash content on this page, you will need Adobe Flash Player 9 or better and a Javascript enabled browser.
Rare and Beautiful Moments:
NOTE: If you're listening to music here, stop the player before clicking the links below.
Jazz history fans, check out all five episodes of the television specials, "Words and Music, with Oscar Peterson", on YouTube. There are some beautiful moments there.
I'm a big fan of Evelyn's Glennie's work, both as a percussionist, and as an educator. Here's a beautiful example by Evelyn, on the subject of listening.
Buddy Rich and his bands were always technically amazing, and strong. This particular performance shows those qualities, along with maturity, and something more artists should remember... having fun!
I've kept busy with my other two loves... Helping fellow artists get a web site online, and building 3D/CAD models, for various clients' needs. If you want to see what I've been up to, check my 3D-related site at www.mikejamesmedia.com. Aviation fans, in particular, will find a variety of detailed 3D projects. "Modeling with modo, Volume Two" was released in July 14th, 2010.
