MG3Media Marketing News: “The Cool Factor” 3/10/11 – Part II

MG3Media Interview: Doug Beavers on Making Jazz Happen

MG3Media: Your album, ”Two Shades of Nude” continues to gain notoriety, why is this project in particular an important project for Jazz enthusiasts to experience?

Doug Beavers: I feel that Two Shades of Nude is an important piece of jazz playing, composition and arranging in today’s jazz landscape.  (Luckily – quite a number of jazz reviewers agree with me!)  My goal was to make a sophisticated yet accessible jazz recording that prominently featured my arranging and trombone talents.  The collection of artists that comprise the recording came together in such a seamless way that the nonet (nine piece group) really started to have a voice of its own.  Pair this with incredible soloing talents on the recording like trumpeter Alex Sipiagin and cuban drumming sensation Dafnis Prieto and you have a highly listenable and exciting recording, which can be sampled to a great extent here.

As a side note – many Latin enthusiasts have told me that they thoroughly enjoy the recording as well.  I tried to use the clave for a foundation for the entire project even though most of its rhythms are jazz rhythms.  You can really hear this in some of the vamps during the recording.

MG3Media: What or who encouraged your decision to start a music school in Harlem?

Doug Beavers: I saw an opportunity to affect the lives and education of inner-city kids in Harlem by presenting a positive atmosphere for students to expand their life options by exploring the magic of music and music production.  Interestingly enough,Harlem School of Urban Music and Recording Arts (harlemschool.org) actually started without anyone knowing that what we were developing would be a school.  Two years ago, Dr. Gregory Hodge, principal of Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem graciously allowed me and a client of mine, vocalist Hector Aponte (singer with Mongo Santamaria in the 70s and 80s) to use a defunct old studio at the school to lay down some vocal work.  Before long, I found myself wanting to make this studio into a full-fledged professional recording studio and instructional workshop.

Fast-forward to the present, and through the graces of a number of grants and donors to the school, we have made significant headway and have opened its doors to students.  The studio now features a complete Pro Tools HD system, an editing and overdubbing room, and a large instructional room that also doubles as our scoring (recording) room.  The instructional area features 6 new 27” iMac machines replete with audio interfaces, Sibelius First music notation software, production software, and Final Cut Pro to boot!  We are continuing to make significant gains and are currently hiring a core staff of musicians and recording arts instructors.  None of this would be possible without the help of our donors who can readily see our vision for developing the incredible hidden talents of these students!

MG3Media: You will be headlining once again at the San Francisco Salsa Festival, March 10-12th, Why is this an important event for you?

Doug Beavers: The SF Salsa Community is a community which I hold very dear.  When you look at it, the SF Salsa scene is the envy of many such communities around the globe, with its numerous venues and highly skilled salsa musicians and dance performers.  John and Liz Productions have managed to develop a yearly salsa extravaganza that attracts some of the world’s top salsa dancing talent.  In this respect, the festival can be seen as an international showcase of sorts.

This year, I will be presenting my “Titanes del Trombón” band which will feature the trombone talents of Wayne Wallace and the great Puerto Rican trombonist Abel Figueroa.  I’ve been hard at work developing new compositions and arrangements for the new 3 trombone lineup.  With three heavy-hitting trombones, the results are bound to be exciting!

MG3Media: What’s next?

Doug Beavers: Well Marie – Summer ’11 is already stacking up pretty heavily.  I’ll be performing and touring extensively with newly-awarded-Grammy-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra (how’s that for a mouthful?) , Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta II band, and with Pete Escovedo celebrating the E Family’s new release on Sheila E.’s exciting new label Stiletto Flats.  In addition, I’m working on several gigs in New York City to showcase my current release Two Shades of Nude.  We are also “full steam ahead” at the Harlem School of Urban Music and are planning make its second year of existence a noteworthy year.

Oh yes – in the midst of all this I will be composing songs for the new recording.  Looks like I will be over-exerting again this summer!

MG3Media: Is there anything you want to add?

Doug Beavers: Just that it was a pleasure to share a slice of my musical life with you and your exciting new page!  I would also like to tell readers that there are plenty of musical resources and further discussions on what we’ve talked about on my site, dougbeavers.com.  They can also follow future developments there by subscribing to my newsletter here and to the numerous RSS feeds that are built into the new website.

Thank you, Doug! We look forward to catching up with you again this summer to learn more about your Jazz adventures.

Marie Gunter ~