Lest We Forget

I was out picking up dinner last night when my cell phone rang. That's an odd thing for me as the only 2 people who really call me are my bosses--wife and work!

It was Steve. He just wanted to check in and talk a bit given what today is.......We did. We talked about life etc. and Brian. It had been at least a year since he and I had any communication, too long I know and half on me, but he reached out.

Dinner was cold when I got home but nobody cared. Thank you Steve. I really means a lot to me that Brian has a friend like you.

And I believe that nobody really ever dies as long as they are loved and remembered. Brian lives in us all.

...A Thousand Words

I meant to post this a while ago, but didn't get around to it for some reason (I'm not the best at this whole blogging thing). As some of you may have noticed back in June, the powers that be at Comfest contacted me and asked to use this photo of mine in the memorial section of the 2009 Comfest program.

It's from Honk Wail & Moan's performance at the Jazz & Ribfest in July 2008. At that time, things were going pretty well - Brian and Steve had decided to add a couple more horns to the band for this gig, and Brian had updated or reworked some of his arrangements to take advantage of that fact. We'd had a couple of productive rehearsals and the band was sounding good. It was a great day at the festival, and the band was really "on" - there was a lot of good energy, everyone was playing well, Brian's tunes never sounded better, and we had a small but appreciative audience.

I had my camera (as usual) and was trying to get some shots in any time that I wasn't playing. At one point I turned around and saw Brian standing there quietly, with one hand resting on his trombone. He looked like he had kind of taken a step back and was surveying everything that was happening onstage. There was a slight smile on his face, and he seemed pleased with how things were going. "Yeah," I could almost hear him thinking. "This is the way these tunes are supposed to sound - this is what I've been hearing in my head." All in all, it was a pretty good day - I think the photo says it much better than I can.

On the other hand, that weekend was unfortunately the last time I saw Brian. We played the Jazzfest, and then Dick's Den the following night - both great gigs. Then six weeks later, I was at his funeral - trying, along with everyone else, to come to terms with what had happened...

In any case, I'm glad I caught this shot of Brian, as well as some other good ones over the years. If you didn't catch them the first time, some more photos of Brian are on Flickr - just click HERE to get to them.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Rumba Cafe Tuesday - hopefully there will be more to come soon from Honk Wail & Moan, the Brian Casey Composition Archive, and other Brian-related projects...

Rest in peace, Brian - we still miss you.

Rest in Peace

Rest in peace Brian Casey - the kind of peace punctuated by cacophony and woven with hidden melodies and decorated with towering cakes of deep meaning, frosted with the raspberry fluff of ridiculousness. That kind of peace. Love to you and all who are remembering you today.

Casey's Cosmos

Today it is a year after Brian's passing and I'm sure many miss him like it was yesterday. It hurts like it was yesterday.

I am so glad to have been Brian's friend, and although I didn't often enough, I'm glad I had the chance to tell him now and then I liked his music, his humor, his company. I am really proud to have known him.
Last summer Brian seemed happy the band had several performances and was sounding good and we were making big plans for the future. It may not be easy but a chamber orchestra concert, a 24 hour Honk, Wail & Moan reunion marathon are certainly things worth doing and we are going to try to accomplish some of the big things he wanted to do.

There were hundreds of memorable performances. Brian and Gary's senior recital. From stinky Bernie's basement gigs to the rooftop pool side gig atop a 21 story hotel, to the Enron executives party. Playing a fashion show on the sidewalk during Gallery Hop, one drummer nearly passing out during a gig in Chicago, the beach gigs in Thailand, spilling our coffee during dance classes, banging on 55 gallon oil drums and performing one of his silent film scores in a downpour.
I'm glad we had a lot of laughs. Sure, there were a few times we should have been more serious, like while playing for dance classes - sometimes we were having too much fun making music, sometimes we were just goofy!
I'm glad I got the chance to do some composing and arranging with him. The most powerful musical experience I've ever had happened while we were writing "When Sun Ra Gets Blue." We both agreed we really connected on it and I have not experienced that before or since.

There were lots of smaller musical connections over the years too. We would challenge ourselves during those dance classes. We would sight read tunes we had never played before, play tunes we knew in different time signatures or feels than they were written... We learned to trust each other musically. We might disagree on something but could convince each other and change each others mind.

Each of the 18 or so years I've been playing his music it got better and more interesting and brought me a lot of joy. I really wanted to be one of the people that got to play brand new Brian Casey music year after year, into my old age. I wish we didn't have to play his music without him, but we are going to keep playing it. His chamber orchestra music, his film scores, his folk and pop songs need to be heard. His artwork needs to be seen.

I am sad I did not get to know Brian better but I hope those of you reading this blog will post more memories & stories so we can all try to know a little bit more about him.
I'm thankful his family are so willing to share his art with the world.
Thanks to Michelle for organizing tonight's concert at Rumba Cafe!

Brian Dream Poem

I always loved teasing Brian on my birthday, since he was the only one on the class younger than me. Here's a poem I have been working on - thought this would be a good day to share it. Love and peace.

Very funny coming in my dreams
and sending me a dream book.

I once decided to need a book
so I would understand you.
Remember?
I gave it to a Nigerian cab driver
on my way home.
He wanted to know about jazz.

But shhh - I slipped out those words
about a trumpet
and a girl saying "yes."
And I use them sometimes
to shock people - for fun.

I wrote a poem for the Nigerian
"oh the voice
the syncopated sweet
the drumming sound
the voice"
And you and your book were in the poem.
I see that now -
like you are in the paper
and the passion
and the spiraling ribbons of words
connecting and dividing.

This new book, too, is not mine to keep
but now I know the hidden places
in dreams
to look
to find new words.

Casey @ Comfest

It's official - the Brian Casey Tribute at Comfest will be Saturday, June 28th, on the Jazz Stage from 5:00 to 6:30pm. The listing in the Comfest program is pretty vague, so FYI the performers will include Honk Wail & Moan, popCasey, Deb Colvin-Tener, and Mary Adam 12. Honk Wail & Moan will also be playing at Dick's Den that night from 10:00pm to 2:00am.

Also, the Official Program Guide has finally been posted on the Comfest Website - here's the piece about Brian that Steve wrote for it:

"When jazz composer and trombone player Brian Casey died suddenly last September at 36, he had written hundreds of pop and folk songs, film and dance scores, andseveral major works for chamber orchestra. He composed extensively in a huge range of styles for a wide pallette of ensembles. Most important, he was a vibrant leader of the local music scene.

In addition to performing with many Central Ohio musical groups, Brian served as accompanist for modern, jazz, ballet and African dance classes at OSU, Ohio Wesleyan University, Ballet Met, and Ohio Dominican College, where he was Director of Liturgical Music. He had performed his compositions throughout the US and in Europe and served as silent film composer in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

I don’t remember the day I first heard one of his compositions, the name of the song, what it sounded like or who was performing it. I do remember how lucky I felt to be at Ohio State that day, lucky to be a part of that fantastic new music.

Brian liked big ideas. That recital, which he shared with composer Gary Grundie, was big, with a huge horn section and strings. Later, after we got Honk, Wail & Moan rolling as a 5- or 6-piece group, we kept asking people to join the group: more horn, guitar and percussion players and rotating singers. He eventually even brought his trombone and electric bass to the gigs so we could do one tune with two basses.

We had dreamed of doing a full Big Band performance and a few years later we got to do one, with 15 horns (including tuba), the rhythm section, and singer Dick Mackey, in winter at Stache’s while the heat was broken. Brian was fond of saying, “They tore down the building after the one and only Honk, Wail & Moan Big Band gig!”

Brian was a good musician. He was a good uncle, one who would often write music for his nephews and niece. I think he knew they would grow out of toys but would definitely grow into music. He was a good friend to the local music scene and to everyone who had the pleasure of making music with him.

Fred Gablick seems to have put it best: Farewell Brian Casey! Have them charts ready for when we get there!"

Hope to see you all at Comfest!

A Thousand Words

I'm happy to say that the powers that be at Comfest contacted me and asked to use this photo of mine in the memorial section of the Comfest program this year.

It's from Honk Wail & Moan's performance at Jazzfest 2008. At that time, things were going pretty well with the band - Brian and Steve had decided to add a couple more horns to the band for this gig, and Brian had updated or reworked some of his arrangements to take advantage of that fact. We'd had a couple of productive rehearsals and the band was sounding good. It was a great day at the festival, and the band was really "on" - there was a lot of good energy, everyone was playing well, Brian's tunes never sounded better, and we had a small but appreciative audience.

I had my camera (as usual) and was trying to get some shots in any time that I wasn't playing. At one point I grabbed my camera, turned around, and saw Brian standing there, also not playing. He looked like he had kind of taken a step back, and was surveying everything that was happening onstage. There was a slight smile on his face, and he seemed pleased with how things were going. "Yeah," I could almost hear him thinking. "This is the way these tunes are supposed to sound - this is what I've been hearing in my head." It was a pretty good day.

On the other hand, that weekend was unfortunately the last time I saw Brian. We played the Jazzfest, and then Dick's Den the following night - both great gigs. Then six weeks later, I was at his funeral - trying, along with everyone else, to come to terms with what had happened...

In any case, I'm glad I caught this shot of Brian, as well as some other good ones over the years. If you didn't catch them the first time, some more photos of Brian are on Flickr - just click HERE to get to them.

Speaking of Comfest, there will be a Brian Casey tribute there on Saturday June 28th, 4:45-6:30pm on the Jazz Stage. The set will feature performances by several bands including Honk Wail & Moan and Mary Adam 12 - hope to see you all there.

Mary Adam 12 Returns

Well, it's been at least a couple of months since there have been any Brian-related events, but all that is about to change. The summer will bring on several tributes to Brian and performances of his music, the first and not the least of which will be the Mary Adam 12 reunion show on May 22nd.

For those of you who don't know, Mary Adam 12 was a well-known local band here in Columbus in the mid-90's. Brian was a big part of the band, contributing his talents on trombone, vocals, songwriting, and horn arranging. They released a couple of great CDs and toured the country for a while, before the members eventually went their separate ways. This year, in tribute to Brian, bandleader Michelle Ishida Lucey has decided to reform the band for only a few shows over the next several months. The first will be Friday, May 22, 6-9pm at the Rumba Cafe. Also, the band will hopefully do a set at Comfest, and a joint performance with Honk Wail & Moan is in the works for the September Gallery Hop.

Unfortunately, I was never involved with Mary Adam 12 in the band's heyday (I was a Capital grad, they were all OSU - go figure...) - but I'm happy to say that Michelle has asked me to be a part of the band this time around. Also performing are a few original MA12 members, as well as an assortment of other great local musicians:

Michelle Ishida Lucey- keys/vox
Jeff Plavcan- bass

John Polansky- percussion

Mike Iannicello-guitar
Drew Layman-drums

Tim Perdue-trumpet
Eric Leighton -trombone/vox
Fred Gablick-sax/flute
Evan Oberla-trombone

If you're not familiar with the band, you should be! Check them out at one of the links below, and come on out to Rumba Cafe on 5/22...

MA12 on MySpace

Live Music Archive

Facebook Event Page

Rumba Cafe

Fibonacci Chords

Quite a while ago, Brian and I were well into our years-long discussion about Fibonacci and our continued fascination with the relationship (or equality) between art (music, architecture, nature) and math.

We wondered -- I don't remember exactly how it evolved -- man, what would happen if the numbers in a Fibonacci series (or a series of Fibonacci-type series) correlated somehow to the keys on a piano?

What happened was Fibonacci Chords for piano. I stumbled across it last weekend while cleaning out a storage room. I don't think it was ever played outside Brian's head or piano. If you happen to have a head for numbers and Brian's way of thinking about them (!) and are interested in having a copy or doing something with it, let me know. I'd be happy to talk numbers again. It has about 30 measures to it -- mostly "chord" combos -- plus extras that include some notes and observations including one of my favorites. He writes:

"The sixth number of every series is always divisible by eight. I checked down to 25, but I imagine it continues... But I also imagine LOTS of other things."

Susan

Mazzy Star funny moment

2/10/09
Got an email newsletter from OSU Alums and clicked on the “Take a Walk Down High Street” tour where they tell the history of the stores on High St. When the tour got to Singing Dog Records, I remembered when Brian used to work there and Mazzy Star played an in house concert. I was excited to hear they had been there even though I missed it and said something about liking the song “Fade Into You” and he said in a very funny way, “You know the singer has green pee.” I laughed and said, “What? What are you talking about?” and he said, “Her pee is green.” I said, “What does that mean?” and he laughed and said, “Well, I don’t know what that means but I happened to go to the bathroom after she did and she didn’t flush! There it was-glowing bright fluorescent green pee!” Priceless information!
Obviously I think of that every time I hear Mazzy Star for the rest of my life now.