TWO DAYS until Vertical Voices launches.  Julia and I will be performing at Sac State on the release day, Tuesday at 8pm, with Jazz Singers and C-Sus opening the show.  All about yesterday below, but here's the VOTD...Maria Schneider's "Pas de Deux," in honor of my little countdown thing, and, of course, in honor of the best composer on the planet...

Julia and I presented a clinic about our project at the California Music Educators Association conference yesterday. We sang "Sky Blue" and "Hang Gliding" in our 9am clinic (!) and talked about the project a bit.  Attendance at the conference seems to be down, in general, certainly due, in part, to the recession, so the room wasn't packed, but we got a great vibe from the 25 or so people who made it.  It was the first time for us to use the new computer setup in a live situation, and it didn't go off entirely without a hitch, as the tracks for "Sky Blue" cut out for a full second RIGHT at the climax of the piece...but we both sang the music about as well as we've ever done it live.  We hadn't gotten much sleep, as we've been working furiously on last minute major items for the CD release.  You'll surely see the products of that on Tuesday.

At 11:45, The CMEA High School All-State Vocal Jazz Ensemble performed. under the direction of our great friend and colleague Greg Jasperse.  The all-staters were absolutely dynamite this year!  They're always great, of course, but it seems that this year's combination of elements just gelled extraordinarily well.  I hope even more California directors will encourage their students to submit auditions next year, because the level of the group's performance this year was extraordinary.  

Greg's programming was very strong with this set:  the group sang his "VoiceDance IV" and "Fields of Gold," Rosana Eckert's "Afro Blue" and "Virou Areia," Darmon Meader's "Charleston Alley" and Jennifer Barnes/Mervyn Warren's arrangement of "Confide in Me."  The amazing Christine Guter, director of one of the very top vocal jazz programs in the nation at CSU Long Beach, was the coordinator of the all-state group, in association with the California Alliance for Jazz.

I had a great time meeting all of the students in the ensembles, who were clearly on a high from their experience over the past few days.  It was also really great to meet Daniel Vu, the talented director of Orange Lutheran High School in SoCal, who had five students in the all-state group.   Finally, Julia and I enjoyed reconnecting with Holly Shaw-Slabbinck and her dad...some guy named Kirby.  You may have heard of him.

After a beautiful day reconnecting and sharing our project, we headed home and worked furiously on the CD release stuff.  More about that on Tuesday.  :)