Excited to announce I will be the keynote Speaker at next year’s Association of Concert Bands Convention in Fort Smith, Arkansas! Glad to share this page with my dear friends Tom Rotondi, Convention Band Conductor and Beth Steele, ACB President!!!
In the fall of 1971, I was newly married to Claudette [DeRocher], a trumpet player, and was attending St. Mary’s University of San Antonio, Texas, majoring in Music Education. After having dropped piano for the third time, and tiring of school, I joined the United States Army on 17 October 1971 as a trumpet player. After training my assignment would be as a member of the Fifth U.S. Army Band at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. A week after I joined the Army, Claudette and I learned we would be expecting our first child the following summer.
In a letter dated October 25, 2005, I responded to a young composer who asked about my process of composing. I think people like anecdotes about composers. Gives them insight to the crazy meanderings of composers.
Letter from Robert Sheldon dated July 13, 2003 reference “Like the Stars Forever and Ever…”
Hi Chuck,
In 1974 I was on tour with the 5th Army Band Rock group called "Progress". I was sitting in the hotel bar with my fellow musicians and I noticed a gentlemen I recognized as Henry Mancini! I exclaimed to my buddies "hey that's Henry Mancini."
They all laughed at me. I smiled "I Betcha $10 bucks that's Mancini!" Everyone threw down a ten. I walked over to Mancini's table, "Sir, are you Henry Mancini?" He replied, "Yes, I am."
I looked over and smiled to my buddies at our table and gave them a thumbs up!
This very nice recording is like the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercial but instead of combining chocolate & peanut butter this combo is a pair of established band composers (either way it’s great taste). The music of Charles Booker doesn’t call for needless excessive gymnastics and eschews the aural “shock & awe” of many composers. Listen to Glorious Journey, Lament, Pathways, La Bossa from American Dances, and the highly descriptive Rough Rider: Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt.
Radiant Blues is a departure from the past recordings of Booker’s music in that solos for alto saxophone, tuba, and piano with band are included. While space limits me from mentioning the details of all five soloists, bands & conductors I assure the listener this is a first rate recording and does not utilize any “ensemble du jour”. Radiant Blues is a three movement concerto (Radiant Blues, Lament and Farewell) for alto saxophone & wind ensemble (also written with orchestral accompaniment). Elements of blues, bebop & classical stylings abound.