Somebody made a ringtone out of my Dracula Overture. My first reaction was to get a little ticked off – but then I started laughing and feel just a tad bit flattered. So the ringtone has my official approval.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ASKLAND DRACULA OVERTURE RINGTONE
Now if you download it for your phone – please leave a note here and let me know about it. The song is pretty scary – so I’d love to hear reactions of people when they hear your phone ring. MUAHA!
Visit pianist Page Cavanaugh at http://www.pagecavanaugh.com . Page has celebrated his 85th birthday and is still going strong doing gigs.
Watch the Page Cavanaugh 85th Birthday on YouTube.com – or search YouTube for “Page Cavanaugh”.
The last time I saw him was around 1993. I was playing keyboards for a country band in Los Angeles and saw his name on the marquee at a club down the street. On my night off went in to hear him. He sounded fantastic with his trio. And I was very happy that he remembered me. You see, Page was my first jazz piano teacher and the story of those lessons is pretty awesome.
When I was twelve years old my family took a three week cruise down in the Virgin Islands and through the Panama Canal. I played piano and french horn at the time. In fact, I was so concerned about “losing my lip” in those three weeks that I brought my french horn with me to practice.
On the cruise ship the kids could hang out in the bar. And in that bar I heard the most amazing piano player – Page Cavanaugh. That’s all I wanted to do was sit in there and hear him play. My Dad got to be friends with him and hired him to give me piano lessons. At the time it was around my second year of playing piano. So I would meet Page on the off hours and he taught me about jazz, creativity and how to love a piano.
I still remember when he asked me to play a song – and about all I could play was “Fur Elise” by Beethoven. So he says to me, “That was great – what would happen if you did this to it?” And he started to improvise a jazz rendition of the piece. For a twelve year old kid, this was a whole new world I didn’t even know existed. I had never heard jazz music live, much less got to listen to complete sets of a jazz trio in a bar.
I became Page’s tag-along – and he brought me to the cruise ship crew parties (which were very wild to say the least) and behind the scenes to meet the other artists and tech crew. In this day and age, these kind of things might be frowned upon – but I had a blast and whole heartedly thank Page for letting me see what the scene was all about.
We lived in Seattle at the time and Page would visit our house when he was in port from other cruise ship gigs. It was great for me, because he was able to check in and give me tips as I progressed.
Page Cavanaugh is about the most fun person you’ll ever meet. And he sure has inspired and guided a lot of artists. Page let me know what I would be in for if I decided to be a musician. And that was worth it’s weight in gold. Thank you Page!
Bob Morgan, Chick Parnell, Page Cavanaugh circa 1950
BIOGRAPHY OF PAGE CAVANAUGH
By the time he was ten years old he had become interested in the piano and by his teenage years was an accomplished player on the keyboards. His first steady work was in the territory band, the Ernie Williamson Orchestra, in the late nineteen thirties . During the Second World War stationed in Sacramento, California, , Cavanaugh was the replacement pianist for an Army trio called The Three Sergeants, and in that group made the acquaintance of Al Viola and Lloyd Pratt who would form a musical partnership after their military service was over. By the mid forties, now based in Los Angeles, the small unit called The Page Cavanaugh Trio began to get club work in the Southern California area. They patterned their musical style after the King Cole Trio and developed a unique vocal sound which consisted of soft voiced unison singing. Soon they were garnering great reviews and spreading popularity. They began recording for small West Coast labels and soon found a few musical spots in motion pictures.
PC with Lloyd Pratt (bass) in Doris Day film debut, “Romance on the High Seas” (1948)
PAGE CAVANAUGH CELEBRATES 85th BIRTHDAY
The guests included Tom Hatton, Steve Tyrell, Army Archerd, Pinky Winters, Ray Evans, Jack Reilly, Corky Hale, Peter Levinson, Marilyn King, Nancy Sinatra Sr. and Nancy Sinatra Jr., Morris Diamond and Peter Menefee, to name just a few.
A cake was presented and Cavanaugh cut the first slice. Accompanied by bassist Phil Mallory, Cavanaugh sang “Three Little Bears,” “My Last Affair,” “Tea For Two,” “San Francisco” and “It’s Magic.”
Page in Vegas 1970s
TV show with Chico Marx, 1950s
Christmas – 1949
More recent photo of Page
TWO NIGHTS ONLY!
Northwest Theatre Arts/the Conway Muse
Proudly present
Cabaret Flambé
The Lincoln Theatre
(360) 336-8955
Friday and Saturday
October 12th & 13th @ 8 PM
Featuring
NANDA
Northwest Theatre Arts (producers of the Moulin Rouge Cabaret) proudly presents Cabaret Flambé, an unforgettable night of song, dance, laughter and intrigue served in a New Orleans club setting. Features special guests, NANDA, an amazing juggling, dancing, acrobatics, stage fighting, music and comedy act you won’t soon forget!
The intention of the show is to excite the imagination and nurture acceptance and a lifelong passion for the theatre arts.
The production was inspired by New Orleans, created by Elfa Gisla as a show to raise funds for the 200.000 people that are still homeless as well as the Conway Muse, opening in the fall, so it can continue to help New Orleans.
With Special Performances by
Elfa Gisla, Jennings Watts, Lindsey Bowen, Ria Peth, Peggy Wendel, Sarah Simmons, Sarah Webber, Kate Kypuros-
Conrad Askland & Orchestra.
Tickets $16, $19, $22
NANDA –four extremely creative young men who are destined to greatness and this is a unique opportunity to see their performance before they hit it BIG!
“Following on the footsteps of the wildly popular Rick Epting Benefit for the Arts in September, producer Elfa Gisla creates a similarly dazzling presentation of amazing local talent and whimsical comedy. This is a show you won’t forget & you won’t want to miss!” Rusty Robertson.
September 2004 – “New Age” is a term that’s lost a bit of it’s luster over the years. In theology it’s better represented by “New Thought”, but in music the term New Age still holds to describe a genre of instrumental music that is thoughtful, usually instrumental, and a great background for keeping with our own thoughts.
New Age music has it’s roots with the Impressionist music movement around the 1900’s. The Impressionist composers were mostly French and included Francis Poulenc, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie – part of “Les Six”. In the mid to late 1800’s German music ruled. The orchestrations and sheer numbers of performers had gotten so large it was hard to imagine anything larger. The peak of giant productions culminated with Wagner’s “Ring” opera cycle with runs nearly 12 hours and employees hundreds of performers. Impressionist music reacted to this by scaling down, being light and often times it’s purpose was simply as background music. This was a revolutionary idea at the time.
Three famous piano pieces from the original Impressionist “New Age” composers are Trois Gymnopedies by Erik Satie, Perpetual Movements by Francis Poulenc and Claire De Lune by Claude Debussy. The current music movement started by these composers was picked up in the 1970’s by pianist George Winston and later expanded by artists like Kitaro, Yanni and Vangelis; incorporating electronic sound sources.
I use elements of the impressionist styles when I play background music for meditation. If you listen closely you’ll hear slowly evolving tonal centers, triplets in the right hand vs. duplets in the left (Debussy “Arabesque” style), motor rhythms of constant steady movement and simple high melodies (a device from Minimalism). The composer I keep close to heart while playing for meditations is Francis Poulenc.
My first official Cirque Du Soleil post in plain english (I’ve done several posts in binary code, much to the delight of my fellow geek friends). So here’s the quick run down. Yes, I will be joining Cirque Du Soleil to open their new resident show in Macau, China at the Sands Venetian (Macao I) . I leave in January 2008. Scheduled opening for the show is May 2008.
Many people have trouble enunciating the company name – it’s “SIHRK DOO SOHLAY”, for regular English speaking folk. In French it means Circus of the Sun. There are a lot of knock-off companies that have chosen similiar sounding names – Cirque Du Soleil is the “real” one.
When people find out I’m joining CDS, I know immediately if they have seen a Cirque show before or not. The ones that haven’t seen CDS say something like “Oh, that’s cool”. The ones that HAVE seen a Cirque show before go into an uncontrolled frenzy and froth at the mouth, they go crazy. I’m not joking. I’ll tell you why: Cirque Du Soleil is the absolute coolest thing in the whole entire world. In this great wild world, there is nothing I would rather do more than work on one of their resident shows. To me, it is also the best music in the world – period.
Cirque Du Soleil is absolutely intense and ultimately demanding. It is the one thing I have seen in performance that eliminates all cultural boundaries and expresses takes on the human condition like no other art can. It is the ultimate voice of the artist demanding sense in the midst of insanity.
I have always loved the CDS music, and in the studio often used elements of their production styles in my work. But several years ago I saw Mystere and “O” live in Las Vegas with my mother and sister. After the Mystere show my mother asked me what I thought – I paused for a good while and said “I feel like my life has been changed, but I don’t know how.” I have never said anything like that about any other show. It woke me up. And since then it raised my bar of expectation for what can be.
So how did I get the gig? I auditioned in Las Vegas back when I was touring with Freddy Fender and producing for Road Records. We’ve gone back and forth on several different shows and productions, but nothing was quite the right timing or fit. This show is the perfect timing and the perfect fit.
I’ll tell you how perfect it is for me. My preference is to work for a resident show, meaning it has a theater built for it and stays in one place. My preference is also to work overseas (I spent MANY years playing in Vegas, it was fun but I already did that). The other great element is I get to experience the show in development from the beginning – to me that is the greatest part of it all – to see the Cirque magic unfold.
Theology aside – I think Cirque Du Soleil is the greatest thing this world has to offer. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
CHECK OUT INFO ABOUT CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL OVERVIEW
Cirque du Soleil (French for “Circus of the Sun”) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. The current head choreographer is Debra Brown.
Initially named Les Échassiers they toured Quebec in 1980 as a performing troupe and encountered financial hardship that was relieved by a government grant in 1983 as part of 450th celebrations of Jacques Cartier’s discovery of Canada. The Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil was a success in 1984 and after securing a second year of funding Laliberté hired Guy Caron from the National Circus School to recreate it as a “proper circus.” No ring and no animals helped make Cirque du Soleil the modern circus (“Cirque Nouveau” / New Circus) it is described as today. Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world and has its own central theme and storyline which brings the audience into the performance by having no curtains, continuous live music and performers change the props/sets. After critical and financial successes (Los Angeles Arts Festival) and failures in the late 1980s, Nouvelle Expérience was created with the direction of Franco Dragone that not only made Cirque profitable by 1990 but allowed it to create new shows.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Cirque expanded rapidly and went from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to currently 3,500 employees from over 40 countries doing fifteen shows touring every continent and have an estimated annual revenue exceeding $600 million USD. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night – 5% of the city’s visitors – adding to the 70+ million people who have experienced Cirque. In 2000, Laliberté bought out Gauthier and with 95% ownership has continued to expand the brand. Several more shows are in development around the world, along with a television deal, women’s clothing line and perhaps in other mediums such as spas, restaurants and nightclubs. Cirque’s creations have been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including Bambi, Rose d’Or, three Gemini Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards In 2004, Interbrand’s poll of brand names with the highest global impact ranked Cirque du Soleil as number 22.
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Yet more old archives going through ancient boxes. This is a letter to me January 28, 1980 from Steve Stevens, director of the Northwest Boychoir (Mr. Stevens currently directs the Columbia Choirs http://www.columbiachoirs.com). I was in the Northwest Boychoir (Seattle, WA) from around 1976-1979. In late December 1979 my voice had changed and I finally had to leave the group. He is referring to my final concerts as Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Seattle Opera in December 1979. I have great memories of that show working with Archie Drake and Shirley Harnett.
I think I blogged about this once before. The final show my voice was full throttle in it’s change and I was starting to crack on some of my high notes. It was very embarrassing for me the last show, which was the one that Steve Stevens attended. I still remember the feeling of disappointment knowing he was in the audience. For a boy soprano it is the strangest experience to go from having full control over an agile instrument, to suddenly losing control here and there without notice. I read recently that even Pavarotti stopped singing for a year after his voice changed. It’s very tramautic for boy sopranos.
So here’s his letter. Thank you to Steve Stevens for your wonderful training and coaching I received in my youth, and also to the previous NWBC director George Fiore. The Northwest Boychoir website is at http://www.northwestchoirs.org/
Why is the letter of any significance? For me it was the bell tolling a confirmation that a time I knew would never be again….
Begin letter:
Dear Conrad:
It is always a hard thing to say “good-bye” to important members of the choir. All choirboys are important to me, but there are some like you who are even more important because they are leaders and because they show over and over that they genuinely care about their involvement with the boychoir. You were one of those, Conrad. I am very proud of what you accomplished in the choir. Your earning of the Touring Choir Boy of the Year award is a fitting tribute to your industriousness and your creativity.
It was a big thrill to me to see you in Amahl, even though I could hear it was a strain on your voice. I was struck by your acting ability, Conrad. I feel that you have really good possibilities in that area and would encourage you to pursue that for a while.
You and the other boys who went on tour last summer will always have a special place in my memory and in the history of the choir because you were the first to travel internationally representing the choir.
Please keep me informed of any and all future accomplishments. I will always be pleased to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Steve Stevens
(Director – Northwest Boychoir)
STEVE STEVENS – COLUMBIA CHOIRS
Steve Stevens currently directs the Columbia Choirs of Metropolitan Seattle. Visit their website at http://www.columbiachoirs.com
STEVE STEVENS: Founder-Artistic Director Columbia Choirs
Columbia Choirs founder-artistic director, Steve Stevens, started the choirs in February, 1985. He conducts the Boys Choir, the Concert Choir (boys and girls), Vocal Ensemble (Youth Choir) and Con Brio Women’s Choir. He is one of the most experienced conductors of community based children’s choirs in the United States. A native of Texas (Fort Worth), he began his musical studies at age 6 with the study of piano (studied 14 years). The turning point in his life came with his successful membership in the famed Texas Boys Choir of Fort Worth (the group Igor Stravinsky called “the best boys choir in the world.”) It was in those boyhood years he discovered his gift for singing and decided to pursue music as a career.
Mr. Stevens is a professional singer and conductor. He earned a BA (voice and all-level music education) from Houston Baptist University. Following the study and performance of opera in Europe, he completed his post-graduate studies at Southern Methodist University, achieving a M.Mus. in Choral Conducting. He has conducted the Texas Boys Choir (1971-77), the Northwest Boychoir (1977-84), founded and conducted the Northwest Youthchoir (1982-84). He founded the Columbia Boys Choir (February, 1985 to present), Columbia Girls Choir (1988 to present) and Columbia Vocal Ensemble (formerly Columbia Singers 1989 to present), “Con Brio” Women’s Choir (formerly Young Women’s Ensemble 1989-) and Columbia Men’s Ensemble (2004). He is also the choral director at Woodinville High School (since 1992; Northshore School District). Choirs under his direction have consistently won international acclaim for their high standard of singing artistry and musicianship. His choirs have performed in United States, Australia, British Isles, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Scandinavia. They have also appeared on national network television in the U.S.A., Europe, Japan and Russia and have sung for a President of the U.S., the Pope, and for members of the British Royal Family.
Conrad Askland circa 1993.
 
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This is a portrait sketched of me as a young child. There is no artist signature on the drawing – best guess on painter’s name is Carolyn Voorhees.
In preparing for a big move I’m going through many old boxes. So if you notice odd posts lately, that’s why. Lots of old stuff I’m posting up….I don’t know….just because I can.
This is my second grade progress report. I attended Sherwood Forest Elementary in Bellevue, WA. My teacher, Ms. Rhyne, noted “Conrad’s participation in music is rather passive.” This seemed odd to me since I remember being intoxicated with music at my earliest memories around age 5.
So I asked my Mother about it and she started to giggle. She remembers that report card and at the time had asked me about it. She says my reponse was, “Oh, those kids sing so out of tune I can’t bear to listen to it. I refuse to sing with them.”
This should be funny to those that know me. I’m still very much the same today when it comes to intonation, but hopefully a hair more politically correct and gentle. As I go through all these papers from my grade school years I’m struck with the thought: “Do we really change as we grow older?”. All my early writings give every indication of who I am today – for better or for worse.
Phonics Made Easy by School Zone Interactive. Visit their website at schoolzone.com .
I love this company – let me tell you why. They bought one of my royalty free rap instrumentals and used it in their software (Yes, there’s more to it than just that). My hip hop library was intended for rappers to use for albums, but this company had business saavy and used it for their phonics software. Still falls under the “synchronization license” of my library. My hat is off to the person in this company that thought outside the box to come up with that. Most companies would look strictly at corporate buyout music from business entities, not at my hip hop outlets.
Let me tell you what else I love out this company. Very few people that use my soundtracks give me credit – and that’s really all I ask for many of my royalty free libraries. This company was courteous enough to not only give me credit, but they also sent me a finished copy of their software. It was released several years ago and I just now had the chance to actually load up the software and try it out. The software is made for age 6+ and I got a couple of the answers wrong! Mmmm…….
Thank you School Zone Interactive for being a creative company, and most of all for being upright and straight ahead in your business dealings. I salute you!
Learning beginning phonics has never been so much fun! Your child will explore beginning and ending letter sounds, long and short vowel sounds, rhyming families, letter blends, and more.
