#68 Jeff Queen- Rudimental Snare Drum Champion, Founding Cast Member of Blast! & Faculty at Butler University
Today's episode features the percussionist and educator Jeff Queen. He is not only a great player, but also teaches at Carmel High School and Butler University both in Indiana.
Damon was in Ft. Lauderdale, FL to play the From Broadway With Love benefit concert for the students and families of Parkland, FL. The song Damon refers to was "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen performed by Carrie Manolakos.
For our Educational Spotlight.....
Kosa is hosting their 23rd annual hands on intensive camp from June 25-30 in Montreal Canada. The confirmed faculty includes:
Confirmed faculty 2018: Larnell Lewis (Snarky Puppy), Glen Velez (Grammy winning frame drum artist), Emmanuelle Caplette (Andy Summers-The Police), Jim Doxas (Oliver Jones), Mark Guiliana (David Bowie), Clave y Guaguanco (Rumba masters from Cuba), Yoel Diaz (piano) & Aldo Mazza (Repercussion)
Also, the CalArts World Music and Dance Festival is going on from April 27-29 featuring friends of the show Randy Gloss and Kassandra Kocoshis and LP Artist Joey De Leon among others.
The first weekend of Coachella happened and Beyonce took it over (bur you can't watch the stream anymore. Here's why). But bonus, Beyonce is donating 100k to 4 HBCUs!!! Shoutout to friends of the show: Aaron Draper for performing with Eminem, Kristen Gleeson-Prata for performing with Borns and Justin Thomas for performing with Capital Cities.
Hulu is going to be doing a docuseries on the debacle that was the Fyre Festival. The Music Modernization Act was approved by the house (still needs approval by the senate), making a huge victory and step forward for musical content creators. Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN." wins the Pulitzer Prize in music. Spotify and Hulu extend their discounted bundle outside of the realm of college students. R. Kelly has been accused of "intentionally" giving someone an STD (and also grooming them to join his 'sex cult'). Taylor Swift releases a version of Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" and the internet was not pleased. Lastly, the top music festivals listed by what drugs are used the most. It seems Burning Man and Bonaroo are the common denominator for most recreational drug use and alcohol seems to be the biggest substance used.
Jeff won individuals for snare drum in DCI (Drum Corps International) and also for PAS (Percussive Arts Society) for two years in a row (1994/1995). If you are interested in competing, you should either join a Drum Corps, or Attend PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference) and sign up to compete.
Jeff's drum corps career spans from the Bluecoats, to the Velvet Knights, to the Santa Clara Vanguard, to the Blue Knights. After that, he was one of the founding members of the Tony and Emmy award winning show Blast!
This is an article about how the events of 9/11 affected the shows on Broadway. The smell was mentioned in discussing 9/11 and this is an article that goes into more detail about it.
Jeff talks about how the show Blast was put together and one of the people mentioned in the show design is friend of the show, Thom Hannum (and Nick Angelis).
Journey was the first band responsible for getting Jeff interested in playing the drums. Here is a video of the correct way to play "Don't Stop Believing" by Steve Smith (the drummer for Journey).
This is some of the Santa Clara Vanguard warm ups and exercises including the "Martian Mambo".
Jeff talks about some of his friends and influences over the years like the great Roger Carter who now teaches at the Bluecoats, but also marched Velvet Knights and The Blue Devils. Mike Jackson and Jim Wunderlich are also mentioned. Ralph Hardimon, Glen Crosby, Dave DiLullo, and Scott Johnson are all teachers of Jeff. At the University of North Texas, Tom Float and Paul Rennick were instructing Jeff (and the members of the drumline). At Blast, there was Thom Hannum.
This is how the employee matching works that Jeff mentions for self-employed musicians. This is information on how to understand and pay quarterly taxes.
Jeff has some free time coming up so he can play plenty of golf and frame drum, which he got inspired to check out after he had an injury skiing and found a website of David Kuckhermann who is a student of Glen Velez.
Jeff uses Yamaha Drums, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Meinl Percussion & Off World Percussion pads.
You can follow Jeff on his Website, Facebook, Twitter, and see more videos on YouTube. You can also check out his books and other publications HERE. Jeff@jeffqueen.com is his email address or you can click HERE.
