This week’s guest is Ian Hale. Ian Hale received degrees in percussion performance from the University of Calgary and the University of Massachusetts Amherst where his teachers included Dr. Glenn Price, Eduardo Leandro, and DCI Hall of Fame member and past Associate Director Thom Hannum. Ian was a member of the music faculty at UMass from 2007-2008 and has served as a percussion instructor and clinician ever since. He was the Assistant Director of Bands for the Calgary Stampede Showband from 2009-2011 and has served as Percussion Director for Spirit Winter Percussion from Orleans, Massachusetts since 2012. Ian has worked with many national and international ensembles including the Calgary Stampede Showband, Spirit of America, Thomas Jefferson High School, Dartmouth Indoor Percussion, United Percussion, Boston University, University of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Army All-American Marching Band. He was a member of the percussion staff for the Madison Scouts, Carolina Crown, and the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. He is currently on the percussion staff for the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. He can be reached at ihale@umass.edu.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Damon Grant! Damon is a professional percussionist that can be described as “Rockstar Adjacent”. He is someone who continuously works with musicians who are world renowned in all styles and genres. He recently recorded and released an album called ‘Prevailing Melodies’ produced by David Ryan Harris. The album features Harris, along with other artists like: Morgan James, Marc Broussard, Zane Carney, Stephen Kellogg and many more. He recorded on the Grammy-Nominated albums by blues artist, Joe Louis Walker and musical comedian Randy Rainbow. In addition to that, he also worked with Madonna on her 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, her MDNA tour, and DVD premiere in NYC. As a professional sideman, Damon has performed, and/or recorded with world-class musicians in all genes including: Charlie Hunter, Morgan James, David Ryan Harris, Eric Hutchinson, Javier Colon, Erich Bergen, Norbert Leo Butz, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Stefon Harris, Randy Rainbow, and countless others. He as well as his group, The Damon Grant Project, have been featured in Modern Drummer and Latin Beat magazines, and performed in London, at an opening ceremonies event for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. He was a member of the 10-time DCI World Champion Cadets drum corps and with them, performed at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Damon was also a member of the group The Bomb Squad, which was featured in People magazine and won an American Music Award. He was an original cast member of the show Blast! which won both an Emmy and a Tony award.

In addition to playing, recording, and teaching percussion regularly, Damon has contributed articles to Modern Drummer Magazine. He has performed clinics at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention), done masterclasses for percussion groups, drum corps, high schools, and universities, as well as conducted speaking seminars for different music conferences. He is a committee member for the World Percussion Committee for the Percussive Arts Society, and he also hosts this weekly percussion podcast.

Happy Birthday to Ryan Vaughn! Over the past twenty years, drummer/percussionist Ryan Vaughn has become a fixture in the independent music scene. Ryan has performed with some of the best independent singer/songwriters; including Caleb Hawley, Chrissi Poland, Zach Hurd (Bay Ledges), Sonya Kitchell, Elizabeth & the Catapult, Wakey! Wakey!, Ian Axel (A Great Big World), Rachel Platten, Lucius, Emily Kinney, Charlotte Sometimes, etc.

Ryan has also performed with numerous well-known recording artists such as John Forté, Anna Nalick, Aloe Blacc, Dave Monks (Tokyo Police Club), Joshua Radin, Ryan Cabrera, Tony Lucca, Jeffrey Gaines, Teddy Geiger, Tyler Hilton, Natasha Bedingfield, Rita Wilson, Hugh Jackman, Bebe Rexha, Lizzy Grant (Lana Del Rey), Ben Taylor, and Carly Simon. Ryan has performed on television for Late Night with Conan O’Brien with Joshua Radin, Comcast’s Backstage with Nick Howard (2012 winner of The Voice in Germany), and he is featured in John Forté’s groundbreaking documentary entitled The Russian Winter, which premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in the Spring of 2012.

In 2013, Ryan was the bandleader of the house band for Katie Couric’s daytime talk show, Katie. In 2016, Ryan worked on the development for Fox 20th Century’s hit movie, The Greatest Showman, for which he received a credit on the multi-award-winning original motion picture soundtrack. Vaughn has also worked on numerous other shows, including The Masked Singer, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heart.

In addition to performing and recording, Ryan has always had a knack for the business of music. In 2014, Ryan took a position as head of A&R for the new music company, Fieldhouse Music (BMG). In 2016, Vaughn was hired as the Business Development Manager at Marshall Arts U.S. (AEG). In 2017, Ryan founded his own artist management company called Backline Creative. Simultaneously to launching Backline Creative, Ryan helped his wife launch her custom music company, Head Bitch Music.

While Ryan was born in Upland, CA, he grew up in Prescott, AZ. Vaughn went on to earn two Associate degrees – one in Jazz Performance and the other in General Business – from Mesa Community College in Mesa, AZ and later his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance from the prestigious William Paterson University of New Jersey in Wayne, NJ.

Happy Birthday to Dave LeBlanc! Dave is a musician currently living in New York City. He was born and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire. He attended college at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business where he earned a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. He began playing drums when he was eight years old. Both his father and grandfather were drummers. His Dad was sick in the hospital with cancer when David found his inspiration to play the drums and gave his first live performance at the fourth grade talent show. He was just nine years old when his dad passed away. From that moment on playing the drums came very natural to him and is a way for him to stay connected with his dad. Recently David has performed with his original project The Evin Baird Trio, various cover groups, and the Interlakes Summer Theatre in Meredith New Hampshire. He would like to thank his family, especially his Mom, for their continued support as he achieves his dreams.

Gig Alerts

The Detroit Jazz Festival is happening from Sept 1-3 in Detroit Michigan.

Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) is happening from Sept 1-3 in Aspen, CO.

The Big Blues Bender is happening in Las Vegas, NV from Sept 7-10th.

The Adirondack Independence Music Fest is happening at Lake George, NY from Sept 1-3.

Educational Spotlight

The Bob Dylan Center and Universal Music Publishing Group have announced the inaugural Bob Dylan Center Songwriter Fellowship, created to develop rising talent selected by a world-class panel of songwriters, including John Mellencamp and Nas.

The Bob Dylan Center (BDC) and Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) have joined forces to launch the Bob Dylan Center Songwriter Fellowship. Announced today by BDC Director Steven Jenkins and UMPG Chief Operating Officer Marc Cimino, the Fellowship was created to mentor and develop aspiring songwriters and is awarded annually to two recipients. -Article

The new issue of Percussive Notes is out now!

Iconic Recording

The iconic recording this week is from “The Point” hby Harry Nilsson.

Damon mentions “Lime in the Coconut” also by Harry.

Music News

Vivek Ramaswamy says he’ll no longer rap at campaign events after receiving a cease-and-desist from Eminem. But ‘Lost Yourself’ will remain the candidate’s favorite song.

The GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has rapped his way across the campaign trail. But that appears to be coming to a halt following news that Eminem sent the candidate’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter. “To the American people’s chagrin, we will have to leave the rapping to the Real Slim Shady,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the campaign told Digital Music News. -Article

Live Nation is facing a lawsuit from a stagehand who says he was injured during the construction of a stage for The Weeknd’s ‘After Hours Til Dawn’ tour.

The report of the lawsuit comes from Pitchfork, who says the lawsuit was filed in Dallas County District Court in Texas. Steve Genovese says he was working for a contractor contracted by Live Nation to build the stage for the AT&T Stadium concert that weekend. -Article

A New York judge has ruled that Universal Music Publishing Group must pay the royalties of disgraced singer R. Kelly to pay the victims he sexually abused.

Universal Music Publishing Group must pay the royalties of convicted sex offender and disgraced singer R. Kelly to the victims he sexually abused, according to a New York judge in court documents filed on Wednesday—the royalties amount to over half a million dollars, garnished from the Chicago native’s earnings. -Article

The security guard who went viral for singing along at a Taylor Swift show was reportedly fired following the event.

Calvin Denker, the security guard who went viral online after footage was posted of him singing along at a recent Taylor Swift “Eras” show, was reportedly fired after the event. The clip first emerged in June, showing Denker singing along to Swift’s performance in Minneapolis while he worked as a security guard. -Article

Ian Hale Interview

The song leading into the interview was from a composition Ian wrote for United Winter Percussion Group.

Ian teaches the drumline at Umass and the Marimba Bands.

Ian also teaches the Calgary Stampeede, The Boston Crusaders, United Percussion, and in the past, the Cadets, Carolina Crown, Sprit of America Band and Spirit Winter Percussion.

Ian talks about the schedule of the marching arts and pagentry. Marching Band takes up most of the fall, starting at the end of summer. Winter percussion happens through the winter and ends in the spring and drum corps starts late spring and goes through the summer. You can look to join different drum corps or winter percussion ensembles to get better.

Shout out to PASIC and Bands of America.

Ian mentions Michael Burritt running a summer percussion institute at Eastman School of Music.

Ian talks about the life changing experience of the (friend of the show), Leigh Howard Stevens Marimba Seminar with friend of the show, Iain Moyer.

Damon mentions the 10,000 hour rule and its originator, Anders Ericsson.

Ian also mentions the book, Method of Movement, which is the most detailed text ever written on the subject of four mallet playing.

Damon mentions most of the popular percussion ensembles has a summer percussion camp or artist in residence opportunity. Some of the ensembles that are also friends of the show are: The Percussion Collective, Sandbox Percussion, Third Coast Percussion, and So Percussion.

Shout-out to friend of the show, Keith Aleo and Interlochen.

Ian got his undergrad from the University of Calgary, and his Masters at Umass Amherst.

Ian did a year long residency at the Banff Centre. He talks about his experience there and what Is offered. This is located in the Banff National Park.

Ian mentions “Children’s Corner” performed by Leigh Howard Stevens.

Shout-out to Tommy Diehl and Ryan Brown who both studied with Kenny Aronoff.

Shout-out to Tom and Isobel Rolston.

Ian mentions the band Dr. No.

Ian talks about playing Marimba Spiritual with Kenny.

Ian brings up Marimba Spiritual in Blast!

Damon and Ian talk about nerves.

Damon mentions the Thelonious Monk Competition and the Guitar Center Drum Off. Damon mentions the winners and finalists for the one year it was for hand percussion.

There’s also the Hit Like A Girl Competiton. You can also search international marimba competitions.

Shout-out to friend of the show, Eduardo Leandro.

Ian competed in the Universal Marimba Competition.

Damon mentions finding grants of scholarships for studying music abroad.