#375 Raynor Carroll- Percussionist, Educator, Composer & Co-Founder of ABOP!
This week’s guest is Raynor Carroll. Raynor Carroll joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Co-Principal Percussionist/Timpanist in the 1983/84 season. In addition to his performances at Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts, Carroll participates in the LA Phil’s Green Umbrella and Chamber Music series. In addition to performing, Carroll is an active teacher/clinician on timpani, percussion, and West African drumming. He taught for nearly 20 years at his alma mater, California State University Los Angeles, and has taught at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Music Academy, and California State University Long Beach. Mr. Carroll currently also teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles. Mr. Carroll is the founder and owner of Batterie Music, a publishing company specializing in music for the symphonic percussionist. His highly acclaimed timpani method “Exercises, Etudes and Solos for the Timpani” and the multi-volume orchestral repertoire series are among his published works. For information about Raynor Carroll’s “Music for the Symphonic Percussionist” series, please visit www.batteriemusic.com.
Happy Birthday!
Happy 99th Birthday to the legend Roy Haynes!
Happy Birthday to John Roesch! John is a professional foley artist that has worked in the film business for over 30 years. He was an actor at Radnor High School and attended the United States International University School for Preforming Arts in San Diego for one year. During that time, he, along with 3 other peers, created a short film called " Indian Magic is What You See". This won the San Diego Film Festival in 1972, Spring-boarding from there, he attended New York University and graduated with a BFA in Film. He then applied and was accepted to the American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow . As fate would have it, a fellow filmmaker asked if he could "help" with the sound on the film she was working on and that was his first taste of foley and he never looked back from there. He is a member of Local 700 , Motion Picture Sound Editors, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He still loves his job to this day. He credits much of his success to those he has met along the way.
Happy Birthday to Leigh Howard Stevens! The influence of Leigh Howard Stevens extends beyond the marimba technique that is forever linked with his name. He is a performer, educator, composer, publisher, and inventor, as well as a successful entrepreneur. Despite his relative youth (53 years old), Stevens fulfills all the requirements of being in the PAS Hall of Fame--and then some!
Born in Orange, New Jersey on March 9, 1953, he graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood and was voted “most likely to succeed” in his class. As a young drummer, he studied with Gene Thayler, Glenn Weber, and Joe Morello. “Morello explained technique to me in terms of physiology and physics,” Stevens recalls. “It was a revelation.”
Leigh played drumset in various rock and jazz bands in the New York metropolitan area during high school, including one called Tiger Tails--managed for a short time by an upperclassmen at his school named Max Weinberg, who later became the drummer with Bruce Springsteen. “I wanted to rock, and he wanted to become a musician,” Weinberg told New Jersey Monthly in 2004. “Leigh was a very serious kid--very directed, and not distracted.”
Stevens planned to pursue a career as a drumset player when he auditioned for placement in a jazz band at the Eastman School of Music in the fall of 1971. “When I didn’t get into one of the top lab bands, I started to reevaluate what I wanted to do,” he recalls.
His first exposure to marimba occurred when he was a junior in high school and realized he would have to play a mallet-keyboard instrument (and timpani) at his college auditions. In a 1982 Percussive Notes interview, Stevens recalled a series of “mistakes” that became the foundation of his career. “Number one, I had the notion that since many chords required four pitches, all mallet players would naturally play with four mallets,” he said. “The second mistake I made was to sustain the C and G notes with my left hand while playing a scale with the right.” Leigh’s attempt to imitate a pedaled chord on a piano led him to the now-infamous one-handed roll. -Read More
Happy Birthday to Mike Zellers! Michael currently serves as the Director of Percussion at Leander High School in Leander, TX. In addition to working with the high school students at Leander, Michael is also the percussion director at Running Brushy Middle School. Zellers received his Master in Music Performance from the University of Delaware and his Bachelor’s Degree from West Chester University.
Michael Zellers is currently the electronics designer for the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle corps form Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Boston’s staff, Michael served on the percussion staff of The Cadets from 2011-2015. He served as a front ensemble technician from 2011-2013 and the Electronics designer from 2013-2015. During his time with The Cadets, the corps won their 10th DCI World Championship in 2011 and The Cadets Percussion section received the Fred Sanford Award for Best Percussion Performance in 2013. In addition to his most recent work with the Cadets, Zellers has worked with the Jersey Surf and Reading Buccaneers.
Happy Birthday to Gerald Myles! Gerald Myles is the founder, director, and premier drummer of MylesOfDrums.com. Born and raised outside of New York City, he is the third generation of professional drummers. By the age of 15, Gerald began winning numerous regional and national awards for his playing abilities. His training includes attending the prestigious Hartt School of Music and University Of Massachusetts as a Jazz Performance major. He was named the United States’ best up and coming “Blues, Pop, and Rock” drummer and “Studio Jazz Orchestra” drummer by the world renowned DownBeat Magazine at age 21.
Gerald spent several years in the Orlando, Florida area drumming for Walt Disney World and Cirque Du Soliel, while playing and recording for countless bands and artists.
From 2005 to 2009 Gerald became a member of The Volunteers; the official touring show band of the United States Army. With the Volunteers he toured the United States playing high profile shows such as NFL games, the closing of Yankee Stadium and President Obama's inauguration, all while regularly recording in their multi-million dollar recording facility.
In addition to operating MylesOfDrums.com, Gerald continues to freelance and teach in the Tri-State area. He has built a Pro Tools and Logic Pro based drum recording studio in his privately owned home in Norwalk, CT. His career has spanned many genres and has prepared him to perform and record virtually any style of music.
Gig Alerts
The Toronto Jazz Festival is happening from June 21st-30th.
The Sea Hear Now Festival is happening from September 14th-15th.
The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival is happening Sept 12th-15th.
ABOP is proud to partner with Pasadena Community Orchestra (PCO) in presenting ABOP Protégé, Torrance Buntyn Jr., as the featured soloist in the Allan Bell Percussion Concerto.
The concert, which includes works of Mahler, Beach, and Haydn, will be performed on Friday, March 15 at 8:00 pm, at the First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena, 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena, CA. 91107.
Educational Spotlight
The Alliance of Black Orchestral Percussionists is a non-profit providing professional development to young and emerging Black percussionists seeking a career in symphonic percussion. Through comprehensive training and mentorship, ABOP prepares Black percussionists for the concert stage thereby changing the future face of symphonic orchestras nationwide.
Classical musicians of color rarely have colleagues who look like them. ABOP aims to promote social change by increasing the number of highly-trained Black percussionists. Regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status or geographic location, ABOP’s goal is to lift Black percussionists through a program of instruction, workshops, and performance opportunities.
Product Review
Damon talks about the 1/8” to wireless adapter for headphones, airpods and more!
Iconic Recording
This weeks iconic recording is, Stravinsky’s - The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Vic Firth on timpani. Raynor talks about that during the interview.
Music News
Riarua has posted a video talking about the sexual harassment she encountered when participating in the Hit Like A Girl Contest from David Levine one of the co-founders.
If you have encountered something along those lines or worse, please do not hesitate to reach out anonymously.
Rashida Tlaib has introduced a bill to help musicians receive a living wage from streaming their music.
There has been an email scam flagged by the musicians union you should be on the lookout for.
Raynor Carroll Interview
The song leading into the interview is, Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” Part 1: The Adoration Of The Earth performed by the L.A. Philharmonic.
Damon asks about the origin of Raynor’s name. Raynor has four other siblings.
Damon brings up ABOP and Raynor talks about being an African American in the orchestral space.
Raynor talks about the books he has written. He also mentions Batterie Music.
Raynor talks about the leadership of ABOP.
Raynor talks about race playing a part in the diversity of symphony orchestras.
Raynor studied with Mitchell Peters.
Damon brings up the Percussive Arts Society making a diversity and inclusion effort at PASIC.
Raynor talks diversity in multiple facets.
Damon and Raynor talk about barriers and financial burdens within music and education.
Shout-out to Raynor’s band director, John Work.
Raynor talks about the iconic recording.
Raynor also talks about Shostakovich’s 5th symphony.
Raynor talks about buying the score for The Rite of Spring.
Raynor does most of his music writing with Finale.
He talks about his Symphonic Repertoire Guide that he wrote.
Raynor talks about logistics and “stage plots”.
Raynor talks about his love of Djembes and West African music.
There is an app by Mamady Keita’s Mandingue Djembe Academy.
Damon talks about Baltimore with Raynor. He mentions Old Bay seasoning and The Wire.
Raynor recounts his move across the country from Baltimore to Los Angeles.
Raynor used to teach at UCLA.
He talks about auditioning post college graduation. Shout-out to the International Musician and Its classified listings and audition postings.
Damon mentions the rumor about Beethoven being black and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
Raynor attended Cal State L.A. Shout-out to William Hill.
There is a snippet from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 2023 Soundtrack that Raynor played on when the session cut out.
Raynor talks about capitalism and education.
Raynor talks about searching out mentors to figure out your path.
Shout-out to Dr. Philip Emeagwali who helped pioneer the internet. He was a math whiz who came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.
Shout-out to the sponsors of ABOP: Black Swamp Percussion, Cooperman Drums, Innovative Percussion, Majestic Percussion, Malletech, Marimba One, Remo Drumheads, Sabian Cymbals/Education, Vic Firth, And Zildjian.
You can follow Raynor via ABOP, the ABOP Podcast, ABOP on Facebook, ABOP on Instagram. and Raynor on Facebook.
The song leading out of the interview is “Mirage” by Jongnic Bontemps, from the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 2023 Soundtrack which Raynor played on.
