APQH Performs Kashmir for This Saturday's "Covers for a Cause"
Most of the best things that ever happen come about by intention… but some of my favorite things have happened by accident.
Meet the APQ-Harmonic, the second band I accidentally formed. This group consists of between 12 and 14 pieces, depending on the show, all of them friends, teachers, family members, & mentors of mine, people who have something to say, and something to share with our community on a regular basis in many different platforms & in several “local” bands.
They are musicians who can rip a blues solo out of their sleeve as fast as they can a Bach fugue or a jazz standard. We are an ensemble whom the late Paul O’Neill, rock producer & founder of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, recognized in our first year (or rather our first public gig out of the shoot) with the gift of a TSO platinum record which hangs proudly in my office at the Academy of Music & Technology in Sweetwater Sound.
“Music brings people together, music makes life better.” This is my motto as the band-leader of the APQ-Harmonic and as an educator to over 50 musicians of all ages & skill levels. Perhaps this is also how a few of my teachers/mentors have found their way into the band. The APQH has an open door and is a lasting creative place to those without ego, who want to teach, educate, and enrich the lives of those who hear us in town…make those lives better, if only for an hour.
We're excited to be collaborating on the latest music community project, the Led Zeppelin themed “Covers for a Cause” album with the classic rock repertoire staple Kashmir. We’re even more excited to be featuring two amazing guest soloists for this performance: Sunny Taylor on vocals and Nick Bowcott on guitar.
Listening to Taylor say that this particular collaborative concept was “her idea” and that she “wouldn’t want to sing it backed by anyone else” was music to my ears at the end of a long rehearsal earlier this week. I admired Bowcott’s “lefty” Marshall amps and was excited to hear him express that "playing as a guest with APQ is not only a blast on stage, the fun rolls offstage too….and that is the sign of a REAL band, IMHO. As a result, if they're ever kind/dumb enough to invite me back, my instant, instinctive reply will be: 'Yes...please'!"
We’re also tremendously thankful as a band to APQ-Harmonic string soloist (& the Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s) Derek Reeves for the donation of his custom arrangement of Kashmir for the APQH, and for this local community cause.
And I would like to personally thank all the musicians who are donating their time to this event in the service of a good cause.
For more information on the show Saturday, and the other great bands participating, you can visit: http://www.sweetwaterpavilion.com.
