Please excuse the long absence to this blog. I promise to try to be more regular in the future. Since November of 2006, I have relocated the studio to Chapel Hill, NC. Here I have set up a small production "Kalimba" room where I compose, mix, do overdubs and rehearse. Even though I don't have the "big room" as in Nashville, I have a great space for getting music recorded and put out. I have all my mikes, preamps, percussion, marimba, keyboard and midi setup (Ableton Live, Nuendo, etc). I am also able to record percussion on your project no matter where you live! Its easy. Just send an MP3 to me with a rough mix of your track. I will do the percussion and FTP the rendered files back to you (wav or aiff 24 wave files). I've even done a session with someone from South Africa - no problem!
New things are happening in my life. I am actually touring more now that I am out of Nashville. In the past year and a half, I've done gigs in Michigan, California, Florida, DC, Philly, Maine, New York, Virginia and more. Many of these are contra dance weekends and tours. So I can travel wherever your gig is at.
I have also been doing music editing work for Top Talent Media and Epic Soul of Nashville. I helped convert his entire music library to usable bits of media. I also composed percussion tracks for TV which are available at Sonic Librarian in LA.
Most recently, I have started teaching percussion at Elon University near Burlington, NC.I have 15 students. Their studies include marimba, timpani, snare drum, multi-percussion, and djembe. I also have private students outside of the school. For the winter term (January), I will be teaching a class 5 days a week called: Woodstock, Hippies and other Enduring Legacies: The Music of the 60's and 70's. Everything from the Beatles to the Police.
In the spring term I will be teaching a world music ensemble in addition to private students. It will be a 4 semester hour course.
From Oct 3-10, I was involved in a Jose Rivera play called, Marisol. It involved creating an improvised score using percussion, keyboards and voice. I also used a Roland Handsonic, a Roland SPD sampler and a Boss RC-50 loop station. It was a great experience as the play lent itself to dynamic and dramatic soundscapes.
In addition to adding more teaching as of late, I began teaching a Beginning Hand Drum Techniques class at the Music Explorium in Durham, NC. It is a 6 week class, once a week and there are 12 students. I will continue teaching classes starting in January. Contact the Music Explorium in Durham for more information.
www.musicexplorium.com
You can now sign up for my myspace page if you like. It is www.myspace.com/jimrobertspercussion
Thanks for dropping by and do send me a line!
jim@jimrobertspercussion.com
