nyconfidential

What does formal training in engineering bring to music? Talk to Forrest Buchtel, Jr., a musician who built experimental equipment for Edward Teller, and other Nobel Laureates doing high energy physics at UC Berkeley; a musician who designed chemical and medical equipment for Varian Associates; and a musician who received what he thought was a prank call from Woody Herman asking to join his band during the start up of Plasmatics, a plasma physics company, of which Buchtel was a cofounder, for just a temporary gig. Ten years later and after world tours as lead trumpet and featured soloist with Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Teo Macero, Gunther Schuller, Blood Sweat and Tears, Malo, and Jaco Pastorius, Buchtel, the musician came back to Berkeley and engineering. Mr. Buchtel went on to design the first and only megamp switch. Forrest believes that music and technology can go hand in hand where one hand washes the other. Finally, in this new millennia music and technology today are being pushed together thanks to advancements in computer technology applications to music. Today, it is Forrest's goal to bring his unique perspective to flexible musicians who wish to grow by thinking a little outside the box. Toward that end, Forrest has teamed up with composer-arranger Gary Anderson (www.gamusicpro.com) and producer-engineer Cynthia Daniels (www.cynthiadaniels.net) along with many of New York's best-known jazz and studio musicians in an attempt to combine musical composition with today's recording technology. It is Forrest's hope that this combined teamwork will result in a musical product that can cross the full spectrum of music pedagogy. It is hoped that there will be music that is easy enough for young players to play without hurting themselves trying to hit double high C, and rich enough that mature musicians can find music worthy of their attention. Forrest believes that a fresh approach is needed to present to younger players with jazz-influenced music which is up-to-date, but which can be played without the need to first go through ten difficult books of chords and "approved" scales to play through those same chords. It is important and Forrest's goal to create music which is attractive to students and teachers alike so that all participants can feeltheURGE I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4