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Upcoming Chancellor puts students first Visually impaired dial the news 'Into the Mist' with Fred Forney |
Mesa trumpeter-teacher goes ‘Into the Mist’ to find time for dream album
Forney, music faculty at Mesa Community College for 12 years, put plenty of energy into the album that features high-powered tunes such as the deconstruction of Miles Davis’ “Solar” to his melancholy original, “My Platelets are Low.” Featuring nine jazz songs – some standards and some originals – the album, “Into the Mist,” is a long-awaited dream for Forney, the trumpeter-teacher. Two years in the making, the album came to fruition last summer during a short schedule break. ( It was recently released to Tower Records, Border Books and Music and to the Internet via Summit Records). The piece is a notable miracle because Forney has a full life at MCC teaching jazz and rock history classes, two performance groups, an electronic-recording class and a handful of trumpet students. Evenings and weekends often are filled with showcasing the talents of his students at the college, around town, and even the nation. Forney is, himself, in great demand as a performer throughout the world and he has performed with international artists such as Pete Magadini and Bill Watrous. He has performed with Charles Lewis at the Telluride Jazz Festival and most recently toured Japan with the Bobby Caldwell Big Band. In the Valley, he is the first called to be lead trumpeter to touring stars such as Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, the late Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. “It is a miracle this (album) happened because of Fred’s schedule of teaching and playing professionally,” says three-decade MCC music faculty Grant Wolf. “It is very hard to buy out the time to be creative in a world where everyone wants a piece of your energies.” However, making jazz is a labor of love for Forney, who notes: “Jazz is the ultimate form of American music; it is incredible in its history. Not only are you the performer, but you are the composer of this spontaneous, in-the-moment music as well. The music will be different every time it is presented to an audience.” Meanwhile, the artist encourages his students to record, too: “You can hear how you sound and you can make changes. It’s very valuable.” In “Into the Mist,” Forney conducts a capable crew of fellow musicians, including guest Grant Wolf on the bass clarinet. Additional MCC music instructors who round out the album are Larry Conrad, Hugh Lovelady, Dom Moio, and Jack Radavich. "I got the best in the Valley to play on this record," says Forney. Wolf terms the album “a beautiful outpouring of Fred’s creative abilities, his dedication to playing the trumpet and his love for music. Fred had a vision of what he wanted it to be and he didn’t compromise that vision.” Adds Todd S. Jenkins, director, American Jazz Symposium: Forney’s “jazzy eloquence is warmly evocative of home and family, nostalgia and aspirations and romance… Forney and his bandmates remind us by their pristine performance that jazz is emotion, and eloquent expression of the soul through music.” |
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Louise Gacioch
last updated: 4/05/00
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Stephens
Fred Forney’s platelets are anything but low -- and the proof is in his first solo jazz album, recently released.