I Had Nothing To Do With It… and I’m Still Proud

            There is always a problem when you start to make a list of people who do anything.  You will inevitably leave someone out causing them to assume you either don’t love them or, in a fit of senility, have forgotten they exist.  Earlier in one of these epistles, I listed former students who had become band directors and left out my own son-in-law.   That being the case, OF COURSE I am going to now list some folks.  Chalk my mistakes up to old age and demon rum.

            I was reading the paper (yep… I read) and noticed that 2 former students (John Cooper and Jake Ingalls) will be performing in the Memphis area this Spring.  In both cases it is a huge deal for those of us who know them.  I mentioned it to a friend of mine (yep… I have a friend) and I found their response both telling and curious.  They said they thought making it in music, as anything other than a teacher, was a “unicorn moment”.  So rare that it might just be a myth.  If you all feel that way, take note of the former students listed below.  Being in the band at Houston was a small part of their success.  Hard work and perseverance were the much bigger factors.  They are:

John Cooper – John was a trombone player in the band.  My favorite memory of John was of his insistence on answering rhetorical questions.  If I got angry and yelled, “Does anybody here have any idea what they are doing?” the band would get very quiet…. and then John would raise his hand and say “Well Mr. Smith, I do and I think Perry does but Scott doesn’t have a clue!”.  John is now the lead singer and founding member of the band SKILLET.  SKILLET has been around since the late 1990’s and has performed Christian music for millions of fans.  In January of 2017, their single “Feel Invincible” topped the Billboard Christian Song Chart.  The album was Grammy nominated last year.  They will be performing on March 3 at Winter Jam in the Fed Ex Forum.

Matt Wigton – Matt was also a trombone player in the band as well as a fine athlete.  His senior year, he was a bass player in the National Grammy Jazz Band as well as the Tennessee State champion in the Discus.  Matt went on to attend the University of North Texas and to play in the One O’Clock Lab Band.  For those few reading this who understand what that means – Wow!!!  After graduating, Matt moved to NYC and spent his time getting established as a performing and recording jazz bassist.  He has performed on 2 Grammy nominated albums and has toured with the likes of Englebert Humperdink, Christopher Cross and Jo Dee Messina.  He moved to Nashville and, through the Nashville Jazz Composers Collective, he released a Jazz Christmas Album this past year that was entitled “Sleigh What?!”.  On that album, he worked with Jeff Coffin, saxophonist for the Dave Mathew’s Band.

Jake Ingalls – Jake was a member of the front ensemble and indoor drum line while in band.  I know it is different when it is your life, but to the rest of us, it always appeared like Jake had no pulse.  He was as calm and laid back a teenager as I ever knew.  My biggest memory of Jake is forced on me every time I go to a band directors meeting or convention or meet someone relatively new to the profession.  You see - Jake was the kid with the guitar on top of a smoking tower playing “Freebird” in our 2008 marching show.   His guitar work made me into a sort of hero for what I call the band counter culture (not taking ourselves too seriously).  Jake is now a keyboardist and guitar player for THE FLAMING LIPS.  They will be playing at the Beale Street Music Festival on May 4 – 6.  He is also the frontman for his own band, SPACEFACE.  I knew Jake had hit the big time when I saw him on Letterman and again on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and again on Colbert.  He has also performed with Miley Cyrus (as a member of the Dead Petz) and with Sean Lennon to name a few.  I really knew he had made it when my Facebook feed had an ad for J Brand Jeans with Jake as an endorser.  And they don’t make them in my size.  Oh well…..

Tim Jones – Tim was a tenor drummer when he was in band.  Tim came along at a time when we needed an adult in the line, particularly since I set such a poor example in that regard.   Tim (or Timmy or “The Duke”) is a drummer and keyboardist (?) for the band FOR KING AND COUNTRY.   They are a Christian Band and I first took note of them in 2013 when they were the K-LOVE “Breakthrough Artist of the Year”.  In 2015, For King And Country won 2 Grammy Awards but my phone really blew up the night they appeared on Jimmy Kimmel.  In the “Boy, it really is a small world” category, For King And Country will be touring this spring with Skillet.  Tim and John were never in band at the same time together at Houston so guys, I hope the memories are fond ones!

Nathan Dugger – Nathan was also a tenor drummer when he was at Houston and had maybe the quickest hands of any drummer I ever taught.  Nathan caused trouble with the girls in my band (not because he had fast hands).  The girls found him good looking but Nathan never seemed to notice or pay them any attention since his mind was always on music.  He did, however, escape the dark side (drumming) and is now a guitar player with DREW HOLCOMB AND THE NEIGHBORS.  2015 was a good year for band alumni performing on television as my phone also blew up that year the first time Drew Holcomb appeared on Jimmy Kimmel (I believe they have been on Kimmel a couple of times now).

Will Caviness  - Will was a trumpet player in band.  He knew more about jazz music, artists and performing than I did the very first day I met him in 9^th grade.  Will suffered through my inadequacies and even did a great job with the “legitimate” trumpet playing but his heart was always in the jazz world.  We made a recording of him playing “I Remember Clifford” with our jazz band his senior year that is still one of my favorite things to listen to.  Will went on to study jazz trumpet at North Carolina and at the New England Conservatory.  Will moved to NYC and began to perform regularly in jazz clubs and with a great number of prominent jazz musicians.  In 2016, his group, the WILL CAVINESS SEXTET, released its first album entitled “A Walk”.  It received rave reviews from Downbeat Magazine and reached #8 on the Jazz Week National album chart.  It is bop style jazz ala Miles Davis. 

If you are keeping score, that is Kimmel, Colbert, Letterman and Fallon.  That is also an awful lot of quality music.  It is not, however, the only mark Houston Band kids are making in the world of professional music.  LAUREN TINGLE – was a mallet player for us but is now working with CMT (Country Music Television) in Nashville.  She turns out an amazing number of quality articles about country music artists and the Nashville music scene in general.  Her life has allowed her to meet and interview the likes of Willie Nelson, Shania Twain and Taylor Swift.  She has, in many ways, my dream job.  MIKAELA ALLEN – graduated from Berklee School of Music in Boston.  She now works for TIDAL.com, a music streaming service based in NYC that is partly owned by JAY-Z.  Her job (as I understand it) is to manage their social media and to work with artist promotions.  Exciting stuff and a long way from playing a flute in the Houston Band!

            I am sure to have forgotten someone I meant to remember, to have gotten a fact wrong, and to have misspelled a name or two.  People who went into music as a profession are special to me for all the obvious reasons you would imagine.  I never had the talent any of these folks had with respect to either performing or the business of music.  I do, however, have the ability to appreciate all they have accomplished.  Read the title again – and know that I really am proud of you all.