News

I just returned from a concert trip to Bratislava with the Pointwood Big Band. I became the conductor of this band in January. I have only done two concerts with this band in the past months, so this was an excellent opportunity to develop the sound and get to know the bandmembers better. And of course a great way to explore some new surroundings. Read on if you like to know a bit more about our trip:

This week I began work on a new project: a performance of about an hour for one of my ensembles. It is based on selection of songs from the BBC miniseries "the Singing Detective", that originally aired in 1986. For those who don't know the show: it's about a writer with a nasty and painful skin disease in a hospital, working on a novel of the said 'singing detective' (although the actual story is a lot deeper and more confusing than this). If you want to know more about it, here's a link to the wikipedia page. The whole project is a lot of fun because I face a few interesting challenges:

As of today, it is possible to order the scores of some of Ray's compositions from this site. Go to the (new) 'composing' section from the main menu and you'll find the 'catalog'. There you will find more information on how to order the sheet music and also some rudimentary (for now) samples of the compositions on offer. Currently the catalog features one big band compostion: "On the brink", but more are to follow soon (so you might want to check regularly!), including compositions for other ensembles than big band.

Finally...!

The Dutch Jazz Orchestra commisioned Creatid Music Services to 'edit' two original Gerry Mulligan scores to be included on their next recording. It's not really editing, since Ray wouldn't dream of changing anything Mulligan wrote, it's more like 'restoring to a readable condition' that he is to do. The original scores are often hastily written, so it's a slow and painstaking proces (which of course has to be finished overnight, as usual in the music world...).

This site has been checked on a number of computers now and it was noticed that it was all a bit too dark. So the colors are changed to lighten it up a bit. They may still change a bit as the new scheme has to be tested on a number of browsers and computers again. (The beauty of style sheets: 10 minutes and the whole site looks different!)

It has been a long time since the last update of this site. Too much has happened in that time, so let's just pick up from here again. A Members-only area has been set up on this site, to exchange information with the members certain bands. Access is restricted with a password, so this new update will only benefit a select group of users.

The last saturday of February, Ray broke his right collarbone, so he has been "off-line" for quite a while. Slowly, things are healing and he has started working again (just in time for the taxes...). Everything still goes rather slow and sometimes painful, but at least he's working again

It took quite a long time, but finally: the fourth release of this site is active!

Saturday we performed the "ZDF - Hitparade" with great succes in De Schakel in Reuver. An arrangement of eight German songs in medley-form, with the theme of the "ZDF - Hitparade" as connecting element. Fantastic performances by the singers and the 10-piece band (conducted by Ray Drossaert) and great make-up made this an experience to remember! There will be another performance on Saturday, January 24.

The short feature film "Het gevecht" has opened, and succesfully! For Creatid Music Services, it marks the end of a very frantic time, where scenes were changed right up to the end, needing new music in very short notice! All in all a very rewarding experience. The film will probably be shown on a local television station (L1) in 2004.