Stu Dempster Speaks about

His Life In Music

Reflections on his fifty year career as a trombonist, 

in conversation with Abbie Conant

Topics

Clicking the links below will take you directly to the topic listed.  The timings are also listed on the YouTube page under "Show More" and can be scrolled to.

1.  How he started the trombone, and his first teacher.  (0.00)

2.  Early study with A.B. Moore, study at San Francisco State (0.50)

3.  The Seventh Army Symphony, and the move away from orchestras to new music (1.58)

4.  Graduate Composition study at San Francisco State   (3.28)

5.  Oakland Symphony in 1961 (4.04)

6.  Early commissions of Berio, Erickson, and Oliveros (5.07)

7.  First tours with the early commissions (5.55)

8.  Creative Associates in Buffalo and the job at the University of Washington (6.15)

9.  Early commissions and their postmodern character 25 years ahead of time. (6.43)

10. The theatrical nature of the early works and thoughts about the clown Grock. (7.52)

11. Sequenza V, Asking what Grock would have done as a trombone player, concert dress codes, not using make-up for the Berio  (9.00)

12.  Toyoji Tomita’s early use of white face when doing the Berio (11.40)

13.  First woman to perform the Berio, raising the vocal parts an octave (13.03)

14.  Healing with the trombone, Sound Massage Parlor, behavioral kinesiology, Aura Fluff, Sonic Facial, Acuhosery, and Didjeriatsu. (14.33)

15.  Creativity and the balance between the appealing and the appalling, the serious and humorous, the actual healing from sound massage (17.33)

16.  Edith Gutierrez (Pauline’s mother) and “tele-didge” healing. (18.47)

17.  Teaching sound massage healing (20.21)

18.  Early work with Merce Cunningham (21.10)

19.  Early experiences working with extended reverberation in the Great Abbey of Clement VI* and in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (23.38)

20.  The pedagogical value of extended reverberation, and the concept of “internal resonance.”  Tuning yourself to the room you play in.  (27.07)

21.  More about working with Cunningham  (27.47)

22.  The Cistern Chapel recording ** (28.04)

23.  Cunningham and the dance “Ground Level Overlay.” (The music is entitled Underground Overlays.  (30.16)

24.  Improvisation and how he came to it:  Robert Erickson, Robert Moran, Donald Erb, Barney Childs.  (31.43)

25.  First work with Pauline Oliveros  (34.54)

26.  John Cage’s “Solo for Sliding Trombone.”  (35.39)

27.  How do you teach your students to approach the Berio Sequenza?  (37.21)

28.  What do you tell your students about the theatrical beginning of the Berio? (40.31)

29.  Deep Listening Band *** (41.49)

30.  Electronics and their influence on his trombone playing  (43.00)

31.  The value of long term collaborations   (43.41)

32.  Playing together via the Internet  (44.25)

33.  If you reincarnated, what would you do with the trombone?  (45.09)

34.  Parting words: study the breathing of babies.  (47.06)

35.  Gallery of smiles.  (48:00)

* The title of the album is "Stuart Dempster In the Great Abbey of Clement VI" on New Albion Records (NA 013).  

** The title of the album is "Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel" on New Albion Records (NA 076). 

Additional Notes.

• More information about The Seventh Army Symphony and the book Uncle Sam's Orchestra can be found here.

• Video clips of Grock along with commentary by Abbie Conant can be found here.

• Stu's seminal book, The Modern Trombone, is available through Accura Music.  The book includes a CD.