Tag: Life Family

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MUSINGS IN Cb: “She’s my family.”

Growing up during my early formative years in a United States Air Force 🇺🇸 family that traveled, I lived in at least five sibling homes in three different states and also overseas in France 🇫🇷 before I was 10 years old.

When my sibling family finally settled not far from my paternal hometown of the city of Olathe, in my maternal hometown of Paola, Kansas after my father’s military service, I was conditioned to moving and starting over.

Most military kids who have moved around and lived in different places are generally pretty resilient. The most resilient among them “grow where they are planted.”

Our own military service involved lots of moving too.

We’ve lived in our current city longer than we have lived anywhere including our paternal hometowns where we grew up with our respective sibling families.

We’ve adopted this community (and it’s adopted us) as our forever home.

But everywhere we have lived together has become our home where we “grew where we were planted.”

We have come to realize that the mindset of making a home and doing our best to serve our community wherever we are is one of the keys to our resilience.

The other is understanding the fact that “together” the two of us are always home.

Family. Life has taught us that our family is just the two of us and then expands to include our offspring, blood relatives, and our “life” family members.

In 2024 our family will celebrate our being a home and together for 45 years.

We both will also celebrate continuing to learn from our ancestral family trees despite being displaced from most of them individually by generations.

We’re validating our research as musicians and artists again by releasing the recording of our newest album inspired by family on the date of our anniversary too.

If you’re reading this and made it to the end, you are likely “family.” Thank you for growing with us.

(ARTICLE)
MUSINGS IN Cb: “She’s my family.”

PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)

Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

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WE ARE CONSTANTLY WORKS IN PROGRESS

2024 ALBUM

Featured artists on this album are Roger Wilder on piano; Gerald Spaits on bass; Morgan Rogers on drums with special musical guests Terri Anderson Burnett and Freda Proctor on flutes; WM Thornton on tenor saxophone; Greg Carroll on vibraphone; Will Matthews on guitar. LINER NOTES are finished for the album we’re recording in December at BRC Audio Productions in Kansas City. We’ll add the individual track duration times during postproduction. Avalon Video Services from Lawrence is also documenting this project.

RECORDING DAY 1

ALWAYS

INFINITY

LATER

CbQ PERSONNEL

C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums

ENGINEER AND PRODUCER

William Crain, BRC Audio Productions

VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN

Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services

RECORDING DAY 2

FINALLY

MAYBE

CbQ PERSONNEL+:

C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums with Terri Anderson Burnett and Freda Proctor, flutes; Greg Carroll, vibraphone

ENGINEER AND PRODUCER

William Crain, BRC Audio Productions

VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN

Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services

YESTERYEARS

CbQ PERSONNEL+:

C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums with Willie Meyers Thornton, tenor saxophone; Will Matthews, guitar

ENGINEER AND PRODUCER

William Crain, BRC Audio Productions

VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN

Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services

ALBUM: “ORIGINALS” (ARC-3442) by Christopher Burnett (BMI)

The music will be released on the Artists Recording Collective + ARC Recording Label and available worldwide. I’m very excited about this work and all six pieces of music that make up “ORIGINALS.” Looking forward to sharing this music with you!

MUSIC DEMOS + SHEET MUSIC

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 1 “FINALLY”

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

VIDEO CLIP of Track 2 “ALWAYS”

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 3 “MAYBE”

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

VIDEO CLIP of Track 4 “INFINITY”

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 5 “LATER”

PURCHASE THE SHEET MUSIC FROM SHEET MUSIC PLUS (HAL LEONARD)

MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 6 “YESTERYEARS”

REHEARSAL GALLERY

SHE’S MY FAMILY. TOGETHER, WE ARE HOME. (BURNETTFAMILYUS.ORG)

PHOTO GALLERY: Piano and Drums rehearsing with the Flutes

LINER NOTES PDF

DOWNLOAD THE LINER NOTES
email-LINER-NOTES-ORIGINALS-ARC-3442Download

RELEASE DATE IS 03/23/2024

We have everything for our new album “ORIGINALS” (ARC-3442) set up in advance for distribution and the release date is set for our 45th anniversary, 03/23/2024

REFERENCES + MEDIA QUOTE

“Saxophonist, educator, and military band veteran Christopher L. Burnett is known for his warm and lyrical jazz sound. Following a 20-plus year military career, during which he taught and performed, Burnett embarked on fruitful university teaching, as well as a performance career. He continued to perform in his native Kansas, releasing albums like 2013’s Time Stamps, 2014’s Firebird, and 2021’s The Standards Vol. 1.”

— Matt Collar / AllMusic, TIVO (ALLMUSIC.COM)

THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING ENTITIES FOR YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Learn more at ChristopherBurnett.us

(ARTICLE)
Musings In Cb: “WE ARE CONSTANTLY WORKS IN PROGRESS”

PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)

Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

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Listening and actually hearing

A bit over forty years ago my Army band barracks roommate began taking me to jam sessions in Munich, Germany on weekends as a way of helping me gain experience playing jazz.

Marcus Hampton (1941-2021) was a great jazz improviser, music arranger, and also a nephew of the great Locksley Hampton (Slide Hampton). The Hamptons are another royal family in the music from Indianapolis.

Learn more about their history here: https://indyencyclopedia.org/hampton-family/

Hamp’ knew both of us in 1977 as military musicians before we were married. And he remained among our closest family friends over the decades spanning into our current life as musicians here in KC.

During that period I was listening and transcribing lots of jazz music. I hadn’t a clue how to functionally apply my knowledge of harmony in a jazz improvisational context though. I relied heavily upon my ear. And I was still not very experienced in actually playing the music in typical small combo situations.

As was the case with Hamp’ and me, many mentors often don’t realize the value, significance, and importance of their role until much later. Taking advantage of that opportunity and participating in those jam sessions helped my jazz playing tremendously. I eventually became competent enough to teach others.

This album is an original from our vinyl collection. And when Terri Anderson Burnett and I became a family, we catalogued all of our music. This album is number 002 and remains a favorite.

Anyway, I was once listening to this same album when I roomed with Hamp’ and just marveled over Cannonball’s soloing throughout.

Hamp’ stated the common phrase of inquiry to me that I had already heard other older experienced musicians often ask younger inexperienced jazz improvisers like I was back then, “You can’t hear that, man?”

I said “no, I don’t know what I am listening for in order to understand what I am hearing.”

That reply was the key to the process and beginnings of my being able to truly learn music at a deeper level beyond playing written notated parts.

Hamp’ sat down at the keyboard in our barracks room and played (1) sub dominant, (2) dominant, and (3) tonic function sounds as chords in the harmonic progression context of various common modern jazz song forms.

He then further explained how they related to the scales that I already knew. Mind blown.

I have never looked at or heard any type of music the same since. Our great friend, Marcus A. Hampton, Jr. passed away in 2021 but his impact lives on through us as his friends and my jazz students who never met him.

Yes, I can hear that now, man. Thanks 🎵

(ARTICLE)
Musings In Cb: “Listening and actually hearing”

PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)

Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.