Page 53 - Memories of the Maestro 9.11.21

Inspirational . . .

Hi, Ray ~

Thanks for the CD! Listening to it fresh, it blew me

away. After all these years, our band still stands up
as a great one, and I know it wasn’t the only great
band that you taught. I still remember going to B.C.
and discovering that we already had fans.

I was so lucky to attend Fort when I did. Not just that you were
there then, but to be able to take lessons from you for a class, on

trumpet and piano? It doesn't get any better. I didn’t just walk away
knowing a bunch of trumpet parts, I learned to speak music as a
language. That has enabled me to walk into a lot of different

situations and do what was needed.

After graduating, I got into the jazz chair in the band at the
University of Utah. While the school was great, Salt Lake itself didn’t
have a lot of jazz gigs. I did form a band that played at Utah Jazz
[basketball] games. I got two music degrees and taught for many

years at Mt. Hood, UP, and Concordia.

I’ve played a lot of jazz in the Portland area. Most recently I’ve been
playing in a roots rock/blues/soul band called ‘Lil' Queenie’. We
keep it fun like you always did. Reading all of these letters, it strikes
me how much music is out in the world

because of you.

I do hope we can get together and play
sometime, whenever we get to do things like
that again.

David Mitchell
Class of ‘78