This photo is of the South Dakota State University Symphonic Band, taken in February of 1976. I am on the bottom right, holding my beloved Meinl Weston tuba. (It was really the school’s, but you couldn’t pry it from my fingers). The photo is from a textured album cover, so it looks a little fuzzy. My apologies to everyone in the photo.
Anyway –
I have recently been transferring some of my vinyl records to a digital format; mostly stuff that has not already been commercially remastered.
One of my first projects involves the music we recorded with this band, under the direction of Dr. Darwin Walker and Mr. James McKinney. These records were manufactured by the Al Opland Recording Service of Pipestone, Minnesota, from tapes custom-recorded by both them and Dr. Walker.
I am really, really proud to have been a part of these recordings. They represent many fine performances from 1975 to 1979. As they originate from vinyl, they will have the usual pops and crackles. But I still feel the outstanding musicianship of the participants shines through. Someday I may re-do this, once I re-model my home studio and fully integrate my computer and sound system. (Right now I just kind of move parts around each other.)
I had originally used a file-sharing service to share these, but with free programs easily available (such as the ones by Freemake) to download and convert the Youtube videos listed on my other post, I deleted them here.
Enjoy!
