The Brass Junkies Episode 182: Jeffrey Curnow
Andrew Hitz
Jeff Curnow is a legend!
I have looked up to him since my very first Empire Brass concert in August of 1988.
Jeff was one of the five people who changed my life forever that afternoon and it’s crazy to me that we are now friends and colleagues. The music business is funny that way!
We got some Empire Brass stories I hadn’t heard before (and I’ve heard A LOT of them so I always get excited for new ones!)
And Jeff spoke so highly of Sam Pilafian. It is obvious how much of an impact Sam had on his life and career.
Pretty crazy that I get interview people who were on posters on my wall as a kid but here we are!
You can watch the episode on YouTube below or head over to Pedal Note Media for all of the links to where to find it.
Enjoy!
On This Episode of The Brass Junkies:
How proud the three of us are for figuring out how to get on the same Zoom call
How playing in a full-time touring quintet is basically like living together and can feel like a reality show
The similar approach that Sam and Rolf shared on how Empire should play
When the mics came on for a recording session you either knew your part or didn’t which helped to focus everyone even between sessions
Rolf’s vision of walking onstage and leveling the place and how that shaped the entire artistic trajectory of Empire Brass
That time when Lance told a radio interviewer that he used be an astronaut
That time when Rolf woke Jeff up at 8:00 am and he was suddenly on his way to a radio interview where he ended up playing Guns N’ Roses
The Empire Brass Seminar and the profound impact it had on so many people and how that hit home for Jeff when former EBS student Jen Montone joined him in the Dallas Symphony
The intense attention to detail you need to play in a professional chamber ensemble
Getting your musical ideas to the back of the hall
Why you always have to have a musical opinion, go out on stage and make people feel something
That time when Andrew was playing a gig with Marty Hackleman in Mexico and made a toast that had Marty staring a hole in him
How all the time he had on the road with Empire led to a rekindled love of cartooning
The parallels between his detail-oriented approach to both cartooning and music
His process for making cartoons for NPR and The Wall Street Journal
How he and Mark Gould collaborated on Orchestra Confidential