bio
trombone / composition / arranging / production
bio
trombone / composition / arranging / production
Bryan Hooten is a trombonist, composer, arranger and educator who performs with a variety of ensembles from across the musical spectrum. Hooten records and performs with Richmond-based No BS! Brass, who have released seven studio albums and EPs, one live album, and tour internationally. The group’s recent performances with the Richmond Symphony have featured Hooten’s compositions and arrangements. No BS! Brass was named to the 2015-2016 Mid Atlantic Arts touring roster. Hooten played lead trombone on the Doug Richards Orchestra album, Through a Sonic Prism: The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, which featured his pioneering work in multiphonics.
Hooten’s solo trombone albums, Richmond Love Call, and Isolation feature his multiphonics playing and overtone singing through original compositions, improvisations and jazz standards. Richmond Love Call was also placed on the ballot for Debut Album in the 6th Annual Jazz Critics Poll. Briefly setting the trombone aside, Hooten released an EP of beats and electronic music entitled OCCIPITAL1.
Hooten played trombone in the eight-piece group, Fight the Big Bull who was called “refreshingly original and, at many points, breathtaking” by All About Jazz New York. With this group he shared the stage with Ken Vandermark, Steven Bernstein, David Karsten Daniels, Megafaun and Bon Iver, including performances at Undead Jazzfest, Duke Performances, and the MusicNow Festival and at the Kennedy Center. Hooten serves as a house musician for Richmond’s Spacebomb Records, having made recordings with Mountain Goats, Karl Blau, Matthew White, Natalie Prass and Joe Westerlund of Megafaun. Hooten played trombone and composed for Ombak, described by www.bagatellen.com as “an extraordinarily unique group, a swaggering quartet that chomps and bellows like Albert Mangelsdorff fronting prog-rock.” Ombak’s albums, Framing the Void and Fan Bricks have earned rave reviews from local and national media. His participation in the Sounds of the South Project with Fight the Big Bull, Megafaun, and Justin Vernon has taken him to the Sydney Opera House as well as music festivals in the Eastern U.S. Hooten is a former member of the acclaimed salsa band Bio Ritmo, with whom he toured the United States and Puerto Rico and performed at such landmarks as Lincoln Center and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Hooten’s performing and composing earned him an invitation to the 2012 Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music and he served as guest artist at the 2013 Mars Hill New Music Festival. In spring 2013, Hooten participated in the Tasmeem Doha Middle-East Art and Design Conference.
Hooten composes and arranges for small and large jazz and chamber groups, symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, chorus, marching band, and solo trombone/bass trombone.
As an educator, Hooten most recently served as Band director at Collegiate School in Richmond, VA. He formerly taught Jazz Orchestra II and Music Theory at VCU. He is the former director of the James River High School Jazz Band, trombone teacher at Hanover High School and assistant director of the Greater Richmond High School Jazz Band. He is a former faculty member of the Virginia Governor’s School for the Humanities and Visual and Performing Arts where he taught brass ensembles and courses on music theory, salsa music and Zen Buddhism. He has also served as an adjudicator/clinician at the Tri-State Jazz Festival at James Madison University and director of an Alabama All-State Jazz Band .
No BS! Brass
Richmond, VA.
No BS! Brass
Richmond, VA.
MORAL VICTORY
You
Gotta light the way
When they summon in
The night
You
Gotta break the day
Til eyes blinded find their
Sight
We
Gotta walk the road
In truth never to pretend
We
Gotta let ‘em know
They lead only to
The end
There ain’t no family but family
There ain’t no blood in me
that bleeds for free
You ain’t got nothin
If you ain’t got love
Just knowing
Just flowing
Victory is mine
Don’t
Let em keep you down
They can’t hear that song
Your singing
Don’t
Let ‘em lock you out
They can’t hold the gifts
You bring
Don’t
Listen to the words
When they try to write your
Story
You
Gotta find a way
To be what they’ll never
See
There ain’t no family but family
There ain’t no blood in me
that bleeds for free
You ain’t got nothin
If you ain’t got love
Just knowing
Just flowing
Victory is mine
BEGIN AGAIN
The title of this tune is drawn from the meditation tradition. In the seated practice (and in every other part of life) one of our main challenges is to bring our attention back to what is actually happening. You can hear that reflected in the figure that starts each phrase. The interaction between the grounding A♭ → B♭figure and the melody phrases symbolize the fact that as the mind drifts further and further from the present, we must begin again more frequently and with more sincerity. Solo trombone version here.
Bad News was first tune I composed after our first collaboration with the Richmond Symphony. Writing for brass band plus full orchestra certainly expanded the possibilities in terms of what No BS! Brass could explore on our own.
Lance used to have a little gong as part of his drum setup and would often play a Go-Go groove on it during sound check. That groove got stuck in my head and while that sound didn’t make it into the final recording, I created the whole tune around it. The trombones simulate what could be a Go-Go bell pattern or keyboard ostinato while the tuba, trumpets and saxophone layer in their melodies and countermelodies. After a call and response between trumpets and trombones in the bridge we move onto the chorus, with a theme that would be right at home in a dystopian game show. David and I enjoy trading solos on this one before a recap and drum solo coda.
Reggie’s brilliant direction of the music video for this tune depicts a restaurant’s lunch rush as the Zombie Apocalypse. Like all good zombie flicks, the most important plot line in the video depicts how the non-zombie humans treat each other in the face of disaster.
Undying is the title track from our latest album. The lyrics and vibe are inspired by N.K. Jemisin’s brilliant sci-fi work, The Broken Earth Trilogy. Without giving too much away, the books landed for me as a dialogue between people and their environment, a seeking for understanding with forces beyond understanding. Between the time of the tune’s writing and its recording, my dad, also a trombonist and music teacher, fell ill and passed away. This music is my dialogue with forces beyond my control, sung beautifully by Samantha Reed.
Ashes dust to dust
Sun is low shadows long
Twilight rising up
Silent song
Cold wind through the trees
Through the limbs nothing sings
Leaves spread on the ground
Broken wings
Let in the rain and let it clarify
The path we’re taking
Let in the light and let it
Color in the dream of waking
Tell ‘em that you are the undying
Tell ‘em that you’re never done trying
Tell ‘em that your flag is still flying
That you’re gonna heal the world
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Stillness on the sea
Not a wave to the sand
Feeling glass to glass
Under hand
Lightning, split the sky
Line between light and dark
Thunder, sing the song
Of the spark
Let in the rain and let it clarify
The path we’re taking
Let in the light and let it
Color in the dream of waking
Tell ‘em that you are the undying
Tell ‘em that you’re never done trying
Tell ‘em that your flag is still flying
That you’re gonna heal the world
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Be a fighter
Fire lighter
Keep it burning, burning brighter
Be a healer
A revealer
World is turning, turning
Feel her
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Gaia!
Runaround is a fairly straightforward ode to Allen Toussaint/The Meters/Lee Dorsey/Betty Harris. Accordingly, you’ll hear lots of la-do and mi and me. Unison riffs throughout with trumpet stabs. I seem to work a three over four passage into almost all of my tunes (whatcha gon’ do?) Samantha Reed does a stellar job of singing this one now and we’re doing it with a new intro and working up some lines from my orchestral arrangement.
Act Like You Know
At the time I was writing this one, I was listening to a lot of Mos Def/Talib Kweli. Sometimes it’s cool to open with the chorus! For the verses I wanted to experiment with using the bones and tuba in a hocket thing. Marcus Tenney lays down some blistering bars on this track.
The verses are followed by a shout chorus that echoes the trading vocals from the top of the tune. One again we have a three over four idea emerging. At the end of the shout, you’ll hear the trumpets holding a Bb major triad while the bones and tuba answer with an E major triad.
After Lance Koehler’s thundering drum solo, you’ll hear some fragments of the shout and then a passage that brings back the polychord idea but in a rhythmic setting of 4/4 then 3/4 instead of three over four. I was looking for a The Dillinger Escape Plan vibe to close it out. David Hood ices the cake with some shredding on the last pass.
What Now
The A section of this one is really a second coming of Reggie Pace Reggie Pace’s tune Jalapeños On The Side with its three bar bass line and A minor melody that emphasizes D natural. There’s a symbolism to cyclical nature to the melody and the rhetorical question of the title. You’ll also hear one of my favorite harmonic relationships, i - IV (IV6 in this case). Counter melody enters on the second time through. In the words of Trey Pollard, “make the counter melody invertible just in case.
The B section takes us on a root motion journey borrowed from “Son of a Preacher Man.” I also borrowed the rhythmic idea from an old Ombak tune, alternating between and-one-and / one-and-2. I love the sense of urgency that Lance Koehler creates on the hats here. The long notes in the trombone foreshadow what’s to come in the post-chorus. We arrive in D minor for the chorus.
The melody in the chorus uses pretty much the same set of notes as the A section but recontextualized in D minor.
The post-chorus is indirectly inspired by Ligeti’s Bagatelles and uses a repeating set of three notes. There’s a bit of a half-step forward, whole-step back feeling.
For the solo, we just added some space in between each part of the bass/bone figure as well as some group clapping. I’ve always found it challenging to improvise over this tune.
Towards the end of the tune we find David Hood shredding, Lance Koehler smashing and the three note figure harmonized in parallel major triads for ray of light.
Get Slow
Here’s a pretty straightforward pop tune.
This one’s a great example of a dialectic creative process. Start with one idea and ask yourself “what is the opposite of that?” and/or “where is the space?”
The lyrical content of the verses is certainly inspired by Dr. John’s “Right Place Wrong Time.” Call and response between bones and vocal. I originally had the bones and voice in unison and I vividly remember the moment when someone in the band suggested what it is now. On the second time through we add some Lance Koehler vocal harmony and a trumpet unison background.
I guess you could call that little motif between sections a ‘pivot melody modulation.’ Who knows? If I were to do it all over again, I’d avoid the Db until we reached the new section.
For the B section, the call and response roles are reversed and now placed on the voice and trumpet. We switch between Db and Eb roots every two bars but there’s a sneaky third trombone moving part that outlines the following...
Db: me me mi mi fa fa mi mi
Eb: mi mi fa fa fi fi fa fa
It was Stefan’s idea to have the tuba jump octaves on his figure. I like that this whole section sounds very clear but that there is greater complexity evident when you listen closely.
At the chorus the trumpets and voice finally reach rhythmic unison with each other. The bones borrow a bit of the trumpet background figure from the A section but in harmony.
After another verse / pre-chorus / chorus, we arrive a fun group solo between John Hulley, David Hood and Taylor Barnett with a progressively harmonized background riff.
Lance Koehler takes us home while we tag the last piece of the chorus. Trumpets and bones/tuba are in contrary motion. I guess you could say that this section creates a three over four feeling. I can’t seem to escape it.
Surprise! The last chord has a #11.
Isolation: Solo Trombone EP
recording, scores, liner notes
Isolation: Solo Trombone EP
recording, scores, liner notes
Available on Bandcamp and all streaming services
Bryan Hooten: trombone, voice, compositions, recording, mixing
Mastered by Lance Koehler at Minimum Wage Recording
Image "Night Vision" by Suzanna Fields, photo by Taylor Dabney
This little record was really hard to make. Like most creative people I know, I have found the act of creation to be especially challenging in recent months.
My dad passed away in April. He was my first trombone teacher and first musical inspiration. In the months leading up to his death and for several months after, I struggled to find a reason to play. I was able to keep composing, to arrange sound while escaping the ‘in the moment’ progression of time. Playing and improvising seemed too immediate, too much like moving from one point of no return to the next.
He would understand all of that.
He would want me to keep playing.
I knew that making myself record something like this would be therapeutic, even if it felt more like work than inspiration.
I set up a microphone in my attic “studio” and got to it.
I’m grateful to the teachers that turned me onto multiphonics, who encouraged this rather niche pursuit. So here we have four tunes, exploring various moods, concepts, and multiphonic techniques. I hope this music inspires you to keep creating.
Stand Up Eight
This the oldest tune in the set, one that’s been bouncing around in my head and heard on a few performances in recent years. The title is drawn from the Zen proverb “nana korobi ya oki” or “fall down seven times, get up eight.”
The intro is new, though. For the main section of the tune I wanted to experiment with a slow, egg-shaped ¾ and while creating the impression of bass line, accompaniment and melody happening together. The B section explores contrary motion and an extra beat in the phrases. A loose blues form for the improvisation and then we’re back to the tune.
Begin Again
Another title drawn from a meditation tradition. In the seated practice (and in every other part of life) one of our main challenges is to bring our attention back to what is actually happening. You can hear that reflected in the three or two note figure that starts each phrase. The interaction between the grounding Ab → Bb figure and the melody phrases symbolizes the fact that as the mind drifts further and further from the present, we must begin again more frequently and with more sincerity.
This was originally written for No BS! Brass but it’s been adapted for solo trombone here. In many ways, the tune is related to Stand Up Eight but up a half step and in 4/4. To save myself the journey of coming up with new ideas in Bb, the solo section moves to a D altered situation, or, as I called in my college band, Astrolab, D ∞.
That’s a Wrap
Also written for No BS!, this tune is inspired by Jacob Garchik’s album The Heavens (The Atheist Trombone Album) and my own journeys in faith and faithlessness, musical and otherwise. One day, we’ll play this one to close out a live performance. One day it will be safe for all of us to breathe together again.
The only time I’ve played in public since March 2020 was for my dad’s ash scattering ceremony on the James River. This is the tune I played.
Goodbye to everything
that stands in our way
Goodbye to crying to
trying to stay
Goodbye to everyone who
won’t hear the call
Goodbye to anyone who’s
afraid of standing tall
That’s
a wrap
on silence
That’s
a wrap
on hate
That’s
a wrap
on the bad moon
blocking out the sun
Light the way home, now
that’s a wrap.
Goodbye to every place
with welcome worn out
Goodbye to drowning
to dying
in doubt
One day you’re gonna hear
the heartbeats in our drums
Today we’re gonna fight
until tomorrow comes
That’s
a wrap
on silence
That’s
a wrap
on hate
That’s
a wrap
on the bad moon
blocking out the sun
Light the way home, now
that’s a wrap.
Isolation
This is the newest tune in the set. It speaks to what I imagine many of us are feeling in the midst of this pandemic. Navigating this reality as an immunocompromised person has been quite a challenge but the experience has provided the opportunity to go inward, to see and cultivate what is essential.
I wanted to explore the possibilities of holding a drone while singing a moving melody. In multiphonics as with traditional singing, one gets a different result from falsetto, head, or chest voice. The A sections are sung in falsetto while the B section is sung mostly in chest voice. The long notes provide the opportunity to hear additional overtones above the played and sung pitches. Perhaps the highest pitches symbolize what is possible when we can bring ourselves into harmony with our circumstances.
OCCIPITAL1: EP
production
OCCIPITAL1: EP
production
Available on Bandcamp April 30, 2021
Experiments in beats and production.
discography
discography
Beats/production
Solo trombone
Isolation EP
Richmond Love Call
trombonist/composer/vocalist
No BS! Brass
Shibuyow
Undying
A Decade of Noise (Live)
Brass Knuckles
Alive in Richmond
No BS!
RVA All Day
Fight Song: A Tribute to Charles Mingus
Leader
Ombak
Framing the Void
Fan Bricks
Verbatim
Verbatim
trombonist
Doug Richards Orchestra
Through a Sonic Prism: The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim
Space and Sound Vol. 1
Matthew White
One of These Days
Big Inner
Fresh Blood
Mountain Goats
Transcendental Youth
Fight the Big Bull
Dying Will Be Easy
All is Gladness in the Kingdom
I Mean to Live Here Still (w/David Karsten Daniels)
Bio Ritmo
Salsa System
Tim Barry
28th and Stonewall
Megafaun
Megafaun
Josh Small
Juke
Scores
Scores and parts in PDF. Custom arrangements, Finale files, MIDI practice tracks available. Use contact page to place order and for more info. Here’s a free set of PDF’s that describe a few different ways to practice solfege and aural skills.
Scores
Scores and parts in PDF. Custom arrangements, Finale files, MIDI practice tracks available. Use contact page to place order and for more info. Here’s a free set of PDF’s that describe a few different ways to practice solfege and aural skills.
Six Multiphonic Etudes for Trombone
Bryan Hooten Original Compositions for Middle School Bands and Small Ensembles
4th-6th GRADE BAND
Blues in the Key of Recess
Audio
Key: G major
Tempo: 120 bpm suggested, flexible, swing or straight, 4/4
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, trombone, bells, snare drum, bass drum
Price: $40
Quincy Jones Big Band Bossa Nova vibes. All instruments learn melody and accompaniment. Room for solos. Clarinet parts cross the break. Precocious
Rain
Key: F major
Tempo: 80 bpm, 3/4
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, bells, vibraphone, percussion
Price: $30
Erik Satie vibes. Very playable. It rains and then the sun comes up. Weather.
Wind
Key: Eb major
Tempo: 80 bpm, 6/8 Lilting
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, snare drum
Price: $30
Grainger/Holst vibes. Unison melody then melody + accompaniment. Mixed groupings of eighth notes. Minimal break-crossing in clarinet. English.
7th-8th GRADE BAND
Green Bossa
Key: F major
Tempo: 120 bpm, 4/4
Instrumentation: 2 trumpets, xylophone, vibraphone, congas, drum set
Price: $30
Kenny Dorham vibes. Three over four cross rhythm in melody. Room for improvisation.
Drum solo. Chords with extensions. Dusk.
New 7th
Key: G minor-ish, with chromaticism
Tempo: Opening 90 bpm, main section 120 bpm, straight eighths 4/4
Instrumentation: 3 trumpets, timpani/triangle, bells, vibraphone, drum set
Price: $40
“Amen break” vibes, but chill. Trumpet chorale opening, then full band groove. All instruments share melody and accompaniment duties. Room for improvisation. A personal fave.
Pendulums
Key: Ab major-ish
Tempo: Calmly, 180 bpm 4/4
Instrumentation: 3 trumpets, timpani/triangle, bells, vibraphone, drum set
Price: $30
Lullaby vibes with a fun vibraphone ostinato. Trumpets play a legato melody then arpeggiate chords. Room for improvisation. Dreamy.
Begin Again
Key: Bb minor
Tempo: 180 bpm, back beat, 4/4
Instrumentation: 3 trumpets, bells, vibraphone, drum set
Price: $30
Hip-hop vibes. Adaptation of an as-yet unrecorded No BS! Brass tune. Unison melody, harmonized bridge. Room for improvisation. A and B sections, create your own form. Slaps.
JAZZ BAND
Breeze
Key: Eb major
Tempo: 120 bpm, 4/4
Instrumentation: flute (or any melody instrument), guitar, piano, bass, drum set
Price: $20
Jobim vibes. Super-duper easy. Room for improvisation. Written suggestions for rhythm section parts. Soda water with lime.
Roy G Blues
Key: F major
Tempo: 120 bpm but flexible, swing, 4/4
Instrumentation: combo lead sheet or ensemble (flute, alto sax, tenor sax, bari sax, 2 trumpets, trombone, rhythm section (drum set should read melody)
Price: $20 / $30
Modern Jazz Quartet vibes. Repeated notes. Three over four. Good for learning root motion of the blues. Room for improvisation. Cheeky.
Nova Bossa Nova
Key: C major
Tempo: 120 bpm or faster, 4/4
Instrumentation: flute, 2 clarinets, alto sax, vibraphone, guitar, piano, bass, drum set
Price: $30
João Donato vibes. Medium easy. Introduction to ii V I and parallel harmony. Written out suggestions for rhythm section. Staycation.
When It Rains (MS combo or HS Big Band)
Key: G minor
Tempo: 120 bpm or faster, 4/4
Instrumentation: MS Jazz Combo (flute, clarinet, alto sax, rhythm section) or HS large ensemble (everything, including strings)
Price: $30 / $40
A Tribe Called Quest Vibes. AABA form. Solos with backgrounds (large ensemble). Written-out suggestions for rhythm section. Purple.
Scores and parts in PDF. Custom arrangements, Finale files, MIDI practice tracks available. Use contact page to place order and for more info.
private instruction
In the current virtual world, I offer individual and small-group instruction in various musical disciplines as well as in meditation and Yoga. These sessions are designed to meet student needs, regardless of previous experience. Please see the full menu and contact me below for more information.
Music
Brass instruments
Improvisation (all instruments)
Composition/Arranging
Finale (music notation software)
Virtual Music Teaching (for educators)
Yoga
Meditation
Vinyasa (flow) practice
private instruction
In the current virtual world, I offer individual and small-group instruction in various musical disciplines as well as in meditation and Yoga. These sessions are designed to meet student needs, regardless of previous experience. Please see the full menu and contact me below for more information.
Music
Brass instruments
Improvisation (all instruments)
Composition/Arranging
Finale (music notation software)
Virtual Music Teaching (for educators)
Yoga
Meditation
Vinyasa (flow) practice
My private lessons with Bryan jump-started my yoga practice after many years of dormancy, and got me ready for his group classes. Having been practicing yoga consistently now for four months with Bryan, I'm seeing great results in recovering from a hip injury, and in managing my scoliosis too! To have a teacher that balances the traditions of yoga with modern anatomy study makes the experience much richer. I always have a rejuvenation of energy and a sense of balance after Vinyasa with Bryan. Each week's Vinyasa I session is phenomenal, and it has become my way of restoring some calmness throughout the busy week. I have Bryan to thank for his tailored approach to my specific concerns and limitations, and for his patience too.
Thank you Bryan, for your teaching and for your care!
- David