BlueHaus Music is focused on the artistic, commercial, and educational applications of music.

The quality and range of services from BlueHaus Music stands out in a flooded market of composers and small studios. Original compositions for wind band or orchestra, custom music arrangements, underscore for film and web media, audio production, and voice over – all in one place. As an international freelancer, I focus on delivering high quality proprietary audio while building professional, collaborative relationships with clients.

Studio

I operate a small production studio and digital audio workstation for composition, film scoring, sound design, and audio production employing a large library of instrument and vocal samples, as well as an array of software synthesizers. My primary platforms for production and publication are Cubase, Pro Tools, and Logic Pro (recording and production), Wavelab (audio editing and mastering), and Finale (composition and publishing).

Film Scoring

I am comfortable in a range of styles and find the collaborative nature of film scoring energizing. I take direction incredibly well, but am equally at ease striking out on my own. I pay close attention to detail and key in on the most poignant moments in a scene. Capturing the mood and striking the right tone means everything. Ultimately, my purpose in scoring is to help realize the director's vision for their film.

Educator and Director

My teaching career in Illinois, Oregon and Kuwait, has seen many district, state and national recognitions and awards. Some of the many highlights include winning two GRAMMY Foundation Signature School Awards (2008, 2009) and hosting Wayne Bergeron (2008) as the featured soloist with my jazz ensemble performing professional charts by Gordon Goodwin, Bill Liston, and Tom Kubis. I am available for guest conducting and thoroughly enjoy working with colleagues in the field.

Clinician

As a clinician, I have presented at regional and national events in the United States and abroad, including a presentation at the Near East South Asia Conference in Athens, Greece. Perception of sound is central to my life and I regularly present research on the impact of sound environments, specifically noise, on student achievement. Inspired by Julian Treasure's "Sound Business" model,  I designed my Sound Learning (2012) presentation to increase awareness of the impact that noise has on student learning.

Max Ramsden

Cassette tape + digital pre-order on Bandcamp: goo.gl/jJHgN8
Pre-order + pre-save: smarturl.it/APlaceBothForeign

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on Bluesky

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

Vibraphonist Jay Hoggard’s music has touched the hearts and souls of listeners around the world for forty years. Noted journalist Owen McNally wrote "Jay Hoggard's artistry has a universal quality, an intellectual and emotional resiliency that makes it seem very much at home when creating something new and fresh in every genre from the roots of African music to the outer reaches of the blues ....He is not just one of the premier voices on vibraphone but also one of the top-seeded instrumentalists and composers of the jazz world today."

          Jay Hoggard draws on traditional and contemporary musical vocabulary to develop new directions for the vibraphone. Jay 's music is positive, spiritual, uplifting and happy. He seamlessly blends jazz and gospel roots with African marimba rhythms. His performance repertoire represents the three B’s of the jazz tradition (Blues, Bop, Ballads) with original innovations. Songs and extended compositions frame his virtuoso mallet improvisations.

          Born in Washington, DC, Jay Hoggard was raised in Mt. Vernon, New York in a religious family.His father was a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination. At age 15, Jay began playing the vibraphone. "One night I had a dream that I was playing the vibes. I asked my father to rent me a set and from the first moment, I knew that this was what I was supposed to do." Jay majored in the renown World Music program at Wesleyan University . He toured Europe and played at Carnegie Hall during his freshman year. In his junior year, he traveled to Tanzania to study East African marimba music. Jay graduated from Wesleyan in 1976 and returned to New York City in 1977 to be proclaimed a young lion of the vibraphone.

           Jay Hoggard has recorded 22 CD’s as a leader and over 50 as a collaborator. For his latest disc, CHRISTMAS VIBES ALL THRU THE YEAR, Jay says"This recording is about the joy, peace, love, and happiness that should traverse the world during the holiday seasons and throughout the whole year. I am a Christian, and this recording is about the reason for the Christmas season: the observance and re-enactment of the circumstances of the birth of Jesus. But this music is also an offering to human beings of all faiths and non- faiths, of the beautiful sounds of which I am blessed to be one of many, many channeling spirits." This trio recording features James Weidman on organ and piano and Bruce Cox on the drums.

          SOLO FROM TWO SIDES is a beautiful program of 13 Jay Hoggard compositions performed by the composer on both vibraphone and marimba, by way of digital overdubbing. SOULAR POWER, released Fall 08, is an exquisite set of eleven Jay Hoggard compositions and one jazz standard. As Hoggard says, “this CD has the feel of a live performance with the benefit of studio quality sound. New tunes are combined with others that have evolved in performance over the years. I am about music that is both aesthetically pleasing for your mind and spirit, and physically healing for your body and soul. The power of soul is a mystical paradigm of consciousness transformation .”

          SOULAR POWER swings with great sonic balance among its instruments and artists. Pianist/ organist James Weidman, bassist Belden Bullock, and drummer Yoron Israel have performed and recorded as an ensemble with Jay for more than fifteen years. Their performances here are of a caliber that can only be delivered by long associated, empathetic collaborators.  

           SWING 'EM GATES, is a tribute to the late vibraphone grand master Lionel Hampton. “Eight of the compositions on this recording are tunes that I played when Lionel Hampton sent me to sub for him with his band in the 1990’s…Once, when Hamp called me to play for him, I asked what tunes he wanted. He replied, ’Just swing ‘em,gates.’ ” That conversation was the inspiration for Jays’ composition of the same name as well as the direction of this musical tribute to Hampton in Hoggard’s musical voice The recording features stellar performances by top New York collaborators with a guest appearance by piano master, Dr. Billy Taylor on three tunes.

          Jay Hoggard has been honored and commissioned as a composer in various contexts. In 2009, he was commissioned by dance troupe Sankofa Kuumba and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra to write THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCEAN and LET ME MAKE IT CLEAR. Previously, Jay collaborated with choreographer Cleo Parker Robinson by composing THE WISDOM OF THE BAOBAB TREE commissioned by Lincoln Center Out of Doors. He was commissioned by the Hartford Festival of Jazz to compose LA TIERRA HERMOSA, dedicated to Tito Puente. He was commissioned by Wesleyan University to compose JOYFUL SWAMP and CROSSING POINT for Max Roach and percussion ensemble, and VIBARIMBALA for symphonic and jazz orchestras.

          As a performer, Jay Hoggard has toured the globe to rave reviews. He has performed in many of the finest venues of music presentation throughout the United States , Africa Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Jay has performed in major venues (Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Schomberg Center) jazz festivals (St. Lucia. JVC, Montreux, Mt.Fuji, Pori, Hartford), colleges, universities, churches, galleries, libraries, and clubs around the globe. Jay has been featured on radio (NPR, Pacifica) and television (ABC Times Square, CBS Sunday Morning, BETJazz) nationally and internationally. He led a quintet on an extensive tour sponsored by the United States government to North Africa, the Middle East and India. Jay performed in special concert collaborations with vibraphone masters Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Tito Puente and Bobby Hutcherson. He has recorded and toured with creative artists such as Kenny Burrell, Dr. Billy Taylor, Max Roach, James Newton, Hilton Ruiz, Oliver Lake, Bennie Maupin, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Jorge Dalto, Terumasa Hino, Dwight Andrews, Geri Allen, Anthony Davis, Henry Threadgill, Vishnu Wood, Chico Freeman, Muhal Richard Abrams , Sherry Winston, Ahmed Abdullah, and was a guest artist with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. Jay has accompanied singers, instrumentalists, and poets and has performed with gospel, theater, dance, percussion, and orchestral ensembles.

          Jay Hoggard is an Adjunct Professor of Music at his alma mater, Wesleyan University. For over 20 years, he has been the director of the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra and has taught and mentored hundreds of students.

Gillian Grassie is an award-winning harpist and singer-songwriter. More Regina Spektor than Joanna Newsom, Grassie delivers literary lyrics with an expressive,  smoky soprano over her signature blend of jazz-inflected folk/pop. A Philadelphia native, Gillian is recently returned to the US after a four-year stint in Berlin.

Vibraphonist and composer from Toronto, currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

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