graaspiano

http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=GRAAS%2C_John a bio that I wrote about John Graas - at the bottom are some video links - Susan Graas McKeever

You're welcome - I never know when something like this is of interest to people. Susan Graas McKeever

http://youtu.be/t0-oYE3t_b0 discussion of the technique John used for playing jazz on the French horn http://youtu.be/btgM-D5tTDc John Graas was a French horn classical and jazz player and jazz composer. I am his niece and got these interviews from Ball State University. Susan

John Graas "Jazz Overture" Ken Wiley, French horn, and 8 great jazz players playing live poolside in LA at the LAJI concert, a tribute to John Graas. Susan Graas McKeever

John Graas Flip-Tip on YouTube Ken Wiley on French horn; live Los Angeles Jazz Institute poolside concert with nonet of excellent jazz musicians playing John Graas' "Flip-Tip" on October 23, 2011

John Graas - recent recordings Jeff Snedeker and the Central Washington University ensembles and Big Band

Bill, thanks for passing the link on to Mark and Tom. I actually tried to email Tom, but you never know with spamblockers, if he actually received the email. Susan

Yes, John and my whole family were from Dubuque, Iowa. I'm hoping the Dubuque Symphony is going to perform John's "Jazz Symphony". They're interested in doing that.

I'm actually his niece. You met him one year before he died.

John Graas's MySpace website Someone from France just created this webpage for John Graas (French horn, Third Stream, West Coast Jazz). It's pretty nice and includes some free tracks to listen to down further on the page.

Great show!

Wow? That's a neat story about John. I have been hearing quite a few nice things John did like writing back to fans, etc., but that was very generous of him!

I went to hear the concert of my uncle John Graas' music but I gained so much more - I was surprised that Paul Horn, Herb Geller, Chico Hamilton, Bud Shank and others could still play so well! I loved hearing Holly Hofmann. The John Graas concert included Richard Todd on French horn, Bill Mays on piano, Joe La Barbera on drums, Putter Smith on bass, Jeff Driskill and Phil Feather on saxes. The audience jumped up with an enthusiastic standing ovation. It's hard for me to be objective about John's music, but many people were blown away by the concert - even though John played with the best people of the 50s, I don't know if it was the recording quality back then, but this concert sounded much better than the old recordings. The panel discussions, films, and other concerts were outstanding. I'm really glad I went.

This is the first time I attended this festival and I was blown away. I'm not very experienced as far as reporting but there are two reports dated Oct. 4 and Oct. 5 at http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/ that summarizes much of it better than I could.

Don Adams' daughter Cathy was my "suite" mate (We shared at bathroom between our two rooms) at the University of Redlands. When we would go out late at night to a coffee shop, she only had $100 bills and this was 1967! She was a very nice person and we had a lot of fun - I lost touch with her after college.