My new assistant and the Director of the Marching Mocs as well as the Jazz Ensembles is Mr.Shane Porter. I could tell you all about Shane but it would take pages. If you want to know about him as a professional player you can access his bands website New South Jazz Orchestra at NSJO.com and read all about him. Their latest release is available for purchase at CDBABY.com. Check it out. As an arranger he publishes with Warner Brothers. As a composer he accepts private commissions from high schools and does studio work. He is the most prolific composer and arranger I have worked with and he is only 33. Anyone who went to the funk festival last weekend saw him as he plays with the Temptations, the OJ’s and Levert (as well as various other recording artists).Last year alone he completed 45 commissions and publications. Together we write entire shows for other universities (he writes the music and I write the drill). Our latest client has been the University of South Carolina but as the Bowl Game season gets closer we will be servicing more groups. 

Shane is responsible for the stronger sounding Marching Mocs and Shane is responsible for taking the Mocs to JSU last week, so all thanks go to him not me. I am so happy and proud to be working with my friend on a regular basis. Please welcome him to our UTC family and be nice… I need him to stay around in order to complete my vision of the band program here at UTC.

About the Marching Mocs this year; you noticed the new pre-game and that was great. I had been chewing on this idea for three years and was finally able to put it in after Shane arrived. We still need some work on it but as one old Moc fan said… It is the most creative thing they have seen since 1969. The halftime show this year is Jimi Hendrix and we do have electric guitars on the field with smoke machines… Once again something I have tried before (the Doors show from 1999) but was unable to do by myself. Shane’s Expertise with commercial electronic and concert equipment made this possible. 

Regarding JSU and other performances… thank you for the emails and the requests to attend more games. It was our plan to attend as many athletic events as possible including Volleyball, Softball and Soccer. The marching band is simply not yet large enough to accomplish these things. We will be at a few games and here is my public promise to be at a soccer game though it is difficult with small numbers. We do not have a travel budget “as such” so every time we travel we have to do without much needed equipment and instruction. For this reason we will not be going to anymore away football games. An army travels on its stomach and a marching band travels on a budget. We had planned on going to GA Southern but the trip would cost just over $14,000 which is half of my operating expenses for the year. UTC is experiencing a time when finances need to be focused and it is understandable that administration carefully consider the best place to spend money. As many of the recent Raven emails attest, many of you have personal concerns about budgets and expenses and I do not want my program to get caught in the middle. Also, our students work and every away game cost them at least $50 of personal money they could be making to pay tuition. While there is a supplement it is only enough to cover the expenses incurred from home games. Quite simply, the band students can not personally afford to travel and we would suffer a huge decrease in enrollment if the cost of membership became prohibitive. So with that said. We will make do with what we have and continue to give UTC the best product we can for the money.

Yes JSU’s band is larger though the schools are of relative size. They have the benefit of instate tuition for members of the Southerners and we do not. They get many GA and TN students to cross the line for a less expensive education. Many GA students who do not get into UGA go to JSU in order to be in a great band while getting the benefit of a terrific in state cost. Were we to do the same we would easily march over 200 students and be able to staff all university functions. The Southerners are a quality organization with a history of excellence and tradition. To my mind they are among the finest bands in the country. We are working in their direction but it will be much harder for us to get there as we face many issues they do not. 

Requesting Performances… we need at least three weeks advance notice… period. Understand that what may only be 15 minutes to you is 2 hours and 15 minutes to us. We have to unlock an hour before an event and lock up and hour after. There is no 15 minute event in the band world. A two hour game for you becomes a four hour event for us. Also, we have to give the students time to add the events to their school and work schedules. This is not an easy task and takes time. Further and quite frankly, our salaries do not include anything beyond Men’s basketball so for several years UTC has been getting double our work load in athletic bands during the second semester. We are not complaining, simply pointing out that every performance UTC gets for athletics over the required conference basketball games comes out of our private time. With that in mind you may realize why we might get a little bitter about the fact that we donate so much of our family time to athletics and the rest of the university yet rarely see coaches, athletes and administrators at any of our concerts. We are here for you and will service all events we can. Just bear in mind that we can not do everything and understand the reasons why.

So… thanks for the support, I know I answered all the emailed questions as well as those on the Mocfans.com board and hope that you know I am here for any more questions you may have (several of which may now be addressed by Shane since you now know who he is).

stuart