It was the early 70's and LA studio percussionist, Mark Stevens, needed a new sound for a recording project. He went into his workshop and what emerged was an instrument that changed the percussionist's arsenal forever. The Mark Tree® bar chime was born, and wow, did it take off! Mark could not keep up with orders for his new invention so he handed over the manufacturing responsibilities to SPECTRASOUND™, a percussion manufacturer in the LA area. After years of waiting, the original Mark Tree bar chime is once again available! Sure, there's dozens of bar chime imitations, but only SPECTRASOUND bar chimes can truly be called a Mark Tree® bar chime. Check out our products page for more information and...
Aya Kaminaguchi is a wonderful young percussionist and was colleague of mine while I was on the Star Wars tour. I'm back in Boston, but Aya is still out on the road. She sent me a link to a wonderful blog about her triangle playing. Go to the link and be sure to sit through about 30 seconds of video footage. Then you'll see Aya on the big screen and hear the crowd go wild !
FWIW- Aya uses a Grover TR-9 Super-Overtone triangle.
This will be the 33rd consecutive year that Neil Grover will be playing the giant Boston Pops Fourth of July concert on the Esplanade. This year, the guest artist is country star Toby Keith.
There will be quite a few Grover products heard, including a Grover concert bass drum, 2 Grover snare drums, tambourines, triangles and woodblocks. You can catch the show live on CBS, starting at 10pm (EST). If you live in the Boston area, you can catch the entire show on WBZ starting at 8:35pm.
Have a great holiday!
A high energy performer, multi-percussionist Mark Shelton utilizes a vast array of percussion sounds. Mark is very active in the "Percussion For Worship" movement. We had the pleasure of experiencing Mark's work last year at PASIC, where he "facilitated" one of the late night hand drum jam sessions. Mark had the room of 100+ percussionists rockin' late into the night! We're surprised the hotel management didn't shut us down..
In his arsenal, Mark uses a number of Grover products (check out the Grover Super-Overtone triangles in the photo). For more information about Mark and his varied activities go to: www.marksheltonmusic.com.
While performing recently in Monterrey, Mexico, I had a chance to visit with Mike Tovar, owner of Mike's Drum Shop. Mexico's top percussionists shop at Mike's and for good reason. Mike's Drum Shop has an impressive selection of the finest mallets, ethnic percussion and concert percussion accessories. Mike's is also one of our very best dealers and stocks a wide variety of Grover products, including tambourines and snare drums. So, if you're in Mexico and need a Grover product contact Mike's Drum Shop in Monterrey!
