As you may or may not know, I LOVE MUSIC! All sorts of styles, from jazz to rock to orchestral music and choral arrangements.

I play guitar and handle lead vocals for my band, Slow Children at Play (or SCAP, for short). I've been playing with this bunch of guys for 5 years.

My Band

Above is a picture of us playing on the Mentos Freshmaker Tour in 2000. We won a chance to play on the tour as part of a nationwide band search that selected SCAP out of thousands of other groups. Stroke 9 was headlining the tour that year. It was very exciting to be able to participate in the tour!

Currently, we have two (2) albums out. Recording, mixing, and all audio post-production was done for both albums at Southside Studios near Atlanta, GA. Both were independently produced by the band.

Music and Me

I have been involved with music for about 10 years now. I began playing trumpet in the school band at age 11 and continued all the way through high school. I had a great time performing with the marching band and various concert ensembles at McIntosh High School.

My first year of college I was majoring in music and performed trumpet with the jazz ensemble at Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia. However, I transferred to the University of Georgia my sophomore year of college and changed my major to Pre-Journalism/Telecommunications and only play trumpet in my free time now. I picked up vocal training when I was in high school to improve my sound (which, at the time, was not so hot). The improvement on my band's sound was immediately noticed, and I continued to improve in college in two choral performance groups that I was a part of during my freshman year.

My main instrument is the guitar. I've been playing guitar for about 8 years now. I've played in a few different bands, and have also performed with high school and college jazz ensembles. I took lessons in classical guitar my freshman year of college, and I enjoy listening to (and sometimes learning) classical guitar music, from baroque styles to Spanish styles.

Ska

The musical style known as ska has been around for quite a long time. Characterized primarily by an emphasized upbeat and horns, ska has a definite island feel to it. In fact, if you listened to it, you might think ska's roots were in the reggae music from Jamaica. Not so! Reggae actually came about as a product of ska. Fancy that!

Starting in Jamaica, ska has gone around the world, gaining much popularity in England and much of Europe, and now and then here in the United States. The originators of ska were a group of men in Jamaica known as The Skatalites. Since they began, three "waves" of ska music have come about. The first wave was very much of what you might refer to as a reggae sound. The second wave brought about a new sound called "rocksteady". Most music of the second wave can be linked to performers from England in the early 1980's, such as Madness. The third wave in the mid to late 1990's was comprised of mostly rock-oriented ska bands. Some definite punk influences could be heard in the music of such bands as No Doubt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Reel Big Fish.

There is an argument that a new wave has been created, the "fourth wave" (not to hard to figure that one out). This new style incorporates more of a hip-hop influence. So far, I personally haven't heard much that can be considered a fourth wave. For now, however, many bands continue to play all three waves of ska styles all over the world.

For more information about ska music, go here.

Copyright 2007 Christian Jolly

Contact Christian