T H E S TAT E | I N S I D E R The artwork for Richard Carson’s album, Long Time Coming, was created by his late father. Photo courtesy Richard Carson
Rooted in the Past Two Tulsa-based musicians get back in the groove with new releases.
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or years now, I’ve been hearing that the CD is an obsolete way of delivering music, that its time has come and gone, that new cars don’t even have disc players any more, etc. At the same time, I continue to hear great new releases in that very format. Two of the latest come from Tulsa-area musicians. And I suppose it’s fitting that, just like their compact-disc technology, both of these albums are rooted firmly in the past. First up, let’s look at a beautifully written, arranged and played instrumental-jazz disc called Long Time Coming. Trombonist Richard Carson is the man behind the CD, and he’s quick to point out that its origins go back more than three decades, when he was a student at the University of Tulsa, attending on a music scholarship and playing in the TU Jazz Band. “This was ’84-’88,” he recalls, “and it was during this time that I took some elective courses in improvisation and music composition and arranging.”
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OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE | MARCH 2022
Although he had a music scholarship, Carson wasn’t a music major, and he went on to get his law degree and build a legal and corporate career. But he never gave music up completely, playing at his church, First Baptist in Tulsa, doing a stint with the Tulsa Praise Orchestra, and becoming a part of a rock-oriented horn section dubbed the Phantom Horns, which did some backing dates with the Tulsa-based band Sybil’s Machine. “We played with them whenever they had what they considered to be a big gig, like a radio show they did at the Cain’s. And we opened for Molly Hatchet once.” He laughs. “That was strange, but it was a lot of fun.” Flash forward to 2020, and to the pandemic, whose restrictions gave those so inclined more time to contemplate and create. In this situation, Carson found himself revisiting the material he’d done back in his student-musician days. “They were things I had composed,” he says, “just scraps of songs. I’d have a lead sheet with chord changes and some
information about the style and the feel. Sometimes I’d have titles; usually I didn’t. Maybe I’d have some notes on instrumentation. Most of them didn’t have more that 12 or 16 bars.” Still, the more he went through his long-dormant work, the more he saw potential. Ultimately, he figured there was enough there to build a disc upon – with a little help. “COVID gave me this unique opportunity, because all the things I was active in, outside of work – different charities, church, social events – I wasn’t doing any more,” he explains.” And professional musicians had more time on their hands, too. They weren’t gigging. They weren’t touring. “I knew that a friend of mine, Brad Henderson, who leads our orchestra at church, was a talented arranger, and that he had a recording studio, and that he also had time on his hands. So he collaborated with me on this project. I learned a great deal from him and really give him a lot of credit.”
