Bragging Rights

Okay, I'm just going to do it.  This post is dedicated to my baby brother Kevin.  He's amazing.  He's always been into music, and we all just kind of ignored it.  The first time I remember thinking he was crazy was when he got in a car accident in high school, and when he got the insurance money, instead of buying a car or anything else he desperately needed, he bought a euphonium for some ridiculous amount of money.  I had never even heard the word before...weird.

Anyway, he was recruited by BYU while he was on his mission in Denmark, and attended there when he came home and was in the orchestra at BYU playing the trombone. 

I'm sure a lot of other things took place, but I was having babies and stuff so I never paid much attention.  He also started being a professor of Danish there while he was a student.  He also switched over to a smaller group at BYU called Syntheis which is a jazz group.  I know he has traveled to several countries performing with them, and has even had opportunities to compose music for them to perform. 

Their new album is called Flying High.  Kevin wrote, composed, made up the lyrics, sang blah blah blah everything for the song

#1 Det har ikke vaeret nemt (It's Been Rough to Say the Least) 

When I first heard this performed a year or two ago, I was totally taken by surprise.  I didn't know he could write music for all the different instruments like that, and I certainly didn't know he even sang!  I mean, he used to sing "Hey Jude" as a baby, but that's all I knew.

The other song he composed on the album was his version of "Send in the Clowns" track #2

And the last one is "Jalouise" track #4.  He served his mission in Denmark, so he took a classical Danish piece and changed it all up into a jazz number.  This was printed in the Deseret News:

"Smith is the director of jazz studies and professor of saxophone, working with talent such as Kevin Jenson, who was named the outstanding college arranger nationally by DownBeat magazine for his arrangement of “Jalousie,” a famous Danish tune on the album that many will recognize."

Click here to read the entire article

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the kid.  Me, Stacy, and my mom and dad went to his last concert last week and it was awesome.  He's graduating, so he's off for more adventures.  Congratulations Kevi!