Michael Strunk's Website

 

These are recordings of some of the musical groups I've recently been involved with.  All files are in MP3 format and at moderately high resolution, so they're somewhat large.  Click on the song titles to listen.

ANON: original music I wrote the musical score for Cabrillo College's Fall 2007 production of Naomi Iizuki's "Anon(ymous)", a multi-cultural one-act drama about the experience of the refugee, far from home and in a new land.  I performed all of the music on acoustic percussion instruments, piano and cello, using Cubase™ multi-tracking recording software.  Here are several short excerpts: City Streets (1.54MB) In The Underworld (1.67MB) Sounds of War (2.62) Sunset (2.82MB) Summa Dat:  NBD I played drums for several years with Summa Dat, a local blues band from Santa Cruz led by guitarist Baird Miller.   Here's a 2006 live performance of a minor blues called "No Big Deal".   (7.74MB) Peter Wilde Latin Jazz Trio:  Latin Bit Here's a selection from a live studio recording I participated on with my favorite bass player, Peter Wilde.  This is a Kenny Cox tune called "Latin Bit".  (4MB) California Parallele Ensemble:   Sound Form No. 1 I play percussion on this premiere recording of Henry Cowell's "Sound Form No. 1"  from the album Dancing With Henry, recorded with the reknown chamber ensemble directed by Nicole Paiement.   (6.84MB) California Parallele Ensemble:   Piano Concerto This is the first movement of Germaine Taillefere's"Piano Concerto" --  I'm playing timpani.  (9.35MB) Gatto Marte: Faust Gatto Marte is an italian quartet performing original compositions with classical influence and jazz improvisation.  The music is descriptive and imaginative, it often recollects little stories, which can be comical, tragicomically dramatic, with an ironical touch. This attitude has led the ensemble to compose music for silent films such as Malombra by Carmine Gallone, The Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin, Balloonatic by Buster Keaton, A Woman by Charlie Chaplin and lately Faust by Frederich Murnau. These excerpts from the Faust soundtrack were recorded live at the Golden State Theater in Monterey, CA, on January 22nd, 2005.  I play drums and percussion: The Demon's Ride (941 KB) Tacotaco Kazoo  (941 KB) Varizioni sul tema (941 KB) Watch a short YouTube clip of Gatto Marte The Cabrillo Stage:  Cool I'm playing drumset on this piece from the 2003 production of West Side Story performed live by Cabrillo Stage .  (4.53 MB) The Cabrillo Stage:  Some Like It Hot This is the overture to the musical, recorded live from the 2002 Cabrillo Stage production.  The overture segues into the first song and dance number of the show, featuring Elizabeth Earnheart as "Sugar".  (3.56 MB) Charanga Nueve:  Comenzo La Fiesta When I played with Charanga Nueve, this was our theme song.  It starts out as a rumba guaguancó, introducing each instrument of the band -- timbales, congas, bongos, bass, piano, violins, and flute.  The singer is the great sonero Rafael Castro.   (3.15 MB) Charanga Nueve:  Timbales solo A short solo I played on "La Rumba Está Buena".  (1.35 MB) Tocará:  La Peregrinación Tocará is a Latin American folkloric ensemble based in Watsonville, CA.  I have been a regular member of the band since 1996.  Here, the group performs a piece from Navidad Nuestra ("Our Christmas") by the Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez, with the Cabrillo Chorus directed by Cheryl Anderson.  The concert took place inside Mission San Antonio near Jolón, CA.  I play the bombo, pictured at the top of this webpage.  The style of this piece is huella, from northern Argentina.  (1.51 MB) Tocará:  Gloria From the same concert above, this is from Missa Criolla, also by Ariel Ramírez. The style of this piece is carnavalito, from northern Argentina.   The singers are Juan Carlos Pozo and Rafael Castro.  (3.15 MB) Leslie Ellis and Lost Borders:  Working I played drums and percussion on singer/songwriter Leslie Ellis' first album, Standing At The Moment.  On this recording, I'm using a number of "found objects" to make a retro-industrial effect, including a wash basin, shoe lasts, anvil, scrap metal strips, a wooden box, and chinese cymbals.  (3.59 MB) Leslie Ellis and Lost Borders:  Walk Alone Another song from Leslie Ellis (my favorite); here I'm playing drums and djembe.   (3.16 MB)