MAX COLLEY III
Birthday Blog
April 114/11/2022 Glenn Williams - Glenn was an amazing mentor to me when I was a young teacher. He is very selfless and incredibly encouraging. I will treasure the time I was able to work with him and the summers spent at Blue Lake with him. Lot of laughs. Proud to call you my brother!
April 94/10/2022 Fritz Briscoe - Sometimes God places an individual in your life that will influence you for the rest of your life. My experience with the CMU Ed department was less than it should have been but all was forgiven having Fritz as my supervising teacher. Fritz was a once in a lifetime individual that became a dear friend until his passing. I think of Fritz often. I could share story after story but know it would be a futile exercise because no words could express the kindness and love this man showed to not only me but so many. Much love to you Fritz and miss you!
April 74/9/2022 Rob Ash - Friend and band director in Ann Arbor
Jeff Halsey - Great Bass Player James Leslie - Friend from CMU and great drummer Freddie Hubbard - one of the great jazz trumpeters Mark Kibble - They call him the Markatech (I bet I spelled that wrong) The genius behind most of the arrangements for Take 6. One of the most gifted people I know. So glad to call him a brother! April 64/6/2022 April 44/4/2022 March 303/30/2022 Mark Wells - Trombonist and part of our family friends the Wells family
Dave Stryker - Great guitarist. We were supposed to be on tour with MSU but covid :( Shelia Earley - Good friend from Phoenix/Wisconsin. Met as she was looking for the Jeff Hamilton concert at West Ottawa. I said this is the place! Been friends since! March 29 B Tim @ 703/30/2022 Tim Froncek - How do you thank someone who you owe so much to? I have many fathers but this was one of my first. Next to my birth father, this man follows close behind. (my birth father by the way, feels the same way I do about this man. Pure love for him) The way I hear music is so influenced by this man. My love of drums came from this man and Buddy Rich who is one of his favorites too! My first professional gig came from this man. (which comes with stories that we laugh about now. I'll just say the punch line is "Welcome to showbiz Max" ) Mom and Dad Froncek have been some of the most loving, caring, giving, supportive, selfless people I have ever met in my life. My life would not be the same without them in. From every aspect of life, they have been my teachers. Tim is a lifelong learner that passes on every bit of knowledge he gets. I grew up listening to him and then started sharing the stage with him. In big band, he taught me about the relationship with the drummer and the lead trumpet player,(the only other person I learned this from was Jeff Hamilton who Tim also loves). Tim and I know what we are going to play before we play it, (partly because he kids me with his line, I like that lick you always play! haha) on the bandstand I keep one eye on him one eye on my music. The other thing that's cool is his influence has now gone through generations seeing as my nephew Elijah has studied with Tim. I could go on for days but as Dizzy said about another Pops, " No him no me" I feel the same way about my Pops and my other Pops and the Pops! LOL Love you more than you know Pops! Thank you as Duke says "In the Beyond Category" CelebrationI love to celebrate God's gift of life! My life has intersected with so many in some form and I will celebrate them here! Archives
July 2022
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