Please note that this portion of my personal website, completed in 2000, has been superceded by a new professional website completed in 2005, New York Multimedia & Design.

I have had graphic design experience as designer and publisher of a 176 page music textbook, the designer of two textbooks published for Prentice Hall, as a freelance graphic artist working in New York City from 1989 to the present, and as the designer of this and three other web sites. In addition, I have cultivated professional-level skills in digital photography, video editing, illustration, loop-based soundtrack creation, audio engineering, and CD and DVD design and production.

Video

In order to develop video editing skills, I taught myself Adobe Premier Pro and After Effects by reading Premier Pro Classroom in a Book (tutorial) and Total Training Presents: Adobe Video Collection From Edit to Output. To view several videos that I edited, visit the site I created to promote my New York Jazz Groups.

Audio

In order to develop audio editing and engineering skills, I taught myself Adobe Audition by reading Auditon 1.5 Classroom In A Book (tutorial), Audition Visual Quickstart Guide, and Using Audition, Total Training Presents: The Essentials of Adobe Audition and Total Training for Adobe Audition 1.5. For an example of a soundtrack I created using Audition, visit visit the site I created to promote my drum textbook.

Digital Photography

In order to develop my digital photography skills, I taught myself Adobe Photoshop by reading the Photoshop 4.0 User’s Manual (twice), Photoshop 4.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, three times), Hand’s-On Photoshop 4 (tutorial, three times), Photoshop Artistry (tutorial, twice), Photoshop Magic (tutorial), Adobe Photoshop CS One on One (tutorial), and Total Training Professional Series for Adobe Photoshop CS2. I am an Adobe Certified Expert for Photoshop 4.0.

Text

I have had writing experience as the editor a jazz history textbook, as a jazz critic, as a self-published music textbook author, and as a frequently published author of “letters to the editor.”

Editor

My work as an editor occurred primarily as a result of my personal and professional association with Dr. Mark Gridley, teacher of jazz history and author of five editions of Prentice-Hall's Jazz Styles, America’s top-selling jazz history textbook. I met Dr. Gridley at the age of 13 in 1972. I subsequently acted as the editor of the first four editions of Jazz Styles; my work on the second edition was paid for by the publisher, Prentice Hall, and my work on the fourth edition was paid for by Dr. Gridley. More recently, upon the recommendation of Dr. Gridley I was contracted by author David G. Such to edit his University of Iowa Press book, Avante-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing “Out There.”

Documentation:

Thank You Note from author Mark Gridley, regarding my work as editor of Jazz Styles, 1st Edition

Acknowledgments, Jazz Styles, 1st Edition

Thank you note from author Mark Gridley, regarding my work as editor of Jazz Styles, 2nd Edition

Acknowledgments, Jazz Styles, 2nd Edition

Acknowledgments, Jazz Styles, 3rd Edition

Acknowledgments, Jazz Styles, 4th Edition

Acknowledgments, Avante-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing “Out There.”

Writer

From age 16 through the present, I have had my writing on jazz published several different local and national newspapers, magazines, and books.

Newspapers:

The Scene: I worked as the jazz critic for The Scene, Cleveland’s oldest free newspaper (in existence approximately 35 years) at age 16, from 1975-76, authoring several record reviews.

New Review: I contributed a concert review of the jazz group “Weather Report” to New Review, a Village Voice-style Cleveland weekly, at age 16, in 1976.

Cleveland Press: I worked as the jazz critic for the Cleveland Press, a Cleveland Newspaper analogous to The New York Daily News, 1977-78.

The New York Post: My letters to the editor have been published on a frequent basis since 1995.

The New York Times: I had a letter to the editor published in 1998.

Documentation:

“Keith Jarrett: Backhand,” record review published in The Scene 1976.

“Weather Report,” concert review by Chuck Braman published in New Review, May 1976.

“Jazzman Rivers to Crest at Oberlin,” article by Chuck Braman published in the Cleveland Press, February 16, 1978.

“Letters to the Editor” Link on the contents bar to the left of this frame.

Magazines:

Jazz Magazine: I published a book review in Jazz Magazine, a national jazz monthly, 1978.

The Cleveland-Akron Jazz Report: I worked as a writer for The Cleveland-Akron Jazz Report, a free monthly magazine, from 1978-79.

Percussive Notes: I contributed to Percussive Notes Magazine, the quarterly journal of the Percussive Arts Society, in 1994.

Documentation:

“Paul Motian,” article by Chuck Braman published in The Cleveland-Akron Jazz Report, December 1984.

“Paul Motian: Method of a Master,” article and interview by Chuck Braman published in Percussive Notes, April 1994.

Books:

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz: I contributed biographies of Kenny Washington, Leon Chancler, Idris Mohammed, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, and Steve Gadd to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, late 1980s.

Drumming Patterns: From 1976-87 I discovered, through the process of devising my own practice routines, the system underlying rhythm and drum technique. This system is a never-before detailed rhythmic equivalent to the harmonic system that non-drummers use, which reveals the nature of rhythm and drum technique in a way similar, for example, to the way that grammar reveals the nature of language. From the 1986-89 I organized this system for presentation to the public in the form of a 176 page book, in the process discovering and detailing its applications to the drumming techniques, rhythms and styles prevalent in the United States.

Documentation:

“Paul Motian,” biography published in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.

Drumming Patterns: book by Chuck Braman.

Print

From 1986-88 I worked full-time on writing and designing a 176-page, self-published book, Drumming Patterns. This book, including all of its graphic elements, was designed entirely by myself on the Macintosh computer utilizing Microsoft Word 3.01, PageMaker 2.0, CricketDraw, MacPaint, MacDraw, and Professional Composer software. During the final phase of production I oversaw every step of the printing process, researching alternative methods of offset printing, selecting the paper, binding, cover finish, and visiting several ink factories in order to find the exact color I preferred for the cover. To help produce and promote the book, I read Pocket Pal, a graphic arts handbook, and How to Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book. My work was subsequently acknowledged in a review in Modern Drummer magazine, which read in part, “The production quality of ‘Drumming Patterns’ is very high.”

Among the people who saw the design of Drumming Patterns was Mark Gridley, author of the Prentice-Hall textbook Jazz Styles. During 1990-91, Dr. Gridley persuaded Prentice-Hall to employ me, rather than use one of Prentice-Hall's in-house designers, to create the design and page-layout of his new book, A Concise Guide To Jazz, and the book's accompanying CD and Cassette. The rationale behind A Concise Guide To Jazz was to create a book which would include the essential content of Jazz Styles, but in a more inviting format that would have a greater visual appeal. To proceed I had to learn many new skills, such as copy-fitting and photo resizing and cropping, and I had to advance my general knowledge of design as well. Towards this end, I read The Macintosh Font Book, Typography for Desktop Publishers, Looking Good In Print, and Desktop Publishing By Design.

Pleased with my design of A Concise Guide To Jazz, in 1992 Mark Gridley also contracted me to modify the design and do the page layout of the fifth edition of Jazz Styles.

Graphic Design

From 1989 to the present I have worked as a freelance graphic artist in Manhattan for companies that include Kirshenbaum & Bond, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Robert A. Becker, Inc., Porter Novelli, McCann Direct, GE Capital, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Times Mirror Magazine, Depository Trust, Societe Generale, Blackstone, American Express, Furman Selz, Disenbach Elkins, Showtime, Dresdner Kleinwort, Sterling Group, Dillon Reed, The Beacon Group, MTV, The Presentation Source, Fallon, McElligott, Solomon Brothers, Bear Stearns, BBDO, Thelen Reid & Priest LLP, Genecom,and Lord Abbett & Co, Revlon, Equitable Production Group, Young & Rubicam, ING/Xerox, NBC, Deloitte, Trio and others. As a result of the demands of the graphics market of the Manhattan business community, I have developed high level skills in the design of newspapers, brochures, and especially, presentations, by means of hands-on experience, and the studying of the following books: The Macintosh Bible, Second Edition and Third Edition, and The Apple Macintosh Book, Third Edition, The Macintosh Font Book, Typography for Desktop Publishers, Looking Good In Print, and Desktop Publishing By Design, Real World Illustrator 7.0, Illustrator 7.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, completed twice), Illustrator 8.0 Classroom In A Book, Illustrator Fundamentals (tutorial, completed three times), Mastering Illustrator (tutorial, completed three times), Illustrator 7.0 User’s Manual, Total Training Professional Series for Adobe Illustrator CS2, PowerPoint 97 Step by Step, QuarkXPress Tutorial (completed four times), QuarkXpress Visual Quickstart Guide, InDesign CS Classroom In A Book, Total Training Professional Series for Adobe InDesign CS2.

Web Design

I first published my own web site in 1987, at which time I made a decision to focus and further development of my computer and graphic design skills in areas that would be pertinent to web site design. Towards this goal I read Frontpage ’98 Step by Step, html Design (tutorial), Creating Killer Web Sites, Web Sites That Work, Foundation Flash 5, Foundation ActionScript, Macromedia Flash MX Actionscripting Advanced, Flash MX 2004 Actionscripting, Flash MX 2004 Hands On Training, Flash MX 2004 Beyond The Basics Hands On Training, Total Training Professional Series for Adobe GoLive CS2, Dreamweaver MX Hands On Training, Total Training Professional Series for Macromedia Dreamweaver CS2, Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide, The Zen of CSS Design. For an example of a Flash website that demonstrates advance animation and a soundtrack composed by myself, visit the site I created to promote my drum textbook. For an example of a Flash website I created that demonstrates Flash's video capabilities, visit the site I created to promote my New York Jazz Groups.