Letter to Roger
George, you know that I'm a fan of your work. One thing that drew me to your music is how you are fearless in not being limited by music genres or whether other musicians or people in arts organizations will "get" what you're doing. You put the music out there and it will speak to those who are open to it. Anyway, this is how it appears to me. It's my sense that some in the jazz community don't get your contemporary classical pieces. But, you keep at it and write as you are inspired to do. So, I say good for you!
fb - 2/12/2016
fb - 2/12/2016
Hi Roger – Thank you for the kind words and the vote of confidence.
I think at least in part that’s due to the fact that I’ve always been curious about life. Growing up, I’d get lost for hours exploring the woods around where I lived.
I was also exposed to different types of music while growing up. First was country and western, then pop orchestrations. In my teen years that expanded to TV and movie themes, my first exposure to jazz being Henry Mancini.
Added to that in college was classical, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and Motown.
As I mentioned before, because of my parents, I was already sensitized to prejudice.
I’m not exactly sure of how it happened, but I developed the following insights:
1)Though competitive, I came to realize that the world is such a large place, that everyone can exist in his or her own niche. There’s no need to be threatened by the success of another.
2)That performing and promoting other composers work is a great way to expand one’s knowledge, after all, no two people approach it the same way.It also helps develop a sense of community.
3)As we’ve discussed before, for some reason jazz attracts a fair share of snobs. Especially in my early career, I was patronized by people who had no idea of the severe mental illness I struggled with.
4)Not that they weren’t talented musicians, but I eventually came to understand that their putting me in a box was more a reflection of their shortcomings then mine.
5)I also came to realize that people with attitudes like that must miss out on a lot of what life has to offer.
6)And finally, it seems to me that anyone striving to be creative needs to keep an open mind to the world around them, not that you have to like everything, but at least avoid summarily dismissing things because of others pre-conceived notions.
I’m not perfect in any of these areas, but I’m working on it :)
fb - 2/13/2016
I think at least in part that’s due to the fact that I’ve always been curious about life. Growing up, I’d get lost for hours exploring the woods around where I lived.
I was also exposed to different types of music while growing up. First was country and western, then pop orchestrations. In my teen years that expanded to TV and movie themes, my first exposure to jazz being Henry Mancini.
Added to that in college was classical, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and Motown.
As I mentioned before, because of my parents, I was already sensitized to prejudice.
I’m not exactly sure of how it happened, but I developed the following insights:
1)Though competitive, I came to realize that the world is such a large place, that everyone can exist in his or her own niche. There’s no need to be threatened by the success of another.
2)That performing and promoting other composers work is a great way to expand one’s knowledge, after all, no two people approach it the same way.It also helps develop a sense of community.
3)As we’ve discussed before, for some reason jazz attracts a fair share of snobs. Especially in my early career, I was patronized by people who had no idea of the severe mental illness I struggled with.
4)Not that they weren’t talented musicians, but I eventually came to understand that their putting me in a box was more a reflection of their shortcomings then mine.
5)I also came to realize that people with attitudes like that must miss out on a lot of what life has to offer.
6)And finally, it seems to me that anyone striving to be creative needs to keep an open mind to the world around them, not that you have to like everything, but at least avoid summarily dismissing things because of others pre-conceived notions.
I’m not perfect in any of these areas, but I’m working on it :)
fb - 2/13/2016