SST Blog

10/22/17   Actually, it’s happening in all over the industrialized world. A few months back I saw a segment on TV about a beautiful old city in Italy where the young people have moved away and the old people are dying off. The result is that unless people move here soon, this charming medieval city will become a ghost town.   Real estate prices are very low, and some Americans have already answered the call. I may answer it myself—maybe not that particular city, but there are similar situations all over Italy. Some towns are even paying people to move there....

10/16/17   I’m in the process of re-designing my book, Creative Jazz Composing and Arranging, Volume 1.  It was originally written and released as an eBook, but very soon it will come out in hard copy.  With the help of my editor, Nikola Tomić, I’m correcting a few typos and re-wording some awkward sentences.  My old friend Nina Schwartz is redesigning the look of the book.   She’s changed the fonts, page layouts, added pictures and basically made the book more reader-friendly.  In doing all this, she is reading every word and giving me a non-musician’s perspective.  This is all extremely...

10/14/17   If I were a political cartoonist, I would draw a copy of the Rape of the Sabine Women and make the male faces look like Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cosby, and, oh yeah, Donald Trump.  As Claude Rains says in Casablanca, “I’m shocked to find out that there is gambling going on in this institution!  Shocked!”  Well, OK.  I’m shocked to find out that men in powerful positions sexually harass and rape women.  Shocked!    When Bill Clinton was impeached for having sex with “that woman” with whom he denied having sex [What’s your definition...

My father was a small business owner.  Actually, when he took over my grandfather’s business, there were over 50 employees.  Over the next 30 years, he pared it down to fewer than 10.  He would often tell me, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”  I came to understand that he couldn’t have been more wrong.  Every book I have read about highly successful executives is that they were great at delegating authority.     One of the great lessons I have learned from jazz is to trust my bandmates.  If we all are skilled on our instruments...

10/3/17   Do you ever feel insignificant? Actually, I haven’t felt that way. I know that I matter to my family and friends, and in a small way to people who like my music and enjoy reading what I write. I’ve probably touched a few hundred thousand lives, maybe a little more. That always seemed significant to me. That is, until two nights ago when I watched a piece on 60 Minutes.   I’d never really thought about the Hubble Telescope. I knew it was up in space—far enough above earth, so that it can see stars that we can’t...