SST Blog

When I was a kid, I never wanted to go to bed.  I was having too much fun.  I’m the same as an adult.  This character flaw has led me to a somewhat controllable life of sleep deprivation, but now I’m really in danger thanks to Netflix.  My son, Caleb, texted me yesterday afternoon asking if I had watched the new Netflix series, Ozark.  I hadn’t even heard of it, so I watched the first episode.  Wow!  I was hooked.  21 hours later, I’d watched all ten 1-hour episodes.  As soon as one episode finished, I couldn’t help but go...

I just read David Brooks’ New York Times editorial this morning, How Cool Works in America Today, and was surprised and delighted that he mentioned both Miles Davis and Billie Holliday, and then went on to cite Lester Young as one of the jazz musicians who “brought these influences together that we now call the cool style.”    Back in the spring of 1963, I celebrated my 14th birthday.  My brother Bobby, whose love of music rivaled my own, bought me a 2-LP set of the Count Basie Decca sides.  Little did I know that these records would have a...

For the past three days, I had a great time traveling back in time.  I didn’t need a time machine or hypnosis or any scientific enhancement other than my buddies’ cars and the Long Island Rail Road.  I traveled 30 miles and 50 years back to spend the weekend with my high school class, many of whom I’ve known since elementary school and a few even before that.   From Friday to Sunday I felt like my everyday life was far away, and I was transported back in time and given a gift to relive a piece of my youth.  ...

Every year, I look forward to summer.  A few years ago, I had a thought: I’m getting older—how many summers do I have left?  This encouraged me to milk all the enjoyment I can out of each summer.  But, why limit this attitude to just the summer?  How about living life to the fullest year-round? Sometimes I do things that I can’t really afford—like visit my daughter and her family, or treat my son to a sumptuous meal in a great New York restaurant just to celebrate a holiday.  The point here is: what’s the point of living if you...

I was just finishing writing a new arrangement for my band on Cole Porter’s You’d Be So Nice To Come Home to.  Throughout the chart I wrote harmonies and voice leading that were derived purely by instinct.  I suppose if I go back and analyze what I’ve written, I could come up with some kind of logic, but in the process of writing, I trusted myself that because it sounds good to me, it must be good—Duke Ellington’s rule: If it sounds good, it is good.  But it wasn’t always like that for me, nor is it like that for...