SST Blog

5/6/19   Last week I watched the old Shirley Temple movie, Heidi, on TV. I hadn’t seen it since I was about 7 years old—the same age Heidi is in the movie. Needless to say, I came away with a very different message this time around.   If you don’t know the story, it’s about an orphan whose abusive aunt took her in when the aunt’s sister and brother-in-law died. The aunt is unmarried and never wanted the child, so after 6 years, she drops the little girl off with Heidi’s grandfather (her father’s father, who is Heidi’s only living...

4/14/19 In my trumpet playing days, I used to practice 2 or 3 hours per day. The problem with playing trumpet is that it is very tiring on the lip muscles, so you need to rest often--especially when playing in the upper register. So I would have to pace myself. I'd play a bit, rest a bit, play a bit, and so forth. While I was resting, I would either read a book or watch TV. It's amazing how bad daytime TV was in those days.  This one particular afternoon in the late '70s, I happened on a talk show...

4/14/19   Sure enough, I got a number of responses from my previous column, Learning the Language. Surprisingly, it wasn't schoolteachers who disagreed with me, but several of my professional colleagues.  Their concerns were to do with saving time in rehearsals, and control.  Basically, I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of rehearsal time to involve the players more deeply in the creative process.     It's always a great thrill for me hearing how musicians interpret my music. When I was 25 years old, Chuck Israels told me that great music can be interpreted many ways. Chuck and I have remained good friends...

4/7/19   I've recently become aware that my relationship to the world is colored by the world of my youth. I can't erase my first impressions. Growing up in the 1950s and '60s I learned folk songs, spirituals, classical music, the American Songbook, show tunes and jazz. I never related to rock and roll. It seemed unsophisticated and aimed at kids, not unlike Sugar Smacks and Barbie Dolls. Given a choice between a fine French restaurant and McDonald's, there was no choice.   My parents were not the most sophisticated, but they instilled in me respect for learning and the...

4/4/19   I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this column, but I think it's important. A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a friend of mine who manages a big band that had just rehearsed a couple of charts of mine. She said there was confusion because of my limited use of notated articulations.    Her husband, a fine trombonist in the band, called me when he got home and explained that he was experienced enough to know how to interpret the music, but that several others, including the leader, were clueless....