Before music was written down and locked in filing cabinets, it lived in the body. It came out of throats, hands, kitchens, bars, wherever people were trying to survive. Before […]

Reading notation is a gift. It gives you access to work you would never otherwise touch, to a language you can share with strangers. Like being handed a set of […]

For some musicians I’ve known, the page becomes the authority figure.It tells you what is correct. It tells you when you’re wrong. It tells you when to stop. Over time […]

from a student journal last year: Those above you praise your mind.Those below you question it.

I had a friend once. We aren’t friends now. It’s over because I don’t see politics the way he does. I don’t think that’s a reason to end all talk […]

I never paid much attention to that 70s song Garden Party. When it was new, it sounded like something heard over the speakers at a grocery store, the soundtrack to […]

Looks like there will be a part two to my Music Lessons book. Think I’ll call it Still Taking Lessons.

Now Victoria and Edmonton have confirmed. Wonders never cease. That’s Hermann’s and the Yardbird Suite two more pins on the map. Only three out of twenty left to make it […]

I was among the many who loved Dianne Keaton. Everyone seemed to have a favorite version of her. The smile, the hats, the wit. I kept thinking about Looking for […]