Greetings! Now that the holiday season is upon us, it is time to reflect on our gratitude, to realize how lucky we are to have had exposure to music and the artistic life, regardless of the perceived level of success. To have contacted the spiritual and social world of playing and listening to music is an amazing thing. I hope you are able to savor and cherish your relationships with music, the arts, and all the wonderful people that are involved. Also be grateful for your health, your family, friends, and the ability to choose how you carry yourself and what you believe in.

After spending two months on the road playing music every day I now find myself at home. A welcome change from living out of a suitcase. But a drastic change, nevertheless. We in the Yellowjackets kid about how we transition from being applauded on the bandstand to going home to take out the garbage. No applause for that, nor should there be. But after being in the flow of playing nightly and getting the mechanism working smoothly, to then return home to daily chores, organizing that which was neglected while away, and dealing with the details of a performing career signifies a rather large change in the creative process.

What I generally try to do is make a plan for myself so that there is some structure to my time off the road. For example, I’ve decided to write a piece for a big band wind section minus rhythm. I wrote 2 pieces like this several years ago, and they work nicely in a program of big band music as far as changing the vibe and tone of things for a number. A welcome relief to the ears, if you will.

I’m also trying to learn new standards and other songs in the name of expanding my repertoire, and perhaps finding new vehicles for improvisation and band activity. I’ll play these tunes on the piano as well as on saxophone. If I’m lucky, I might find a new pathway through a standard that becomes the basis of an arrangement of that tune. I find learning new tunes makes the process of soloing on tunes all the more graceful and musical. I guess it is a question of familiarizing one’s self with the language of the music.

Through working with students I’ve come to see some weaknesses which are common to most students of jazz early on. Hence I’ve embarked on writing a variety of books to address these issues. It saves me having to write out the same stuff over and over again, and it gives me something constructive to do that will hopefully help the cause and make life a little easier for fellow musicians. I am starting on one such book this month.

Periods of slowness work-wise are generally good for re grouping, or looking for new pathways and approaches to playing and writing. For me it is a matter of picking up my instrument (saxophone, EWI, or piano) and taking a little journey. I simply start playing, or free-associating for a while. Somewhere along the way I improvise something that sounds interesting. I’ll then isolate that idea and play it repeatedly in a variety of ways. After seeing what it is, I’ll manipulate or expand upon the idea by, say, repeating the idea minor 3rds apart. This will generally have some relationship to the dominant 7th structure implied in the half-whole diminished scale. The next step is to see how one might use this shape in an improvisatory capacity, and in what context. I also consider expanding the idea into a tune occasionally.

Sometimes when you are facing an empty calendar it can be a daunting task to get motivated. I think the key to getting in gear is to simply start moving and trying things. Play the piano, write 4 bars of music, solo for 15 minutes on "Giant Steps", whatever. Once your inertia is set in motion one thing will lead to another. Keep the faith!