A Note From Bob


October, 2001


Once again, excuse the tardiness on the September column. What with the rigorous travel schedule I've been keeping, and the terrorist attack here in New York it's been hard to get to anything. I was in Manhattan on Sept 11th at a doctor's appointment on 20th Street when everything started. I walked outside and saw huge amounts of smoke in the air and people walking in droves north on 3rd Avenue. I had my car and began to give folks a ride uptown. No one could believe what we were hearing and seeing. A terrible tragedy occurred, and I pray that the world can work this One out without doing irreparable damage.

My own personal way of dealing with this situation is to continue to play and create music which is positive and healing. So on to the subject of music!

Last month the Yellowjackets played a concert opposite Branford Marsalis in a quartet setting (Joey Calderazo, piano, Jeff Watts, drums, Eric Reevis, bass). This was some of the most inspired playing I have heard in a long time. These four guys have clearly been playing together for a while, and the sparks were flying. They played with the kind of reckless abandon I love to hear in improvising. I urge you all to check out Branford live the next chance you get.

Another discovery I have made recently is one of my own recordings called One Music (on the DMP label). I had not heard this CDin several years, and had the opportunity to play it for a visiting friend. This is a quartet date I did in the early 90s With the members of the Yellowjackets at that time (Will Kennedy, drums, Russell Ferrante, piano, Jimmy Haslip, bass). I forgot how good the four of us were able to play together. The playing and writing on this collection is as good as anything I have ever done. If you haven't heard this CD I urge you to pick it up at Yellowjackets.com. I think you will be surprised.

I have just finished a biography on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, by a wonderful writer named Marcia Davenport (Barnes and Noble Books). It was fascinating To read about this great composer and see what his trials and tribulations were as a creative artist in the 18th century. I was flabbergasted to discover that Mozart endured many of the same incidents of being ripped off and overlooked that we all have encountered more recently in the arts. Not only that, but he was such a strong presence musically that he scared other composers half to death. Mozart was kept down by his competitors who were quite intimidated by his greatness.

This book is also a great opportunity to read about the composing process Mozart devised. I was amazed to find out that he would hear a completed version of a piece in his head the first time he thought of it, and was able to retain all of this information until a later time, when it was merely a matter of dictation to write it all out.

What I came away with from reading about Mozart was that it is critical that we as creative artists believe in the process we devise for composing and playing the music we hear in our heads. The validity of this music should not be contingent upon what any others think about it, musician or non-musician alike. In Mozart's case, he didn't really get the recognition he deserved until he was long gone and buried in a pauper's grave. What was most important (and still is) was the spiritual and creative satisfaction of having created something we strongly believe in, that resonates with the molecules in our bodies.

Keep searching and playing great music.



Peace,
Bob Mintzer