I am a serious musician because I fell in love with the soundtrack of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” when I was nine. I loved the sound of that music and wanted to hear and produce more like it. Since then I have grown to love the great works of all musical genres and have dedicated much of my life to identifying and studying the commonalities between the different musics I like. What I like about my favorite music now is exactly what I loved about “A Charlie Brown Christmas;” that is, the sound. I am not interested in music’s “meaning” or “expressive power;” I am interested in music as a pleasurable and deep aesthetic experience.
But I am also a human being with diverse interests. Music is the most important of them, but I wouldn’t be content without other experience in my life. In my opinion, a night out on the town with friends can be just as valid and deep a use of my time as a night alone listening to music.
It just so happens that the musical tradition I identify with the most, jazz, originated as a synthesis of these goals. It originated in social and dance settings but is able to stand on its own, as well. And although my own music is often outside the jazz tradition in the strictly musical sense, it is very close to jazz in the cultural sense. I try to create music that, like early jazz, is dance music from its very conception. It is not functional music, because it is not compromised to fit any extramusical goals and because the sound is the primary focus of the experience. Rather, it actually achieves its highest expression in being live at a party, in making feet tap and throats shout and eyes flirt. These are not shallow aims, and music that achieves them fully will, of necessity, be just as complex, artful, and valid as the headiest works of art music.
My mother is classical pianist and I grew up in house where all I heard from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep was her playing. Oddly though, what I remember her playing the clearest when I was little was the Charlie Brown songs. My mom is also a huge fan. She tried her hardest to get me to learn to play, but I simply couldn’t focus. I was way more interested in making up imaginary stories set to her music as the score to my adventures. I like how you write that music is more about the experience as opposed to the meaning. I certainly relate to that. I still make play lists for characters I am working on today.
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