A Thought Provoking interview with Rick DellaRatta

Interview by Beatrice Richardson

DellaRatta is a crafter, not solely of music in the general sense, but of a specific ambiance. A jazz artist with a distinctive style augmented by equally distinctive accompanying musicians. DellaRatta doubles as the vocalist and pianist in a swinging quartet. He is equally in depth in both roles.

BR: Tell me about the earliest experience with music you remember and maybe some of the things that sparked your interest in music, Jazz in particular.

RD: I first became interested in music when a piano appeared in my house. I think what happened was my father had bought a piano for my mother because she use to play the piano. She was actually a church organist. But the guy who was moving the piano in on Christmas Eve was a big fat guy and I thought he was Santa Claus. I didn't know what he was moving in either. I was only 5 or 6 years old. So when that came into the house I started to go up and sneak and play it. I was fascinated it made sounds, I listened and tried to figure this instrument out all by myself. That's when I had an inkling that improvisation was going to be basically a major part of my existence.

Anyway my parents found out about it and took me to have piano lessons. And I studied classical music. I heard pop music and rock music on the radio with my friends. I was polarized and something told me to go to the library. That there was this other kind of music and I really needed to hear it. I'm not sure what sparked me to do this but I ended up going to the library on my own and looking through a big volume of jazz records. I took these records out of the library on my own and began listening to them. I would just pick them randomly. I would look and say hmmmm Ornette Coleman, this guy looks interesting let me try him, let me try John Coltrane, try this one, try that one. It just became fascinating to me. It was really hard for me to follow what they were doing, yet I knew they were doing something along that was along the creative energy, the improvisation energy, the improvisation energy I had when I stood up at the piano just standing when I reached my hand along top of the keys and made sound. So, I felt a correlation between what they were doing and what I was doing, when I was trying to create and figure out the piano all by myself. So I ended up spending a lot time at the piano pretending I was practicing my lessons but really improvising and creating on my own. Fortunately, I did play classical music enough to get into a music school that had jazz in it.

Once I got into New England Conservatory I was able to study with Jaki Byard. He was really my first jazz teacher (he just passed away). That wasn't until was in college. I was playing in rock and roll bands where I was improvising and playing dance bands. I was also improvising a lot in church. But I really didn't have that much of a grasp of jazz improvisation concepts. So I was able to get started with Jaki on the side I was a classical piano major. I was able to sneak into the jazz department and get a sneak. And it took off from there.

BR: When did you know that you wanted to play jazz music as a career?

RD: I knew I had a feeling that music was going to be my career at a very early age. Because I felt A) a need to create and improvise an B). I felt a need to reach people through the healing process of music, So, I saw how the feeling of popular music would generate in people almost like a healing and uplifting feeling in pop, gospel and a lot of forms of music. I saw the spirituality of creative improvisation and I knew that there was some sort of combination I wanted. At the time I wasn't sure. I studied all forms of music including classical extensively. Until I got to the point where I felt I wanted to do something that was not only satisfying for myself artistically but also could make a contribution as vocalist and a jazz instrumentalist.

BR: Who have been some of your greatest inspirations and influences? What was it about them that made such an impression on you?

RD: Actually it was a counselor when I went to a camp. The camp counselor's name was Bill Allen, we use to go on hikes together and he use to turn me on to music. Some of the music he turned me on to was very creative sort of progressive rock, some of the music had a lot of classical influence, and then he would also turn me on to a band called Weather Report that was an off shoot of Miles Davis' electric group that had Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and numerous different great players who came and went. In addition Chick Corea's "Return To Forever" and I noticed those guys kind of enabled me to go into other forms of jazz. It was stepping stone to other forms of jazz. it was a indirect influence into the whole world of jazz.

BR: Not many artist play and sing. Does having to sing while you play the piano make it difficult?

RD: I honestly never realized it, when I started singing I was first singing in bands because I had a different type of voice. The group felt I could make a contribution in terms of the way I could sing certain songs that would fit that mold. After that I started to get a lot of work as a solo pianist vocalist and traveling around the country and in doing so I saw the ability of my voice to reach people in a different way than the instrumental side was. When I would come back from those tours and just play the piano in jazz groups after a while I started to miss the ability to reach the audiences. I would feel almost caged a little bit because I knew there was something inside of me that could reach these people but the other guys didn't really know it. I was the one who recently got off the tour as a vocalist and they still knew me as a piano player. I was confined because when I was toying as a singer I saw the way I could reach people and possibly draw them into jazz and communicate the jazz more.

As a leader it just became natural for me to become a singer and instrumentalist. I'll tell you something I didn't realized being a singer would actually make me a better piano player. One day I was in a hotel, The Gramercy Park Hotel in NY. I was playing there and Michel Petrucciani walked into the lounge, well he was the one that brought it to my attention. He was in the lounge he listened for awhile then he went out. I guess he was registering in the hotel, and then he came back into the lounge and stayed for quite some time. After a couple of sets I said, gee maybe I should say hello, so I went and said hello to him, and he said, "sit down I want to talk to you". And we began talking. He began to tell me of how great it was that a). I knew the lyrics to all the standards I was singing and b). I was singing and playing, he said, that's so important in your lyricism and developing your own voice. He really enlightened me to the fact that it was very likely that my singing was going to make me a better pianist. That's what ended up happening I ended up noticing that my singing made me a better pianist. I think singing has helped me to be in a supportive role for other singers or instrumentalist.

BR: You've toured extensively, What differences have you noticed between European jazz audiences and American jazz audiences?

RD: Americans take the music for granted it seems a bit more than European audiences. Most recently in Europe I was in Bulgaria, and there it was just a fascination with them. It seemed like they were starved for it. They just couldn't wait to hear the music, enjoy it, and be a part of it. They really felt like it was something special. Par of it has to do with the fact that is not as accessible to them. Here people take it for granted. Over there especially in a place like Bulgaria they don't know when they'll get a again. Sometime they may have a couple of festivals a year. They don't have as many opportunities. I think they cherish the opportunity to hear jazz more than here where they feel if they miss it today, they can see it tomorrow. Also because it's not imported, it's not presented correctly. The way it's presented over there is much greater a lot of times, here the owners try to make an extra buck off of the music and try to use it in that format. It's not really presented whereas over there it's an import. And so the presentation is a better presentation.

BR: What kind of toll does touring non stop take on you?

RD: I think there's a certain unknown that's what takes a lot out of you. Because you don't know what to expect, you're working with different promoters, different agents, different sets of circumstances. It's the incredible amounts of uncertainty that takes the most out of you. But at the same time it makes it exciting. The unexpected has 2 ramifications 1) it creates a certain excitement and 2) it zaps a lot of energy because a lot adapting has to take place. Some situations are the travel that takes place others are the planes or the variable surrounding it. The unexpected and the unknown are what takes the most out of you.

BR: What's your favorite part of your job composing, recording, performing or a combination of all three?

RD: A combination of the three because composing is like giving birth and performing is watching the birth grow up. They both have their draw backs and good points. One problem with performing is the performance situation it can be heaven or hell. It depends on how you're presented and who you're performing with and the music you're performing. It's also the magic in the music when you're performing. all those variables make it extremely challenging to have an ideal situation every time. Performing would be the most exciting if the situation was at it's most optimum but those optimums are unfortunately the exception and not the rule.

BR: I would like to talk you about 2 of your releases "Thought Provoking " and "Live In Brazil" I notice on both releases the track "Living inside a Dream" is on both of them?

RD: Very simply you'll find that in live recordings, because sometimes a song takes off with a certain audience from a studio recording and naturally you'll want to perform that song live. That song was actually made into a music video. That song has a certain amount of appeal to may cultures. People in Asia, Europe, USA there are people who hear that song in many cultures. Even in Africa, Although I've never been to Africa I heard there's an interest in that song.

BR: In "Thought Provoking" I really like he release "Everything I have is Yours"

RD: It's one of those tunes, The great thing about it is that it hasn't been recorded a lot. To take a song that people may not have heard, it's a gem. The gem of a standard.

BR: Your rendition on the track "If I only had a brain" that was exceptionally done.

RD: Thanks, I enjoyed doing it.

BR: The track "Say you'll be mine" That was one of my favorites, so much so I shared the words with someone very close to me.

RD: Thank you so much. My brother was getting married and I wanted to write something to express his love. I looked at their relationship and I saw how he felt towards her. I wanted to write something that he felt for his bride to be. So I wrote that song and that was their first dance at their wedding. A very different version of that song will be coming out soon. A Solo Studio Release called "Alone Together" and that's my next CD. It will initially be coming out on a web site MCY. It's a new site. It' starting a CD where you can download the music. And it's launched in June. The release will be actually coming out in the fall but coming out exclusively on the music web site mcy.com

BR: What prompted you to record the track "When it's sleepy time down south"?

RD: It's a song I've always loved by Louis Armstrong, It's one of his great standards that he sings. I was playing at the Blue Note. And I had some people come there from the South. Actually my cousin had come in he's originally from Florida and he had been in town and he came to see me and there were some people from the south. And I thought this would be a good song to play. I had gone to Florida ever since I was a little kid. My mother's originally from Florida. This feeling for Everglades and even though I've never been to Louisiana or Mississippi where that song is about I still have that feeling of the Everglades, that lazy kind of feeling that you get in the south. I tried to bring that in my rendition of the song.

BR: You've won the 1997 Backstage award, the 1997 and 1998 Mac award nominee, 1998 ascap popular award winner. What do you see in terms of your future?

RD: I like to do more in the US. I'd like to help jazz gain more popularity in the US. in my own country. So I'd like to use some of my popularity. So I'd like to use some of my notoriety and things I've built up in other countries, in other places and if there was anyway possible in terms of helping jazz broaden and reach more people in this country, maybe bring jazz to the level here that it exist in so many other countries.

BR: Do you have specific goals in mind you want to share with us?

RD: One of the greatest thing I'd like to do is perform when it's at the optimum situation and presented properly, when I have the opportunity to really express myself as an artist and when performing with top notch musicians. A goal of mine is to make those optimum situations that I enjoy so much and I feel I can reach people with my music. My goal would be to make those situations the norm instead of the exception. So that would be a definite goal of mine. I have musical goals that I'm always trying to achieve and I'd hope to achieve those that are in front of me.

BR: In " Live in Brazil" included in your trio was one of my favorite drummers, The Late Denis Charles. What was it like working with him?

RD: It was really in many cases almost heavenly. I had the opportunity to not only play with someone who was as influential an artist as Denis but also in touring with him, we got to spend a lot of time together. Long 9-10 hour plane flights traveling to different places. I was able to benefit from his experience, his expertise and his views on life. I feel like I really learned a lot from him and I felt flattered immensely by the support I got from him both musically and spiritually. Just to have someone of that statue so supportive of me and what I was doing. I just felt honored.

BR: I've loved music all my life and I've met all kinds of musicians, jazz musicians stand out to me for a couple of reasons, They are very soulful people, they're very warm, honest and hip. Do you notice this as well?

RD: Yes, I must say the experience of the life of jazz, it's a rewarding spiritual experience. You are instilled with something we are all able to pick up on. Often when we meet each other we can sense a similarity of experience that a life of jazz has brought us. It's the same with the listeners.

BR: How much of making it in the music business is raw talent versus hand work and dedication?

RD: I think the problem is that there's a huge disparity between making it as an artist and making it in terms of making a living. There are personal goals that you want to achieve as an artist that don't necessarily have anything to do with your ability to make living financially as an artist. So unfortunately there's a conflict you're posed with a situation where you're tempted in order to make ends meet than you like on the business side of things. And you worry about it taking away from reaching your artistic goals. It often becomes conflicting in what you need to do to become a successful and in the business side of music often conflicts with what you feel you need to do in terms of achieving your own musical goals.

BR: Where will you be performing next?

RD: I just came back from Philadelphia. I was playing with a Brazilian band, A Brazilian rhythm section from NY along with some fine horn players from Philadelphia. I have a few gigs in NYC and Conn. One in Hartford with my own trio at the 880 jazz club and another Main and Hopewell with my quartet. The clubs are getting smaller. The festivals are once a year and they make you feel you are going to a jazz festival and there is no jazz. It's mixed with other forms of music. But where is the jazz. There's something that needs to be changed and that's what I hope to do. I do something that I feel is marketable yet it doesn't eliminate jazz. Whereas, most marketable supposedly jazz artist don't have much jazz in their act. I can't do it on my own, someone will have to recognize that I'm trying to do this and I think I can make a contribution. Give me the opportunity to make that contribution to bring jazz to the table without alienating an audience that just don't know what jazz is. What I'm hoping for is some of these festivals to get to the point where they say instead of an act that has no jazz in it why don't we bring Rick and see if Rick can reach the generic audience and still give them jazz. That's my goal.

BR: What advice would you give someone who thinks he or she might want to pursue a career in jazz?

RD: There is a great guitarist I played with name Mike Goodrich who said to me if you have to play jazz, if it's something you don't have to do then by all means avoid it. But if it's something you have to do. Then do it. There's no profession like it. All the rewards in the world are open to you. So I think you must follow your star, follow your heart and don't worry about the obstacles. You will be rewarded one way or another. Even though so few artist get rewarded with a record contract or acclaim or publicity or gigs and so many great artist have struggled and died penniless and every thing. And even though it's all that adversity, I recall Larry Willis, The great pianist once told me. One of the keys to life is to create opportunity from adversity. Therefore, my advice is follow your star and you'll be glad you did.

To find out more about Rick, Check out his website at: http://interjazz.com/delarata.

Up close and personal with Joe Sherbanee

Writen by Beatrice Richardson

Technical virtuosity combines with emotional depth in the music of Joe Sherbanee. With eloquent writing and vivid themes . The Road Ahead , Sherbanee's daring debut album for Native Language music , breaks down music barriers. Fusing together contemporary jazz with funk, blues, and pop influences, the crossover appeal becomes obvious in a style that cannot be categorized.

BR: You were taught by your father to play the drums ..Was that your first introduction into music?

JS: Yes, I would think so, we were not a musical family , we're not a family that plays instruments .MY dad happened to play the drums when he was younger, just as a casual hobby .He also played the drums while in the navy. We had a drum set at home and he'd play when he had time. He works way too hard , sorta like me. I picked it up from him because it was the cool thing to do. I really got involved in it when I was in high school. I was in the drum line and I did all that fun stuff. I was in the jazz band and sort of progressed into a compositional writing, performing and kept going and Here I am.

BR: So you would say that's your first intro. to music?

JS: I would say so, into playing music, hearing music with piano lessons with a combination of having your folks listening to your music. Your dad plays the drums and I think my cousin played the clarinet in a marching band. Those kinds of things. Music is something that is kind of born and bred in the culture of where you're at and certainly as you grow up you hear things on the radio and you see things on the TV. The culture sort of becomes a part of you. You see and hear things you like and try to emulate that or try to learn what are they doing . That's how I got started.

BR: How did you become introduced to jazz?

JS: I would say starting around high school being a member of the jazz band . I know being a member in the drum line, there were a lot of other guys that were really listening to solid musicians, and I think because jazz is a musician based music form versus rock which would be more band oriented. In jazz you listen for certain musicians. There's a really happening drummer named Will Kennedy , I just loved what he was doing. I was 13 years old so anything that anyone does really catches your eye, you start listening to stuff they do. It just so happens that a good majority of these people were in the jazz genre and I started cutting my feet and all. I grew up listening to Huey Lewis and the News and the talking Heads and those kinds of groups. So it was a little bit of a change for me. It's a musicians art form and it's a musicians music and it seemed like the fitting place for me to be. I started really looking at these people and trying to figure out what they were doing. It was so many levels it captivated me. And trying to do my own thing , you want to have your own voice out of all that . And Here I am . (laughter)

BR: You've studied at the prestigious Berklee College of music and recently graduated with a degree in Music Business at the University Of Southern California.

JS: Berklee has it's own mystique , I will not stop talking good things about Berklee. It was one of the best experiences I've had had in my whole life. Being a member of that family, being a member of a really elite group of musicians, producers, writers, composers and teachers was almost indescribable. You walk down the halls and one classroom would be teaching 20th century classical composition counterpoint, the other class would be going over writing harmony, another class would be working on recording techniques. There was a heavy metal class. The thing with that was you never saw people in the hallway or your dorm that were mere images of you. There were people you could meet and people you could talk to and discuss on an open level about music. Something you couldn't get going in a regular college. These people were all in the same boat you were in. I wouldn't say forced to be a part of it as much as you could. But it became a part of you. The environment Boston had a great cultural center . It was such a great experience.

BR: Who would you say are the persons who have influenced you the most musically?

JS: First and foremost every one I've listened to I really like. I really like to pick up on what everyone is doing --it's tough to say that everyone is your influence bit it's a big factor, if I had to nail it down I'd have to say the Yellow Jackets, because I really sat and listened to their work. Consequently I've been fortunate enough to work with them on different levels and really got to soak in what they're doing . I am a huge fan of Pat Metheny and grew up as I said earlier listening to Huey Lewis , so I have a pop thing happening. But it's difficult to say there are a lot of people I listen and respect what they are doing. I like setting moods. I like setting atmosphere and music. There are only a handful of people that can show you that. I'm also a big film buff, So I get a lot of my inspiration from film scores and atmospheric music.

BR: You're right the music scores in film set the tone , the emotional moods are touched upon.

JS: I think that one of the crutches in the genre, the contemporary jazz format is that there is no vision and they are very flat and I like to set the atmosphere . That's where you can close your eyes and see what is going on. To a certain extinct I think "Big Cities" the first cut recorded is evident of that you can hear all the sounds going on. "November" (another cut) to a certain extinct you can close your eyes and feel you're right there listening to these guys. It's important to give people more than what they're just seeing at face value. I think there's more that can be read into it and people really want to read into it. If not you're just listening to good music or nice music.

BR: Tell me why you chose jazz over any other genre of music?

JS: I think if I were born and raised in the south I would have different music influences , then I would have growing up in the west coast. Being a part of a large city like Los Angeles. I grew up in Orange County which is a half hour south of LA. But it's still part of the same community. There's a lot of urban textures that are happening here. There's a lot of jazz , there's a lot of rock. It's a lot of everything . But it seems like I clicked into jazz from my experiences growing up in school. Musicians I like were a part of that forum. No one in my family likes jazz , no one it's just weird...(laughter)

BR: Are you kidding?

JS: No, my dad is an oldies guy , he loves the Ventures, the Temptations and all the other groups . They are great groups. I listen to them too. My mother has a complete different taste of music. My love of music grew out of the vision that some of these people had like Pat Metheny , the Yellow Jackets. The music was more an art form than it is for a lot of people. It's a lot of other experiences things you hear and see that shape who you are. I like to think that I'll evolve into something else in a little bit. What I've been hearing a lot about is the cut "The Destination ,The Journey". That's a really big sentence to put out there but in a way it describes what I'd like to do in the road ahead. Let's see where this goes. I'm a Virgo so things are never accomplished, things are never finished, you can always perfect on things. I look back and that record was recorded 2 years ago and there are things on it that I say Oh Please I can't listen to that anymore. I'd to go back and redo it (laughter ) but you have to bring that spontaneity back and leave things as they are. It's a snap shot of who you were when it was done and take those experiences of things you have heard and things you've learned and try to move forward and use those things to create new experiences.

BR: In the new Release "The Road Ahead" one of the tracks "November" It explores the parts of a relationship which deal with loss and pain. What were your experiences?

JS: I don't mean to pump up any sort of relationship or something life shattering or a sort of look at me kinda thing. I think a lot of tunes were more of a personal therapy kind of thing . Or just a relationship I was going through at the time. That was something sparked out of trying to express something really strong and something really simple at that time. I chose a full base melody , changes that were a little common but on the other hand things were a little out there. I wanted to make that sound unrefined and a little raw. I think the downside of a relationship .the emotional roller coaster if you will, can make you feel like that a lot of times. I wanted to try to capture where I was at the time. It wasn't a major depression thing. It was a little difficult for me in that this girl was a big part of my life. It's a part of growing up and growing through a normal relationship.

BR: The "Road Ahead" That struck me as a means of moving forward...What does it represent?

JS: I certainly think it means what you have to look forward to The places you can go , the people you can meet. I don't think it's just what's ahead of you and at the same token it's what's behind you, what you've been through and where you're at. It's a past, present and future all rolled into one. A lot of it implies my hope for my future of what I'd like to accomplish for myself, the goal I've set for myself . I think it really matters that I'm very young doing this( 22 years old) It's positives, this is what I have to look forward to. when you do certain things therapy , they become personal , you get a little tunnel vision about it. You only see things a certain way and I wanted to use the record and the tune to open up my mind a little. The Road Ahead is a visible element. There are a lot of weird people you can meet along the road. Anything you can think of from the big cities to the little clubs, to the little bar in Nebraska that plays blues tunes . It just works!

BR: The track 5:30 Friday , That's a let loose funky, contemporary jazz number, a feel good number.

JS: It's funny my partner Theo Bishop and I we are always joking about naming instrumental tunes because what do you name it Happy Days...So we said, "This is the kind of tune you could put on in your car and it's Friday...5:30 Friday hey that's kinda cool, It's unique because it's not just a west coast time, it's the end of the week , and the sound of something new. It has that beginning , middle, and end kind of feel, past, present, future ride to work and it's interesting , and it is what it is. 5:30 Friday was more specifically the weekend going to see his girl , it wasn't necessary the weekend , the weekend gave you time to relax , it gave you something to look forward to. You're kind of excited and mellow but then you say hey wait a minute things could be getting better.

BR: Your rendition of "Blackbirds" is very different it's relaxing , very straight forward, it's mellow

JS: It is very different and it fits very weird with a lot of people . I'll be quite honest it is my least favorite tune on the record in that I wasn't very happy with what I did . But it's the tune everyone talks about , the press. Andy does a really interesting unit version of blackbird , it's very loose , drums are very tight , but then it's got a real loose feel on top of it. I think the thing that sat well with me was the lyrics "Take these broken wings and learn to fly" again it was very visible to me and it's for that reason that was recorded.

BR: Let's talk about "San Luis" Tell me how that rainy night in Boston inspired you to write this tune?

JS: It was another one of those dorm nights and I needed to get away , there's practice rooms every where and I just wanted to play. It was about two in the morning and I just heard it in my head , I sat down at the piano and hammered away until about six in the morning . I wanted to express how I was feeling at the time, and I wanted to talk to talk to somebody and not just your mom or an old friend from high school but to talk to someone that would really listen to you and talk to them about your feelings, a lot of people don't do that. You keep a lot of stuff to your self and that wasn't what I really wanted to keep to myself. I put it on paper and I thought it would be a musical letter to a friend , but it sort of evolved into this conversation piece. I think my Yellow Jackets influence can be heard here. The soprano sax has it's own character, the fretless bass has it's own character and you think these people were talking to each other. You could close your eyes and listen and you can hear the bass do it's own thing . The soprano will comment on it and back and forth and they'll mingle together and it'll be done. It's a musical conversation....That's why I wrote it.

BR: Tell me about the independent contemporary jazz label and Watermark entertainment. What's in the future for these 2 companies?

JS: Certainly the label is strong , You're a local musician and want more than anything to land a deal with a record label and it never happens so you try to do what you can to survive as a musician and as an artist. It started initially as just a name we had for the stuff we were doing and the long short of it was the people were seriously responding to the things we were doing and it wasn't just on a local basis . We received fan letters from all over the world and it was frightening .We received broadcast royalty checks from South Africa and France, fan letters from Yugoslavia and from Brazil a few weeks ago. And you wonder how it gets out there to those people , I think the internet has a lot to do with it. The music is finding it's way to people . We weren't really selling a lot , we were doing well but not really making a lot of money, But we had income. It sort of developed as a need to facilitate all that was going on around us. I have a music business background and a degree in music business and it just seemed right . Now we are finding new talent and we're trying to new stuff out and we're a full company with international distribution. It's a good thing for someone who thought he wanted to write music for his family and friends( laughter) Watermark Entertainment is a secondary relationship I have with film Director, Jon Larson. we're working on a couple of feature film productions. That's my other life. We have a lot of stuff going on right now. I wanted to include that with what I'm doing because one thing leads to another on either avenue. It's sort of a technically or benefit I wanted to have . A safe guard if you will.

BR: What do you see in terms of your future? What specific goals do you have for yourself?

JS: My future consist of making people happy and getting music , getting entertainment, getting the arts to people that I wouldn't say don't necessarily have it but who need enlightenment , who need some sort of spiritual lift on some levels. We are doing this to make money, I'm not going to kid you , I have to make a living but with my experience and education it seems like the logical thing to do. I want the opportunity to make more records and be a part of peoples lives. I want to be a part of the more visual side of things and have a company who will be able to produce entertainment of any kind. I want to give people the opportunity to have their own voice. That's what Native Language is about. Where people have their own way of saying things and they have a medium , they have an outlet for that. That hasn't been available to them previously.

BR: What's your favorite part about being a jazz musician, composing, performing or being on the road?

JS: My favorite part is the relationship you make , the diversity of talent and music that's around you. The writers, the people , the culture that's around it. It can be fun , it can be intellectual, it can be a lot of things. This type of art form is relatively clean in that it's not rap music , it's not hard aggressive, It's not I have a gripe with the world kind of music. There's something there , it's musicians music and there's an art to it. It certainly is the founding point of most contemporary music, rock & roll , blues all started from this .In the same roots. So if you're really going to get down in developing something new you have to know where you were at in the past. I think jazz is a really solid place to start.

BR: Tell me about your composing habits?

JS: I need a lot of work though . I'm the guy that wears all the hats in the business, in the family, and I like to be able to sit for 3 weeks straight and play my instrument and purge my thoughts. I don't have the time that is afforded me that I would like on a deep concentrated level. I still play, perform , produce, write I'm still doing all of that stuff. I have to run the ship as my partner says. I need a place to support my artist. My personal life kind of takes a back seat to all of that unfortunately . It is certainly temporary . I plan to keep writing , it's a matter of feeling it too. I can't just sit down and force something out, if I feel something I will go to the piano and write it down as much as I can or I tape record myself singing. I don't sing very well, so I try to write down as much as I can. I'd like to believe I have a long way to go, I'd like to believe I can still listen to new things and be able to write new things and be a part of a good place in the world and I think jazz has that ability.

BR: When you compose , for example your release "The Road Ahead " and you set up the recording dates, and you have the musicians in that you want to perform on it, have they seen the music before they get into the studio?

JS: A lot of times yes, because of my relationship with them they've heard the stuff I've been working on. But on the other hand , they're guys who come to play a few parts on your record and be done with it. That's the way it is. Things can be better or worse.

BR: What comes to mind as some of the most memorable experiences you've had as a professional musician?

JS: I would say performing with some really good guys , my continuously spending time with the Yellow Jackets is something I hold very dear to me. Relationships I have and people I have played with. I'm very fortunate that I'm in a good circle of people that support what I do and I hold that as memorable as anything else because they all give me my experiences to grow from.

BR: What advice would you give someone who thinks he or she might want to pursue a career in jazz?