My Musical Inspirations

I've talked about my inspirations as a young boy to become a music teacher. That all sprang from being raised in a musical family and being exposed to a good high school band director who pointed me in the right direction with his droll personality.

Obviously my mother was the primary influence. I will write at length about this great lady who sacrificed so much for her family at another time; suffice it to say that her self-taught musicianship - still the most amazing that I have ever experienced to date - was a prime influence. She knew thousands of songs and could play anything on piano after hearing it but once, including the correct chords. That she was self-taught and used the "wrong" fingering made no difference. She had astounding "chops."

So how was it that I ended up playing trombone? My mom played piano and my dad was a bass player (he was one of the first to use an electric bass in the Chicago area). Actually I started out in the grade school band on the cornet, under Isaac McKay. I played cornet/trumpet all through elementary school and junior high.

When I reached high school I was converted to baritone horn by Mr. Novalich because that was what his band needed. I thought it was a cool horn, the parts were great and I really digged the tone. So I didn't object.

Then, along came Maynard Ferguson. In the mid-70's he was a real presence among high school brass players; we all were buying his LP's and listening to his albums. I'd heard MacArthur Park in the 1960's and knew that its release was unusual as a 15 minute song sung on the radio by Richard Harris.



The song was like a lightning rod experience; the arrangement was fresh to me, Maynard's soaring trumpet was awe-inspiring and then the trombone solo, I learned later by Randy Purcell, cemented for me that I should be playing trombone. But there were other influences as well as I think back and I should mention them; Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Bill Chase, and Woody Herman and his Young Thundering Herd.

I petitioned Mr. Novalich to let me switch to trombone. He would not give in - completely. He let me play it in jazz band, but I continued to play baritone for the duration of my high school career in his concert band. I went to all-city as a baritone player, but I knew that was not destined to be my musical future.

By college I had switched full time to trombone and studied under Mark McDunn at DePaul University. Jim Pankow of the band Chicago had also studied with him, as well as the great jazz trumpeter Orbert Davis. And then there was me; I'm sure I was a lesser talent in comparison to those musicians, but I held my own!

Reflecting back now, I consider those high school years halcyon days, in which the sounds were fresh, the experiences new and the emotions live and real. Try as I could it was very hard to recapture the newness of it all later. College was hard work, high school was fun. But I can remember quite clearly the influences that shaped my future. For that I am grateful!