Faculty Spotlight

Which courses do you teach?

Integrated Skills, Vocal Standards, and private instruction

Why do you teach?

Fortunately, not just for the money--I truly love it. When you teach, you're dealing with such a positive side of people--namely, their quest for knowledge and improvement. I love seeing the light bulbs of comprehension go on, and I love seeing someone develop their own brand of music.

What brought you to Cornish?

When the bassist Gary Peacock needed a sub while he went off to record with Keith Jarrett, he called me to take his classes. I did sub work for Gary and others for a few years, then eventually I was brought onto the faculty full-time.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

You're asking here about the 10%, the part that's not just hard work. It's all from listening--to recordings, concerts, and especially the other musicians I play with. But really, it's mostly just about working. I practice, I compose, I perform. If my music sounds inspired to someone else when they hear it, that's great, but most of the time it feels more like a steady process than some bolt of inspiration. So it's work, but it's the work that I love.

What drew you to your field?

It wasn't until college, really, that I started thinking about being a musician. At first I was purely interested in composing, and not necessarily jazz. But in learning to play my own compositions, my abilities as a pianist developed quickly.

Tell us about your creative process:

In jazz we like to think of composing and improvising as two facets of the same process. In both situations I strive to...well, basically, to not strive. I want to be a vessel through which my culture naturally flows. As an improviser, I'll hear a melodic line in my "inner ear," without having to consciously make it happen. I trust that there is no melody that could better represent who I am at that moment, so my goal is to simply allow that line to come out of the piano. If I overtly change it in any way, it's rarely an improvement on what I was hearing in my head. When I'm not playing well, it's usually because I can't get my mind out of the way and let my instincts run free. Similarly, as a composer, I try to get to those sounds which are most natural to my ear. For me it's more difficult to achieve that as a composer than as an improviser, because the creative pace is slow enough that my brain has plenty of time to jump in and throw up various roadblocks. But it's not quite that simple either, because I do use my analytical side as well when I compose. It's not all just instinct.

What projects are you currently working on?

I'm composing and arranging music for my quintet these days (which includes Jeff Johnson on bass, Gary Hobbs or Mark Ivester on drums, Thomas Marriott on trumpet, Mark Taylor on alto sax, and myself on piano.) I'd like to get the group into the studio for a CD project sometime within a year or so. Meanwhile, I'm arranging music for a couple of vocalists' recordings.

What do you do for fun?

Movies, watching Seahawks and Sonics, doing Sudoku puzzles, going out for dinner with my wife Chris, and, of course, listening to music. Once every couple of years we go on a killer vacation. Over this last Christmas break we went to Israel and Egypt. It was unforgettable. We hope to visit Edinburgh and Prague sometime next year.

What do you like most about Cornish?

The infectious enthusiasm of the students. To be able to nurture these young minds as they reach for their potential is tremendously gratifying.