I tell this story a lot when I come across people that voice some pretty strong opinions about how much they don't like this kind of music...and hate this kind of music...
I heard Oscar Peterson tell this story...Oscar, a great jazz pianist...was very close friends with another incredible jazz pianist named Art Tatum...now...Art Tatum was blind...and rumor has it he learned piano from an old piano roll...well...no one told Art that the piano roll was made by three separate piano players...but...Art learned the parts anyway...if you give a good listen to Art Tatum's playing...you'd probably find that a true story...what an amazing player...
so...Oscar was in Harlem playing a small club there and on one of his breaks...as he often did, he decided to take in a set of Art Tatum and his greatness...one master artist appreciating another...
...when Oscar arrived at the club...Art was gone...Oscar searched for him in other clubs in Harlem to find him in this little joint where a lone piano player was playing...Oscar sat down...said hello to Art...listened a bit...and asked Art why he was in such a joint and why he was listening to this player...his feelings were that he was not very good...and Art should be somewhere else, listening to someone better...
...Oscar said that Art simply said, "everyone has a song to sing...if you just listen closely enough..."...Oscar Peterson said he learned a great lesson at that time...and was able to understand what Art was saying...
From great Latin music...and it's many, many different variations...Brazilian bossa nova, to the great Salsa music that was born in New York from Puerto Rican and Caribbean influences...to music of the Andes, Mexico, Cuba, Panama, etc...to the incredible influences of what the African music and rhythms have had on world musical culture...the remnants and mixes of Irish, Scottish and Cajun that provide some influence into country, bluegrass, rhythm & blues...
From brass instruments, wind instruments, guitars, drums and percussion, pianos, strings, to the great sound of the human voice...to jazz, country, rock & roll, blues, cajun, country, southern rock, funk, celtic, electronic, heavy metal, hip hop...music is too great to ignore simply because our friends say so...or our family grew up listening to something different...or whatever...
...if we want to believe that we know anything about music...even if we don't play any instrument, we should become a student of what this world has to offer...open to the possibilities that range from Beethoven to The Beatles to Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Merle Haggard, Al DiMeola, Chicago, Tower of Power, Santana, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Bruebeck, Led Zeppelin, Albert Lee, Cold Blood, Paul Simon, Gershwin, Sinatra, Tony Rice, and believe me...I could go on and on...
My point...listen...listen to music...in spite of what your friends might say...become aware...become enlightened...become free...if there's not enough peace in your life...music will bring it...if there's not enough love in your life...music will help you feel it...if there's too much stress in your life...music will help you release it...if there's too much hate in your life...music will help you to lose it...
To close, one of my favorite lines in a song comes from Gino Vanelli..."..and there are dreams I'll never live to see...but as long as you believe in me...I'll still feel them on the way...as I take life day by day..."
As I've gotten older...this has become a realization for me...I continue to write music still...and the one who truly believes in me, my wife Marta Alica...has supported and inspired me to continue from the day we met...I write from my influences...from the inspirations around me...and from the love and appreciation that I have to those that have dedicated their lives to great music that I have had the pleasure to hear and learn from...and from the love that Marta Alicia has given me through the years...
This is a great gift from God...the one thing that we have felt inspired to make our own and share with others...to help them...to help us...as Stevie Wonder wrote "Heaven, help us all..."
