I loved the pop and rock music of my era and I have heard some really well-written music over the years, but I never wanted to be a pop, or rock and roll, musician. Playing popular music can be fun, but such music does not move beyond the emotional level. Humans are spiritual beings and, in time, catering to our emotions only leaves us empty and lonely.
I loved hearing classical pianists perform when I was younger and I have witnessed some profoundly gifted pianists during my journey through the halls of music history, but I never wanted to be merely a classical pianist. Spending hours, weeks, and even months on one piece of music has its rewards, but in the end, hearing and learning music of all genres is more gratifying than playing one or two pieces only.
The groundbreaking fusion of jazz, classical, and rock had me reeling as a teenager, and I enjoyed my years playing, writing, and performing in that high-energy style, but I did not want to be a “fusion” or “jazz-rock” musician alone. There was something wonderful about a one chord funk jam, a twelve bar blues, or a fast burning funk/rock/Latin groove, but there were other styles of music I loved playing as well.
I loved hearing live jazz during my youth, and I spent no small amount of time in the clubs as both a listener and a performer, but I never wanted to be merely a jazz pianist. After a while the “jazzers” started arguing over what jazz was. Some guys claimed it was Bebop, some guys said it was Dixieland, some claimed it was swing, and still others asserted that it was post-bop.
I found my niche as a musician when I heard Bill Evans define jazz as, not a static musical style, but a "process of making music" and a "way of life.” He beautifully explained that jazz is "making one minute's music in one minute's time,” rather than composing it over months. It is a "how," not a “what." Eventually, this thought process led me to the great epiphany which freed me on all levels—as a spiritual being, a musical being, and a music educator trying to convey my freedom to anyone and everyone who would listen.
WHO AM I?
I am a composer and an improviser of music a conduit of God’s love.
Conduit: a person or organization that acts as a channel for the transmission of something.
I am here to share, through the sound of music, what I have learned from all of life’s exterior and interior influences. If I was a painter, I would not paint one scene over and over again. I am a musician. I refuse to write the same kind of songs over and over again because in my mind and heart there is no reason to behave that banally. You will find many different sounds in my catalogue of musical compositions. I encourage you to join me on my musical journey as it continues.
In order to keep up with that which is emanating from the Divine Musician within me, I have had to practice every day, developing my skill, my dexterity, my ear, my mind, and my soul. I have chosen to listen to, to be affected by, and to study as many avenues of musical expression as are available, without judgement or prejudice, so that I might properly deliver to the listener the unique messages coming from within me.
I am not distracted or mislead by deviant messages attached to what might otherwise be beautiful music. I am a seeker of beauty, not a peddler of the emotional or the psychosexual. When I find, on occasion, that music will not convey the intricacies of that beauty which is coming from God and radiating through me, I express my soul in words in the form of an essay or a book. Those who do not like my music are, of course, free to travel in another direction.
Those who find my music abstract, however, need help learning to listen on a deeper level, rather than with a finite mindset, as is often the case with a theologian assuming he understands a mystic.
Artificial intelligence cannot imitate, create, or duplicate anything I have described above. I am neither threatened by nor in competition with AI. I exist to better myself, that I may most effectively worship and serve the Author of all that is beautiful, true, and good, the Author of all intelligence: God. I share what comes forth from me with any and all who are interested.
I do not consider myself better than any human being, artist or otherwise. I do not consider myself at all.
One day, all that is artificial will cease to exist and everything that came from the Creator of the Universe will remain.
The songs of robots, software, and hard drives will dissipate like smoke. The songs from souls hoping to glorify the true Creator—from Whom all truth, beauty, and goodness comes—will resonate throughout eternity as they are heard again and again with unceasing joy.
