"Music Is The Best" - F. Zappa
"One Good Thing About Music . . . When It Hits, You Feel No Pain" - R. N. Marley
"We Are the Music Makers and We Are the Dreamer of Dreams" - W. Wonka

I Love Music

Welcome to the music portion of the program 2003 . . .
In these pages, you will see my music picks for shows in the upcoming year.
Some Rock. Some Jazz. Some Blues. Some Soul.

Intro

I love most kinds of music, and try to see as many shows as I can. I like trying new things, and seeing new music is one of them. I look at a show as an opportunity for an artist to win me over. It doesn't matter if I've seen them a 100 times, or never. I've seen music that is good on record (CD, tape, etc.), and sucks in person. I've also seen shows that were great live, but were lousy on record (CD, tape, etc.). That's why I look at a show as an opportunity for an artist to win me over, and once they do, I am typically loyal to that performer.

Rock n Roll High School

I started out early. When I was 12, my first concert was Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden and that was my 'School of Rock n' Roll'. From there, during my High School Concert Career, I saw the Stones, the Who (at the Capitol Theater, Passaic NJ), the Allman Brothers, Jorma & Hot Tuna, Springsteen (a handful of times) and . . . of course . . .the Dead (I was dead from '80-'95, seeing over 120 shows and even went to Europe '90). But in High School , I was also introduced to . . .

Jazz Fusion

I was turned onto Weather Report, and got to see them 2wice. I listened to Stanley Clarke and Mahavishnu Orchestra w/John McLaughlin (who I saw at Carnegie Hall, with Larry Coryell & Michael Urbaniak opening). Chick Corea & Return To Forever, "Friday Night in San Francisco", the Dixie Dregs, I really ate it up and enjoyed seeing these 'new' artists. This background contributed to my current love of . . .

Jazz

As I said earlier, I was (am) a BIG Grateful Dead fan. It was through them that I developed my love of musical improvisation (a.k.a. jamming, soloing, etc.). This is what really allowed me to be open to jazz. I recently heard an interview with Stefon Harris, where he said (to para-phrase him) that unlike classical music, where it is the composer's voice that comes out, jazz let's the musician's voice come out. I find that totally true. There are so many jazz musicians, many old & many new, that I like to try and see and hear what each 'voice' is like. I know so very little about jazz, and that I just want to learn (read experience) as much as possible. Lately, I've heard it over and over again, that jazz is our country's only musical contribution to the world. I am finally starting to see that . .