my earliest memory of music has to be in
the backseat of my parents car AM
radio I remember you know used to be
like when you would go through a tunnel
it would fade out you know it would fade
back in I always remember being really
enamored and moved by certain kinds of
music like like the early kind of
rock-and-roll stuff that my dad was into
was some of the stuff I grew up on you
know Chuck Berry and and Buddy Holly my
music education began in a little town
in Maine called Dexter I think that
maybe we chose instruments in fourth
grade started playing in fifth something
like that and I had a instructor named
Arthur Lagasse who taught everybody from
the beginning through high school it was
one of those very small towns about
3,000 people
it was great yet a little combo also
that I I started playing in after my
seventh grade year that's where it
started you know he got me playing and
started on Alto went to see melody so
that I could read the concert charts and
then move to tenor after that I seem to
remember that there were a lot of us
that were playing in the band and Arthur
was really great first one we call him
Arthur also which is a very unusual
thing to call your teacher by their
first name especially at that age you
know and it wasn't a disrespectful thing
he was like I'm Arthur I almost quit
band one time because I was playing a
lot of sports also and really into
baseball and my buddies were playing and
so ever I had to slip signed I like the
yellow or the pink or whatever it was
and I brought it in to him and he left
the other guys go and he said man he
says he said if you could stick it out
until after the Christmas concert you
know it would be really great you know
to to have your voice in the section you
know if you could just stay until after
the concert I'd really appreciate it I
was like okay sure that was the
crossroads that was it never looked back
can't imagine what my life would be
without music quite honestly I have no
idea
this I mean this is like all the eggs
were in this basket you know
it wasn't there really wasn't a plan B
and then I moved to New Hampshire into
Rochester New Hampshire had a guy named
Doug patch who was awesome
also saxophone player author played
everything mainly a keyboard player
though but Doug was a saxophone player
and very musical like he wanted our
experience to be very musical
in high school also because we had
marching band now if and you probably
have heard flutes Piccolo's clarinets
saxophones marching in the cold weather
so they can be a little irritating shall
we say you know intonation wise so he
moved everybody to brass so you brought
brass instructors in so I played
sousaphone in the marching band for
three out of my four years in high
school after my freshman year and and
loved it absolutely loved it I just
memorized the fingerings I never learned
to read bass clef in high school but his
thing was like if we have to do this and
he said and we do he says I wanted to be
the best musical experience we can have
and so remember there's different
classes also like like in the New
England finals and all this kind of
stuff like you got a marching band
competitions so I remember that we moved
up a class to perform and compete
against bands that were like much larger
than us and his thing was like we need
to take the music category at the New
England's he's everything else he says I
don't care about he says but I want you
guys to be musical and we did I also
studied so much Charlie Jennison who
teaches at University of New Hampshire
Brian went for a couple years part time
before I went to North Texas
David Siler who also teaches there I
studied with I went to the summer youth
music school at UNH also Sims which was
huge for me to to find my tribe I
finally met all these music bunch of
musicians from Massachusetts and
Connecticut and Rhode Island Maine New
Hampshire all these guys and I was like
man these are my people
so those years for me were were
formative you know I mean that was
really incredible to be around that many
musicians that were all kind of in a
similar headspace and moving towards the
towards the same things and some of my
dearest friends still to this dead
I don't even do a little bit of teaching
at the time just privately so I knew
that I wanted to get an education degree
because my headspace was that getting a
Jazz Studies degree to me didn't make a
lot of sense
the reason being never I can't tell
anybody how to spend their money I
didn't feel that I needed a piece of
paper that said I knew how to play I
felt like if I was going to go to
college I wanted to have something that
I could work a craft as well because I
figure you know if I'm gonna spend
however much money is to go to college I
may as well just move to New York and
immerse myself in that scene take
private lessons and spend less money
than if I go to Berkeley I visited a few
schools Indiana Berkeley NEC William
Paterson in North Texas and North Texas
just felt like this is where I'm
supposed to be the education degree in
North Texas is a five year degree so
when I got there you know I can read
okay I couldn't really play changes I
mean a little bit I really didn't know a
whole lot I got deeply into practicing 8
to 12 hours a day every day for three or
four years and then I cut back to
between eight and six and I mean every
day I was very disciplined sleeping for
maybe five hours a night all but one
semester at school I had eight o'clock
classes and that one semester I had at
nine o'clock in like every day of the
week you know because that's that's the
ED path I was dedicated to it I would
drag myself out of bed I'd have my I
have a heavy backpack on with all my
books and my tenor strapped on that and
I would ride my bike to school but I had
to do it you know I was I felt like I
was behind the curve comparatively to a
lot to where other people were not
necessarily comparing myself to them but
like wow these guys have a lot on the
pole so I need to be in the shed so
that's what I did in it and it paid off
I'm the kind of person that's gonna ask
why sometimes people don't want to be
asked that question with my students at
Vanderbilt I'm always like asked me why
I'm telling you to do long tones ask me
why if I'm asking you to do this tune in
12 Keys ask me why because I've got
answers for you
so these are things that I've
about and formulated in the way that I
teach the method that I teach so
learning how to practice that's that's a
really important question and something
really important to talk to especially
to students and educators as well so
when I was doing 8 to 12 hours a day yes
I was also learning how to make the most
efficient use of my practicing now I
would literally fall asleep sometimes
practicing I'd be playing scales I'd
have a metronome going and after a while
like you you know you just nod off and
I'd be thinking what am i doing and I
would still be playing it was a very
strange feeling I was doing long tones I
was keeping a record also of everything
I worked on metronome times tempos
rather how long I worked on it what the
date was if I was working scales how
many of them out of the 12 harmonic
minor melodic minor a major her whole
tone or whatever that I was doing on
that day so that I could look back and
see what I was working on so I would
total up my time just make the most
efficient use of my time but also like
to spend the time on the instrument to
really start to know to start to develop
the sound continue to develop the
embouchure also like where are you on
the mouthpiece where's your sound coming
from a lot of the fundamentals that I
talked about these were all things that
I was working on digging in on
transcriptions I spent a lot of time on
transcriptions trying to figure that out
working my ear on those things it wasn't
something I had really done
previous to that I'd heard about it and
I had done a little bit but I got deep
into that still to this day I'm working
on tunes and twelve keys you know
because it it forces you to think
differently and so that's what I'm doing
with all my students but doing two five
lits three-six-two-five stuff also you
know starting to like to be able to hear
that stuff and I was also gigging on the
weekends so all these things like I was
trying to immerse myself like I was
trying to take a bath in music and all
the different experiences that I could
get and so one of the things that that I
talked to my students about these days
and clinics and private lessons etc is
that each week has 168 hours so if they
come to me for a lesson for an hour
they're on their own 467 hours so who's
really doing the teaching you know so so
my job
to teach them how to teach themselves
and so I think that's a big part of what
practices is teaching yourself how to
teach yourself how to how to have linear
thought and how to be able to work on
something so you actually get better at
it and to be able to see the
consequences of those actions so again
keeping a practice record book student
um I was like he says man says I just
feel like I'm so scattered I said keep a
record book this week see what happens
came back the next week he's like oh my
god I was amazing he said I just got so
much done I was like yeah that's why I'm
here when I got done at North Texas
first of all I just couldn't wait to
leave I had been there long enough I was
like I need to get all in my life I had
thought about New York everybody I knew
in New York was dark and I was just like
man I just I can't go from this to dark
you know I just it was like too much
thought about San Francisco where Joe
Henderson was he and I had spoken and I
sent him out a tape and he said I'll
take you as a student he says but I'm
not here very much and and there's
really nothing going on out here
I was like it doesn't sound very
promising so I was like well I don't
know about that I drove through
Nashville spent five or six days with a
great friend of mine who live lived
there he said well he says you know in
January this was late August he said in
January I need a roommate you know and
so so if you're interested let me know I
was like yeah I don't know it's
Nashville I don't leave like country
music but we'll see so I moved to
Nashville and I was sort of like what am
I doing here
but it you know it worked out it worked
out really well for I was able to work
on my writing and play with a lot of
different interesting people and the
music from the south has impacted my
writing and my playing in a way that
that no other place I could have lived
north of the South would have had that
impact the music that I've gotten into
the Lomax field recordings the old blues
stuff people like oh the Turner and you
know music of like pegleg Jackson and
Robert Johnson and Lead Belly and
Mississippi John Hurt and you know I
mean just this this whole other
culture subculture of music that exists
you know below the surface down there
it's incredible my first road gig was
with Bayla that was the gig that took me
out of Nashville for extended periods of
time now I've been doing a little bit of
touring when I first got to Nashville I
wanted the road with Brenda Lee actually
went to the Montreux festival with her
and did a bunch of in case she was
awesome
you know tiny little you know just they
call him is Little Miss dynamite or
something and but you know I realized
that I had moved to Nashville not to go
on the road but to establish myself in
the scene and so that's why I started
doing I was going through a bunch of
neck problems at the time also his bull
frogging kinda like when you see Brecker
Michael Brecker play and cuffs out like
that so I was dealing with that for
about a year and a half and I was
starting to tear these muscles the
Forenza steel that goes around like this
literally Michael Brecker saved my
career and I got in touch with him
totally out of the blue we had never met
nothing I wrote him a note well it
Dizzy's were the cheeks so it's the same
idea that that so for dizzy his his
cheeks would puff and so so most people
they used the muscles to keep keep those
cheeks in but his head extended and
stretched so much that he couldn't do
anything about it
and it affected his tongue affected the
response time so I'm always telling
people they don't puff your cheeks when
you play so what was going on with my
throat is that there was so much bat
pressure in the mouthpiece I was playing
I was I would be leaking air from my
nose like kind of sound right it was
weird and it felt strange but I would
leak air through my nose because of the
force of the back pressure going on and
I was I was pushing from my neck to us
to an extent that if I would Bend my
head back there were these ridges of
muscle on my neck that were there were
literally like like if you were hitting
wood so I would bullfrog when I played
and so I wrote to Michael Brecker
because I had seen that he had a similar
thing happening now I didn't know
anybody else this was going on with and
and I was really freaking out you know
so I get a call about maybe a month
after has sent a letter he says Jeff
there he is him hi this is Michael
Brecker
and I'm thinking okay which of these
which of my friends is this because you
know it's just a prank each other like
davus I want you to my bad you know so
I'm thinking okay who is it and and he
said I got your letter I just got back
from Europe I got your letter and want
to call and see if I could help now he
was the thing man I hadn't told anybody
I'd sent a letter like Here I am on the
phone talking with like one of my idols
who I get goosebumps to this day man
thirty years later so he said you know
what's going on talk to me about how you
play what you're set up
what kind of gigs are you doing what's
your amplification blah blah blah he was
very organized about what we talked
about he said it's a thing that not many
people are aware of what's going on with
you he says it's called repetitive
stress syndrome now we all know that's
in our vernacular now you've been born
with the hole in his Forenza seal which
got amplified by the back pressure of
him playing that's why he couldn't play
an auto link anymore there's too much
back pressure for that's why he played a
guard Allah with a baffle so there was
no back pressure that's the reason he
played those mouthpieces his sound was
gonna be his sound but he just couldn't
have anything that gave him any back
pressure so he said you need to go with
a higher baffle mouthpiece get the back
pressure off think about what you think
about where your Airstream is coming
from so I went I literally remember
sitting down in a chair and thinking
I've got to go back to the fundamentals
I've got to go back to thinking about
where am i breathing from and I was
pushing from too high up which was
putting a lot of pressure on the neck
also trying to close the throat to get a
smaller aperture so the air would you
know would go faster etc it said it
rather than keeping the throat open so I
went back to thinking about how am i
breathing where is my breath coming from
am i expanding my belly when I start to
breathe and I am I using this area as
the area of strength you know rather
than up in here and he said here's my
home number call me if you have any
questions blah blah blah so I saw a
video I think was a return of the
Brecker brothers he was wearing
something around his neck so I called
him and I said I said you know no
remember was a few weeks ago we talked
and I says of course he says you know he
says what's up what can you know what
can I help you with it's such a
beautiful cabinet so I so I saw this
video and you were wearing something he
says an ace bandage
I put around my neck to keep it from
from billowing out he said it keeps it
warm
helps it to heal if there's anything
going on sounds like okay I mean you
know if he's doing it I'm gonna do it
and so he sent me a photo copied all
this literature sent it out to me after
I changed mouthpieces and went to these
different techniques different warm-up
etc etc and I would wear this thing like
on a tuxedo gig wedding gig anything it
was just horrendous like wearing
basically your like wearing a scarf and
it's 105 degrees in the club so I
decided a year into it
I was like it's healed or I'm done
it had gone to that point and knock on
what I haven't had a problem since well
being prepared for a gig is is kind of
tough because you're not really sure
what the gig is that you need to be
prepared for so for me personally the
idea of being ready for whatever comes
up is really important the power of yes
is very important most successful people
will tell you that they say yes to
things through these relationships that
develop other things happen you know if
if you're willing to go to those to
those lengths you know to travel outside
of town or to say yes to a gig that
takes you away from your family this is
what I do man this is what I've always
prepared for it's like no matter what
key you throw at me I'm gonna be okay
you know why because I've practiced in
those keys I was worth the unfamiliar
keys that's what I'm always telling my
students I'm not having you do this
because I want to hear you play all the
things you are in E I'm doing it because
you're going to get called to play a gig
and the guitar player is going to be
playing in E and if you don't know how
to play an E you're not gonna get called
back you know so you've got to be
prepared in any situation and so I
continue to do that so you never know
what you're going to be asked to do when
I was playing with the Flecktones we had
two short rehearsals before the first
gig and I remember on the bus on the way
to Vermont I said to because I was
freaking out I was losing my mind I was
like man I said how am I gonna know
where to play because I didn't
understand their music at all I said how
am I gonna know where to
he says just look at me I'll not to you
I'm like okay I think I am screwed man
after the first gig I kid you not I went
up to bail after the first gig and I
said man I said thank you so much for
this opportunity but I'm okay to go home
on a bus tomorrow
you know I said your fans know the music
so much better than I do and you guys
sound unbelievable and I said I just
don't want to be an impediment I don't
want to get in your way of doing what
you're doing it's such a high level and
so we talked about he said Mason go go
listen to the tape Richard records it
every night he said for first gig it was
great
says man he says you're killing it he
says go get some rest I'll see you
tomorrow
so cool good but I was really serious
about that you know so when I joined
well when I first was subbing for Laroy
and Dave Matthews no intention of being
in the band Roy got hurt an ATV wreck
and so they were on like a little
three-day break when this happened so I
got called I believe was July first got
a call from the Flecktones manager and
said hey this is what softly Roy's been
seriously injured he's kind of it's
gonna survive but they are wondering if
you can come out for you know two three
four months whatever it takes and suffer
him until he's ready to come back and I
said tell them yes and get more details
I said I'm gonna upstate New York when
do they need me he said right away I
said what's right away he says the next
cakes tomorrow and Charlotte tell them
yes and I said let me get on the phone
so I call my steps down in Nashville I
said what are you doing tonight
because I was driving to Boston and see
my grandmother and my mom with my
girlfriend who's now my wife so I had to
fly from Boston to Charlotte so I said
can you drive my stuff to Charlotte told
where everything was and he said
absolutely
so I got to Boston flew out early the
next morning my stepson drove overnight
met me and Charlotte Dave and rashon
came in early the next day we just
started scratching stuff out as quickly
as I could right I say I need manuscript
paper three-ring binder plastic clear
plastic sheets a stand and a stand like
an eraser
so literally as quickly as I could right
we were doing these parts where Shawn
knew all the parts
he's the photographic memory for music
he's astonished me as you interview him
he's amazing so he got to you know we
would do that for he's consecutive night
and you know wasn't playing the book to
memorize the music I was playing the
music to get through these gigs and you
know what I was gonna come back and
tragically a month and a half into his
recovery he passed it so remember
calling Bayla and it was it was a weird
visit man it was like ring is that he's
like hello that's like I said hey man I
said it's me I said Leroy Moore just
passed you know and so we talked about
this he's like he says this is crazy me
says I'm in China he says I have no cell
signal over here he says I haven't
received or made a call since I've been
here
he said how did you get through to me
I'm sorry I just dialed your number he
was a spooky man it was weird
so we talked some more and at one point
he said you know he says they're gonna
ask you to stay he said and you should
he says we're not working much these
days
he said in for how you play and and what
you're gonna bring to that group he said
you should stay now that's a leader and
a friend that's somebody that sees the
big picture who is selfless in so many
different ways so I man I've I've been
under two amazing leaders my entire
career for 25 years and and Dave both
incredible people so so how do you
prepare for something like that you
gonna be able to read you gonna be able
to write they knew that I played all the
horns baritone tenor Alto soprano flute
it's pennywhistle on the gig I could
play that you know so being ready for
anything basically you know if I get
called for a session in Nashville or
like it's clarinet and bass clarinet
okay I'm ready it's flute you have a
bass I do I have Yusef Lateef sold base
flow yeah and I am the main tenor that
he was playing when he passed law so
who's so great
so for any young player the thing I
always talk to them about his
relationships and the importance of them
being kind considerate helpful all these
different things like because here's the
thing that if you want to be a
professional musician being able to play
your tail off is a given like that
shouldn't be your calling card you know
it's like man I'm a great player well
you better be because my mechanics a
great mechanic you know my doctor is a
great doctor what brings you back to
them as who they are as people you know
so what is it that you're bringing to
the table like let's say that that
you're a horn player and you move to
Nashville
Chester Thompson's got a trio gig down
the street you're like man I love
Chester played with weather report Frank
Zappa Genesis legendary drummer right
you go to his gig and you go up later on
you say hey man new saxophone player
here in town
want to give you my card man I'd love to
play sometime and you know really loved
your gig tonight and now maybe I'll see
you around okay you know he's tearing
down after the game you have you pushed
the card in his pocket maybe not
whatever but let's say did you hang
after the gig and you up and you have a
chat with him say hey Chester hey I love
the gig I'm new in town and saw you were
playing want to come out I really love
your music and can I help you bring your
drums to the car it's not a drummer in
the world that's cuz they know thanks I
got it you know and so then he says well
let me tell you a bit about you know I'm
a saxophone player just got here from
you know Indiana University and and Oh
how's your reading Oh fine you know you
play alto and tenor yeah man my you know
my guy just you know couldn't do the gig
next week can you do it yeah of course
and then you like leave me like crap man
I playing with Chester Thompson next
weekend
why because you took the time you gave
him your greatest commodity time that's
it man that's all we got
so beyond being a wonderful musician
which is what you should aspire to be if
you want to be a musician be a great
musician you know be excellent building
relationships is huge the Hat you know
like when you go into into a gig or
people like man
so happy to see you early Oh coffins on
the gig and so like lifts the bandstand
be that person that that like brings
some real joy and real passion to it and
that's what I tell my students man
where's the joy like okay you just
played a nice solo but I'm bored out of
my mind
why and so like getting them to
understand those factors there was sort
of elusive esoteric factors that that
they can bring to the deal I'm like who
are you when I talk about being dark
it's sort of an attitude it's sort of
it's like the Jazz attitude the Jazz a
toot or whatever you know like like
where you're on stage and nobody's
smiling and like you going like many I
was having fun up here
you know like is what where's the joy in
this for you it's like that that old
joke you know how to get a musician to
complain you get my gig and and so for
me like music has always brought me
great joy and so that's where I try to
come from now that's that's the place
that's what I'm encouraging so when I go
out I do clinics man it may be a great
band and I listen to them and I'll take
pictures of them sometimes too because
they're sitting there like this I said
so first of all are you guys enjoying
yourselves
they're all like oh yeah I said well I
would have no idea I says if this is my
first big band concert I come away
thinking that this is terrible because
you guys aren't having a good time and
why would I want to go hear this again
at the end of the night I want to feel
like I've been in the audience and the
audience has been onstage you know I
want to be reciprocal so the idea that
music is a service industry also that we
serve the music first we serve the
musicians that were on stage with second
the audience third I say look you're at
least fourth on the list but if you
serve those others you'll get served you
know and you can bring that joy out also
at festivals it the jhen conference
schools that i visit all these things
man like rarely does a band exude that
joy initially but I'm like come on give
it to me what are you afraid of like
show me that passion that you have cuz I
know you got it I can hear it and so one
time there was somebody looking out the
window one of their performances
it's like a keyboard solo going on one
of the motors is kind of doing this and
so Africa as I said I said massive I
said you know I said when you looked out
the window I said you know what I did
I said I looked out the window too I
said you know why he says no I said
because I thought that whatever was
outside of that window was way more
important than what was going on in here
he was like oh said right you know I
said so when somebody's soloing that's
where your attention should be even if
you're just slightly nning over somebody
play something you like let them know
talk to the cats you know
converse yeah nice man yeah killing it
beautiful you know and then out here I'm
like man I was great I loved it you know
they loved it too gray we're on the same
page if you don't do what you're doing
man do something else especially music
you know especially music it's so hard
as it is so again where's the joy that's
what I'm looking for
that's what I need music has taken me to
places that I didn't even know existed
my wife is a yoga instructor and very
deep meditator and so she talks about
these places that she goes also when
she's in those spaces what I can say
about that is that music has completely
changed everything for me the
connectivity of me with the rest of the
world and I'm convinced that everything
is connected the way that it's allowed
me to interact with people the
relationships the the depth of
understanding of who I am and and how
other people relate to me and how I
relate to them it's taught me patience
and compassion and understanding
openness forgiveness selflessness all
these different things and but it's also
made me like really come face to face
with my own ego and it's made me sort of
look at that as a mirror and in music
has done a lot for me with that it's
vibrational with vibration you can open
up a lot of different things and and so
I think that music has certainly done
that for me I look across stage
sometimes in Matthews and I'll see
everybody undulating together
they're like wow man we're hit like and
then when you think about it like Oh
suddenly a lot of it but like like the
instant when you look at is going on
you're like wow man we are all here
together and you you know everybody in
the placement and those moments are rare
but when they happen it's just like so
you just arms are wide open and it's
just you know this isn't
