When I started to write a formal CV listing my musical education and achievements, it became evident that this would become a long document that contained many facts and figures about the past but said very little about me as a person and what I want to achieve musically in the future.
Therefore I have tried to set out a few of those musical moments that are precious to me. But first just a quick musical history of myself.
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- Born 14-10-1950 (This is probably the most important event in my life event so far)
- The first piece of music I heard was my mother playing Fur Elise on the piano.
- Age 12 received a slap around the head from my form teacher for my first attempts at composition. Apparently it was quite a reasonable attempt so naturally they thought I was cheating. (Normally I did cheat but on this occasion I didn't)
- 1966 buying my first second hand saxophone, it cost me a months wages and came with a Tune A Day book. The instrument had pads missing and the case fell apart when I got home.
- My first Gig. I received £2.00. (I still have one of them)
- Every music lesson I ever had.
- Tuition was hard to get then and each lesson with Barry (Cole) was a treasure of excitement.
- My parents' expressions when I informed them that I wanted to be a professional musician. I was 16 years old and they tried to dissuade me by saying that the world of music was all sex and drink. I thought I'd struck gold.
- I first realized how powerful music was when I was about 18years old. I was playing in a bar when an old lady came up and ask us to play "Time On My Hands" for her husband. We played and he sat there in tears. Apparently he was a retired pro saxophone player and this was the first melody he every recorded. He never thought that a bunch of spotty kids would know that tune.
- Being asked to take a solo from someone who had told me only a year previously to leave the stage because I was not up to it.
- My first commercial recording session at EMI with Bob Barrett (A truly wonderful character)
- Being asked by a major record company to compose and record your own work was not just exciting. I just never realized that I had come that far. For the first and only time I travelled first class on the train that day.
- Quite sadistically those disappointments, failed promises and broken contracts for without them the occasional success would not taste so sweet.
- My first contract to play in the USA. I thought the phone call was a mate winding me up so I nearly blew it. It was only when air tickets came through the post that I realized the offer was genuine.
- In those days your passport stated what you did for work and my passport said "Musician." How proud I felt that day.
- 1986 being accepted into PRS.
- Receiving the STEMRA MUSIC AWARD for the most imaginative use of film music.
- Strangely, paying income tax for the first time. It was a milestone for not only was I a full time musician but now I was paying my way as well.
- Hearing my work for the first time on a commercial film and in a TV broadcast was a very strange sensation.
Personally I have always been fascinated by the sound of a single instrument. Having over the years slowly reduced the size of musical groups that I worked in I finally, back in 1980, settled on performing with backing tracks. There were many technical problems to overcome then but an electronic accompaniment meant that I could turn them down and even off in order to experiment with the solo sound without explanations and fighting any inter-musician negativity.
Things developed quickly with major publishers like Chappels & Carlin Music requesting work.
I have discovered far more musical textures, colours & sounds in performing unaccompanied then I ever imagined, (for a completely different view of solo saxophone check out John Klemmer) Strangely though the traditional musical tools of harmony, composition & and fundamental music theory that I studied all those years ago have formed a foundation for the development so far. (my thanks to Barry Cole)
For myself this is a captivating & exciting area of performance & composition that I would like to develop further & bring to a larger and more diverse audience.