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Flashmag November 2018 www.flashmag.net
why you didn’t follow the classical path, of classical music like many violinists?
Well, I wasn’t necessary exposed to Jazz. My parents had Jazz records at home, but we used to listen to everything. Because I was learning European classical music, these are the records my teacher wanted me to listen, so I can absorb the musical language. I wasn’t really drawn into it , I’ll listen to records like Ella Fitzgerald , Nat King Cole… It was music that simply sounded good to me. It didn’t speak to me until I was in high school. Even as a student in European classical, I wanted to be a soloist I didn’t want to be in the orchestra. When my mother would take us to listen to a symphonic orchestra in Detroit, I was daydreaming of the time I would be a soloist. In High school, my dearest friend Carla Cook, who is an amazing Jazz Vocalist, liked to talk about artists Like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and others. People I didn’t know back then. She brought me as a gift 3 records, French Jazz Violinist Jean Luc Ponty, Stephen Goapele, and Noel Pointer, this was my first introduction to violin into Jazz and I was totally blown away. I was attracted to the fact that the violinist could improvise, and play with the band it was simply something new, and exciting for me, that really turned my world upside down.
You were introduced to Ella Fitzgerald by your fellow friend and jazz singer Carla Cook how does this meeting has influenced the artist you are today? if you have to name some of your influences who will you name and how they affected your art?
Ha! So many peoples. I always tell Carla, I blame her for playing Jazz ( smiles) we are still working together time to time… you know growing up in Detroit was very crucial to my career. Detroit had very powerful music scene. A strong Symphonic orchestra, an amazing Jazz Scene, and Motown, I was started there… there were so many ethnic groups who migrated there for job opportunities in the automobile industry, not only there was the American music, and culture but also diverse genres to be exposed too. I had the opportunity to work with legend like the Trumpetist Marcus Belgrave, and many others. In the late 80 I joined the group Straight Ahead, we had a record deal with Atlantic records, this really helped to put us on the map.
After high school you attended the New England conservatory of music in Boston, then the Oakland university in Michigan, if you have to pick the main thing that your learned that affected your craft what would it be?
When I attended the Oakland university in Michigan, I went to see the big band director Marvin Doc Holladay, a baritone saxophonist who has played with the like of Dizzy Gillespie. I told him I was interested to play Jazz, he didn’t look at me the weird way, he didn’t blink like I was expecting. He said ok you are going to go with the saxophone players, you are going to read the sax alto charts, you are going to breath when they breath, phrase how they phrase, and stop listening to Jazz violinists; this because he wanted me to develop my own style. Listening to horn players and start transcribing from what I was listening from them, was the best piece of advice I had from that professor, and it’s something I still use today.
After a stint of 2 year in Germany you returned to the united states. Why did you choose to go to Europe?
It’s simply something I felt like I needed to do. I had a very strong and strange desire, to go to Europe. After I graduated from school, I taught for only a year, and I saved money to travel. I was intending to stay for a short time, but I ended doing 2 years. I believe sometimes we think we don’t have a reason, but the universe guides us. It was a great learning experience, to find myself in a foreign country. I lived in a place where English wasn’t spoken, so I had to learn the language. It’s very important to know foreign language, as American we don’t always have this opportunity to take on other languages. It is important to travel, discover other cultures, meet other peoples, listen to different music. I believe any young person should travel to any part of the world, and get that experience.
The first group with whom you will put into practice your talent, is the female Quintet