Somewhere in Between

The concept behind this album is Love. I know that sounds cliche, but before jumping to conclusions, just know that this album is not the typical happy-go-lucky love story. This album is about my two, sometimes conflicting, loves: the life-long love I have for music and the love for my girlfriend of 3 years. It’s also about the struggles I have had trying to find the balance between the two. This battle to find balance between both relationships has played a pivotal role in making me who I am and my musical evolution. This album will feature both my saxophone as well as my vocal debut. I've decided to name this project “Somewhere in Between” because I so often times find myself caught in between my two loves and similarly between my two favorite styles of music, Jazz and RnB. We have to follow our own hearts and clear our own paths in life. We can't live someone else's expectation of how we should live. This album is about trusting your gut and seeing it through.

Serious face... Captured by Sarah Escarraz

I”ve recently started a weekly series called Transcription Tuesdays and it is aimed to uphold tradition in this coming musical age of anything goes. Now don’t get me wrong I think it’s important make the music that you want to make BUT I think it’s at least important to be informed as much as possible about the history of the music you”re making. For that reason, I always strive to transcribe daily whether it is something as short as a lick or as long as a full album. This keeps my ears sharp, allows me to get more grounded in the music and also allow me to grow musically.

A little background on me and my start at transcribing!

I got my first private saxophone teacher pretty late in the game. I was 15 years old and my teachers Morgan Russell and Paul Carr always stressed the importance of studying the Omnibook (a collection of Charlie Parker solos written out) as well as the importance of listening/copying artists that I liked. This was always a major component of my lessons. Paul Carr would assign me a Cannonball Adderley solo (like “Minority”) to have written out and memorized for next week. This type of fast paced instruction pushed me to grow very quickly. In a couple years, I had gone fom a novice to playing in the All County, All State Bands and even national groups such The Grammy Band, Vail Jazz All Stars and YoungArts Fellows. I honestly believe this rapid development came not from mere running scales and arpeggios but from learning hundreds of solos and listening non-stop. I learned thousands of solos by ear during that time. I would sing them, play along with them on piano, and of course learn them on saxophone. When learning any language you have to emulate those that do it well and Jazz is no different. So to anyone reading this wondering how do I get better? Or feeling like they”ve hit a plateau. Trust me, there’s more to do and more to learn. Keep transcribing! There’s always someone better than you out there’s transcribe them! LOL