"I was driving in a 1988 Chrystler K-Car on my way to work a little part time job I had in high school. I was 16. It was 1991 which was the 200 hundredth anniversary of Mozart's death, although there were Mozart celebrations going on all around me; I was oblivious to all of this of course because I had no affinity to ANY kind of music at that time. I was driving east along Fennell Ave in Hamilton approaching Upper Wentworth. I remember reaching over to turn on the radio. The first thing I heard was an announcer on a show called 'Morning Mozart', talking about how the station would be playing Mozart's complete works throughout the year. I don't think he announced what he was about to play, because I'm sure I would have remembered the name of the piece at such a critical moment in my life. I must have been hardwired to be so profoundly moved by the sounds that followed. When the music started it really was like getting suddenly struck by a lightening bolt! I didn't have any understanding about WHAT I was listening to, let alone why I found it so compelling....... all I remember thinking was 'this is the greatest thing i have encountered in my entire life.'

The following day I went directly to the public library, and maxed out my library card with scores of Mozart's... a cross section of things.. symphonies, concertos, sonatas, operas, and the famous requiem, although I didn't even know what requiem meant. I went home and with my rusty piano hands, tried to pluck through the scores.. line by line. This was the first time I went back to the piano with any serious intent since my lessons from 3 years old to 10. I remember feeling the joy at how every instrumental part in a score sounded like a beautiful melody all on its own. That influenced me. I even tried singing the opera parts! Every piece was so consistently brilliant, i couldn't find a work that didn't amaze me in how perfectly balanced all the materials of the composition were laid out -almost like this artist had discovered an algorithm to effortlessly whip out music with the perfect ratio between tension and release. I found particular joy in the way he finessed his way through different keys centers.. it was so wonderful I would laugh out loud. so my 16 year old life took on an eccentric twist. I couldn't get enough of this guy: I taped every program of Morning Mozart, I looked at books, photocopied pictures, made frequent trips to the library, watched the movie Amadeus about 300 times... I even tried to get my high school friends into him, in fact, another pinnacle moment was Dec 5, 1991... through a snowstorm, I traveled to Toronto for the first time to hear the Mozart Requiem at Roy Thompson Hall. It was one of the first times I heard a live orchestra. I sat really close. the audience was still but i was in ecstacy... To experience the beauty of this music for the first time, superimposed with the company of two gorgeous girls I convinced to come with me was a great moment in my teenage adolescence. but most of all, more than walking through the snow with a girl in each arm... I wanted to write music that sounded like Mozart's music.

Being completely unstudied at composition, I had no idea how to start or what to do... so I just played and wrote whatever came to mind and hoped for the best. Unbenownst to me, this process was my entry into the jazz world.

I would stuff my so-called compositions into my gym bag and bring them to school. I discovered a loft off from the stage in our old music room where I would retreat every lunch hour to work on these pieces.

I'm certain that my high school music teacher, Ron Palangio, must have thought I was completely out of my mind. When I was 17, he said to me, "if you like composing music, you should play jazz because you improvise in jazz - as if you're composing on the spot." I think that was the first time I heard the word 'jazz', and I didn't know what 'improvise' meant either... not surprising is that the concept of 'improvisation as spontaneous composition' has had a fundamental impact on the style of jazz I play today.

I often get asked the question.. "who first got you into jazz?" While most people might say, my father, or hearing a classic jazz album for the first time, my honest answer is "Mozart got me into jazz" which makes this anniversary of Mozart's birth, sort of an anniversary for me too."

January 27, 2006