Still At It
Jazz Musician; former Chair, Assn. for the Advancement of Creative Musicians; music faculty Univ. of Chicago.
I got my start studying clarinet—and life—with the great Capt. Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Later, I picked up the baritone sax and began playing big band and R&B gigs. When I discovered the AACM, it was like a revelation. I started to realize how open-ended music was, how collaboration can instill a spirit of experimentation and individuality. I understood that you have to experiment for the music to move on. And you have to honor and learn from the ancestors.
I gave my students a taste of the Chicago experience while I taught jazz history, theory and improvisation along with my system of graphic notation based on organic and geometric shapes found in nature. I wanted to share the excitement of moving beyond the five lines and four spaces of the traditional score. As I age, I know time is the one thing we cannot get back, so we have to make the best of it. I can't stop.
