About

FAQ

Why do you like these ‘old’ songs

Most of the songs I perform were written in the late 1920’s through the mid 1940’s, with an occasional song from the 50’s or 60’s. I think the melodies are beautiful, the lyrics well crafted, and the themes universal.  They resonate with me, and from what I can tell from the audience reaction, they have withstood the test of time.  I’m constantly uncovering more songs to add to my ‘to learn list’; at this point I think there are more songs to learn than lifetime to learn them in, I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of them.

How did you get into this?

Like most passions in life I stumbled into it when I was least looking.  I had worked as a musician in different types of bands, salsa, retro swing, more modern jazz.  Nothing ever really felt like it fit quite right.  Frankly I wasn’t really enjoying playing and was beginning to give up on being a musician when, on a lark I went to hear a Dixieland jazz band I was friends with. That night they had a pianist I hadn’t heard before, he was playing in this really far out and amazing piano style, stride piano.  I was transfixed,  I had to study that!  I took a some lessons from him and he opened my ears to the fabulous old recordings from the 20’s and 30’s.  For my lessons we started with great stride pianists like Willie the Lion Smith, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, and early jazz bands like Louis Armstrong’s Hot 5 and 7 recordings.  And while I already had some favorite jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, pretty soon I was discovering some of the other marvelous singers from that period, Maxine Sullivan, Billie Holiday, Connie Boswell, Henry “Red” Allen, and of course, Bing Crosby.  From there the list kept continuing to grow - adding Mildred Bailey, Ivie Anderson, Helen Humes, Nat King Cole, Lee Wiley…and I’m still finding new music and artists to love.  My ears were opened to a whole different way of singing and playing, and one that felt, finally, like it suited me.

Didn’t I see your name on some sort geeky web forum?

It’s true, I lead a double life working part time as a software engineer/developer.  For years I tried to keep the two worlds from knowing about one another, but well, that was before you could find out anything about anybody, so I figured I might as well come clean.  I love, love, love music and performing, but I also really enjoy writing software, learning new programming languages, and general geeky stuff.  If you’re intrigued by that part of my life let me know and I can get you more info.