All the full-time musicians I know who live in NYC do it a little differently from each other, but for a majority of us, it’s a home base and then a fair amount of our work is out on the road, nationally and/or internationally. Operating from that perspective, one could theoretically live about anywhere and take the same approach, but there’s something so unique about coming home to NYC. Living here continues to be endlessly inspiring, in terms of the great music (or any other art) I could go see -or participate in – any day of the week, but also seeing the high bar of artistic possibility on display here keeps me wanting to practice, to meet new people, to be on the scene. I feel like I can’t ever get too complacent here, and that’s a great thing. It keeps me wanting to stay sharp and be my best.

My first experience with Henriksen was through my friend Sean McGowan, the extraordinary monstrous Denver-based fingerstyle jazz guitarist. We met when I was living in Colorado, and I was playing through a very old, very used Polytone at the time that I’d managed to scrounge up some money for. Sean convinced me that the Henriksen Jazz Amp was the cutting edge of solid state jazz amplifiers, and turned me onto them. I was too poor to buy one just yet, but had my eye on them! At some point Sean introduced me to Peter, who very graciously loaned me a Jazz Amp for a recording session I played on right before I moved to NYC. When I contacted Peter to arrange getting the amp back to him, he said – to my shock – “You know what? Keep it. You’re going to need something portable in NYC.” I couldn’t believe it. I’ve since given Henriksen my business, and my wholehearted endorsement, at every opportunity.

My #1 dogma with teaching music is ear training. Not necessarily through a strict pedagogy, but more of a holistic approach. The whole process of creating music, and of becoming a better practitioner can be distilled down to the process of becoming a better listener. I might move in many directions from that starting point with my students, but that’s basically the core tenet. Beyond that, working on rhythmic fundamentals and understanding basic harmony; that pretty much covers everything!

I wish I had a juicy story for you about some kind of Fellini-like catastrophic tableau, but I guess I’ve been pretty lucky. There’s been plenty of weird music business stuff, but mostly it’s just the odd hitch here and there. One time I was playing a country gig at a rodeo years ago and the PA caught fire – that was exciting! Once I was on a very small festival gig – one of those ones where you can’t really tell who’s minding things, or if we’re going to end up getting paid – in rural California with the David Grisman Quintet and the stage lighting didn’t survive the afternoon, so when it got dark and we got ready to play our set, some of the festivalgoers drove their cars up near the stage and turned their headlights on for lighting. Sort of a surreal moment. But generally, things don’t collapse into complete fiasco. Not yet anyway!

I read a lot. I love my cat Thelonious. I enjoy cooking and do most of it in my household. I like to take walks but I’m not really a sports guy or anything. Most of the time I’m thinking about music. My wife and I just had a son at the beginning of the year, so getting to know him and learning how to be a parent has become the central facet of our lives lately.

Being relaxed is really important. Not just avoiding physical tension, which is a function of trying to have decent technique and trying to be healthy and stretched and all that. But mostly I mean being relaxed in myself – feeling like I’m here to play, and I’m so fortunate that that is what I get to do. I can be extremely hard on myself, which can have a lot of utility in a practice setting, but in the last several years I’ve been working on making a clear distinction between practicing mentality/emotional state, and playing mentality/emotional state. Like that Charlie Parker quote about how you’re supposed to do all your work and study and learn everything, and then when the time comes to play, you forget it all and just play. I’m finding that to be so crucial. Do the work of preparing, but then let that all go when it’s time to just play music.

Lots of people! My wife Sophia and my son Elias. The family that has surrounded us this year and helped us make this transition into our own little family unit- real models for generosity. Let’s see, here’s off the top of my head: David Graeber, Geri Allen, J.S. Bach, James Baldwin, Carla Bley, Darol Anger, Sullivan Fortner, Lage Lund, Wes Montgomery, John Steinbeck, Aretha, Thich Nhat Hanh… I’m reminded of something Sun Ra said when asked what his influences were: “…Mythical gods, real ones, people, flowers, everything in nature…”