“When I was a kid, I always saw these pictures of a man called Bob Gordon with a baritone saxophone, who I understood was my father. Turns out he wasn't. He was my mother's first husband.” MenFirstsKidsMotherTurnsFatherSawsHusbandUnderstoodBobSaxophoneBaritones Author:Jon Gordon
“We had Bob's [Gordon] records, and he's on Clifford Brown's first record as a leader. I believe it was Clifford Brown's first record as a leader and had the original versions of Daahoud and Joy Spring that were arranged by Bob's best friend, the West Coast tenor player named Jack Montrose, who I later met.” FirstsBelieveJoyI BelieveLeaderRecordsPlayerMetsSpringOriginalsWestVersionsBrownBobCoastWest CoastTenors Author:Jon Gordon
“When I got to Performing Arts, within the first week, a few days, Bill Charlap walked in and couldn't read music but he's playing all these solos from Keith Emerson of ELP, and Rick Wakeman from Yes. Real impressive rock piano and keyboard things. And we had really, truly amazing young 13-14 year old classical players in our year who had been practicing six, eight hours a day for eight years. So it was like "Whoa."” YearsFirstsArtRealYoungHoursPlayerWeekRocksSixBillsEightPianoPerformingSoloImpressiveKeyboardsKeithPerforming Arts Author:Jon Gordon
“Families that I lived with a little bit in junior high and quite a bit in high school and college. Just to have a safe, sane space with food and things like that. That's what I needed. And people were really kind and really generous. So I think the world kind of opened up my first years of performing arts, studying classical saxophone with Caesar DiMauro.” PeopleThinkingWorldYearsFirstsKindLittlesArtSchoolBitsSpaceStudyCollegeNeededSafeLittle BitHigh SchoolPerformingGenerousSaneJuniorsSaxophoneJunior HighPerforming Arts Author:Jon Gordon
“When I heard Charlie Parker the first time on a record, it had seemed like an old, scratchy kind of record and I didn't get it.” FirstsKindRecordsHeardFirst TimeCharlie Author:Jon Gordon
“[Manhattan School Of Music] were kind of just getting the jazz program up and going when I first started there. I was 17 in September of 1984 when I started there.” FirstsKindSchoolProgramJazzSeptemberManhattan Author:Jon Gordon
“Justin [Di Cioccio] was [at Laguardia School of Arts]. He later took over at Manhattan. But I knew Justin through the McDonald's band, which at the time I was finishing high school and starting college, I got involved with. I was not that heavily involved with the school at MSM my first year there. I took a semester off to start my 2nd year. Took classes I felt like taking during my third semester, but by the start of my third year, September of '86, they began the undergraduate jazz program and I joined that program.” YearsFirstsArtSchoolFeltClassCollegeInvolvedBandHigh SchoolProgramThirdsJazzStartingSeptemberFinishingManhattanMcdonaldsJustinUndergraduateSemester Author:Jon Gordon
“Benny Carter came up to me and said to me, "You know, in the whole history of the alto, I think Phil is the guy we should all be emulating." The king! So look, I'm so blessed that my first hero took me in.” ThinkingKnowsShouldFirstsLooksSaidWholeGuyKingsHeroBlessedCarter Author:Jon Gordon
“[Charlie "Bird" Parker] would sit down and ask [Phil Wood], "What do you think about this whole secondary Viennese school with Schoenberg, Berg and Webern? Are you listening to that music and what do you feel about it?" These were the conversations that he was having. And he also said, what he learned from Charlie Parker was, not that he studied with him in the formal sense, is that the first thing that Charlie Parker would always ask was, "Did you eat today?".” ThinkingFeelsFirstsSaidWholeTodaySchoolAsksListeningConversationBirdDown AndWoodsFormalCharlieSchoenbergWebern Author:Jon Gordon
“The first CD I had, that I think had had any redeeming qualities to it, I did when I was 25 with a relatively small label called Chiarascuro.” ThinkingFirstsQualityLabelsCdsRedeemingRedeeming Qualities Author:Jon Gordon
“The first jazz cruise that I was on was '91. I played with Maria Schneider and John Fedchock's band. Got to meet some amazing people that week.” PeopleFirstsWeekBandJazzCruiseAmazing People Author:Jon Gordon
