Overview
Jazz pianist/Songwriter/Professor of music
I’m a jazz musician and a professor at Maryville College in TN. My first professional musical performing experiences were in high school playing top-40 music in night-clubs (do people still call them that?). I first became serious about jazz in 1989 and have performed almost exclusively as a jazz musician since that time. I also have always been involved in more popular forms of music. I have written songs since about 1985 and still take that endeavor seriously. I studied "legit" composition (writing mostly for piano) during my two years of Doctoral work at Ole Miss with Ray Liebau. I now focus primarily on writing in jazz and popular genres -- although I have a small collection of string quartets that are still in the works. I occasionally work with my best friend Harry Smith (a producer in Nashville) on demo sessions whenever he has a project that seems to need my mutt playing style. I am a full-time faculty member at Maryville College teaching music theory, aural skills, applied improvisation, songwriting, directing the jazz band, and teaching various other courses both in and out of the music department. So, my musical life is a bit of a juggling act – a little of this today, a little of that tomorrow, etc. I have a great wife and three terrific kids.
Musical Bio
• Began playing drums at age 8.
• Began piano lessons at age 10.
• Began playing in “garage bands” at the age of 16 with guitarist Harry Smith (formerly with Clay Walker) and William Ellis (formerly with Blue Merle).
• Began playing professionally, primarily top 40 and southern-rock, in East Tennessee bars and clubs at the age of 18.
• Traveled with Bennie Wilson and the Elk Avenue Jam Kings from1988 through 1990 primarily playing southern-rock and country.
• Quit traveling in 1990 to focus on performing abilities—enrolled in the Studio Music and Jazz program at UTK.
• Began performing with various jazz groups in the Knoxville area in 1990.
• Received Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Music and Jazz in 1994—began Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies in the same year.
• Received Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies in 1996.
• Began Doctor of Arts Degree in Music Theory Pedagogy at the University of Mississippi in 1997—assistantship: teaching music theory I and II.
• Began teaching at Maryville College in 1999.
• Joined the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in 1999.
• Completed dissertation and received a Doctor of Arts degree in Music Theory Pedagogy in 2000.
• Traveled to Ezcaray, Spain; Vienne and Paris, France; and Montreaux, Switzerland with the KJO to perform in jazz festivals in 2001.
• Released the alt-jazz-rock CD “Awake But Somehow Dreaming” in 2002.
• Released the alt-jazz-rock CD “One World Over” in 2004.
• Released the jazz CD “Three” in 2005.
• Recorded as a sideman with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Billy Scarlett, Joe Thompson, and Jim Self during the years 2000–2004.
Has performed with:
Jimmy Heath, Byron Stripling, Bill Mobley, James Moody, Marvin Stamm, Wycliff Gordon, Seamus Blake, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Don Braden, John Clayton, Percy Sledge, Vincent Herring, Ed Soph, Keith Brown, Rusty Holloway, Vance Thompson, Billy Scarlett, Jim Self, the Knoxville Symphony Pops, Paul McKee, Mark Boling, Jerry Coker, Harry Smith, and William Ellis.